The joy of being out and about

The darkness that enfolds us has an eerie characteristic... it's like a charcoal mist which the light from the pale crescent moon over our shoulders cannot penetrate. The silence is unearthly – it's so quiet that a rustle in the bushes could propel you a couple of inches. A cool crisp wind carries the cry of a camel somewhere in the distance; and then what sounds like the lowing of cattle.

A bit disconcerting, eh? But then this is an ephemeral moment in time in the wide outdoors – a rare insight into just a bit of raw nature, especially for an insulated city-dweller like me.

Surprisingly, the outdoors is not far from the city lights. Just a while earlier, we were on the tarmac leading from Al Awir towards Hatta, about an hour's drive from Dubai. Turning left, our 4WD cruised on a single carriageway and turned left again.

Soon, we  are rattling on a gravelly plain... Now, off-road enthusiast Dariush Zandi, who is at the wheel, pauses, cuts the engine and switches off the headlights for a moment to get his bearings. The hills in the background are darker than the sky. "(The silhouette) helps me to drive in the right direction," says Dariush who is so familiar with the desert that he's written two books about it – Off-roading in the Emirates, 1 and 2. The digital readout on the gauge lights up as we ease the tire pressure from 32 psi to 16 so our car can take on the sand dunes (depending on the make of your tires, the pressure should be between 15 to 18 psi, he says.).