The Ghost ride

[alshamsi_m]

Hello everyone


Liwa is a place where you expect everything to happen in the same time and without prior notification. Sand storm, hot , sand storm, rain , beautiful morning. This how is spent my night :X3:.

Next day was much better with a lot of surprises a long 190 kms we did from the UAE border to Madinat Zayed.

Thanks everyone for making another successful trip with Almost4x4.

See you in the sand

[orlantsev]

Hi all, it is one of those days when you come to work to rest. After more than 12 hours of driving and reaching home at 11 pm it was not easy to get myself out of bed this morning. According to the poll result many people preferred Fri / Sat schedule to Thursday / Friday, which was approved into the final plan, and it gave me more time to buy supplies, prepare etc. I left home around 1.30 pm. After I have checked the route to the camp location and confirmed it to be easy I decided not to rush to the meeting time, but instead enjoy the slower drive with a stop Madinat Zayed. At Mazeira Red Baron overtook me, and when I finally made it to the meeting point I met him and Zaher who has been impatiently waiting there for more than one hour. We deflated and got to the camp location without a problem. It was so tempting to hit the dunes in the remaining hour of daylight, but instead I prepared the bed and organized my car to save time for the campfire. Bu Salem arrived shortly with Arabasque as a passenger. The rest took much longer to arrive and I only could see the whole group next morning. It was not a long evening by the campfire. When the wind got stronger it was a bed time call at around 10:30. The night conditions varied greatly – first it was strong wind which made it more pleasant to sleep, followed by a period of calm when it really became hot, and finally there were even few drops of rain which again cooled air a bit. It was usual morning breakfast and on time departure at 8.30. I do not have to say who led the convoy, RashidJass was in the sweep, me in the second lead and rest of the intermediates mostly in the back for the convoy for more opportunities to play. Liwa is full of surprises. Even you do not push hard, there is still a big chance you will hit a ditch which may come out of nowhere. I could really see the difference from intermediate drives with almost no side cresting. Several times Bu Salem instructed the rest of the convoy not to proceed as potentially dangerous. Unfortunately wind picked up when we broke for lunch, so it was a solitary meal inside the car. Since there were no mechanical or other problems at that point nobody chose to make an earlier exit. Booy’s mechanical problem denied him a drive all together, so he was a consultant in Kimoz’s car. Wind remained strong for the next two hours and there was even moderate rain which is a tradition in this year’s Liwa drives. Unable to do more of a side cresting Bu Salem drove straight into the dunes and on couple of occasions all four wheel were in the air. As much exciting as it seemed, at times I tried to approach in a slightly different angle to make it less hard for the car. We did some big drops which you can only do in Liwa. At approximately 5:20 we reached the farm and shortly after the power-lines. There was meant to be a dirt road along the power – lines, but it was partly covered by piles of sand which meant we could not strictly follow it to the road. Even I brought a 20 lts jerry can my fuel indicator went on when we were approximately 10 km from the road. I was slightly surprised as on my previous full day Liwa drives full tank with a jerry can was more than sufficient. Those with jerry cans have emptied them already. I knew that worst case I would still get to the road anyway, but was not sure I would have enough petrol to the next station. This part of off-road reminded me of scuba-diving when you’re still within decompression limits, but you’re low on air and you breath sparingly to maximize your time under water. This is how I drove those last miles. To make things worse we had to drive appr. 15 km to make a U-turn – so all in all it was 40 km on road to the city. Bu Salem kindly drove slower with me in case I run out of petrol. In the end I filled up 68 litres, meaning that upon reaching the petrol station I still had about 4 litres left. So the learning for me is that extra fuel supply will never hurt. For others FJ owners with single tank – now you know how far realistically you can go after the dashboard light goes on. Sadly it was the last Liwa drive this season. Or is it not?

[hamzahng]

Liwa by far is the best desert terrain I have ever seen. it is always virgin and nice and clean, with lots of big drops and nice dunes to challenge here and there. I was so excited to go to Liwa when [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] posted the trip, I even made a checklist for both the Car and I, just to make sure that everything will be running okay.

the road trip to liwa was really nice and quiet. there were radars, but I was cruising down the road with no reason to hurry to reach the guys. I reached the camp site at almost 11 PM, and I found everyone sleeping in there tents. so I decided to sleep as well to be able to perform well the next morning.

it wasn't until [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] decided to park his Car at 1AM inside my tent and wake me up just to chat for 30 minutes or so.:omg: I woke up, chatted for some time then went back to bed.

Next morning, I tried to engage the 4H Gear in my car, to start the trip, but then I could only hear a super loud Grinding noise coming from the front tires. I was sure that it was something from the 4H Gear because when I dis-engage it the car goes back fine. So I decided to stay safe and hit the road back home.

I hope the guys had fun in liwa. and see you all in the sand soon.

[Booy]

Hi everyone,

My "Ghost Ride", Liwa trip time line can be summarised in a few words. It started with great excitement and anticipation, with a sudden drop to tremendous disappointment and sadness, and ended with an overwhelming sense of gratitude to the amazing people of this Almost4x4 family.

