This is was one of the most awaited trips of this season yet, just everything about Liwa is mesmerizing, from the long drive to reach Liwa, prep work, overnight camp, the drive itself, everything.
@Johanna ,
@optimus and me started early in the day by meeting up at 3 pm and drove towards Liwa. The action and drama started early for me. As we were gunning for the camp site to catch the sunset we were going flat out with Outlaw leading our mini convoy and where the highway speed limit opened to 160kmph we absolutely floored it.
While driving on 160kmph for around 30 minutes flat Outlaw gave a hiccup and coughed for a pulse of a second and raised all kinds of alarms in my head after which I check the dashboard and the “A/T Gear Temp High” warning icon light had come on. What I didn’t realize was that the warning light had been on for quite some time, I am guessing it must have come on after pushing him to 160kmph for so long but I never noticed it because of a simple human error. I was driving with my left hand on the top of the steering wheel (Vin Diesel style), not noticing that my arm was blocking my view of the lower left corner of the dashboard where the warning light had been blinking all this time but I didn’t notice it until the damage was already done.
Lesson learned, always drive with your hands on either side of the steering wheel or on the lower part of the steering to make sure the dashboard is clearly and completely visible at all times. That hiccup was the sign that the transmission had broken but Outlaw kept driving and since the drive didn’t feel any different so I simply slowed down and continued to drive on 140kmph which lowered the gearbox temp and the warning light switched off.
Ones we reached the last petrol station before the camp site and stopped for refueling I realized something is not right with Outlaw as he would simply not engage into 1st or even 2nd gear, when put in drive he went straight to 3rd gear and used very high rpms to move. I drove him a few more meters to clear the petrol pumping machine and park at the store/shop of the petrol station and checked under bonnet for any signs of trouble but all looked normal, no overheating issues, no radiator fluids leaking, nothing. So I engage reverse gear but nothing happens and it feels like it’s still in neutral, the whole petrol station staff including Optimus and I try to push Outlaw in reverse but he won’t budge, tyres were locked. Outlaw could only drive forward but that too in 3rd gear, quick check of the transmission oil confirmed that the transmission had overheated and failed, broken 1st gear, 2nd gear, neutral and reverse but would still start in park… WTF ??? I called Shamsi and asked for help to which he right away offer to leave the camp spot and drive down to the petrol station to help us but there was no point as nothing could be done about the problem at this time. We dragged Outlaw out of the parking spot using Johanna’s help
We parked Outlaw behind a building and Optimus offered me his passenger seat, thank you sir. Later on Johanna told me that she saw black smoke come out of Outlaw’s exhaust for like a second. I am guessing it was that initial hiccup that I felt was when the black smoke came out.
We drove towards the camp site and I was trying to suppress the frustration of not being able to drive in one of the most anticipated drives of the season but thanked God that I still get to experience Liwa, her beauty, her tranquility, her surprises. This and all the moral support from
@alshamsi_m and every single one on the trip kept me going through the trip and enjoy it. The camp as everyone has already mentioned was one of the unforgettable ones, for the first time in my life I saw the Milky Way Galaxy with my own eyes and not on a screen. I just simply went silent for a few minutes and gasped at the beauty of the star studded sky, they say that there are some moments in your life that you cannot easily forget and seeing the milky way galaxy in person for the first time was surely one of those moments for me. What I didn’t know was that more moments like this would follow in this trip. Just when I was gazing at the beautiful starry sky in the silent and dark night of Liwa, Shamsi whipped out his phone and we got to see the planets through some star gazing app. We saw Jupiter which was hiding behind our moon, we saw Mars and Venus. Later on more members arrived and the camp site grew bigger and before we knew it pretty much everyone was there with a lovely atmosphere full of amazing stories, laughs and grills lighted up with food on them. We had one of the best lamb chops and steaks till date and the amazing kebabs as well. Later on while finding a place to sleep I thanked to God that
@Petr r brought my bed because I forgot all of my camping stuff in Outlaw while going through the trauma of not being able to drive. Optimus to the rescue again, offered me his sleeping bag and I slept under the milky way galaxy out in the open desert on the bed with a sleeping bag and my backpack rolled up as a pillow (another unforgettable moment). It was hard to fall asleep as the eyes would simply not shut, they won’t stop gazing at the stars in awe of the beauty of our world. The morning was just as beautiful, with the sun rising on the crest of the horizon filled with beautiful orange/reddish dunes in every direction. But then I put my head into the sleeping bag and went back to sleep and woke up after 7am. Quick wash-up, coffee, prep and we were ready to roll out.
