[Searcaigh]

Nine of us drove down to the Empty Quarter of UAE (Rub Al Khali) last weekend for a campout.

Bit of a sandstorm on Day 1 (Thursday) but the Friday was magnificent although due to various tyre problems with four of the vehicles we had to return to the main village for repairs and did not manage to get really deep into the dunes.

One guy dropped out on Day 1 with electrical problems and two others left the morning after leaving 6 of us to have an interesting day

Some more pics and story here

http://www.angelfire.com/trek/defender/2005/liwa01.html

 

[OkieRover]

great pics!

 

[xpower racer]

Fantastic pics, great blow by blow account of the trip and I am so jelouse of you. :bawling: I miss the desert so much.. Really need to get my Black 90 out there.. Will have to reapaint it though so I dont cook inside it

 

[Serg]

Gordon,

Those are some great pics! Amazing!! You guys really have some balls to attack that stuff.. looks like loads of fun!
:drink1:

Serg

 

[Moeras]

Gordon

Fabulous, great fun, great dunes.

Makes me want to go to Namibia - same tipe of dunes there.

Two questions:
1) Total distance coverd?
2) Why the long airials, do you have 2 way radios fitted?

Johan

 

[Searcaigh]

Thanks for the compliments guys, although years of experience driving the dunes helps, but I still get a few sphincter twitching moments especially if I am driving the overweight underpowered Disco, the 90 is different though, definately No Fear with false security in that I have a roll cage fitted.

Namibia was on my plans for 2004, got cancelled and I ended up going to Malaysia diving instead.

Still want to do it but not sure when I can fit in the time as my work schedule does not allow me more than 2 weeks off at at any one time but unfortunately I am lucky to get two weeks off in any year even though I have 6 weeks per year (read 30 days).


Johan

The distance covered last weekend was not recorded, however we normally cover around 6 Km per hour on average depending on the number of people + experience. The less the better as we can reach an amazing 10Km per hour if only 3 vehicles .... gives you an idea what the terrain is like

The "arials" are telescopic fish poles with a flag attached, this gives us an indication of where the car in front is should there be something blocking our view, like a small dune, plus gives and indication of direction of movement once crossing a dune.

We do use radios, FRS type US frequencies and they are totally illegal here, but can be bought locally.

xpower racer were you out this way at some point?

 

[xpower racer]

Spent 3 months in the Oman in 2001 with the Army driving Defender Wolfs.. Fantastic fun especially as I was a Recce driver for my time there so I didnt have to pull a trailer :drive: Just me and my Sgt :rellye roaming around looking for good Comms sites so we had lots of time to play.. Only thing was we were on our own (with comms) so we didnt ever risk rolling it..Got stuck once or twice but nothing a bit of elbow grease coudnt fix..

Only time I got proper stuck was in the middle of the night driving on a GPS bearing with a trailer + water bowser and about 30 boxes of bottled water in the back. We tried to cross a waddie and game over. I could have made it out if we ditched the trailer but that wasnt an option as we had all the water for our formation. Again I was on my own with a co-driver but we had the benifit of the support of the Army on the end of a HF radio.. Wasn't a whole load of chance of dieing.. A couple did but hey.. **** happens...

 

[Searcaigh]

I frequently visit Oman, Muscat is only a 4 hour drive away and we have crossed Wahiba sands several times now, always in the Disco, next Eid I am tempted to take the Defender.

Did a 9 day trip to Salalah about a year and half ago, with 2/3 of the journey from Muscat off road in 7 days. The return to Muscat (800Km) in 1 day and 1 more day back to Dubai.

 

[Toddicus]

man..wish we had stuff like that here in California =c)

 

[RickyRover]

If you are reffering to the sand dunes we do have some here in California, its at Pismo Beach, although I'm not sure they would be as large or expansive and hot as the deserts in the UAE, but never the less we do have sand dunes. Also if you are willing to travel down towards Death Valley, they are also a few sites there with dunes as well. If you want to drive around a flat desert area you could go the Salt Flats of Nevada and Utah.

 

[Searcaigh]

I have been pondering on shipping one of my Discos over to Canada and driving down to USA over the summer (maybe not this summer but possibly 2006) as there are a few places that I would really love to visit (Death Valley being one)

Not sure how Arabic plates will be accepted in the US though

 

[Barryj]

Next time you're out there in the old Rub see if you can find the offside rear mudflap of a S3 109 SW. I was with BAe at the time and they billed me for its loss.Seem to remember it cost me 250 rats (Saudi) in 1982, so I would appreciate its return. :bawling:

 

[ish]

I have been pondering on shipping one of my Discos over to Canada and driving down to USA over the summer (maybe not this summer but possibly 2006) as there are a few places that I would really love to visit (Death Valley being one)

Not sure how Arabic plates will be accepted in the US though

Your pics are great, thanks for taking the time to put it all together on one site.
As for driving down from Canada you should go for it, Check out Newfoundland for great offroading,awesome terrain & wild sights, elk, icebergs, whales. It would be a great starting point for a journey that ended up in our deserts here in the US.
Don't worry so about the plates, it would probably just lead to you meeting more individuals than normal.
My business partner keeps a Ferrari in Paris w/ New York plates on it, he was a little concerned after Sept 11th. but he says people have been great, and it has actually helped get out of tickets in a few cases.lol
You know people are people and Goverments / politics are a different matter.
Hell in my office in NYC I've even got Greeks and Turks working together :clap: