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- #61
Now we reach the main attraction of this trip, the Wahiba Sands crossing. A desert track that crosses this stretch of desert from North to South, over 100km in length, and a good test for Ali, the 1HZ, and our abilities to drive in the sand and dunes. The trip begins in Bidiyah, a town perched on the edge of the desert, and the place with the highest ratio of GRJ79's to normal vehicles I've ever seen: the vast majority of vehicles there were of our favourite kind...
After refuelling and restocking some supplies, we left Bidiyah and deflated our tires to about 25 psi from 37.5, as the track is actually quite packed to begin with.
This was the view just over the hump of the first dune out of town, where there are many "wilderness camps" for tourists.
The track is in rather good condition and drivable for any four-wheel-drive until the Thousand Nights camp, a well-known establishment. However, we took one shortcut on the way which quickly taught us that our setup was not working for climbing dunes.
The first try, we stopped after only a few metres up hill. We progressively deflated our tyres and changed gear combinations until we reached the top effortlessly at ~15 psi and in 2nd gear Low.
At Thousand Nights, there were a few hobbled camels.
This was also a known "campsite" under the trees, all of which had a few vehicles parked underneath... right behind them 4WD's were dune-bashing - not exactly my vision of paradise. We stopped at the spot where the biggest dune was, and immediately we were welcomed with cheers and invited to drive up the dune with one of the friendly locals. I happily partook, and we "popped" up the dune in a *eep. Back down for another run, this time sideways... OK, then. Glad to have tried that once in my lifetime...
We continued on the track for another 15-20 minutes before we decided to head into some dunes on the side to try to find a good campsite which would abide by my guidelines.
After refuelling and restocking some supplies, we left Bidiyah and deflated our tires to about 25 psi from 37.5, as the track is actually quite packed to begin with.
This was the view just over the hump of the first dune out of town, where there are many "wilderness camps" for tourists.
The track is in rather good condition and drivable for any four-wheel-drive until the Thousand Nights camp, a well-known establishment. However, we took one shortcut on the way which quickly taught us that our setup was not working for climbing dunes.
The first try, we stopped after only a few metres up hill. We progressively deflated our tyres and changed gear combinations until we reached the top effortlessly at ~15 psi and in 2nd gear Low.
At Thousand Nights, there were a few hobbled camels.
This was also a known "campsite" under the trees, all of which had a few vehicles parked underneath... right behind them 4WD's were dune-bashing - not exactly my vision of paradise. We stopped at the spot where the biggest dune was, and immediately we were welcomed with cheers and invited to drive up the dune with one of the friendly locals. I happily partook, and we "popped" up the dune in a *eep. Back down for another run, this time sideways... OK, then. Glad to have tried that once in my lifetime...
We continued on the track for another 15-20 minutes before we decided to head into some dunes on the side to try to find a good campsite which would abide by my guidelines.