In the first few minutes Optimus and I realized that this is a completely different ball game, super soft patches of sand in surprisingly unpredictable spots.
With bowls, ditches, walls, climbs and drops in every direction and everything just simply super-sized. We came to a big climb and Shamsi tried to go up but had to come down mid-way and then went back up again from a slightly different angle.
He radioed in calling
@Booy y to follow his tracks and bring the rest of the convoy up, to which Booy replied “copy that” then we hear somebody else say “copy that” then somebody else say “copy that” and then somebody else say “copy that” upon hearing all these copy that’s, Optimus and I stare at the climb and then look at each other in fear and excitement and Optimus says with a straight face “copy that, copy that, copy that, all this COPY THAT is gonna get us killed” and we burst out into laughter. Our turn came to go up the climb and Optimus floored it but just as we were about to reach the sweet spot of the climb the Fj ran out of breath and we started to lose momentum, out of sheer fear and natural instincts I held on to the door handle as tight as possible and yelled at Optimus “DON’T FIGHT GRAVITY” not realizing that he had already turned down and was driving safely towards a second try while I made a fool of myself by shouting out the obvious. We reached the top laughed at each other and watched others make the climb.
After some time we reached our first wall and I experienced the magical drops of Liwa. I cannot describe it in words and neither can any amount of pictures or videos can capture the beauty or pay justice to what Liwa makes you feel like with its beauty, when you are on the edge of these drops about to go down with the cars looking like ants on the base of the drop.
While you are dangling on the top of the wall with your front tyres already on the wall.
As you descend down the wall you hear the dune singing to you and that is a sound you cannot describe in words, it simply holds you in state of trance and all you can do is hold on and wish the sound lasts as long as possible.
We kept driving for some more time and we heard about the second casualty of the drive when Shamsi’s Fj broke one of the engine mounts, after which some serious stuff happened which I don’t want to talk about but let’s just say that it involved a big drop, some fair amount of fish tailing, me going into complete Spiderman position with my hands tightly pressing on the roof holding me down and my legs locked in the foot well followed by a long technical break. Leave the details for another camp night.
At one point, in fact I will go to the extent of saying that at the MOST CRITICAL point of our drive
@panos s decided to get crested with no room of rescue from the back and probably the biggest drop of the drive right in front of him, that’s when all hell broke loose with a lot of other stuff going on (which is a whole another camp night story by the way) and we heard
@JockJKU on the radio going "Well I am in the back, so I will just turn around and run away"
.
With absolutely no way of rescuing his car with any other car from the back because there was simply no space there and
@giorgio almost got stuck while trying to rescue Panos and the drop being right in front of him. With the rest of the convoy and other intermediates and advance drivers all stuck in the back of the convoy. That’s when we came up with the idea of literally pushing his jeep over the cliff, so me Giorgio and Optimus gave it our best and pushed him over the edge. Ran back to our cars and followed the drop.
Fast forward we reached safely back to Moreeb dune and that’s where Shamsi and I said our goodbyes to everyone and left for home but not before Shamsi gave Moreeb a try and went up a few climbs with a broken engine mount !!
We drove back to pick up Outlaw and he started in a heartbeat, he missed me. Shamsi pulled over to take a power nap but I did not have that option since I was afraid if I stopped I wouldn’t be able to move again. So I just kept gulping down Redbull after Redbull, Outlaw drove on a broken transmission in 3rd gear on the highways cruising on 120kmph and then tackled the congested traffic of Sharjah industrial area, reaching the workshop while all this time being escorted by Shamsi all the way from Liwa. We left Outlaw at the garage and then Shamsi dropped me home, I cannot thank this gentleman enough. He could have easily just left me but he drove me back home.
Just as it was mentioned later, we will have our revenge. Outlaw will be back and will take on Liwa.
Until next time, see you all in the sand.
P.S. : Outlaw is getting a new transmission and should be ready for action in a couple of days.
