Heat Treatment
-
Phoenix
- Moderator
- Posts: 384
- Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:59 pm
- Has thanked: 59 times
- Been thanked: 9 times
- Contact:
The best things in life are free but in today’s world where everything has a price tag and pretty much nothing is what it seems to be, while there is always a catch behind everything. There are some things in life that are still truly the best and for free. Like a warm hug, the voice of children laughing and giggling, the amazing aromas from the kitchen that slap a giant smile on your face when you return home after a day hard at work.
You never know what life will hit you with but what you should know is that whatever it is, the choice is always yours. Take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it or repulse it, hate it and become weaker with it.
Some context to refer to here before I go any further, OUTLAW is a battered old guy. He is a 2002 model 16 years old american spec Pathfinder and a very well-tested and proven, time after time to be a brilliant off-roader. But sadly the lady I got it from never drove it, her teenage son drove the crap out of it without ever properly maintaining it and getting involved into accidents and then getting it fixed at the cheapest costing garages until it became un-drivable and then left it for another car. Poor Outlaw stood in the same spot day after day for more than 5 months until I picked him up. When I first met him the engine hadn’t been cranked for months since it was parked, the battery was flat out. After unlocking the door manually with the key the door didn’t open and I thought that something is wrong with the lock so I tried the passenger door but that didn’t open as well. Then I gave it a stronger pull and the door opened giving that smacking and stretching rubber sound and I realized that the weather and sound insulating rubber seals on the doors had stuck together since the doors weren’t opened in months. The tires were all flat with cracks in them and the windscreen cracked as if someone hit it with a rock. The suspension makes the car twist towards left every time I accelerate and then straightens the car back as I take my foot off the pedal. The brakes work though so I can stop before hitting anything or worse, anyone.
Thinking that I got the wrong end of the deal I grudgingly started taking mental notes of what needs to be done to make outlaw better again. It turns out to be a long list and I start to have second thoughts about keeping outlaw in our family, so I install a new battery, say my prayers, close my eyes and crank the engine. Outlaw roars into life with the sound of a flawlessly smooth V6 engine purring like a cat making me smile at first and then clap and shout “HELL YEAH !!”. Good engine, good start followed by a new windscreen, new tires and an engine oil flushing. The skid plate and flag pole was installed on Thursday and Outlaw was driving on the sand with everyone on Friday.
Outlaw was in trouble before the drive started when it shot down McCloud in the morning and I was hoping not to get into alshamsi convoy for my own safety. I thought I was before time when I reached the meeting point by 2:45 PM but just as I drove over the hill I saw about 20 cars parked at the meeting point. We went through the drill of convoy divisions and safety briefings before we started the drive with our convoy leaving first which was lead by Daggerfall . We start with some good old flat tops with the sun blazing hot and all cars driving with their windows up and air con blaring on full blast. I was the second last car in our convoy with Kaylee and optimus in front of me and AJ on my six. The beginning part of the track was a bit fast paced and I was scared to push outlaw given his past. I was so nervous that I switched off the air con and drove frightened and alert, trying to hear any kind of noise or complain Outlaw would make but to my surprise. After driving fast paced for a good five minutes and crossing a few dunes there was not a single sound or complaints other than the stuff bouncing in the trunk. We were told that there would be some technical areas but we did not anticipate any side walls – three to be exact. Kaylee drives on the wall flawlessly followed by Optimus cruising along the wall showing no signs of stopping and then comes my turn, I wait a bit longer than others to increase some distance between Optimus and me. While I recall shamsi’s words about driving a side wall “just keep a steady pace and don’t slow down”, I start with good and steady speed and just after a few seconds the wall becomes bumpy. I ease off just a tiny little bit on the pedal and right away the rear end starts to slip downwards a bit, instead of fighting gravity I floor it and ride the rest of it trouble free. After that the rest of the walls became more and more familiar to drive onto.
