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LIWA Intermediate Desert Drive - 28 Feb 2020


Gaurav

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I am waiting for any roster changes, will be confirmed at 18:00.

If it is a day off, I will head towards Zayed city, take a hotel, need proper sleep to relax and meet you guys tomorrow morning. (Had a short night)

Will not stay for camping, because of unconfirmed duty on Saturday.

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You can check in Liwa tilal hotel with zero expectations and you will be fine with just basic necessities.

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

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2 hours ago, Wrangeld said:

Liwa: A new level of Crazy

Nothing can prepare you for your first time in Liwa. No amount of You-Tube videos, tales from friends or indeed, pre drive briefings prepares you brings the immensity of this challenge. But let’s start at the beginning.

To our surprise and delight, @Jeepie and myself were elevated to Intermediate level recently. I say recently! In truth, 4 days before the Liwa drive. Having hear so much about Liwa, the moment the drive was posted we signed up.

The rest of the week was spent in preparation. Did we have all the right equipment? Kinetic Rope & shackles, tool kit, extra fuel tank, jack etc., making sure that the car was filled up with all the right fluids and that nothing was loose and sorting out camping gear.

A Liwa drive is not the sort of place you just turn up and ‘wing it’, hoping someone else will sort you out with a compressor, or shovel or water. It’s the sort of place that takes planning, investment both financially and in time and in sorting out your vehicle (so that when you are in Liwa your belongings stay safely stowed (and cannot fly all over the place) – more on that later.

It’s also a 3 hour drive from Dubai.

Having managed to extricate myself from work more or less on time we left for Liwa. Almost 3 hours later and 10 minutes from the meeting point, contrary to our expectation we would find ourselves in the middle of a wilderness we were driving through the streets of Zayed City. Not quite the desolation of Liwa we imagined.

Deeply attractive option though it was, sleeping in the car in the car park of the Adnoc station was not our idea of camping so we went in search of a suitable spot to pitch our tent – a little disappointed that our vision of camping under the stars out in the middle of the wilderness had become more a case of can we find a relatively quiet spot to spend the night that’s not in the middle of a major highway.

This was probably the last moment of disappointment we had. Especially as having found an acceptable site we were joined later by @Gaurav and @Brette where @Gauravregaled us with tales of Liwa’s past.  

We woke to the sound of Camels being loaded unhappily into a truck and began preparations. Filling stomachs, water bottles and gasoline tanks, tying everything down securely in the car and then once @Javier Marrived and checking the cars again deflating and paying particular attention to @Gaurav’s briefing, we were off.

Nothing can prepare you for your first time in Liwa. Despite the time and energy preparing, the research, the hard work in getting everything needed (thanks again @Jeepie) once you start to see the immensity of the place, it’s simply mind-blowing.

It took us at least 30 minutes of hard driving along one of the internal dirt tracks before we even went truly off-road, and once we did, another 30 before we passed the last of the camel farms inside the desert and made our way into Little Liwa.

And once we did … the beauty, the colors, the contours and simple immensity of the place were stunning to the eye. It probably would have been enough to just have the privilege of seeing these views without going further, just to drive and explore the incredible beauty of the landscape without massively challenging our cars or abilities would have been enough.

But further we did … and the reward?

24 hours on and I still cannot believe where our cars took us (and we took them).

In our briefing, @Gaurav had warned us about the humungous dunes. Until you see them towering above or look at the vertiginous drop on the other side, it’s simply impossible to imagine and fathom. Terrifying, exhilarating, incredible.

I guess I should admit something here. I entered Liwa pathologically afraid of falling from heights. That’s quite different from being afraid of heights – I am ok being as high as you want (Burj Kahlifa viewing floors, bring it on), but if there’s a chance of falling, I literally cannot look over the edge ... That particular fear has been overcome as a result of continuously driving the car over the edge of precipitous dunes to crawl down the slip face as we moved on to another dune formation.

Liwa is renowned for its soft sand. It looks hard, stable and compacted, until you drive onto it and find that it’s silky, like gossamer under your wheels which desperately trying to gain some semblance of grip as you struggle up inclines that look benign and inviting.

And then there’s the bowls. As brand new intermediate rankers, driving Liwa was challenge enough without trying too many heroics slide slipping across the massive dunes. The terrain, keeping up with the convoy, learning to be much more responsible ourselves for the navigation of the dunes ahead was more than sufficient with which to cope throughout the day. 4x4 fanatics will, play. And play we all did. In some cases, impressively so.

We paid our respects to the Yellow Truck, and gave increasing respect to the scenery and landscape around us. We found a lovely calm bowl in which to lunch and moved on.

The dunes are unrelenting on car and driver (and passenger, from time to time). And endless. Standing atop a dune 300 meters above the scenery as far as the eye could see it was dunes. It is in my mind’s eye and will remain there for a long time. It was not until yesterday that I truly appreciated what a desert meant. And this is small Liwa. It blows my mind to think that there as literally hundreds more kilometers of this landscape in the UAE and thousands in KSA.

With one notable exception (@Jeepie it seems did refuse and needed help, but did not get stuck at all), we all had our ‘moments of learning’ and were kind enough to offer our co-travellers the opportunity to practice recovery techniques.  In a long day of driving these moments were not that frequent and quickly managed. We will leave it what goes on in Liwa, stays in Liwa.

With the light fading, we rushed (!) back aiming to hit an internal track to find our way out of the desert. There, we filled our gasping tanks with the reserve fuel we had brought with and drove quite slowly and relaxed along a dirt track to the main road and out of Liwa.

Five, happy any tired drivers, four incredible vehicles, three who had never experienced Liwa before, two who had guided us through safely and carefully with one aim: Enjoy Liwa to the full and get out safely.

My reflections, for what they are worth sit on one side on the incredible beauty of the scenery we were privileged to see and play in. This is savage country, where, were it not for the careful organization and well maintained vehicles we would hardly last a day. It’s truly stunning on a level that even though I have been to a few deserts in my time, nothing compares to this.

The three hour journey home was a challenge. After the wonders of the dunes, the designers of UEA's road, who must have been sitting with ruler in hand as they created the road network do not make for an interesting drive home in the dark after such an eventful day. 

As a learning experience this was simply invaluable. There is a massive leap from Fewbie to Intermediate. Anyone chomping at the bit to get that promotion, be careful what you ask (aim) for. The expectations on you as a driver are completely different as an intermediate. From self-navigating (there’s nowhere near as much look out for this, watch that etc., - you just need to keep your eye on the sand and do your best to follow), the speed of the drive to the equipment you must have to name but a few the expectations of the other drivers over your communications – the list goes on.

Next time, at least I will know what to expect from Liwa, and perhaps what it expects from me – because you can be sure: there will be a next time. The addiction just gets deeper and stronger, and Liwa is a fix, not a cure.   

See you soon in the sand.

Once again you took me there, and I’m so glad you made it all back safe and sound and with unforgettable memories ! 

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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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