Ali, the 2008 HZJ76 (1 Viewer)

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Day 5: though tempted to stay one more night, ultimately we decided we were more in an exploratory mood, so after breakfast and a hot shower we packed up and left towards an unknown destination. Once we dropped back down to close to sea level, I pointed Ali's nose in a south-easterly direction, towards what looked like a long and interesting track and a camp spot at 2,000m but only 10km from the sea (for reference, if you're following on a map, search for "Umq Beer").

The drive started in a wadi (or dry riverbed), a barren environment of grey slate, and then started to climb through red dust. The landscape was always desolate, but incredibly varied, at times martian or lunar, suddenly descending into a wide wadi, then steeply climbing only to open onto a high plateau. Certainly very few tourists have come through here, we passed only two vehicles (both 70's, naturally), and saw many goats and a handful of people. There was no cell phone reception here, and certainly no stores. The only edifice larger than a single-story bungalow was a massive school being built, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, soon to become a hub for the Troopy's waiting for adventure.

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I was starting to be concerned, actually, about my potential campsite. The track was well-maintained, the steepest sections were even sealed with concrete, but on each side there was rough terrain, and the only pullouts were awful dust-pits or inhabited places. Camping is permitted anywhere in Oman, but with Ramadan it was imperative that we stay out of sight if we wished to eat during fasting hours (sunrise to sunset...). Mind you, we ultimately ended up eating dinner after sunset every day, but even preparing food in public would be uncomfortable.

Luckily I was completely accurate in my determination of a good camping spot, and after spending over 2 hours driving on this track, we came upon a little-used road leading about 500 meters away to a water storage tank.

The welcome committee was standing guard as we proceeded slowly in 4LO, not certain where the track would lead, and more specifically whether below the tank there would (logically) be a house.

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Luckily it became apparent that the water storage tank was long-ago abandoned, and there were some indications of previous human presence here (mainly some half-burned wood and charred rocks). I surmise that the rock walls were built for shelter by shepherds, as it was windy as could be, but we pointed Ali into the wind and set about preparing dinner on the fire, as every other day.

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The wind blew consistently through the night, but never woke us - if properly positioned, the tent is very stable and extremely comfortable. Of note, the temperatures for our mountain overnights were very pleasant, even cold at times (twice necessitating a jumper and long johns), a welcome contrast from the already oppressive heat and humidity at sea level.

A sunrise to begin day 6, and after breakfast we packed up and headed towards Muscat for our second hotel night.

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We saw a number of cars heading "to town" (i.e. towards the sea) right around sunrise, and then there was pure silence.

A good example of the high plateau I tried to portray in words.

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And here the contrast of the sea and the mountains...

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A town nestled in the mountains:

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After dropping down to sea level, we reinflated our tyres and headed north on the coastal road, posing for a photo along the way.

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On my map of many things, I noticed we were passing by Wadi al Arbaiaeen, and so we turned off the road and into the wadi, in a quest for some water (crossings)...

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Ali, meet water.

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Then we headed back to the highway and continued to Muscat...

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We washed Ali as we entered Muscat, checked into the hotel, and then parked at the Corniche:

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Drove past the ceremonial palace...

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...and tried to change the oil at the Toyota dealer (mistake, as always - have to register VIN into the system and make an appointment).
 
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After a night catching up on work demands and a day 7 morning cleanup and reorganization, we stopped again at the Lulu Hypermarket to stock up, where our time shopping was accompanied by the endless recitation of prayer through the loudspeaker system - one of the joys of Ramadan.

Leaving the hypermarket, the air conditioning acted up for the first time on this trip. It started blowing warm, there was some belt squeal, we turned it on and off, and it was intermittent for the rest of the day. We tried stopping to check the gas level, expecting this to be a refrigerant leak as suggested by our mechanic, but another obstacle of Ramadan was in our way - operating hours of many business become consistently inconsistent.

That didn't deter us from visiting Wakan village, which was quite uninteresting, expect for the display of vehicles parked at the end of the road.

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We then proceeded further to explore another potential satellite-map campsite. This one was in a high mountain wadi, and the road led to some sort of structure - recent enough to be present on one satellite picture but not another. The structure turned out to be the Omani version of the "Into the Wild" bus. The creepy ambience, hot temperature, and early hour (14:00) persuaded us to press on...