Let me tell you my story, without going into too much detail:

The trip for me already started when I added my name to the list of participants when the drive opened on the forum. With great excitement I started making preparations, installed the required jerry cans, filled them up and drove with them for a few days to make sure they don't move, rattle or leak! All good and ready to go. The car is in good shape, meticulously serviced and fully inspected every 8000km.

I met up with [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] at an Adnoc petrol station on Friday afternoon, ready to move together to the camp site. As we left, the battery light on my dashboard came on. I checked the belt and everything was fine, confirming my suspicion that the alternator has suddenly stopped working. We drove together to Madinat Zayed, and found an auto electrician to check it out. They confirmed that the alternator was not giving any charge to the battery. After spending many hours in Madinat Zayed, trying to resolve the matter, there were no parts available - not even used. After trying several options to fix it, we had to give up and leave my car in Madinat. [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] refused to leave me there with my car, the entire afternoon and evening, and said we will leave together, and he won't leave until we have a solution. A BIG thank you to [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] for all your help, support and encouragement. I joined [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] , and we went to the camp, where he generously made his 7 star FJ accommodation available to me, while he joined [MENTION=8658]hamzahng[/MENTION] in his tent.

The drive on Saturday was really amazing. As I was a passenger with [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION], I could appreciate the scenery, listen to the signing dunes and enjoy good company. Thank you to everyone on the drive who shared in my disappointment for not being able to drive myself. Every single member on the drive had some encouraging words to offer me, or stories of their own to tell when things did not go as planned for them. Although I did not drive, I really enjoyed spending time with each and every one, and thoroughly enjoyed good company, good chatter, and a good day out in the cars we love, in the terrain we love.

A HUGE thank you to [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] and [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] who made sure I got my car back safely to Dubai. The two of you are really amazing! Thanks [MENTION=1531]Abu Jimmy[/MENTION] , who phoned me on Friday evening, with suggestions on how to get my car back to Dubai on Saturday - we used your "battery swop over technique"

All in all, it was a great weekend - one that started off on a low note, and ended on a high note.

See you all again soon

[Rashidjass]

My trip report :devilish::playingsmiley:

https://www.facebook.com/rashid.soomar/ ... loaded=128

Enjoy :045:

[Daggerfall]

Great Photos :)

[quote=Rashidjass;46916]My trip report :devilish::playingsmiley:

https://www.facebook.com/rashid.soomar/ ... loaded=128

Enjoy :045:[/quote]

[Mark B]

The Ghost Ride

Glenda and Irolled out of Dubai at 3:00 AM in the morning heading for the Aradacamp. We pulled into camp at about 7:30 AM in time to sharebreakfast with the group. After the briefing, we headed west and@hamzahng headed north with a busted prop shaft. [MENTION=10413]Booy[/MENTION] climbed inwith [MENTION=8771]KIMOz[/MENTION] as Liwa had extracted her payment. Liwa is not free. This time the price was one alternator and one prop shaft.


The drive provided the group with manychallenges. The sand, relatively soft in most areas was down rightfluffy in others. All of a sudden you can be driving on firm groundand without warning, the sand will change and try to pull you intothe dune.


As always there were second rounds andthe viking rope had to come out a few times, but [MENTION=10036]Red Baron[/MENTION] had aninteresting cresting on a huge dune. He was 80% over so no chance ofpulling him from the back. The dune was too big to risk driving up topull him from the front, so working together, we dug him out withshovels.


Lunch was interesting. As we wererefueling the wind came up and we had to hunker down in the cars. The afternoon drive, faster than the morning drive, presenteddifferent challenges. The scenery was amazing as daylight gave intodusk and finally night as we pulled onto the tarmac and inflated.


Thanks [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] for organizing andleading us. Thanks [MENTION=1657]Rashidjass[/MENTION] for watching over us. Thanksintermediates for providing entertainment at the back of the pack andthanks Newbies for hanging in there and working towards the nextlevel.


Liwa is always worth the effort. Itsthe combination of clean unbroken (amazing) dunes and friends.


Mark

[caprihorse]

[quote=Mark B;46919]The Ghost Ride

... but @Red Baron had an interesting cresting on a huge dune. He was 80% over so no chance ofpulling him from the back. The dune was too big to risk driving up topull him from the front, so working together, we dug him out with shovels.
... [/quote]
Any picture available? :playingsmiley:

[alshamsi_m]

[quote=caprihorse;46920]Any picture available? :playingsmiley:[/quote]



The guy is a newbie so his popouts are not counted..... Wait until he become an intermediate .

[Daggerfall]

After a long drive to Liwa we joined the camp around 02:30 after the midnight.Everybody was sleeping so we went to sleep since it was going to be a long day tomorrow.

It was a very hot night I have to say. It seems like camping in desert will be harder from now on.

We had a nice breakfast all together, did some chit chat and enjoyed the serenity of desert in the morning.

The drive was long and I just noticed that it has been a while since I didn't do much straight cresting :) over sharp dunes. Then I remembered this was a newbie drive.And it was good to work some old muscles. Everybody was doing great in general so after a while we intermediates went back of the convoy and had chance to play in couple of big dunes :) but to most of them we had to say " Next time " :)

All in all it was great to see old and new members of Almost family again and mighty Liwa. Had great time.

Thanks to Marshalls and all participated to this trip.

Hope to see you all soon.

Best Regards