Liwa Desert UAE - Go West Trip
Posted: 04 Nov 2014 10:31
Hi Folks,
just a trip report from my part of the world. My offrading club http://www.me4x4.me organised a trip over the 31st Oct to 1st November weekend.
I took a friend who was leaving the UAE for good to head back to Germany as thank you for the help he has given me with learning to restore my other car. So a Prado 150 series V6, Jeep TJ and Jeep JK V6 2 door were amongst us. The TJ driver was the trip leader and was following a book by Mike Nott for the route. It was 130kms in sand driving, with an estimated 190kms from fuel pump to fuel pump. All petrol vehicles on this trip.
We started out near some camel farms, and moved away to the undulating dunes. The slipfaces were perfect, around 150-200ft of decent. Around 10;30am we arrived at a date farm and socialised with 2 Bangladeshi farmers who get back to the town around 80kms away every month. They gave us tea and dates, which is a common snack here.
On our way, and we stopped after I had to manoeuvre a bowl escape and calculated our fuel, I was drinking fuel at alarming rate, the Patrol was loaded with 2 sacks of fire wood, 15 German beer bottles, 2 cool boxes of food, camping gear and all the recovery tools and a 20 litre jerry can on the rear door. The sand was soft, even though the tires were down to 12psi....she was making a heavy track. So I had looked at an old gatch track from Google Earth and I led the way. We had to back track as the yellow Jeep driver had found that the sand that is bulldozed around a gatch track is powder. Upon arriving at the stuck, the left 2 wheels were buried in the sand, sorry no photo yet, and to tow the jeep out we would need 3 tow ropes. I had some locally designed sand shoes, and I had heard that they were good, they were just given to me by my friend, and did not know they worked. After a little digging and placing the sand shoes under the sunken wheels, the jeep roared out. Every body was impressed and asked where these sand shoes come from.
Anyhow, I had a couple of stucks on flat spots or climbing long ascents, and had to resort to the difflock, low ratio and the 4.8's torque to get out, infact I managed to self-recover the whole trip, and the only other car that had no assisted recovery was the little Jeep TJ.
Then at 16:00pm, 1 hour before the sunsets, we found a good flat campsite, with only 11kms left to complete the route. First thing in setting up camp, have a cold beer, which everyone else also had the same idea. After a beer, a chat we proceeded to unload and setup the camp in the cool sunset hour. Then we had another beer, and at early evening we started out dinner, I am using a butane stove, as it Is small to carry and the fuel is also cheaper than coal. We had a nice steak and condiments. Then a few glasses of wine later, we started cooking the German sausages, yes my passenger is German, and was also the cook and buyer of the food/drinks.
The night was pleasant with snoring from the Spaniards, then the swiss and a grand finale from the German.
The next day, we left the camp leisurely as we only had 1 hour to the track at the Arada farms.
The patrol was great, the combination of the difflock, low ration and 4.8 torque is really something I have not witnessed. The koni shocks absorb the bumps here and there nicely without comprise to the ride comfort on road. The roofrack is great and loving that I can pack more in the car with out blocking my rear view. The only thing that failed was the USB stick for my radio, and that is due to it being now 3 years old and being left in the car when summer temperatures reach 40's.
I leave you with some of the pics and a route of the trip from Googleearth and Garmin.
just a trip report from my part of the world. My offrading club http://www.me4x4.me organised a trip over the 31st Oct to 1st November weekend.
I took a friend who was leaving the UAE for good to head back to Germany as thank you for the help he has given me with learning to restore my other car. So a Prado 150 series V6, Jeep TJ and Jeep JK V6 2 door were amongst us. The TJ driver was the trip leader and was following a book by Mike Nott for the route. It was 130kms in sand driving, with an estimated 190kms from fuel pump to fuel pump. All petrol vehicles on this trip.
We started out near some camel farms, and moved away to the undulating dunes. The slipfaces were perfect, around 150-200ft of decent. Around 10;30am we arrived at a date farm and socialised with 2 Bangladeshi farmers who get back to the town around 80kms away every month. They gave us tea and dates, which is a common snack here.
On our way, and we stopped after I had to manoeuvre a bowl escape and calculated our fuel, I was drinking fuel at alarming rate, the Patrol was loaded with 2 sacks of fire wood, 15 German beer bottles, 2 cool boxes of food, camping gear and all the recovery tools and a 20 litre jerry can on the rear door. The sand was soft, even though the tires were down to 12psi....she was making a heavy track. So I had looked at an old gatch track from Google Earth and I led the way. We had to back track as the yellow Jeep driver had found that the sand that is bulldozed around a gatch track is powder. Upon arriving at the stuck, the left 2 wheels were buried in the sand, sorry no photo yet, and to tow the jeep out we would need 3 tow ropes. I had some locally designed sand shoes, and I had heard that they were good, they were just given to me by my friend, and did not know they worked. After a little digging and placing the sand shoes under the sunken wheels, the jeep roared out. Every body was impressed and asked where these sand shoes come from.
Anyhow, I had a couple of stucks on flat spots or climbing long ascents, and had to resort to the difflock, low ratio and the 4.8's torque to get out, infact I managed to self-recover the whole trip, and the only other car that had no assisted recovery was the little Jeep TJ.
Then at 16:00pm, 1 hour before the sunsets, we found a good flat campsite, with only 11kms left to complete the route. First thing in setting up camp, have a cold beer, which everyone else also had the same idea. After a beer, a chat we proceeded to unload and setup the camp in the cool sunset hour. Then we had another beer, and at early evening we started out dinner, I am using a butane stove, as it Is small to carry and the fuel is also cheaper than coal. We had a nice steak and condiments. Then a few glasses of wine later, we started cooking the German sausages, yes my passenger is German, and was also the cook and buyer of the food/drinks.
The night was pleasant with snoring from the Spaniards, then the swiss and a grand finale from the German.
The next day, we left the camp leisurely as we only had 1 hour to the track at the Arada farms.
The patrol was great, the combination of the difflock, low ration and 4.8 torque is really something I have not witnessed. The koni shocks absorb the bumps here and there nicely without comprise to the ride comfort on road. The roofrack is great and loving that I can pack more in the car with out blocking my rear view. The only thing that failed was the USB stick for my radio, and that is due to it being now 3 years old and being left in the car when summer temperatures reach 40's.
I leave you with some of the pics and a route of the trip from Googleearth and Garmin.
have you got a tpms on your car? 