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Though it was not our original plan, we drove the famous Snake Canyon road yet again, this time from bottom to top - as usual, driving in the opposite direction gives completely different views and makes the whole experience fresh and new, so it was time well-spent.

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The campsite, located at the crest of the mountain, is very beautiful, but it's also quite popular, so we were afraid of a repeat of our day 2 experience of inexperienced tourists dampening our experience. Nevertheless, the cooler weather and spectacular view made this a good choice after a day of driving with no air conditioning.

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Not bad at all...

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There was a massive fire ring already prepared for us, and plenty of leftover firewood - there was always plenty of dry wood around to supplement our Namibian stash.

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Lo and behold, as the sun began to set, the rumble of cars could be heard, and soon enough there was heavy traffic. The drastic difference, however, was that this was all locals (men only, of course), coming to celebrate iftar (the breaking of the fast) and relax a bit. The guaranteed lack of alcohol, short-term stay, local flair made this a very enjoyable experience in the evening, and we had a number of guests come by and ask about our itinerary, car, and wish us a good trip. We went to sleep earlier than those around us, but were never woken, even when they left sometime in the middle of the night.
 
Day 9 - we woke to find a Toyota pickup parked 100 meters away from us (which wasn't there when we went to sleep), and everybody else gone. Alas, they left all their garbage behind (par for the course), and the goats were picking through the scraps. This meant the first item on the agenda was a cleanup of our neighbouring sites, filling a large bag full of litter. After breakfast and a shower, we descended towards Bahla on the paved road, and once we were back in the heat we turned on the air conditioning, which worked flawlessly. In Bahla, I found an air conditioning repair shop, which was open, and the two friendly guys checked our pressure with a gauge - it was good. They were very nice, I gave them 2 OMR (~5 USD) for their trouble, they insisted on handing 1 OMR back, which we refused. Nice to find honest people everywhere in the world.

We continued on highway 21, heading in a northwesterly direction, towards Al Ain. The road skirted sand dunes, and was straight and flat. The air conditioning was barely puttering along, and we were grateful for any cold air with an outside temperature of over 40C (100F+). The most entertaining moment was a camel being herded by an Omani Police Land Cruiser (naturally), with the camel being visibly annoyed and trying to get out of its cornered situation.



I was thinking of heading back to our day 1 camp, to cross the border back into the UAE already, but I remembered as we were skirting Abu Dhabi that not all borders are open to us foreigners. Luckily on my map of many things I had some other campsites, and we found one in an open plain at about 1000m in elevation. Relative to our other campsites, it was hot, but the evening was pleasant enough and the setting was quite different than our other experiences - almost like an African savanna.

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I had the chance to take some beauty shots of Ali in the setting sun...

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Well, as usual, I fell behind in my posts. 🤦‍♂️ So I'll just pick up where I left off, since I do have some interesting and fun updates to share.
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Day 11 - We packed up in the morning and headed towards the Abu Dhabi border. The experience was quite similar to the Hatta (Dubai) border, in that there was a massive new border post being built, and we had to drive on little side roads to actually cross the functioning border.

We headed to @John Young 's warehouse, which he was cleaning out that day. Seemed like a good time to dismantle our roof rack and take it home... It can be taken apart to pieces that were small enough to check in on the plane in a box.

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John taking a look at our exhaust which was rattling against the rear bumper but only at idle:

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Then we went to the hotel, checked in, and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

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Day 12 we went to the "Grand Service Station" in Jumeirah to get an oil change and wash.

Oil change with Shell 15W40 and an OEM filter (on hand, in stock - impressive!)

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In the meantime, since we had no personal effects (i.e. camping gear) in the car, we removed the remaining items for the cleaning, and found out we had a beautifully stocked recovery-gear-bag in the car, courtesy of the UN. Yes, I should have checked this earlier, but time was never on our side...

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How I wish we had a washing service like this in Canada... Absolutely insane.

Up on the lift:

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Taking a look at the very clean underside of Ali:

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Ready for a shave...