Then came the technical areas which have been my nemesis – by the way The Tank still hates them. Every time I would hear technical areas I would shudder with fear of hurting the tank as I had to hit the technical dunes a bit harder and faster than others due to the sheer weight and length adding to the non performing 5 years old road tires. But credit where credit is due, the tank’s suspension never complained. Now with Outlaw going over the technical areas it was so much fun and easier to concentrate on learning to drive in these areas rather than redlining the rpm and praying that you make it through in one piece.
We drove through some more fast paced areas and that’s where we crossed Booy's convoy, they waited for us to go ahead and as I drove by booy’s car I yelled in the radio with my Gandalf voice “THEY SHALL NOT PAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!”
We reached a big climb with small bushes sprouting all over it in some spots. It was quite a steep 4 or 5 stories high climb with a steeper angle on the last few meters at its tip. The moment I saw it I recalled the infamous flight of the tank (please note that I had to push it due to the weight and the fact that the tank is always the last car in the convoy driving on chewed up ground with ROAD TIRES). Staring at the climb and replaying the whole flight scene again and again, I completely forgot to break. It is just amazing how our mind and body works in perfect synchronization, as I was staring at the climb and dreading it. I caught a glimpse of the brake lights of kaylee’s patrol in the corner of my eyes, in perfect symphony I snapped out of the flashbacks while pulling the steering wheel to the left and jamming the brakes all at the same time. I think I missed kaylee’s patrol by centimeters because I clearly remember not being able to see her rear bumper while turning away, that’s how close it was. Luckily she didn’t notice anything and AJ was busy lighting up his cigarette behind me.
I saw others go up with a couple of them taking second tries and then came my turn, by now I had studied almost the whole convoy going up the climb so I knew what to do but I just didn’t know how Outlaw would behave. First gear slots in, pedal hits the floor, tires start spinning while kicking up sand and finding the grip, Outlaw pounces towards the climb. Climbing and gaining speed while I have my eyes fixed at the tip of the climb and right then I see a small bush just a little taller than expected, it disappears below the car before I could react and I hear the nerve racking “THUD” and feel the jolt in my legs. Thank God I got the skid plate installed yesterday. With the top approaching I ease off the pedal and Outlaw composes himself and climbs gracefully while reaching the top in a smooth manner with just enough power to let the front tires softly go over the top to the other side and slide his belly over without any effort and drive down the other side.
After a few more minutes the drive ended and everyone lined up after the other to enjoy some sunset time and shamsi’s coffee while me and outlaw sneaked behind the parked cars, switched to 2 wheel and did a few victory donuts!!!... Little did I know…
As the sun settled behind the dunes tabubaker in white FJ, MoxX and me decide to follow Raja to the main road, It gets completely dark and in a few minutes we end up in a very technical area with soft sand. At first RAJA gets stuck and does a self recovery, then Abubaker gets stuck and when raja tries to find his way to him he gets stuck again, since I have never driven at night so I don’t take an chances and I switch cars with Raja. We pull his car out then I switch cars with Raja again so he can drive his car to Abubaker and recover him. Now when we are ready to move Raja guides me to a spot so the convoy can move since each of our cars are pointing towards the other like a circle and in such a tight spot while trying to get out of the circle Outlaw decides to get stuck. I look up at the crest of the dune and I see Zico and BOOY standing up there looking at me and i’m like “really !??! out of all the chances you had all day today!!! now you decide to get stuck?!?! In front of those guys !?!?”. then Raja pulls me out and we start driving again with Booy leading the convoy and zico sweaping. We did not realize how technical and difficult that area was until BOOY radioed in and confirmed that this area is no joke so do exactly as I do. Not only did the dunes have sharp edges but they were very close to each other with sharp V’s , bowls and whatever small so called “flat” area that was there in between, was very soft sand. So we had to do controlled jumps over pretty much every dune. At one point even Booy and Zico started asking each other questions like “should we turn around”, ”should we find another way”. Right then we drove up an innocent looking climb, which ended in a sudden drop of not more than 2 meters and immediately started back up on sharp steep angle making a very sharp and deep “V”. Booy and moxx crossed it turning right as soon as they went down into the “V” with lightning fast reflexes, while Abubaker slowed down and then made it out of the ditch but that forced me into such a bad angle that when I dropped into the ditch Outlaw was standing on two tires (front left and rear right). It kind of felt weirdly funny because the angle was so perfectly aligned and well balanced, that when raja stood next to me, he could tilt the car sideways with his bare hands. Then raja tried to pull me back up but it did not work so zico asked raja to drive across the ditch and pull me from the front. As raja tried to do that, because of the soft sand he ended up in the exact same situation right next to me with his car less than a feet away from mine, leaning towards me on a slight angle and on top of that his front left tire popped out.
