Tone, John and I went to the Wahiba and crossed from the planned 2018 Wahiba Challenge start point to the mid-point. The beginning of the day was quite challenging with soft sand and a few sand mountains but later in the day we got into a groove and manged to finish before 4:00.
We met on Thursday in Muscat and drove to Al Kamil to have dinner and gas up which is about 3 hours from home. Most of the way is divided highway except for the last hour which you must do in the dark and is under construction; not fun. It was an uneventful ride and we made it to the desert by 9:00. We were looking for a spot to put up the tents and then John got stuck.
John “choosing” the camping spot. You can see the houses and towns in the distance but yet you can be completely alone by driving over a few dunes.
It was a chill night and we all went to bed on time. The next morning we packed up and headed into the desert relatively early as the plan was to cross then drive home which is about 2 hours.
This was the first time I drove a JK in the sand and it is a lot different than a TJ, in someways better and someways not but I must admit mostly better. The driving style is very different as you must keep your engine speed up in order to have any power, with the TJ there is always power right to stall and more subjectively the low RPM sound of the TJ is singing versus groaning in a JK. The sight lines especially forward are much worse in the JK meaning that cresting is more uncertain as you can’t see as closely in front of you and must treat all crests as through there is a hole behind the dune – probably a good practice any way. On the highway the JK is civilized right up to 140kph while a highway trip in a TJ is a bit more like an adventure. Fuel consumption is similar depending on driving style.
First one of the day.
Tone’s turn. I never take pictures of my own stucks because I am busy trying to get out of trouble as quickly as possible to keep the team moving.
Soft Sand
We had quite a few stucks and I managed to knock a tire off the rim in a sand hole through I didn’t know until John came up and said “I know what your problem is – you only have three tires.” I am pretty sure I wasn’t centering the tires before climbing out of the hole, the feedback from the steering wheel is less clear than in my TJ so now I check the tire position with a quick look out the window if I am uncertain. It took at least an hour to get the tire back on and then I got stuck again trying to get off the sand mountain partly cause I was gun shy as the tire hadn’t fully seated and I didn’t want to knock it off again. While we were working a local came up and asked for a tow, then helped me dig my car out. He was a good digger, smelled like camel manure and asked for money after we towed him out.
I damaged the tire carrier on the first sand mountain we crossed backing into a dune to get some elevation for a run at a soft sandy bowl. Tires were a bit hard a this point too.
A sand “hill” on the horizon. The dunes on a sand mountain are generally random, sharp crested with deep valleys and very soft sand everywhere.
After the crossing I had to stop at a tire shop and get the sand removed from the inside of my tire. It took a long time to get the tire technician to understand what I wanted and then he made me wait as he put new tires on another car that showed up after me. There must have been two full shovels worth of sand in the tire which made driving at highway speeds impossible due vibration. I didn’t make home until about 9:00 but the car was ready to go with no repairs required the following week.
It was a good trip and the route was challenging and fun.
