Liwa Marathon - Walk in The Park

[alshamsi_m]

Hello Everyone

The third day has come and we had two long days past so we took our sweet time to have a good breakfast and left the site at 9 AM.

The drive as a title was a walk in the park but the members were not expecting what kind of a walk it would be . No matter how much the leading driver or the preparation you made, Liwa will still have surprises hidden here and there.

Out of the convoy, 90% were either lady drivers or lady passengers so I was thinking where is @Solmaz when we need her ? Nevertheless, this convoy showed a strong well and finished 105 km in pure sand so well done everyone

The drive finished at 4 pm and I had to finish it early because we still had a long drive back home and 3 consecutive nights camping and driving in LIWA.

Before I close my report I would like to thank @KIMOz for lending me his car and @Aljamhi for making sure that no one left behind

Another great event and thanks for all the marshals, Crew, media and supporting members. Looking forward to see you soon!!

Cheers
Shamsi

[siddharthsai]

Thank you @alshamsi_m for doing this. I mean it's not easy. 3 days camping at LIWA just to teach us how to drive. I mean if not for you guys, I would probably never see or drive though such mesmerizing landscape.

I reached with 2 passengers at 8:32pm MZ camp. The way points were a nice way to challenge. Upto 4 it was just straight road and the last way point needed some skill. But reached the camp and had a 30 mins session with everyone and we were out to find the camping spot. We proceeded to cooking some nice chicken barbecue and called it a day.

Morning we were out by 9am. Man. Liwa is unlike anything I have seen. It's just kms and kms of nothing but virgin sand. It was a long and smooth drive. My passengers were a bit dizzy but got some motion sickness meds and was good to go.

After driving for an hour @alshamsi_m came on the radio to say 20kms done of 100, which really brought the distance perspective. My passengers were like: we only did 20? ...

We did carry enough snacks and food for the trip. There was a break every 30kms or so. I vividly remember everytime we stopped, the unbelievable landscape around me. The grey blue natural rock formation was something I had never seen before.

The entire drive I was on 4Hlc. The route was very smooth and calculated. I did not find the route that challenging but there were a few surprises here and there. Liwa being liwa. There was an option to end the drive at 70kms. My passengers by that time we're ready to steal my car and return to Dubai. So we decided to end the drive at the 70km mark although I wanted to drive the whole 100kms. For super long drives like these it's always better to drive alone or with someone who is as crazy as you.

Again a big thanks to @alshamsi_m and @Aljamhi for taking us around and showing us the mighty liwa.

This completes my 6th drive with Almost4x4.

[Warrior12]

I don’t know from where to start a lot of fun, adventure and action happened in the past few days.

It was a beautiful 2 days out of this world; It was the first time for me to be in Liwa, I was so excited to be there and looking forward to the experience. I am glad that my first visit to Liwa was with almost 4x4.

The first day I arrived at was the 30th of Nov 2024, I check in to the hotel. The second day I was a passenger with Alshamsi and he was the first lead. (a lot of action happened).

The 3rd day was my drive day. 2nd Dec 2024.

Reaching the Camp
Upon leaving to the camp, I opened the application for the location, I was surprised that the drive disappeared with all the locations. I don’t have the locations saved in my notes either. Without the location I will not be able to reach the camp. I then remembered that I was checking the last check point the night before, so I opened the navigation on the last location.

I have diced to take the risk on the last location it took around 20min to reach the entrance. I deflated the tires and continued my way to the camp, I reached till the end of the sandy road, now the next challenge was to find the camp in the middle of the dessert. I kept looking around to see if there are cars on the dunes as an indicator the camp location.

I was able to spot 2 cars, then decided to follow the cars track, during this time alshamsi saw my messages and replied, he sent me his location, when I check it I was around 1 minute away from the camp. So, I just kept going around I got lost little bit but in the end I reach the camps sound and safe.

Drive
After a quick breakfast and making sure that things in the car was fasten properly to avoid injuries, we had a drive brief by Alshamsi.

The rout of the drive was the same rout of the previous day drive for 10+ newbie and intermediate. However, the difficulty of the rout was different, the leader made it look more easier even though it was challenging for me. The same area but the levels were altered for beginners, all thanks to the great leader Alshamsi.

The drive took 8hrs to be done from 9am to 4pm with many breaks 2-5 munities in between, we have reached 105kilometers by the end of the drive.

I got stuck once, alshamsi helped taking out the car. Then I almost got stuck in a very soft sand area. I reversed almost around 300 meters or more looking for a stable sand. However, the area was not helping. I switched to first gear, puched the car to full speed and kept turning the stearing wheel right and left. When I reached to a safe place alshamsi asked to check the air on the tires. It was 17psi, no wonder the car was heavy after deflating it again the car moved easily and better on the sand.


Lessons learned:
- Save the location and memorise the routs in case technology fails you.
- Check your tire pressure every now and then.
- Trust the leader and the members
- Live the moment to the fullest.
- Taking care of the people with you.
- Release yourself whenever you need to – I learned it the hard way.

Thank you @alshamsi_m @Aljamhi and @KIMOz for the amazing company and drive.