The choice is always yours. Take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it. We both got out of our cars and looked at each other in the ditch then turned our heads towards Zico who was standing on top of the ditch and Zico goes “Ramadan kareem boys!!” with a big smile on his face. Zico pulled me out first and then pulled raja out, he then drove ahead to find an alternative path but the whole area was very tight and by now Booy, Abubaker and Moxx were already out of the mess.
I stayed behind and helped raja with the pop out but since there was nothing even close to a flat level ground we had to dig below the tires to make the car sit flat and repaired the pop out. Since the ground was not flat so the tire kept catching on to the sand making it impossible to jiggle about and it was not filling up since we couldn’t move the tire enough. So there we were in the middle of the pitch black darkness in the middle of the desert with just one valve pin and a cellphone torch light in Ann’s hand, she was holding that Valve pin with her dear life. Me and Raja kept our feet flat on the wheel rim as leverage pushing it inwards and holding the tire with our hands and pulling it outwards (no limbs were below the tire or the car at any point). Pushing the wheel in and pulling the tire out as hard as we can until we heard the sweet pop.
After the pop out repair I run back to Outlaw and start it up thinking to myself why would I even switch it off in the first place? It’s not like anyone would steel it out here, specially where we are stuck. I learned something new about Outlaw in the next few seconds, he is a bit moody because its exactly at this moment he decides that he doesn’t wants to go anywhere. So he just sits there with nothing, no spark, no crank, no starter motor, no battery, nothing. I try to start him up again and again and again while blabbering like a baby who just learned to say one word and keeps repeating the same word again and again, while turning his volume up and up and up. Until he is yelling and by this time the baby is already in fumes and is all red and crying and suddenly the adults pick up the baby comfort the baby and everything is fine again – I did not cry and yes the word started with an “f” – Outlaw did start up again and drove without any mood swings.
I drive ahead of raja and reach a balcony in the shape of a bowl, it was more like a bowl on the top of a dune, with Booy on the radio guiding me how to tackle the situation. So I try to drive up the balcony as much as possible and then reverse back down in pitch black darkness back into the bowl with no extra lights other than the two reverse lights on Outlaw and booy telling me when to stop. Outlaw is on the tip of the bowl now, which is on top of a 2 or 3 story high dune with his nose pointing down into the bowl in pitch black darkness and the useless small headlamps lighting up nothing but the base of the bowl, waiting for booy to say when to go. I switch into 1st gear with 4L and floor it and all I see is a wall of sand in front of me as Outlaw first guns downwards into the bowl. I have to tilt my head upwards in order to look up to spot where the bowl ends so I can perform one last controlled jump panicking not to screw this one up as its all downhill from there. Finally outlaw makes it out of that spot and before we could even take a breath of relief booy radios in “don’t slow down!! Floor it through the tracks”.
Have you ever seen a bunch of bulldozers trying to make a track in the middle of nowhere ?? they will often drive side by side while moving the sand with their gigantic buckets and dumping it on either sides of the track. They do this in groups of 4 or 5 and make a straight line of 4 or 5 tracks with soft sand dumped on each side of the tracks. As if Outlaw had not gone through enough in this drive already, he had to now plough through exactly across all the soft sand dumps as high as the bonnet, as high as those steel bumpers you see on Booy, Shamsi and Moxx’s FJ in one full throttle go!!. Outlaw made it to the other side without any complaints.
We reach the road get out of our cars and just stare at each other and then burst out into laughter. The choice is always yours, take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it. Moxx’s number plate is bashed in and his battery alternator is not working anymore. My number plate has disappeared in the grill with my ABS fulltime on and braking with that shuddering feeling. I am scared to switch off the car because… well… you know… it scared the crap out of me when it suddenly decided not to start in the middle of nowhere. Raja’s number plate is in the trunk while Raja pushes the front bumper back into the its original position with a loud crackling noise. Kaylee and others who were waiting for us gathered around and gave us that amazed and blank look and went “what happened guys?? What did we miss??” to which I replied “a drive we will remember for life”.
I start filling the tires up and realize that I forgot my cigarettes and lighter at the drive’s end point when we had coffee and gazed upon the sunset while talking about the fake currency used in China (read the last 5 words and see the irony in that), so I just manage to get one cigarette from zico before every one leaves. I get the tires filled back up again, enjoy one last smoke and start packing only to realize that the flag is still up and I don’t have any tools to take it off. So I start driving with the flag still up on 80kmph and set Outlaw on cruise while looking for police cars and avoid them if any comes by. There is not a single Petrol pump from the point I started to drive back to dubai until I reached Dubai Silicon Oasis, which by the way has no workshop in it, just a cafeteria with no tools at hand. Then I continue to drive back home and reach E311 while driving on 80kmph but twisting and turning my head in every direction to avoid any police cars, finally I reach another petrol pump. Did you know that all the workshops in the petrol pumps close down by 11 PM? It was 11:30 and I had almost given up but then I saw a container truck, these guys travel cross country and they have proper tools for emergencies. Finally the flag was off and I was on my way back home.
The thought that came to my mind after having a nice hot shower and filling myself with a plate of hot mandi is that the best things in life are free but in today’s world where everything has a price tag and pretty much nothing is what it seems to be, while there is always a catch behind everything. There are somethings in life that are still truly the best and for free. Like a warm hug, the voice of children laughing and giggling, the amazing aromas from the kitchen that slap a giant smile on your face when you return home after a day hard at work. Like pulling out your phone as soon as some gets stuck but radioing others not to take any footage when its you who is stuck. Like enjoying shamsi's famous coffee while gazing at the sunset. Like the amazing and lovely members of ALMOST 4x4 that we call family.
Until next time, see you all in the sand.
You never know what life will hit you with but what you should know is that whatever it is, the choice is always yours. Take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it or repulse it, hate it and become weaker with it.
Some context to refer to here before I go any further, OUTLAW is a battered old guy. He is a 2002 model 16 years old american spec Pathfinder and a very well-tested and proven, time after time to be a brilliant off-roader. But sadly the lady I got it from never drove it, her teenage son drove the crap out of it without ever properly maintaining it and getting involved into accidents and then getting it fixed at the cheapest costing garages until it became un-drivable and then left it for another car. Poor Outlaw stood in the same spot day after day for more than 5 months until I picked him up. When I first met him the engine hadn’t been cranked for months since it was parked, the battery was flat out. After unlocking the door manually with the key the door didn’t open and I thought that something is wrong with the lock so I tried the passenger door but that didn’t open as well. Then I gave it a stronger pull and the door opened giving that smacking and stretching rubber sound and I realized that the weather and sound insulating rubber seals on the doors had stuck together since the doors weren’t opened in months. The tires were all flat with cracks in them and the windscreen cracked as if someone hit it with a rock. The suspension makes the car twist towards left every time I accelerate and then straightens the car back as I take my foot off the pedal. The brakes work though so I can stop before hitting anything or worse, anyone.
Thinking that I got the wrong end of the deal I grudgingly started taking mental notes of what needs to be done to make outlaw better again. It turns out to be a long list and I start to have second thoughts about keeping outlaw in our family, so I install a new battery, say my prayers, close my eyes and crank the engine. Outlaw roars into life with the sound of a flawlessly smooth V6 engine purring like a cat making me smile at first and then clap and shout “HELL YEAH !!”. Good engine, good start followed by a new windscreen, new tires and an engine oil flushing. The skid plate and flag pole was installed on Thursday and Outlaw was driving on the sand with everyone on Friday.
