Too Slack of late

Matt: Sorry!!! It's been a while as I've been busy. So here's the news in brief.

Week Past:
A group of us gathered together with growling engines eager to chew up the Dunes of the desert. Yep we went Dune bashing and camping again, it was an eventful trip. We had a couple of newbies so the going was slow, but after a few mishaps and a bit of training we were enjoying rolling through the desert in convoy. Sadly within 15 minutes of entering the dunes we had a casualty, One of the group was driving along a dune and lost traction, sliding sideways down the drift the tyre came of the rim. Arrgh! Ordinarily you can pump the tyre back up and force it to 'pop' back on, but this time the tyre was even off the valve, so no chance. Changing a wheel on sand is not the simplest task - but luckily I had a thick plank of wood for the camp fire which was perfect for the job. So we eventually carried on - much fun was had and all drivers did great. We set up camp at the back of eccles ridge, a high escarpment awkwardly jutting up from the dunes. The wind was high when we set down, making tent erection fun! But soon we had a fire blazing and food on the go...lovely!
Next morning we were up early and after cooking breakfast and breaking camp we headed to the dunes again to return back to Dubai. There few a few instances again where 4x4s were pushed, pulled or dragged free but we made good time.. until disaster stuck again - to avoid a collision on a sand ridge I had to pull my trust Paj into a severe ditch loosing the tyre in the process!! What rotten luck, this time not only was the Paj in a really difficult position but again the tyre was completely off the rim, there was a sand storm scouring us as we work and we didn't have a substantial plank of wood having burnt it all on the campfire.. (note to self, keep plank in car).
We finally managed to jack the car up and get out of there. Thanks to everyones efforts.




Last weekend:
Cris and I threw supplies in the Paj and headed for Fujierah, we hunted for a spot on the beach where we could set up the tent and chilled in the sun. It was an interesting site we found, amongst old ruined shacks just off the beach. The sun woke us early on saturday morning and I managed to snap some cool photos. Enjoy the pics.