An OBE

I decided to visit a place I hadn’t been to in about 3 years.

This is an area south east of Dubai & about 45 minutes drive from the Omani border. There is a large dune next to the highway affectionately known by all & sundry as Big Red. The area has been spoiled with touristy stuff like quad hires, camel rides & cafes. It is still an area popular with off roaders, moto X riders plus the young local loonies showing off on the highway going along it in their Nissan Patrols on two wheels or just burning rubber doing doughnuts. If they are having fun & don’t whack into anyone, then that’s fine with me.

I kept upwind of this lot but it is not easy buggying. There are no sabkahs. It is just one huge area with a mighty labyrinth of dunes.

The dunes just go on & on and there is not a single flat area for relaxed bugging that I enjoy on the sabkahs.

Wind was choppy and was flying the 6.6 Blade but had to size down to the 4.9 later. Had two OBE’s. One when I was blown off of a dune ridge & the second my Mrs. caught me on camera as I got myself in a mess trying to climb a soft wall that someone had driven down (pic). My right foot got caught under the foot-strap which was a bit nasty.

The next incident occurred when being pulled up a steep dune & a power line broke. I tied it but it broke again. I just swapped handles & lines from my 6.6 & got on my way. Power line failures are rare but I guess with time, heat & sand their life is over.

 

I was moving for 2 hours 36 mins & top speed was only 44.4 kph with an average speed of 14.8 kph. I managed only 38.5 kms but the few pics of today should explain why. These pics are very real & every direction you look it seems the same until you get close to the highway & can see the street lamps & vehicles passing along.

I saw 3 off-roaders & just to comment that the buggy is much quicker & nips all over the place while they struggle to get up or find away around a dune.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that I have to work tomorrow while all you lucky guys can go buggying.

Good winds & hope you don’t get cold fingers.