Journey to middle earth: Ships of the Desert or was that Dessert?

Waking up to Abu Dhabi, from the window of my hotel room, I was able to see the great expanse of the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. Taking up the space of five football fields, it can accommodate over 40,000 worshippers at once. This very traditional mosque has the best of everything, the worlds' largest chandeliers and the largest hand made rug, inlayed designs in marble. All supported, by Sony and Panasonic. No more calls to prayer by some poor old bloke singing at the top of his voice out to the local comunity with the aid of the latest Japanese technology. In closer insection the chandelier is made up of thousands of LEDs and payer room has the latest plasma television.

We left Abu Dhabi on a ROAD TRIP!
Leaving the edges of Abu Dhabi and not going around any roundabouts the wrong way, we found we were journeying down a straight line through the desert for almost 200 kilometres. Sand dunes all around, a neverending line of large power cables disappearing over the horizon, the occasional patch of farmed palm trees gave the expectation of a fairly monotonous journey. What was that in the distance? A pyramid? A jumbo jet? A jumbo sized car? Am I seeing things? As we got closer I found out it was not a mirage.

Lone men in traditional arab garb came in and out of view as we drove by. There was nothing as far as the eye could see apart from the sand dunes. So many questions! Where did these men come from? What were they doing? Where were they going? Why are they crouching on the ground? No clues that we could see. Suddenly, two men standing by the side of the road, dismantling a large wooden crate. No vehicle, no buildings, nothing in sight apart from the sand. What were they going to do with it? How were they going to get it anywhere? Further down the road, a boat just resting on the sand in the middle of nowhere... by now we are about 100 km from the nearest stretch of water.... Finally, something we were half expecting, camels.... walking in a neat line one after the other, over the sand dunes... No humans on their backs nor walking by their sides... they knew where they were going and what they were doing.

Journey's end, we reach the Qasr Al Sarab Resort - at last, buildings in the middle of the sand dunes. A most impressive room in a very impressive resort. Off to dinner finishing with a very fitting Camel milk crème brulée.