Full Day Fewbie Desert Drive - Bu Tais Tree Dune Exploration - Abu Dhabi - 04 Feb 2024

[Luke K P]

2 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnats.

Quick tips about tomerow's drive.

Gasoline - as suggested by Frederic above, the closest station to the meeting point is at https://maps.app.goo.gl/soX1HikBfnwUwqvC6. Make sure you top up to the brim. The distance we plan to cover approximates 90 Km. Plus the 40 to the meeting point that will need enough fuel for about 130, 150 Km. max. Consumption will be lower for the first 40 Km on tarmac, and the final 20 Km on a streight dirt road.

Picnic lunch - Planned at the Tree Dune. Bring your favourite food, to be enjoyed cold during our break. We will not be out of the desert until around 3PM.

Convoy order - The short convoy will start as follows:

@Marek_was003 in Second Lead

@Shaun J at #3

@Aser at #4

@PAJERO petelczyc luke in Sweep

Let's meet just before 9 AM and enjoy the fill day exploration in this beautiful piece of desert. See you tomorrow. 

I'll bring a kettle and hopefully we can do Karak and espresso at the tree dunes ☕☕

[Luke K P]

Thanks everyone for the fun (and long!) drive as usual.

We started off on a easterly direction, before wandering south east from the starting point, heading towards the first mud flat / sabkha area. Lots of nice small ridge crossings made for some good excitement for the passengers. We then turned to a more south west heading aiming down for the second sabkha area.

We looped around the picnic way point in some taller dunes and eventually hit the destination for our picnic stop.

The wind was a little strong, whipping up dust and sand. really put the 'sand' in the 'SANDwich'. Managed to make a small batch of semi-warm karak...  maybe i should invest in a wind shield for the little burner 

As we left the picnic destination @Aser's car managed to find a very nice looking gazelle skull with the antlers still attached... A couple of minor refusals which were quickly cleared up and we made very good time towards the exit.

Just before hitting the dirt track we found another skull... camel this time. Bit of skin still attached... so we had a clean up job to do on it last night. 

Thanks for the navigation work @Ale Vallecchi, was a fun drive. Hope the bumper is all ok.
My stats are below: 92.5km in around 7 hours. 

Looking forward to seeing everyones pics in the gallery!

 

[Shaun J]

Thanks @Ale Vallecchifor a really interesting drive. Great spot in the desert which with the recent winds was close to untouched for us!

Great learning chance with lots of different terrain and soft/hard sands covered. 

Great meeting everyone else on the convoy and thanks for spending the day in the desert with us all, @AserI think Gala needs to come along to more drives, wonderful dog.

Looking forward to the next time. 

[Marek]

A drive like this is the one to remember. Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for the opportunity to get there and spend the whole day out!

I loved the energy and the fact that nobody (except for myself after I jinxed it on the last kilometer of the trip) actually needed a push/pull or a dig   As soon as I find some time, I'll go through footage from my camera and gopro!

[Marek]

That enormous empty space everywhere you look... It's insane how much larger the desert there is if you come there from Dubai:

Everything seems so tiny:

But that's what we all came from - it's was well worth to get up early in the morning and drive that far @Aser

Happy faces everywhere @PAJERO petelczyc luke

@Shaun J:

@Ale Vallecchi getting out of any sticky situation:

What a drive!

[Luke K P]

nice photos @Marek_was003 cheers!

[Marek]

my first time with gopro... nothing special, because it's just "boring" drive, but the way this thing stabilizes the horizon despite being fixed to the side of the car (or the bashing plate) - I am shocked!

and the two occurrences when I caught @Ale Vallecchi's doing wheely when crossing a dune:

and here: