Leaderboard

On an off day waking up at 4:30 am is the most difficult thing. A near 3 hour drive takes away a lot fro your body and mind. Yet just standing in the middle of Wagan in anticipation of the amazing dunes on offer. Meet up was casual and but delayed due to fog, and after a quick bite and tea we were on the way for deflation. Having only 5 cars in such an area is always a plus. After a quick brief and deflation through a break in fence found with some keen eyes we were on our way to an epic day. We drove through some challenging dunes as there were some very soft patches, and even the small technical dunes are medium elsewhere. But the quality of dunes in Wagan is so amazing and it always keeps you on your toes that after every challenge you are treated to an awesome play area. We had to avoid a few dunes in order to be able to play in some good ones. Another challenge in the area due to which we could not have a fast paced ride was due to the occasional uneven surface and loads of bushes which were eventually going to pose a much bigger challenge than anticipated. As we occasionally played on dunes which seemed a safer place and more manageable we finally stopped for a quick lunch. The table was full of some delicious treats, but we were all edging to move on and make the most of the day light available to us. As soon as we heard a voice asking if we should move on, it only took Lee's than 5 minutes to clear the space and everybody was ready to continue. As we headed through the buffet of large to humongous dunes on offer playing safely due to the humps and bushes we came across a massive bowl. This one carried a huge temptation for us as the top portion of the bowl was laced with tire marks running through. From a safety point of view @Gaurav bhai decided to do it first and after he would have safely negotiated it we would all have our chance. This decision paid of immediately as soon as Gaurav bhai started his circle the soft sand pulled him down immediately as he sank lower and lower till he was in a pit of bushes. As it turned out this was going to be the epic story for the day. Gaurav bhai tried his best and pushed the Pajero to its roaring best, but the bushes below and the soft razor sharp edges provided the recipe for keep Gaurav bhai in. After several suggestions, an open mind from Gaurav bhai and several attempts yet another challenge as Gaurav bhai got stuck on a nasty bush. As we were dreading the thought of sending another car down into the bottomless pit to recover, the rear difflock engaged and the Pajero was out of that situation. After taking a walk around in the fresh breeze trying to get a fresh perspective on the situation at hand and some jokes on changing our ways of not leaving anyone behind a thought came to us from a recent write up. There was a great write up on how a Suzuki Jimny was recovered from a bowl and and we decided it was the only way to get the Pajero out. Gaurav bhai did very well to maneuver through the bushes, gain momentum and come half way up, close enough to connect our ropes and Gaurav bhai's which to slowly and patiently pull himself out of the bowl. We had connect the winch to @Asif Hussain whale and further supported the whale with @EmVarlet Xterra. @skumar83 was doing the duty of running up and down the steep bowl to make sure everything was well connected and secured. Slowly, but surely Gaurav bhai made it almost to the top at which point the whale was placed in a better position and now the winch was directly connected to the whale and we finally saw the Pajero raise its head from this bottomless pit. Once the Pajero was out we all took a sigh of relief and with the sun quickly setting we tried to make our way to the sabkha. At the point I realized that my left front tire was completely out of air. After a quick inflation I made my way to the rest of the convoy and soon we were on the sabkha. At this point we were faced with a fence, driving to the left of the fence we were faced with a huge dune with with a very dark night made it very difficult. So now we were headed to the right side of the fence where along with the break in fence we found that it was a shooting range for the military. Thus we drovevfurther down in search for the end of the fence, what we found instead was a wal of a dune. We stopped for a while trying to search for a solution, at which point the best scenario would be to back track in the sabkha to some small technical dunes and make our way out to the other sabkha where we could use and earlier track we had been on to head out. Fortunately we entered soon from the sabkha onto a medium dune and found a track that took us across in very quick time. We were quickly on to the sabkha which lead us to a dune where we could sit back, relax, have a bite and discuss the events of the day. This relaxed moment gave us the strenght to head back inflate and on our way home. What a day. Thanks to @skumar83, @Gaurav, @Asif Hussain and @EmVarlet to put in their all with amazing food and refreshments overall patience to make this drive one to remember for a long time. I have posted my pics in the Gallery, looking forward to everybodies clicks. https://carnity.com/gallery/category/99-wagan-desert-drive-2-dec-2018

