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Published: December 3rd 2007
The Oasis We arrived at Huacachina, a little oasis resort in the heart of the Ica desert that afternoon. It was still very hot, so we wandered around the waters eating ice creams. When the sun had cooled, we set off on our overnight desert adventure!
Dune Buggies and Sand Boarding We roared across the desert in a surprisingly speedy dune buggy, driven by our crazy driver Jeejo. It was like being on a sand roller coaster, flying up and over the dunes, and skirting up the sides, so you thought you were going to roll over. It was hilarious fun and a real adrenaline rush! But the best was yet to come. We perched on the top of a dune and took some piccies of the stunning desert surrounding us. Then it was sand boarding time! Sand boards look a bit like snow boards or wake boards, but you just wear your trainers and harness yourself in. Apparently it´s quite a difficult skill to learn standing up, and as we are both pants at snowboarding and never mastered wakeboarding, we opted for the easier, faster and much more fun method of lying down. Jase went first! We were standing
at the top of a very steep sand dune (we thought we´d do nursery slopes first!) and Jase dutifully lay on his board, grasped the front straps and was sent hurtling down the sandy slope. You are supposed to use your feet as brakes, which Margarita mastered better than us, we went so fast! Jase failed to keep his arms tucked in and got some lovely grazes on his arms. Margarita was really funny, screaming before she´d even started off, all the way down the slopes. She must have eaten lots of sand! The good thing about sandboarding with dune buggies is we got a lift to the top of the next slope and didn´t have to do exhausting treks to the top everytime. Each time, the slopes got steeper and we travelled faster, and sticking your feet in didn´t seem to do very much! It was great fun, really exhilirating, and Rach proudly won the distance contest on the last run. Full of sand we headed for our camp.
D.I.S.C.O. A tasty BBQ awaited our return and was absolutely delicious, washed down with a refreshing pisco and coke. We had a glass of the cream liquor but we
just had a couple bottles of the beer we bought, as we were conscious of our flight over Nazca the next day. This left plenty of pure pisco for our Jeejo and Chuti, who promptly drank two bottles with a little help from Ricardo and Margarita. Our two camp masters were completely piddled and proved the entertainment of the evening, dancing around to the salsa music with much drunken revelry. It was a really surreal experience! We sat on top of a steep dune, surveying the shadows playing across the desert below, and then glanced down at our little disco camp, with the loudest music pumping out the amps in the truck. We did a bit of moonlight sandboarding, but it was much more effort climbing up the dunes yourself, your feet sinking in the sand with every stride. It was pretty special sitting around the fire as we watched a shooting star cascade across the night´s sky. Eventually Chuti collapsed and we decided to try to erect a tent at 1.30am, which was pretty funny with only the stars and a little maglite for illumination. Jase and I opted for the dishelleved looking canvas, while Ricardo and Margarita opted
for the campfire. Somehow we fell asleep on our sandy beds at about 2.30am.
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Debra
non-member comment
just deserts...
...looks like you had them. I don't fancy the mad sand-boarding myself, but I'm not a speed addict (or am I?) (only joking) (or am I?) Fabby pics kids. No doubt about that one.