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LIWA Intermediate Desert Drive - 14 Feb 2020


Gaurav

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2 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

Trip Report - Who am I kidding.

After the masterpiece from @Frederic I can just add the trip from my point of view.

So whatever you plan will never work out for you, Thursday was that kind of a second half for me. Thought of sleeping early, but ended up working till about 8:30 pm, which meant the couple of errands to run on the way home turns out I reached 10:30 pm which was already way past my bed time in my mind. Preparations for the trip and ended up going to bed around 11:30 pm, however the mind plays crazy games and ended up getting up after 15 minutes to add a couple of things to my goodie basket. Went back to bed, kept and alarm for 2:30 am and told my daughter to wake me up at 2:30 am as well. I felt I was unable to go to sleep until my daughter actually had to come and wake me up with the alarm going off as timed. Does this mean I was sleeping and dreaming that I was not able to sleep. Oh well. Got up and with quick last minute preparations and checks left home with a suitcase full, I was headed to Liwa.

On the way I stopped over to pick our beloved @Asif Hussain bhai who had a surprise for me in a heap of wood to burn that night. Stocked it up and on they way to Liwa stopped at a truck parking to offer the early morning Fajr prayers. It was chilly cold and as we drove we knew we would be the last people to check-in at the meeting point, but we bravely drove on as the Sun came out through the clouds giving us a glimpse of what was going to be an awesome day out. Surely we could have been wrapped in our blankets at home cuddled to our loved ones but the love of Liwa had us smelling adventure on the corner. As we rolled in to the Petrol Station it was evident we had lost some time, but with the better part of the day still at hand we did one last check and headed out to the track which would lead us to some dunes we could not even have imagined in our wildest dreams.

After deflation and a quick brief as to what to expect and the plan for the day, we set ourselves on our way to the first part of the trip which was in search of a Yellow Truck. This Yellow truck had been abandoned way back before we were born to entice us to do this side of Liwa, which was a first for me. Such is the charm of Liwa that we had a couple of detours to check the best wall to do a sidey, or the best ever bowl to play in. With all the detours and fun the Yellow Truck dawned on us, our first reaction was it was not even Yellow. But as we came closer we realised that the front of the truck was infact yellow, but eyes can play strange tricks on you in the desert. After having fun around and on top of the Yellow Truck with lots of pics to add it to our memory lane, we ended up with the discussion on whether or not to leave our mark on the truck. After much delibration it was decided to slap the Carnity stickers on, and with the tools and equipment coutesy of @Srikumar and the talent of @Frederic we had the stickers on and looking good.

As we decided to head on to find a good play area the lead was surrendered by @Gaurav and @Emmanuel to @Srikumar who set off following the path of the sun to our play area. Soon we found ourselves in the Walt Disney of dunes, one play strip after another, we would want to rush to the other roller coaster as soon as we were off the one we rode before. There was a proper dune buffet and we had an offer of eat all you can before the sun goes down. Some of these looked scary and even more scary for me as I was the fifth car out of five. I saw the first 4 manage it with ease and was always scared that it would be too churned up for me being the last. However Liwa seemed to be in the mood of giving and never let me down, it allowed me to do it with the same ease as everybody else. The were a few scary moments, but just being able to come out of that scary moment without a scratch felt like an achievement. Very proud of the whole team, as we discussed I was not the only one with my heart in my mouth. All the Liwa trips I have done so far were with tall dunes which were not the easy to handle and had some medium dunes with a lot of technical dunes which were difficult to negotiate through, this side of Liwa was a totally different kind of fun with tall dunes which seemed easy to do even for 5 cars with all the play time in the world. Was it because of the weather or was it due to the lack of traffic in this area  or maybe a combination of both.

With reluctance @Srikumar handed the lead to @Frederic and it seemed like he was long awaiting the opportunity as he totally enjoyed leading in the area playing from one dune to another with the utmost of ease. It was about time for the sun to disappear which was a hint for us to find our own shelter for the night. Our first priority was to find the track that would lead us out. As soon as the track was found and the right path was decided on we were off as close to the road as we could. We decided to head in to the dunes to play along side the track and we headed close to the road, at this point @Emmanuel and @Asif Hussain bhai had to leave us, they took the track and we soon heard from them as they reached the road before the sun could go down. With @Frederic in lead, @Gaurav, @Srikumar and I decided to play around the track till the sun went down. The terrain was amazing and offered a lot to play on, and we took full advantage of every little inch of natural light we could use.

As the sun settled for the day and the lights started diminishing we headed back to the track and close to the road. About 4 Kms in we found a nice spot but wanted something a bit better. This even saw us in a very tight spot, but as a team we managed it well and marched on. There was a facility close by and we just wanted to make sure that it was not a military base or anything which would cause any problems. After we discovered that the pace was just an abandoned factory of some sort we headed back in and found a spot which would best suit our purpose for the night. With us settled in and the bonfire started we sat around and discussed about the day, the week, the month, the year and everything that came to our heads. Although it seemed soon for us but close to midnight we retired to our sleeping bags and thanks to @Gaurav bhai's roaring engine which woke me up at the introduction of another day. After freshening up and enjoying a nice quiet breakfast with the best coffee ever we packed up and headed out, after a quick inflation we were on our way back to join our families. We had around 3 - 4 stops, once to refuel the cars, one to refuel ourselves and a quick visit to the Rainbow Sheikh's car museum.

All in all the trip was one which was long awaited and what made the trip worth it was the like minded people who come out to enjoy the vast desert. Feeling really blessed to have the company of some wonderful people and looking forward to developing more friends on this journey with Carnity.com

This is the TRUE masterpiece....

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"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

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What a fantastic drive video @Asif Hussain for sharing Liwa memories.

Very well capture moments, sideys, adrenaline and terrain. Totally unforgettable. Well done.

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Let's root for each other & watch each other grow.

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55 minutes ago, Asif Hussain said:

Drive Video

 

Fantastic video Asif !!!!

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"Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

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