So you bought an SUV last weekend and now you’re planning to head out to the desert on Saturday. Stop right there! Driving in the desert bears no resemblance to driving on tarmac, it’s difficult to master and is dangerous for the novice who goes about it the wrong way.
What you need to do first is to log onto the internet and find yourself a 4x4 club with members nearby. There are several to choose from but one of the UAE’s stalwarts is ME4x4 (me4x4.com), which has been running for well over ten years. The benefit of joining any 4x4 club is that you’ll be able to ask members for help when preparing your vehicle, because they can recommend suppliers of the parts you’ll need. Most organise novice drives where rookies can start to learn the basics on easy terrain, under the watchful eyes of experienced off-roaders who’ll teach newcomers the tricks of the trade. Joining a club and using their facilities to accelerate your own learning process is the most effective way to ensure your safety.
Before you head out to the sand, you’ll need to prepare your vehicle because in standard form, it’s a liability. See those tie down loops on the front and rear of the chassis, the ones not much thicker than a coat hanger? They are there to secure a static car on a delivery/recovery truck, and nothing else.
If you attempt to recover your vehicle from the sand with a rope and shackle attached to one of those, the tie down loop will be ripped from the chassis, then a shackle weighing several hundred grams but with the motive force of a two tonne vehicle behind it, will accelerate through the air and destroy the first thing it hits. If you’re lucky it’ll be a stranger’s vehicle. If you’re unlucky it will kill a child. Assuming I now have your attention, you understand why you need proper recovery points fitted, and will pay for good quality work by people who know what they are doing.
Ropes and shackles (because you never attach a rope directly to a tow point) should be bought from reputable suppliers of off-road equipment or from a ship chandler or lifting equipment specialist. The pre-attached tow hooks on flimsy little so called tow ropes will peel apart in a fraction of a second under the strain of a towing recovery in the desert.
Don’t waste your money. Now grab your toolkit (you do have a toolkit in your car don’t you?) and remove any running boards and low hanging plastic trim. When you sell the car, you can fit them back again. Or you can leave them in place, drive for ten minutes in the desert and they’ll be ripped away by the terrain, to the amusement of experienced off-roaders who warned you 15 minutes earlier that it was bound to happen!
Sand driving techniques must be learned over many, many months and even the most experienced drivers still get caught out, so when you do become stuck, just smile and get on with the recovery because it’ll be someone else’s turn next. The fundamentals involve being in the right gear in plenty of time, maintaining momentum, NEVER riding the clutch, spotting the clues that lead you to firmer sand, staying out of the ‘bowls’ at the bottoms of dunes, driving at speeds that ensure the preservation of your vehicle and carefully watching other vehicles for clues about what lies ahead.
It may sound like a lot to take in but the pleasure is in mastering the skills and improving your techniques. Off-roaders are an extremely social bunch; most trips end with an overnight camp out under the stars. Children never seem to tire of playing in the sand in the evening and dads are not much better! So join a club, don’t economise when preparing your vehicle and listen to the experts. The rest isn’t easy but it is a lot of fun.
Top off-roading routes
Here’s a handful of interesting off-road trips ranging from novice to expert levels.
Novice
Off-roading isn’t all about the desert — there’s mountains to be explored as well. 32 km
Head toward Masafi from Dhaid. At Manama turn left on the E18. Turn Easterly at N 25 27.950 E 55 58.724 onto a road which becomes a track, heading toward N 25 27.871 E 56 00.868. Follow the track S.E. over the mountains, eventually coming out onto the Masafi to Dibba road at N 25 29.477 E 56 11.800. If you leave early for this trip you’ll have time afterwards to hit the East coast and build sandcastles on the beach.
Intermediate
Pink Rocks. 15km
Start from N 25 01.389 E 55 40.610 on the Nazwa Road, to the left of the Hatta road before you reach Big Red from Dubai. You’ll be heading East to Pink Rocks at N 25 01.227 E 55 43.549. Here you have a choice; turn North and parallel the escarpment or South where you’ll find a route up to the top of the rocks — a great place for photos (if visibility is good) and a picnic lunch. Now work your way down towards N 25 03.039 E 55 44.051 and pick up the seismo track heading roughly N.N.W. towards a large open plain. Stay on the same heading and you’ll hit the new road beyond Nazwa. Turn left if you’re heading to Dubai.
Challenging Intermediate
Jeeaa to Al Sa’ad. 50kms
From the underpass/junction on the Dubai to Al Ain road at N 24 30.363 E 55 45.061 head cross country in a straight line (as best you can!) to a second underpass at N 24 27.830 E 55 38.109. From there you turn South Westerly to meet the Sweihan / Al Sa’ad Road at N 24 17.033 E 55 25.821. It sounds easy, but you’ll need your wits about you to cope with technical duning for hours on end.
Experienced desert drivers only
The Liwa Challenge. 75 kms
The sandscapes in Liwa offer some of the best dune driving you’ll ever experience in your life. Pick a point anywhere on the Madiat Zayed road, to the South of Madinat Zayed itself, for example an access gate at N 23 27.250 E 53 45.083 and head West to the Ghayathi Road toward, a former Desert Challenge passage control at N 23 14.464 E 53 10.117.
75 kms in a straight line sounds easy right? Then you don’t know Liwa…
You cannot be serious?
Between the Liwa Crescent road and Saudi border are dunes tall and technical enough to embarrass even the most experienced of desert drivers. It would be foolhardy of us to give you coordinates for a journey down here. But you know you’ve ‘made it’ when you plan an off road excursion in this region with drivers who trust you to join their convoy.