Outlaw was in trouble before the drive started when it shot down McCloud in the morning and I was hoping not to get into alshamsi convoy for my own safety. I thought I was before time when I reached the meeting point by 2:45 PM but just as I drove over the hill I saw about 20 cars parked at the meeting point. We went through the drill of convoy divisions and safety briefings before we started the drive with our convoy leaving first which was lead by Daggerfall . We start with some good old flat tops with the sun blazing hot and all cars driving with their windows up and air con blaring on full blast. I was the second last car in our convoy with Kaylee and optimus in front of me and AJ on my six. The beginning part of the track was a bit fast paced and I was scared to push outlaw given his past. I was so nervous that I switched off the air con and drove frightened and alert, trying to hear any kind of noise or complain Outlaw would make but to my surprise. After driving fast paced for a good five minutes and crossing a few dunes there was not a single sound or complaints other than the stuff bouncing in the trunk. We were told that there would be some technical areas but we did not anticipate any side walls – three to be exact. Kaylee drives on the wall flawlessly followed by Optimus cruising along the wall showing no signs of stopping and then comes my turn, I wait a bit longer than others to increase some distance between Optimus and me. While I recall shamsi’s words about driving a side wall “just keep a steady pace and don’t slow down”, I start with good and steady speed and just after a few seconds the wall becomes bumpy. I ease off just a tiny little bit on the pedal and right away the rear end starts to slip downwards a bit, instead of fighting gravity I floor it and ride the rest of it trouble free. After that the rest of the walls became more and more familiar to drive onto.
Then came the technical areas which have been my nemesis – by the way The Tank still hates them. Every time I would hear technical areas I would shudder with fear of hurting the tank as I had to hit the technical dunes a bit harder and faster than others due to the sheer weight and length adding to the non performing 5 years old road tires. But credit where credit is due, the tank’s suspension never complained. Now with Outlaw going over the technical areas it was so much fun and easier to concentrate on learning to drive in these areas rather than redlining the rpm and praying that you make it through in one piece.
We drove through some more fast paced areas and that’s where we crossed Booy's convoy, they waited for us to go ahead and as I drove by booy’s car I yelled in the radio with my Gandalf voice “THEY SHALL NOT PAAAAAAASSSSSSS!!!”
We reached a big climb with small bushes sprouting all over it in some spots. It was quite a steep 4 or 5 stories high climb with a steeper angle on the last few meters at its tip. The moment I saw it I recalled the infamous flight of the tank (please note that I had to push it due to the weight and the fact that the tank is always the last car in the convoy driving on chewed up ground with ROAD TIRES). Staring at the climb and replaying the whole flight scene again and again, I completely forgot to break. It is just amazing how our mind and body works in perfect synchronization, as I was staring at the climb and dreading it. I caught a glimpse of the brake lights of kaylee’s patrol in the corner of my eyes, in perfect symphony I snapped out of the flashbacks while pulling the steering wheel to the left and jamming the brakes all at the same time. I think I missed kaylee’s patrol by centimeters because I clearly remember not being able to see her rear bumper while turning away, that’s how close it was. Luckily she didn’t notice anything and AJ was busy lighting up his cigarette behind me.
I saw others go up with a couple of them taking second tries and then came my turn, by now I had studied almost the whole convoy going up the climb so I knew what to do but I just didn’t know how Outlaw would behave. First gear slots in, pedal hits the floor, tires start spinning while kicking up sand and finding the grip, Outlaw pounces towards the climb. Climbing and gaining speed while I have my eyes fixed at the tip of the climb and right then I see a small bush just a little taller than expected, it disappears below the car before I could react and I hear the nerve racking “THUD” and feel the jolt in my legs. Thank God I got the skid plate installed yesterday. With the top approaching I ease off the pedal and Outlaw composes himself and climbs gracefully while reaching the top in a smooth manner with just enough power to let the front tires softly go over the top to the other side and slide his belly over without any effort and drive down the other side.
