Words + Photos By: John Basson
When my friend Alex invited me, and told me about some of his latest camping and riding gadgets, I just had to join! (Alex and I seem to have a competition to see who can own the most gadgets.) As I was in the market for the new Go-Pro Hero3 helmet camera, I used this as an excuse to get past my wife, who was not keen on camping that weekend. “Better I know what I am buying than just buying,” were my words. “Ha-ha, you are going to buy it regardless,” was her reply.
The camping was just outside Abu Dhabi at Alex’s regular spot, “Die Dooie Kameel” (The Dead Camel). And as I still had lots to do, I only joined them at around 16:00 hours that Friday, the National Day weekend. As most will remember, there was quite a bit of rain during that weekend and for about 30km between Sweihan and Abu Dhabi, I drove through a very heavy downpour. Luckily for us, the rain clouds had passed for the night by the time I arrived at the campsite.
It was a rather large gathering of about 40 South Africans and all camping in true traditional style, just like back home! For those who read my article on “Camping and the Bare Necessities,” well, these guys all have the same mindset when it comes to camping. In fact, the campsite looked more like semi-permanent structures rather than what most people are used to. These guys had some impressive gear and everything was custom-made to their personal requirements! Awesome stuff!
Well, this article is not about the camping gear, but rather the great family “combination ride” we had the following morning. As the rain had hardened the sand, the group decided to do a big ride with the vehicles, quads and bikes. This was going to be the first time I was riding with vehicles as part of the ride and not sure how things would turn out.
There were four vehicles, nine quads and three bikes. It was decided that each “group” would stick together and just keep the other two groups visual and advance in the same general direction to a predetermined point. This way, no one would interfere with each other, yet we stay together. I was pessimistic at first, but it worked very well and it was a lot of fun.
No one was out to race or impress, but rather to all have fun. We even had four dogs to accompany us in the vehicles. Due to wet sand, the vehicle drivers were a bit overconfident and did not even deflate their tyres. This worked well for the first ten or so kilometres until the first guy got stuck. Then things went as follows: FJ pulls Cruiser, Jeep pulls Ford, Jeep pulls Ford again, FJ pulls Jeep, Ford pulls Cruiser, and then the guys deflated their tyres with no more pulling after that!
The morning was perfect with overcast conditions as we started, and then clear, clean blue skies by the time we finished. I think the worst (or funniest) thing about the day was that three of the four dogs didn’t seem to enjoy the dune riding as much as their owners thought. Luckily, there were spare clothes for those riders whose dogs became “slightly car sick” whilst sitting on their laps!
Then there was my quad. I suspect that some water must have entered into the fuel system the previous day on my way to the camp in the heavy rain. The quad would be fine and then suddenly it backfired once or twice, lost power and cut dead! It was not possible to start her using the starter and then the list above became: Jeep pulls Suzuki, Jeep pulls Suzuki again and one more time Jeep pulls Suzuki!
Each time Mark towed me at least 50 to 100m before she started in a hail of coughing and backfire! By the third time, I told Mark that I was going to head back at full-power to keep the engine at very high RPM – hoping that this would limit the effect of the water in the system. Chris, who also rides very well, then accompanied me on my “kamikaze run” for the camp just in case the quad died again. It worked and luckily we made it back safely, well ahead of the rest.
It was a great day out and enjoyed by old and young, slow and fast.
Ride Safe and Go For Gold,
John Basson