Hello everyone, As title says, I will try to provide all information regarding Car transfer from UAE to Oman. Since many people have done it but I couldn’t find any blog/ forum with its explanation. So all this started when I got job in Oman. Since there are less options for second hand cars in Oman and my car was in good very condition too, so I took the decision and decided to take my car along with me here. Because its better to keep your car rather selling it on loss and buying again in Oman. So all below information is only my personal experience, any one other may has different experience, or rules may change in future…if you feel anything is missing, just let me know I will add in main post… Lets start now.... In general main steps are; Land in Oman Get residency card Get a license Get debit/ credit card from any Oman based bank Come back to UAE and export car to Oman (REMEMBER: you have to keep your UAE visa valid, otherwise .......you won’t be able to come back ) Details are as follows: Get residence card in Oman (it takes only one week for it). Get any credit/ debit card from any Oman based bank (this is must must… otherwise you will be in trouble, Oman custom guys will never accept UAE based bank debit/ credit card for payment, and there is no option for cash payment) Apply for license, for license it was to my surprise that there is no Automatic license in Oman. You have to have a manual license, luckily I had Saudi manual license, so I surrendered it and got Oman manual License. In case you have UAE automatic car license, you will have to go through Driving test procedure in Oman. After getting license come back to UAE, either by road or by air. By road, Mawaslat buses take 8 to 10 Omani rial and in 6 to 7 hrs you reach dubai. By air its 45 mins air arabia flight from Muscat to Sharjah. Since I exported car from Sharjah, so will explain steps in Tasjeel Sharjah, I hope Dubai and Abu Dhabi will have similar steps. Go to Tasjeel along with your mulkiya & license and car obviously… J At entrance tell counter guy that you want EXPORT TEST… (don’t forget to mention). He will provide you a small slip stapled to your mulkiya mentioned “Export Vehicle” on it. Export test booth is behind booth 12 of normal testing booth. A guy there will take your mulkiya and will enter few details in system and will ask you to go inside. In actual there will be no test….. Remove number plates, go inside tasjeel building. (as far as I remember I was asked to go direct to counter 10 without any token). A lady there will take 100 dh for test (which actually didn’t took place J) Then you have to take insurance till UAE border, it was for 210 dh in my case with validity of two weeks. Take token from main counter mentioning them that you have to export car to Oman. On your turn, your mulkiya will be kept and a paper having details for you and your car will be provided. Hand over your number plate at that counter and pay 170 dh for export sticker. REMEMBER: you have to mention every one at counter that you will be driving car yourself to Oman. Generally they assume that car will be taken on truck….. So you will be provided with 2 blue color export stickers which you have to paste at both ends of your car.. now you are good to go out of UAE. There are two border posts to enter in Oman, Al Ain border and Hatta border. If you want to go to Muscat, choose Hatta border. Or just google map your destination in Oman, wherever map takes you… follow it… J AT UAE BORDER: After crossing first security check post… Second check post which is actually an immigration counter, tell them about car export.. They will ask you to park car at left and go to other building. So park your car at road side after crossing 2nd check post and move to building named “Khatem maleha Boder Custom Service”. At Khatem maleha building, mention them again about car export, they will make a paper call “Bayaan” for your car. Its basically valuation of your Car to be exported. You will be asked about your car value, Very carefully mention them your car value, because based on that value you will be paying 5% Custom Duty in Oman. Pay 130 dh there. (cash is accepted) After bayaan, go to immigration counter again, since your car has already crossed that check post, so you will have to join the guys who are standing in queue to get their passports stamped (mostly they are truck drivers from UAE who are exporting items to Oman). Pay 35 dh there (Only Card payment, no cash). You will be provided a small slip. Now you are all done in UAE. Show that slip to next check post and exit UAE. …. Get back into your car and move towards Oman border. AT OMAN BORDER: Main steps are: Passport control Car insurance Custom duty payment Custom Police verification/ signing Border crossing Go to Passport control, show your residence card, he will stamp on passport and will provide you small slip. Go to insurance office, its just adjacent to passport control caravan. Take insurance. For me it was 13 rial for two weeks. Next step is Custom Payment, usually there are few agents (called PRO there) moving around to catch any customer, they belong to different Custom Clearance Companies…. So one guy took me to a caravan where there were many Custom Clearance Companies. You have to pay 5% of Custom Duty, 10 rial some documents fee plus Service fee for that Custom agent. You will be provided with some papers and will be asked to go to Custom Police office which is at bit distance (go in your car there). Police will enter details in system and will ask to go back again to Custom agent. Take your car back from same track. Custom agent will give you some Colored paper. And will ask you again to go to same Custom Police…. J Police (its actually a border Custom Police) will sign those papers and you can exit Oman then… So while on exit from Oman you have to show that paper signed by Custom Police to security person, then he will ask search you car.. will let you go… So you are in Oman now…. Enjoy your drive till your destination… Get your car registered in Oman after insurance.. and enjoy…… REMEMBER; When you are going to put the export sticker, put a paper or a card behind it in a way that only 1 to 2-inch border of the sticker is stuck to the car. Because while registering my car here in Muscat, the Police guy at the counter asked me to handover those stickers to him. And it took me time and effort to put off those stickers. Its adhesive was pretty strong, and a sticker is of plastic flexible material. So while you will try to pull it off, it will be deshaped due to elasticity and its adhesive will be stuck to the bumper and trunk lid area. However a major portion of that bad looking adhesive was hidden behind new plates, but for visible marks, I will have to put hot water on it for removal. So better not to stick a complete sticker on the front bumper and rear trunk lid area. CAR REGISTRATION IN MUSCAT:  This is very much similar to UAE Get the car insurance (prices are bit lesser as compared to UAE) Go for Car Inspection in Vehicle Registration Office (only difference in UAE and Oman inspection I found that here in Oman, they check front and rear axle by keeping a car on some vibrating plates for few seconds, and those plates vibrate vigorously, I think it is to check the ability of axle to withstand vibrations) Pay for plates and registration (mention plate size at registration counter) Make a payment which is Card Only, NO CASH…(for me it was 38 rial for first-time registration which will be 23 rials next year as per that Police guy at the counter) Get your mulkiya from there within a few minutes Get the plates from an outside small office Get them fixed (1 rial)……..and you are done…….