After a few more minutes the drive ended and everyone lined up after the other to enjoy some sunset time and shamsi’s coffee while me and outlaw sneaked behind the parked cars, switched to 2 wheel and did a few victory donuts!!!... Little did I know…
As the sun settled behind the dunes tabubaker in white FJ, MoxX and me decide to follow Raja to the main road, It gets completely dark and in a few minutes we end up in a very technical area with soft sand. At first RAJA gets stuck and does a self recovery, then Abubaker gets stuck and when raja tries to find his way to him he gets stuck again, since I have never driven at night so I don’t take an chances and I switch cars with Raja. We pull his car out then I switch cars with Raja again so he can drive his car to Abubaker and recover him. Now when we are ready to move Raja guides me to a spot so the convoy can move since each of our cars are pointing towards the other like a circle and in such a tight spot while trying to get out of the circle Outlaw decides to get stuck. I look up at the crest of the dune and I see Zico and BOOY standing up there looking at me and i’m like “really !??! out of all the chances you had all day today!!! now you decide to get stuck?!?! In front of those guys !?!?”. then Raja pulls me out and we start driving again with Booy leading the convoy and zico sweaping. We did not realize how technical and difficult that area was until BOOY radioed in and confirmed that this area is no joke so do exactly as I do. Not only did the dunes have sharp edges but they were very close to each other with sharp V’s , bowls and whatever small so called “flat” area that was there in between, was very soft sand. So we had to do controlled jumps over pretty much every dune. At one point even Booy and Zico started asking each other questions like “should we turn around”, ”should we find another way”. Right then we drove up an innocent looking climb, which ended in a sudden drop of not more than 2 meters and immediately started back up on sharp steep angle making a very sharp and deep “V”. Booy and moxx crossed it turning right as soon as they went down into the “V” with lightning fast reflexes, while Abubaker slowed down and then made it out of the ditch but that forced me into such a bad angle that when I dropped into the ditch Outlaw was standing on two tires (front left and rear right). It kind of felt weirdly funny because the angle was so perfectly aligned and well balanced, that when raja stood next to me, he could tilt the car sideways with his bare hands. Then raja tried to pull me back up but it did not work so zico asked raja to drive across the ditch and pull me from the front. As raja tried to do that, because of the soft sand he ended up in the exact same situation right next to me with his car less than a feet away from mine, leaning towards me on a slight angle and on top of that his front left tire popped out.
The choice is always yours. Take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it. We both got out of our cars and looked at each other in the ditch then turned our heads towards Zico who was standing on top of the ditch and Zico goes “Ramadan kareem boys!!” with a big smile on his face. Zico pulled me out first and then pulled raja out, he then drove ahead to find an alternative path but the whole area was very tight and by now Booy, Abubaker and Moxx were already out of the mess.
I stayed behind and helped raja with the pop out but since there was nothing even close to a flat level ground we had to dig below the tires to make the car sit flat and repaired the pop out. Since the ground was not flat so the tire kept catching on to the sand making it impossible to jiggle about and it was not filling up since we couldn’t move the tire enough. So there we were in the middle of the pitch black darkness in the middle of the desert with just one valve pin and a cellphone torch light in Ann’s hand, she was holding that Valve pin with her dear life. Me and Raja kept our feet flat on the wheel rim as leverage pushing it inwards and holding the tire with our hands and pulling it outwards (no limbs were below the tire or the car at any point). Pushing the wheel in and pulling the tire out as hard as we can until we heard the sweet pop.
After the pop out repair I run back to Outlaw and start it up thinking to myself why would I even switch it off in the first place? It’s not like anyone would steel it out here, specially where we are stuck. I learned something new about Outlaw in the next few seconds, he is a bit moody because its exactly at this moment he decides that he doesn’t wants to go anywhere. So he just sits there with nothing, no spark, no crank, no starter motor, no battery, nothing. I try to start him up again and again and again while blabbering like a baby who just learned to say one word and keeps repeating the same word again and again, while turning his volume up and up and up. Until he is yelling and by this time the baby is already in fumes and is all red and crying and suddenly the adults pick up the baby comfort the baby and everything is fine again – I did not cry and yes the word started with an “f” – Outlaw did start up again and drove without any mood swings.
