Day 8 (2023) Abu Dhabi: Quad tour through the desert & Ferrari World

12th April 2023

The night was restless. I actually slept well, if it weren't for that annoying mosquito that kept buzzing around my ears. Every 30 minutes, we take turns spraying ourselves with insect repellent. Since it's so warm, we sleep without a blanket, giving the mosquito plenty of opportunities to bite. No way, bring on the insect repellent! But it only keeps that pesky mosquito away from my ears for about 30 minutes, then it starts buzzing again. I hate mosquitoes!!!!

Our night is interrupted from 2 am to 5:30 am by numerous sprays of insect repellent 🙈😡🤬

At 5:30, we wake up before the alarm, climb up the dune, and wait for the sunrise. Unfortunately, it's very cloudy, just like it was during the Star Gazing yesterday. While the four of us sit on the dune around 6 am, a local forcefully calls us for breakfast. Okay, we're coming....

The breakfast is quite sparse, but it's absolutely okay for being out here in the desert. We have toast, cheese, sausages, jam, honey, boiled eggs, tea, coffee, and mango juice.

After breakfast, we go to the next adventure: the quads are already waiting for us in front of the camp. We booked a 30-minute quad tour through the desert. Our son is really excited. After a short explanation (it's really easy to drive), we race into the dunes. At some point, I dare to drive with one hand and take videos and pictures with the other hand. It's quite a shaky affair. We zoom through the dunes, race up and down the dunes, and finally stop to take photos. We are then allowed to do a few rounds in front of a dune while our guide films and takes pictures of us. After that, we head back to the camp. That was a blast 🤩

We pack our things in the camp and are driven back to Abu Dhabi by our driver. We arrive back at our 'second home' at 8:20 am and use the time until 12 pm for a power nap.

At 11:30, we go to Yas Mall, do some shopping and have lunch, and then head straight to Ferrari World (direct access from Yas Mall). There are new attractions! A small freefall tower, a children's roller coaster around it, and the highlight for my husband and daughter: a 'surprise roller coaster' where you can be shot backwards in the dark into a loop, for example. I still haven't recovered from the dune bashing and only go on the gentle rides. Unfortunately, this means that I have to miss out on Flying Aces and Formula Rossa (from 0 to 240 km/h in 4.9 seconds). Nevertheless, we all have a lot of fun, and our son has found his new favorite in Formula Rossa.

We leave the park at 6 pm and take a look at CLYMB next door, where there is a huge climbing wall and a skydiving dome. There is a 'public viewing area' for skydiving, where we can watch the (sometimes really crazy) skydivers. It's insane what they do in that thing.

Dinner is with the family tonight.

Now we just have some sleep to catch up on and we need to think about what we want to do tomorrow with the predicted +39 degrees....