It was an epic day that ended with an epic and extreme recovery. If I really pushed I could have crossed the ridge but the blade was razor sharp and could have caused the flip from 200 meter tall dune. Better safe than sorry and I think it was an hour well spent pulling the Pajero from the third quarter. History repeats after 10 years as I have done same to a Jimny from a bowl near Pink rock - 1/20th of this bowl size.

Extreme drive, stuck and recovery like these make all of us grow stronger in time of need. None of us panic or lost ground instead kept on pouring healthy suggestion to get me out of that situation. Everyone kept a very cool head & stay focussed on actual problem but with safety in mind and at top priority. Such extreme recoveries also put a test to all our offroad gears and recovery tools and thankfully none of them broke. Many thanks to @Rahimdad @Asif Hussain @skumar83 and @EmVarlet for excellent teamwork and coordination.

Since the people with too much money got bored investing in wine or paintings, they ended up buying old timers and collector item cars which led to this craze.

EsCos currently for sale at £47,000, almost a quarter a million dhs. I remember these being available for £7-8,000. Sure missed out on that boat!

Never as much as yours @Gaurav 😆

Excellent post with so much detailed explanation and procedure to help others. A true example of helping others and setting a new standard for people who can't find info and then don't post a thing after their self-discovery session. You've earned a HUGE RESPECT for your great contribution @Osman