First time behind the wheel of a dune buggy

Throttle on the right, brake on the left, a wheel in the middle. No clutch, no gears, no gear stick. If you have driven an automatic car, you already know everything you need; if you have not, it takes about five minutes.

The buggy seats two: one driver and one passenger, both belted into a roll cage with helmets on. The passenger seat is a real seat, not a perch — plenty of couples swap halfway.

• Automatic — no gears, no clutch
• Roll cage, harness and helmet for both seats
• Drivers 18 or over, no driving licence needed
• Passengers from age 5 with an adult driving

Before anyone touches sand there is a briefing in your language, then a practice loop on flat, firm ground beside the base. You start, stop, turn both ways and do an emergency brake until the guide is happy.

Only then do we go to the dunes, and the first dunes are small ones.

Slower than you imagine and it feels faster than it is. Low to the ground, open sides, sand moving past — 40 km/h on a desert track feels like considerably more.

The guide rides in front and sets the speed. If you want to go quicker, say so and the pace rises. If you want to potter, that is entirely normal and nobody will push you.

Getting bogged in soft sand happens to everyone including us. The guide walks over, you shift your weight, thirty seconds later you are moving. It is part of the day, not a failure.

If you decide you would rather not drive, the guide will drive and you ride as a passenger for the rest of the tour, at no extra cost. Nobody has ever been made to keep going.

• Stuck in sand — normal, fixed in under a minute
• Nervous — the guide takes the wheel, you keep the ride
• Too fast — say so, the pace drops immediately

Long trousers, closed shoes, sunglasses, sunscreen and tied-back hair. Zip your pockets. Eat something light beforehand and drink water in the hour before you ride — the air is much drier than it feels.

And look up at the stops. The instinct on your first ride is to stare at the sand three metres in front of the bonnet for an hour and miss the dunes entirely.