Almost4x4

Hello Everyone,

I took a break for a few weeks as I changed cars. I felt a bit rusty after beeing away from the sand for a while and I was really excited. New car, whole day Liwa trip - full dose of sand, urgently needed.

I arrived around 10.30 at the camp and found some new and old friends gathered around the campfire. I went to bed early and enjoyed the impressive nightsky from my campingbed and literally fell asleep counting stars.
The morning was the usual breakfast, packing and briefing. @alshamsi_m was leading the convoy, @Stephan was assigned as second lead.
@Mabubaker as intermediate was positioned in the middle while I was the last car. @presa, @Scorpio, @Rashidjass and @Booy kept an eye on the convoy.

After being away for quite some time and with the new car I was seriously nervous. I really hoped that I made the right decision to sell the Patrol and buy an FJ instead.
@presa gave me a quick introduction after breakfast on how to engage the magic FJ buttons

The convoy took off and my first thought was: " wow, the car is so smooth"
The car felt like as if its floating on the sand, responding instantly to gear shifting and accelaration.
I loved it from the beginning and I guess I smiled almost the whole drive

From my position I did not get much of what happened in the front and the middle of the convoy. I just heard some instruction and shoutings via radio from time to time, but I just recovered one crested car quickly.
Most of the time the convoy drove smoothly and we had a few very nice high drops and from time to time we could hear the dunes sing.

In the back I had the chance to play a bit, so when we drove an arch @Booy told me to make it higher
And wow, the car easily stays in the wall, the tires float on the sand...that moment was an eye opener

I got another chance to test it at a high dune during a break. It was definetley the right decision to get this FJ

We reached the tarmac at sunset after eight hours of driving in beautiful Liwa - the friday could not have been better spend

Thank you @alshamsi_m for taking us back and all the marshals for the support.
I am really happy to be back in the sand, so you might see me around more often.

Till next time in the sand

Hello All,
This has been my 5th, and BY FAR the most exciting trip so far (I guess that was also expected as it was the famous/mysterious LIWA!). I must admit I was soo much looking forward to the trip I have entered into some arrangements with my family I may regret later just to make this day free

The trip required some extra preparations (said arrangements, DPI test for entering Abu Dhabi, plus a little longer drive; thankfully fuel management was not an issue due to Prado’s 150l twin tank ), but that’s the price to pay if one wants to experience that part of the country. On top of that I knew I would not be able to make it to the meeting point at 8:30pm, so visions of digging myself out of the soft sands trying to reach the camp over an unknown terrain in the dark were in my mind for most part of the week… I was quite relieved to see @alshamsi_m mercifully set the camp coordinates only a few hundred meters away from the road.

I ultimately reached the camp before midnight, so I still had a few moments to enjoy the stories around the fire. During the night I had a chance to see the most amazing starry sky and hear the ringing silence in my ears (I guess only in places like Liwa one realizes how much noise and light pollution there is in the cities; forget the incident with some motoring enthusiast trying to check how long can he hold his engine on max rpm next to our camp, all at 2 or 3 am).

Next day after a relaxed breakfast marveling the beauty of surrounding dunes we started our great Liwa trip on time, around 9am. Very quickly I realized driving in Liwa is a completely different ball game compared to Al Qudra and surroundings, with all the past lessons from Marshalls coming back very quickly; with long drops, steep inclines and very soft sand there is just less room for any error and no space for even short loss of focus (we all Newbies had to be reminded of that right at the outset, and myself a few hours later when I crested, only to be efficiently rescued by @Johanna).
After a few initial warm-up hiccups the pace increased, from time to time being stopped by a rescue or second try. Unfortunately just after the lunch break 2 cars gave up, and we got into a little delay vs the initial plan (for some unknown reason noone elected the option to exit at this point). That turned out to be a very good decision as the last 1.5h of driving (now with quite some experience under the Newbies’ belt) had the best “flow” – with the convoy driving towards the setting sun making it one of the most enjoyable parts of the drive.

It is almost impossible to remember/summarize the action-packed, 8-hour, 92-km drive but believe me, it had it all Huge, 50-meter straight drops, big bowls, steep ascents over soft patches, “staircase-like” descents through narrow valleys, fast surfing on sides of the dunes, accelerating downhill out of walls/bowls… My heart was beating fast all throughout the drive, there was really not a moment of boredom. And all this in a beautiful landscape of majestic yellow or rose dunes. I WANT TO BE BACK!!! (next weekend?)

