Firstly, a caveat – my family and I are not campers. Hiking? Yes, we enjoy that. But anything overnight? No. We don’t own a tent, gas stove, fold-out table, collapsible washing-up bowl, blow-up mattress, sleeping bag or those torches strapped to your head.
We do, however, own reusable water bottles, closed-toed shoes and a sense of adventure, which made us ripe for a visit to the Sand Sherpa camp in Dubai, which is designed as much for the inexperienced as it is for the seasoned professional.
Taking advantage of the cool December weather, my husband, our three sons aged 13, 10 and seven, and I headed out to the camp to brush up on our skills and learn more about the desert that surrounds us.
Having made its home in the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, Sherpa camp is dedicated to offering an immersive desert experience through which guests can connect with nature, spend time together free of technology distractions (the internet is patchy at best, non-existent at worst), spot desert wildlife and experience aspects of Bedouin culture.
Experience the desert as it used to be
Guests can opt to drive their own 4x4 to the camp, with guides on hand to deflate tyres for desert driving (and reinflate them when you leave). Or they can swap into one of the ex-British military vehicles designed to traverse the landscape. We chose to travel in the open-sided jeeps, enjoying a guided tour and wildlife on the way.
From the meeting point, which guests are required to reach by 3pm, it’s about a 30-minute drive to the camp, with frequent stops for our guide to point out Arabian oryx and sand gazelles. Off-roading and dune-bashing are prohibited in the DDCR, so the dunes remain free of tyre tracks and the flora and fauna are left to thrive, allowing for a deep sense of what Dubai used to be like before Burj Khalifa, Sheikh Zayed Road and Dubai World Trade Centre.
We learn that the colour of the dunes changes from light beige to darker red because of the amount of silica or iron oxide they contain, and that Ghaf tree roots can grow to a depth of 60 metres in their search for water. Our guide also points out the near-perfect haircuts the trees all have is a result of the oryx and gazelle nibbling away at the lowest branches.
Stay in an ex-army trailer
For our overnight stay, we were booked into a trailer. Former UK Ministry of Defence stock, these Penman Trailers have been refurbished and modified, kitted out with a kitchen cupboard with pots, pans and utensils, a gas stove, cooler and recharging station.
Outside the trailer is a table and chairs, as well as an outdoor sofa and fire pit for evening gatherings and marshmallow-toasting.
The bottom of the trailer accommodates two for sleeping, while the tent on top has easily enough space for three.
Alternatively, guests can book to stay in Nomad Camp, which is in the same area as the trailers, but comprises 10 roomy tents which can accommodate two adults and up to four children. There’s also a bathroom and shower block, all open-roofed, adding to the outdoorsy experience.
Once unpacked, we're due at the main dining area for the nomadic cooking workshop.
Bedouin lessons and scorpion spotting
Learning aspects of Bedouin culture is a highlight of the experience. We are taught how to create “cotton” from the dry roots of the fire bush to act as effective kindling for building a fire. The children are shown how to build a three-stone fire specifically for cooking.
Our fire takes a bit of encouragement and more lit matches and kindling than anyone else’s, which we attributed to damp logs following the recent rain. Strangely, none of the other campers’ fires seemed to be similarly afflicted, but as I mentioned, we’re not camping people. Little ones are then tasked with heating the evening’s pasta dish ahead of dinner.
Seated at long tables, we help ourselves to beef and vegetarian burgers, Margherita and pepperoni pizzas and fresh salad and grilled vegetables, as well as the pasta that has been heated Bedouin-style over the open flames.
The large dune beside the dining area provides an excellent lookout across the surrounding desert for sunset photo ops.
After dinner, it's time for the nighttime scavenger hunt, which is done with the child-pleasing intention of seeking out scorpions. Professional campers bring their red-light head torches for the occasion, but we are happy with the ultraviolet light our guide carries and under which scorpions glow bright green. It doesn't take long (a little too close to camp for comfort, if you ask me) until we chance across a baby scorpion nestled in the undergrowth. We all gather around to learn how it feeds and to see how terrifyingly well it camouflages itself.
A stroll through the dark desert allows for some excellent constellation-spotting thanks to the near absence of light pollution, and when we eventually head back to our trailer, the fire is lit and it is marshmallow time.
Marshmallows by moonlight
Our fire, though, has other ideas and our bad log luck from the nomad cooking workshop follows us. In the distance, we see flames roaring in other guests’ fire pits, but ours stubbornly refuses to catch fire. Three return visits by the guide and half a bottle of fuel lighter gel later, and we manage to coax some flames out of it, enough to caramelise some marshmallows, which, by now, the children are desperate to try. But it's a hit and miss, perhaps because, as I have said once or twice, we’re not camping people.
Having failed to fully read the company website, which suggests bringing warm clothes (we have jumpers, but no coats, hats or scarves) and headlamps or torches, we don't have any light by which to play family card games around the outside table, and so decide to call it a night. Other guests, who we suspect are more experienced, have gone to the extent of bringing their own hot water bottles, but we have not.
As a bit of a claustrophobe with a lingering fear of the dark, I sleep in the lighter, airier tent atop the trailer with two of my children, while my husband stays in the lower part with our eldest. The guide tells us that nighttime, when it is peaceful in the camp, is when the wildlife comes out to explore and snuffle around for any scraps of food we may have dropped. But my children’s intentions to stay awake listening to them fall by the wayside as they drift off.
Breakfast with Sally the hawk
A stay at Sherpa camp requires some early rising to take part in the final activity of the stay. I’m up every day at 5.45am, so the 7.30am morning hawk walk is practically the afternoon for me. In a clearing near the main dining area, we meet Sally, a 16-year-old Harris Hawk, who is ready to get breakfast while inadvertently entertaining us in the process.
The children take turns forming circles with their arms for Sally to swoop through, before each of them wears the falconry glove for her landing. Sally is then rewarded with pieces of chicken.
After learning more about the traditional nomadic relationship and the cultural importance of birds of the UAE, it is time for breakfast.
There is time to tuck into eggs, croissants and cereal, with coffee, tea and juice and for the children to tear up and down the dunes a little longer before it's time to head back to the trailer to pack up.
Pick up is at 9.30am sharp, and it is back into the ex-army jeeps for a morning drive through the desert and back to the modern world, from which we have taken a short, fun and very interesting break.
Trailers at the Sherpa camp cost from Dhs795 per trailer, while tents at the Nomad Camp start from Dhs1,300 per tent. The price includes transfers, dinner, breakfast and all activities. Sherpa Camp is open daily with certain dates throughout the year unavailable. www.sandsherpa.com; 058 560 6926
