Words By: Marina Bruce
Photos By: Haemish Melville
It’s 8:30 in the morning on a hot July Friday, and four cars and their owners are parked up deflating their tyres at the camel roundabout in Al Ain. For myself and Safa Mike, this is the first of two off-road forays we will complete in the gorgeous red sands of Al Ain today; I am running an “Easy Introduction to Off-roading” (EIO) trip in the morning and a Level 1 (smooth and easy) trip in the afternoon, both for Oasis Offroad. The club runs EIO trips on request, with a ratio of one marshal/experienced driver to each rookie with a maximum of three newbies, and today we have two rookies with Safa Mike to assist me.
Steven and Mike are eager to learn the basics – general control of their cars on the sand, driving up and down slopes, negotiating crests, exiting bowls and reversing a little bit faster than you would in a carpark!
Parking the cars to create shade, we run through a comprehensive safety briefing; once done, we start driving on some small, easy dunes. Gradually, the size of the obstacles increase, but all the time we’re offering coaching and support, encouraging Steven and Mike to tackle what seems to them rather daunting climbs and drops. Finally, we finish with a short 3km drive to let our rookies put their new found skills in action, which they take in their stride with only one or two “refusals,” but even these situations give them time to practise their reversing.
Said Steven, “We started small and ended up driving down and up angles on dunes I would have never dreamed of tackling. For any beginners, it’s the right way to start!”
We all head home about 11:00 a.m. and, for Safa Mike and myself, it’s time to pack our cars with our BBQ gear ready for the next adventure.
Four in the afternoon sees us airing down at the camel roundabout once more. By now it’s 46°C and we have 10 cars, all of whom have at least some previous off-roading experience. We have a quick drivers’ briefing and then it’s time to engage 4×4 as I lead a “United Nations” group of Europeans, Americans, South Africans and Kiwis into the sand. I’m lucky enough to have my friend Kate and her husband along as passengers as it’s great to see the desert through a fresh pair of eyes.
Our first “situation” happens at the start point – Bob’s Wrangler refuses to go into 4WD and won’t go back into 2WD either, so we quickly arranged for his car to be recovered to a nearby garage whilst the driver and passenger hop in with Jeff, who offered them his spare seats. Bob and Jeff have travelled the 90 minutes through from Abu Dhabi; Bob tells us it’s great to be off-road in the summer as “it’s an escape from the air-conditioners” and he loves our group as “they can smile through anything that happens in the sand,” or at the deflation point in this case.
Given the heat, the sand is in quite good condition, that is, not too soft, and we meander through some beautiful, smooth sand formations stopping just above one of my favourite desert spots, tree valley, to take photos and have a break. The dunes stretch for miles with just an odd ghaf tree to break up the sea of sand; in the winter you will often meet other clubs or groups here, but today we have the area all to ourselves.
We cover around 20kms, which is a relatively short drive for me, however in the summer it’s important not to put excess strain on the cars or the drivers so we keep our trips short and easy. The main aim is to get out there and share the adventure with great people and to escape the four concrete walls of our villas and apartments.
Irene has the honour of finding the softest patch of sand in the desert, but after a group effort to clear her tyres of sand and lowering her tyre pressures a little, with some encouragement, she manages to self-recover. She says, “I love the sense of space and the chance to get out of the city to meet up with a nice bunch of supportive people. It definitely beats going to a mall!” Kate remarks later that “the collective elation when Irene extracted herself out of that sticky spot was one of the highpoints of the trip for me.”
Convoys are arranged with one veteran driver as “second lead” immediately behind, the trip leader then comes with the least experienced members and finally the rest of the seasoned off-road drivers who linger near the back and take a more challenging line, all the while watching the convoy in readiness to step in to assist if required.
Martin and Safa Mike take in turns to drive behind me, once or twice holding back the convoy while I extricate myself out of a few tight spots, occasionally having to find a slightly different line if I think a crest or a bowl will be too challenging for the newer drivers in our convoy.
Jane, Safa Mike, Martin and Dharan all take turns at being the tail car, and for Jane this trip is a great chance to get to know her new FJ, which feels quite different in the desert to her usual Jeep Wrangler. For her, the summer is “a peaceful time with few mad enough to venture out!”
Dharan, a keen photographer, says “I love the empty space, the sensuality of the dunes flowing and merging into one another and the contrast and depth of light especially as the sun sinks toward the horizon in the late afternoon.”
Arriving at our favourite camp spot near a gatch track just as the sun kisses the horizon, we set up BBQs and proceed to cook up a delicious feast which we all share. July might be alright for dune bashing, but it’s certainly too hot to camp overnight, so after lots of chatting and some stargazing we reluctantly pack up and head back to civilisation.
What drives me to head into the desert in the hottest of weathers? Spending time in the open air, experiencing the raw beauty of the desert, the chance to see wildlife and most importantly, helping others to increase their skill level whilst keeping them safe in challenging conditions. Can’t wait for the next trip!