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All sorts of vehicles use this station... (and from all over - this one from KSA)

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Then we went home, and I reverted back to dreaming and planning instead of traveling and doing.

One day, I message @John Young asking him to keep an eye out for a decent winch in Sharjah. He replies immediately "I saw a brand new one at the dismantler on Saturday. For a post 2000 70 as I recall. Pricey. But definitely new and definitely Aisin".

Well, my curiosity was definitely piqued.

Received this picture and I couldn't resist.

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We reached out to my mechanic, who said it wouldn't be a problem to fit.

Well, a few weeks later, this turned out to be a massive under calculation. It was a big problem to fit, and my mechanic went about trying to convince me that my bumper is a terrible, a poorly made local example, and I should buy an ARB. He conveniently had one he was selling... Honestly I quite liked the existing bumper on Ali, but I was suddenly and unexpectedly cornered here, and decided that this would be the best solution to the problem, even though the ARB was used and intended for a flared 76.

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Well, another two weeks later, he says that he cannot fit the winch on the ARB either (luckily I emphasized that I wouldn't buy the ARB if it didn't fit), but now he said he should be able to make it fit on my original bumper. Alright, back to plan A we go. Knowing that a new fairlead would have to be cut for the winch, I decided to upgrade to synthetic (smaller egress hole). Some welding, some cutting, and off it went to powder coating.

Yay! Complete!

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Except it came back looking like this:

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This being Dubai, nobody even questioned the above etches when it got back from the powdercoater, and just installed the winch and the bumper on the car. Only then when the shop owner came by did he raise the question of what happened... Not that we'll ever find out. All I can say is that the bumper was looking just fine before.

Luckily of course this could be fixed with some conversations and $$$, and back to being sandblasted and now painted over. Frankly, I prefer paint anyways, since I can then do touchups myself... back to waiting, then.
 
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Another two weeks later, it came back, finally finished. I'm really happy with the result, and with the install of the OEM winch into this bumper. No easy feat, that's for sure, and I absolutely love that it's completely hidden away.

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Just a little bit dirty:

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And back "home":

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And one other thing, my friend @t00manyuserz went to Japan in April and very kindly brought me back a limited-time Toyota part only available there... Maybe you can figure out what it is @se7en6 ;)

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And yes, I shouldn't have felt bad because of all the other massive boxes of things that he ordered too, but apparently the Toyota part was very bulky and uncomfortable to take 👀
 
Great story and pics. Thank you for sharing this.
Honestly, IMHO, the original bumper looks way better than the ARB.
Cheers Ralf
Thank you, I agree. The narrow-nose 70 I like with a bullbar, but the wide-nose I enjoy without.
 
Then we went home, and I reverted back to dreaming and planning instead of traveling and doing.

One day, I message @John Young asking him to keep an eye out for a decent winch in Sharjah. He replies immediately "I saw a brand new one at the dismantler on Saturday. For a post 2000 70 as I recall. Pricey. But definitely new and definitely Aisin".

Well, my curiosity was definitely piqued.

Received this picture and I couldn't resist.

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We reached out to my mechanic, who said it wouldn't be a problem to fit.

Well, a few weeks later, this turned out to be a massive under calculation. It was a big problem to fit, and my mechanic went about trying to convince me that my bumper is a terrible, a poorly made local example, and I should buy an ARB. He conveniently had one he was selling... Honestly I quite liked the existing bumper on Ali, but I was suddenly and unexpectedly cornered here, and decided that this would be the best solution to the problem, even though the ARB was used and intended for a flared 76.

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Well, another two weeks later, he says that he cannot fit the winch on the ARB either (luckily I emphasized that I wouldn't buy the ARB if it didn't fit), but now he said he should be able to make it fit on my original bumper. Alright, back to plan A we go. Knowing that a new fairlead would have to be cut for the winch, I decided to upgrade to synthetic (smaller egress hole). Some welding, some cutting, and off it went to powder coating.

Yay! Complete!

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Except it came back looking like this:

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This being Dubai, nobody even questioned the above etches when it got back from the powdercoater, and just installed the winch and the bumper on the car. Only then when the shop owner came by did he raise the question of what happened... Not that we'll ever find out. All I can say is that the bumper was looking just fine before.