Personally, I think this drive was “worth” at least 5 or 10 Al Qudra drives – it was almost like a graduation experience. It tested the limits of my current skill level, and ultimately gave me a lot of confidence that the car (and myself) can handle quite a lot (here kudos goes to @alshamsi_m for choosing a track that can “make” but not “break” the Newbies! :)) Both the car (stock Prado!) and the driver came out of this experience without damage (at least none that I can see at this moment ), probably in large part due to a hastily arranged skid- and rear plate (thank you @Rashidjass!).

Thank you @alshamsi_m for leading the convoy and giving us Newbies the opportunity to experience Liwa. Further thanks go to @Johanna, @Rashidjass, @Booy, @Stephan, @Mabubaker, @presa, and @Scorpio for having our back (or front/side) and making sure the trip was safe!

This was definitely a trip to remember!

Piotr

Good morning!
First of all many thanks to all the marshals taking care of us during the drive. And specially taking care of me and my uncountable second attempts.
Thanks to @alshamsi_m for leading and for being so patience with me!
Thanks to @Booy , @Rashidjass , @presa , @Scorpio and @Mabubaker @Stephan and @Johanna for help me all the time .
We arrived late to the meeting point so after a time struggling to find the gate I had the opportunity to turn on my new off road lights (thanks @Rashidjass ) and we finally reached the camp. We still have time to chit chat around the camp fire and go to sleep under the starry sky I have ever seen. Thanks to @alshamsi_m for the flasher to keep care of my car and my family in the tent.
The day started and after a few minutes driving I realized that this trip would be a challenge for me when I discovered the big really deep bowls and the big drops! Omg! So many second attempts and Just only one Recovery! It was for sure best trip ever. I was following @Viktoriia until her car broken.
After so many hours driving I felt more confident with my car and started to being relax and enjoying the amazing views. Started to dont pushing the brake during the drops (thank you @presa ) and when we finally reached the destination I felt so happy and proud. I did it!!
I had for sure more fun than others with my 3yo daughter as passenger saying all the time come on mum! Don’t go slowly or you will get stuck! and saying that she wanted to climb to the higher dunes! (enough for mummy as @alshamsi_m said!).
I don’t have words to describe my feelings about this trip. It was really Amazing and I can’t wait to come back!!
See you soon!!
Flor.-

Hello Everybody!

First of all thanks to all Marshals and the rest of the crew (@Johanna , @Stephan , @presa , @Mabubaker , @Scorpio, @Rashidjass, @Booy ) for making this amazing drive safe and outstanding.

And special thanks to @alshamsi_m for taking us, as promised, and for treating myself & my family as his own one.

In a few words, "I have no words" for expressing all my emotions during that day. It was marvelous, amazing, superb and worthwhile any km I drove before and after the drive listening to my 6 years old kid-copilot telling me stories and making questions about dinosaurs, superheroes, schoolmates and this kind of stuff

I should confess that I was a bit worry about the drive itself as it was specially challenging for me: Driving a Pajero with one of my kids was not the best starting point, in theory. But hopefully I was mistaken as my son behaved super well and the car responded well too without any major incident apart from having a technical problem (4HL was engaged for a while and could not manage to come back to 4x4, so thanks @Booy for helping me on that).

As said before by my colleagues, I had a compressed learning drive worth 4 or 5 normal drives so I feel now more confident about my driving capabilities thus I cannot for the next one!

Stay safe and see you in the sand soon!

Carlos

Good morning Almosters!

You are all now Liwa explorers, well done!!

As some of you just discovered, Liwa region looks like out of this world!

It was even used by Star Wars on some scenes!
https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-cu ... .857135#11

The convoy did well, while we covered ˜100km with a nice 30oC weather, light breeze and clear sky!

This is the starting of Liwa Exploration! If you like this trip is good to know that there are other areas that you will all be able to know!

Check the following drop:


Check this video from an Intermediate Drive:


Have a great week!

Hello everyone.

We arrived at the meeting point at 8 o'clock. Everyone was still making breakfast, getting ready for the big day ahead of us! We knew that it was a cold night, as the car temperature showed that it was 15 degree outside.

