Afternoon Fewbie Wadi Drive - Shawka to Fujairah - Fujairah - 1 July 2023

[Frederic]

Quick tip on the climbing:

You can either use the Jeremy Clarkson (SPEEEEED AND POWER)  or the James May (SLOWLY DOES IT) approach:

Let's try both option and see where we end up !

 

[Anoop Nair]

Sorry @Frederic have to pull out. Have been sick and thought will be better by morning but no. See you next time

[Looper]

Which is the nearest fuel station?

[Mohit Gurnani]

Is the start time 12 or 2?

[Frederic]

50 minutes ago, Looper said:

Which is the nearest fuel station?

https://maps.app.goo.gl/3DNwkPDgu5fVMnab8?g_st=ic

1 minute ago, Mohit Gurnani said:

Is the start time 12 or 2?

2pm

[Charbel]

super exciting drive. completely new terrain for me, Frederic and support team made it an enjoyable experience.

Pleasure meeting you all. 

 

[Frederic]

12 minutes ago, Charbel said:

super exciting drive. completely new terrain for me, Frederic and support team made it an enjoyable experience.

Pleasure meeting you all. 

 

Fantastic photos @Charbel especially the last one with the Yellow Jeep ! @Looper

[DP1011]

Thanks for the fantastic drive @Frederic and @Vanessa8580 ( I added Vanessa too , as i can see the hardwork done on planning this one  had her complete involvement!;)) 

It was a LONG convoy, cant tag everyone, but It was fantastic to see you all guys😁💥👍🏻! Many more to come in winters😁! 

[Frederic]

Drive Report

As many of us are seeking some relief from the hot weather these days, it would be quite obvious to head out to the mountains, where usually the temperature is slightly lower, and especially thanks to the elevation, it would feel a bit more doable.

We met at the roundabout off Maliha road, which had a nice cabana-style shelter that gave us some welcome time out of the sun. Emphasis today was on keeping an eye on the temperature gauges and to enjoy the scenery and in the meantime try out all those buttons on our 4x4's that we usually never need in the sand. "Hill Descent" was one of them

Our first "warmup" drive was making our way through Wadi Shawka, and after paying the camel tax, we were allowed to cross deeper and enjoy the quiet meandering tracks. The temperature in this area was still around 45 degrees, so it was important to keep the cars moving.

Having made our way through Wadi Shawka, we needed to cover some tarmac for about 15 mins to head out to Wadi Sifuni, which has the so-called pipeline track.  Here is where it got interesting as we had multiple steep climbs and descents at our plate where we could try 4H and 4Lo in different gears to see which worked best. We noticed lower engine temperatures in 4Lo as it allowed the car to climb with torque and steady rpm. For descents the 4Lo came in handy too as it provides good engine braking to keep the car under control.

As the visibility was low for most convoy members due to the dust being thrown up by the amount of cars ahead, this became a bit tricky at one point as @Vanessa8580 her Xterra started to overheat, the reason was due to the amount of dust she could not see ahead and determine how big the climb was and the car was in 4H at that point. After giving the car a break and some water spray by @DP1011and @Looper it felt better soon and we could continue our journey.

The summit at this area was around 670m and the views were absolutely breathtaking.

We exited Wadi Sifuni and we needed to cross the road to a similar looking track. This took us through Wadi Ham for a little while, and we passed by Al Bitnah Fort, which carries a crucial and important part of UAE history.

Al Bithnah Fort - Wikipedia

It was here that @Glenn W unfortunately had to exit as his front CV axle / Diff was starting to show noticeable signs of damage, and he took the wise decision to exit and avoid further damage. Hope you got home safely my friend and hope to see you soon again with us.

We headed into a similar pipeline track like Wadi Sifuni, but a little bit less exciting. However there was one steep climb on a corrugated tarmac track that was quite worth it. We were in the shadowd of Jabel Safad and now making our way towards Fujairah coast.

The very last portion where we drove through the little town of Safad was my personal favorite. As it was past 6pm already and the sun was slowly setting, i opened my windows and that little meandering drive through that little town surrounded by mountains left me hypnotized by its beauty. Only in Oman i have had a similar experience of being mesmerized like that. 

We exited at a sandy area, where i could finally explain my reference to bulls: this arena is being used in the wintertime as a bullfighting arena. It looked unimpressive but was a good open area to park all the cars and inflate again. 

I thank you all for joining and for making this an unforgettable experience, all of you did amazing and it was great to have so many senior offroaders on the drive that could help out with the challenges we faced (well... not that many...  )

We will be back in the winter with similar drives in which we could perhaps set up camp at that summit and have some drinks in the evening ! 

Screenshot of the track we did :

And a  small relive video of our drive:

 

https://www.relive.cc/view/vXOd8XQAz4O

See you all soon in the sand / mountains !

 

[Looper]

This was the best drive ever. Period. And as I have been blabbering it is the paisa vasool  (loosely translated to bang for the buck)  drive since I was able to use some of the unused features of my Jeep that I could not use it ever in desert. Also because even in the first 1/3rd of the drive it showed worth every effort  put in it. I always wanted to do a Wādī drive and this one had everything. It is going to be one of one drive as we won’t be able to do the exact same drive ever perhaps (like climbing Fossil Rock). My jeep was feeling at home during the drive; as many of you know it has been having some issues with the coolant tank and leaks but this drive it has no issues ever. Even on the most difficult climb it was still in 2 digit temps. Looking forward to many more such drives and perhaps into Oman as well…