Fossil Rock is one of those inventive names that states exactly what an object is – that is, it is a rock that contains fossils. It’s located in the sand dunes surrounding Dubai and is usually accessed via a day trip to the Wadis, a mountain range in the far east of the United Arab Emirates. A tad different to the Balancing Rocks near Cairns!
After a while of cruising around the sand dunes, this is what you come across:
It may not look that spectacular, but the attraction of Fossil Rock are the tiny fossils that are embedded within the only hard bit of landscape in the middle of an ocean of sand.
What you need to do is pour some water on top of the rock, and all of a sudden you will come across thousands of tiny fossilised fragments that have been preserved from millions of years ago.
This area used to be an ocean ages ago, hence, there are lots of shells that are present within the rock itself.
Fossil Rock – The Best Thing is Getting There!
However, the best thing about visiting Fossil Rock is not the actual rock itself but the transport used in getting there. And that’s usually via Dune Bashing in a V8 Toyota Landcruiser via Arabian Adventures.
Dune Bashing is the process of flogging the guts out of a four wheel drive up and down the sand dunes and having a lot of fun at the same time. The driver loves making the vehicle fish tail (swerving from side to side), and check out how much sand one of these beasts can throw up in the course of making visitors to Dubai wet themselves!
Cynthia from The Food Pornographer took this photo in another car, because I was incapable of taking any decent photos or video footage because I was being thrown around so much! I’m somewhere next to a pane of glass being obstructed by the sand!
Dune Bashing is tonnes of fun – I highly recommend it if you feel like living on the edge a little.
More Fossil Rock and Dune Bashing Stuff
I think the Dune Bashing trip to Fossil Rock should appear in From Monsters to Motocross: The Unauthorized Guide to Off-Road and All-Terrain Vehicle Sports, Including Monster Trucks, Motocross, Enduro, Dune Bashing, and More.