Once we arrived at the meeting point, we chit chat a little bit, deflated, strapped everything together in the car and had our briefing for the day. After that, everybody lined up to explore the beautiful soft sand of Liwa.
@A alshamsi led the convoy and I was second lead. When we started with the drive, I was nervous and excited at the same time! We started the drive with a big bowl where it felt like I was on a roller coaster ride, going up and down! Wow, that was exciting to experience, and all my fears disappeared!

Throughout the drive the sand was really soft and you could feel your car sinking in the sand as you were driving. We climbed some big dunes, doing arches all the way to the peak of the dunes. We also did huge drops and while you were going down the dunes, you heard the sand talking to you! That was something to experience!

Driving in Liwa was different than the drives we are used to, which made us all stronger at the end. We all learned new skills as Newbies and it gave us all a lot more confidence. To sum up the drive: It was really amazing and I cannot wait to go again. A big thanks to @A alshamsi for leading the drive. Also, a big thanks to @Booy ,@presa ,@Rashidjass , @Scorpio for your support and keeping us Newbies save in the soft sand.

Till next time.

Stephan

Hello everyone,

I arrived late at the camp after a very busy week, and lots of last minute rushing and running around. Once I passed through the Abu Dhabi border quite late at night, I moved into weekend mode :)

When I arrived at the camp, there were still some people around the fire for a bit of chit chatting. We enjoyed the beautiful weather, bright stars and good company till around 1:30am, when we decided to get some sleep in preparation for the long day ahead.

I slept under the stars - it was a cold night, but I am well equipped for the cold :)

Next morning we were up early, and enjoyed a relaxed time, preparing breakfast and catching up with the people I did not see the night before.

Regarding the drive - that area is always amazing to be in. It was fun to drive with everyone, and I am happy to have been able to share in the excitement of the people who have never been there before.

Looking forward to next week's Liwa fun.

Till then...

Hello, Everyone!!!

To be honest, I started thinking about what my trip report would look like while i am still in Liwa. At that time, it could only look like this:
Hello everyone! Then just a thousand spaces and at the end:
Thanks everyone. See you again

This is exactly what I felt, being in Liwa, the inability to speak and express in words what I saw around. By convention, as @Phoenix mentioned, exactly the same, for several days I had the same post Liwa syndrome, when you do not understand and do not realize what reality you are in. If I follow my emotions, my report will take years and you will all hate me reading it. So I gathered all my strength and made the decision to be as practical as possible and share my findings.
Undoubtedly, Liwa trip is worthy of all the efforts that we have put in for several months, worthy of all set alarms to have time to snatch a seat in the drive, worthy of all drives with a huge number of mistakes and the ability to fix them, worthy of all this expectation. Liwa trip is just that rare case when reality exceeds all expectations.

Track! It was just incredible! Thanks to @alshamsi_m A combination of relaxing drive on a flat area, and suddenly, quite unexpectedly, a stunning climb or drop. Another golden rule - Do not look around, watch out only in front of your bumper. Liwa is full of surprises plus @alshamsi_m endless skill in finding all the ditches and holes in existence The speed and size of the dunes, allowing you to feel the wings and the state of flight and the awareness of what awaits you next.

Obviously Liwa is a paradise for offroaders, even for beginners!

I have to admit how upset I was when Jimmy went out of line. But the next rule came out as an axiom. Don't fight the gravity, gravity will always win! Fight EGO, it will kill you!

I can’t hide the fact that I couldn’t hold my emotions and just burst into tears in Optimus, as I could not complete this trip, but at the same time, how happy I was that you all were able to do it.

@Flor , you are an incredible brave woman!
Thank you girls @Flor , @Johanna for your moral support!

Thank you all @Booy , @Stephan, @Rashidjass ,@presa ,@Scorpio, @SINGH,@Mabubaker for an unforgettable time.
Thank you @AdamW for saving the desert snakes from my poison

Liwa is still in my blood and will stay there.
So see you soon!

Viktoriia

I am very happy to see @Viktoriia and @Flor joining drives on a regular basis.
Ladies, I am proud of you A full day driving in Liwa is an achievement!
I hope you will continue your offroad journey with us, we need more female spirit in the club

And if anyone says you cannot (or should not) do it because you are female, do it twice and make sure they are watching.