I drive ahead of raja and reach a balcony in the shape of a bowl, it was more like a bowl on the top of a dune, with Booy on the radio guiding me how to tackle the situation. So I try to drive up the balcony as much as possible and then reverse back down in pitch black darkness back into the bowl with no extra lights other than the two reverse lights on Outlaw and booy telling me when to stop. Outlaw is on the tip of the bowl now, which is on top of a 2 or 3 story high dune with his nose pointing down into the bowl in pitch black darkness and the useless small headlamps lighting up nothing but the base of the bowl, waiting for booy to say when to go. I switch into 1st gear with 4L and floor it and all I see is a wall of sand in front of me as Outlaw first guns downwards into the bowl. I have to tilt my head upwards in order to look up to spot where the bowl ends so I can perform one last controlled jump panicking not to screw this one up as its all downhill from there. Finally outlaw makes it out of that spot and before we could even take a breath of relief booy radios in “don’t slow down!! Floor it through the tracks”.
Have you ever seen a bunch of bulldozers trying to make a track in the middle of nowhere ?? they will often drive side by side while moving the sand with their gigantic buckets and dumping it on either sides of the track. They do this in groups of 4 or 5 and make a straight line of 4 or 5 tracks with soft sand dumped on each side of the tracks. As if Outlaw had not gone through enough in this drive already, he had to now plough through exactly across all the soft sand dumps as high as the bonnet, as high as those steel bumpers you see on Booy, Shamsi and Moxx’s FJ in one full throttle go!!. Outlaw made it to the other side without any complaints.
We reach the road get out of our cars and just stare at each other and then burst out into laughter. The choice is always yours, take it, enjoy it and grow stronger with it. Moxx’s number plate is bashed in and his battery alternator is not working anymore. My number plate has disappeared in the grill with my ABS fulltime on and braking with that shuddering feeling. I am scared to switch off the car because… well… you know… it scared the crap out of me when it suddenly decided not to start in the middle of nowhere. Raja’s number plate is in the trunk while Raja pushes the front bumper back into the its original position with a loud crackling noise. Kaylee and others who were waiting for us gathered around and gave us that amazed and blank look and went “what happened guys?? What did we miss??” to which I replied “a drive we will remember for life”.
I start filling the tires up and realize that I forgot my cigarettes and lighter at the drive’s end point when we had coffee and gazed upon the sunset while talking about the fake currency used in China (read the last 5 words and see the irony in that), so I just manage to get one cigarette from zico before every one leaves. I get the tires filled back up again, enjoy one last smoke and start packing only to realize that the flag is still up and I don’t have any tools to take it off. So I start driving with the flag still up on 80kmph and set Outlaw on cruise while looking for police cars and avoid them if any comes by. There is not a single Petrol pump from the point I started to drive back to dubai until I reached Dubai Silicon Oasis, which by the way has no workshop in it, just a cafeteria with no tools at hand. Then I continue to drive back home and reach E311 while driving on 80kmph but twisting and turning my head in every direction to avoid any police cars, finally I reach another petrol pump. Did you know that all the workshops in the petrol pumps close down by 11 PM? It was 11:30 and I had almost given up but then I saw a container truck, these guys travel cross country and they have proper tools for emergencies. Finally the flag was off and I was on my way back home.
The thought that came to my mind after having a nice hot shower and filling myself with a plate of hot mandi is that the best things in life are free but in today’s world where everything has a price tag and pretty much nothing is what it seems to be, while there is always a catch behind everything. There are somethings in life that are still truly the best and for free. Like a warm hug, the voice of children laughing and giggling, the amazing aromas from the kitchen that slap a giant smile on your face when you return home after a day hard at work. Like pulling out your phone as soon as some gets stuck but radioing others not to take any footage when its you who is stuck. Like enjoying shamsi's famous coffee while gazing at the sunset. Like the amazing and lovely members of ALMOST 4x4 that we call family.
Until next time, see you all in the sand.
Adventurous League of Mountains, Oceans and Sand Thrills