Luckily of course this could be fixed with some conversations and $$$, and back to being sandblasted and now painted over. Frankly, I prefer paint anyways, since I can then do touchups myself... back to waiting, then.
Interesting... I wonder why he was unable to get the Aisin winch mated to the ARB. I just finished doing that on mine. The frame will be different between the 02 and the 08, yours being the first year of the wide nose ones, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

Likely not the winch, but the ARB bumper would not fit onto the frame of yours if it was designed for the narrow nose.

The main thing is it is all together and in a way that you like! Pretty nice the way this is coming along. Love the truck! (Though I do prefer the narrow nose look)
 
Interesting... I wonder why he was unable to get the Aisin winch mated to the ARB. I just finished doing that on mine. The frame will be different between the 02 and the 08, yours being the first year of the wide nose ones, so perhaps that had something to do with it.

Likely not the winch, but the ARB bumper would not fit onto the frame of yours if it was designed for the narrow nose.

The main thing is it is all together and in a way that you like! Pretty nice the way this is coming along. Love the truck! (Though I do prefer the narrow nose look)

It was a case of “it’s too much effort” so I decided if we must make the effort, might as well do it to my bumper as opposed to the ARB. ;) I skipped a few of the back-and-forth discussions. I’m very glad, though, that with my bumper we could hide the entire winch and not have it exposed to the sun, running synthetic would not be wise if we could not have done that.

I do like narrow-nose, too, but I’m glad to have one of each 🙃
 
Over Christmas I was able to get to the UAE and have a nice camping trip in Ali once again, so I will post some impressions and photos here :)
Day 1 we landed in Abu Dhabi and rented a car to retrieve Ali from his parking in Dubai, stopped by @John Young's apartment to pick up the sandladders (hint as to our planned trip!), and proceeded to the hotel. No major changes to report here, except a lesson learnt from our chaotic storage situation (or rather, lack thereof) from our previous camping trip - an issue easily solved with the purchase of four plastic storage bins, into which we could easily organize our belongings.

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After dropping off our rental car, we proceeded to the hypermarket to stock up on food, and then towards Oman, crossing this time at the Al Ain border. As it was already 3:00 pm by this time, instead of continuing to our planned campsite, I started looking at the satellite map to find a quiet spot nearby.
In general, our camp criteria are:
- quiet; no man-made noise audible
- secluded, preferably alone at camp
- no man-made structures visible
- as little light pollution as possible
This campsite checked off all the boxes. It was along a dead-end road leading to a closed section of the border, along a single mountain range that juts out of an otherwise flat landscape, and we could not hear nor see anything.

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Dinner was beef tenderloin prepared on the embers of our fire.

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After a wonderful first night camping, we woke and prepared breakfast. For this trip we swapped the AeroPress for a Bialetti, and were very pleased with the results.

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We broke camp and headed out of our campsite. This was a wadi we needed to cross on the track:

 
Glamour shot of our campspot when departing:

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Welcome to Oman, where diesel is 0.67 USD/liter ($2.54 a gallon), gas slightly less, and the price hasn't changed in years:

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We stopped in Ibri to visit the fort, which was a typical Omani restored example, but the entrance was free and we walked around and climbed onto the various terraces.

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We then stopped in Nizwa to visit the mosque - though we had been to Nizwa a few times before, the mosque, the largest in Oman, was never on our itinerary to visit.

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And a few hours later, we pulled into our campsite during golden hour - a place I had spotted on Google Earth, simply a green oasis at the end of a road. A secluded, amazing spot, which was completely undiscovered. You can easily tell which spots are frequently used or not in Oman based on the amount of garbage around, rather unfortunately. Sometimes it's big plastic bottles, but more often it's simply smaller items such as bottle caps... but, I digress.



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This was the most beautiful oasis in a wadi I had seen, and it was completely natural, as far as I could tell. No dams, no falaj (water channels), just a water source and the beauty and persistence of nature.

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Dinner on night 2 was a "Local Somali Beef Burger", once again grilled on the fire. Quite delicious!

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After a very fine nights' sleep, accompanied by the frogs, breakfast was served after a visit from a curious lone villager who had walked over to collect some greenery for his livestock.

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