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Tady je počteníčko
o naší výpravě do Empty Quarter psané v angličtině , poněvadž jsem
musel napsat trip report do našeho rijádského časopisu Sandladder pro nadšence off road a nechtělo se mi totéž psát v češtině
. Pokud by někdo chtěl podrobnější
informace – ať pošle e.mail .
One of my dreams became true when I visited Liwa Oasis and beyond – huge, extensive sand dunes of the biggest sand desert on the planet . Empty Quarter or Al Rub AL Khali in Arabic . There is no way to compare impression of this dunes to any other what we have visited for almost 5 years here in Saudi . Not because Saudi does not have the same sand desert , but accessibility to Empty Quarter sand is the easiest exactly from Liwa Oasis and not from Saudi side. Liwa is a destination that will blow You away with it’s massive expanses of awesome desert . Empty Quarter covering parts of Oman , Yemen , UAE and Saudi Arabia and was historically regarded as the edge of the civilization by people living in the region . The Liwa area , situated on the edge of the desert , is one of the largest oases on the Artabian peninsula . Home to the Bani Yas tribe , ancestors of the current rulling family of Abu Dhabi , the fertile Liwa crescent stretches over 150 kms and is dotted with many small villages .… Altogether with my wife and accompanying by Canadian – Japanese couple Tim and Naomi we headed to Emirates early morning 22nd of March. Tim departured night before what was impossible for us, so we woke up early to catch him on the way. Despite I drove sometimes around 150 km/hr, Tim had 3 hrs in advantage. Usually procedure on the Saudi – Emirates border stopped us for less than 40 minutes and then we were communicating thru mobiles – I stayed tuned to my AlJawal but Tim swap it for his Thuraya satellite phone , what caused us some delay to find each other on the way there just few kilometers behind the city of Ruwais. Despite the weather on the Saudi side of our journey was very windy and dusty, sands in Empty Quarter was very quiet with beautiful afternoon colors . We approached Liwa Oasis late afternoon , it is less then 900 kms from Riyadh and the traveling time for our car was less then 8 hrs . We entered from the west side of Liwa – it is very long oasis like a valley stretching from west to east for more than 150 kms with suprising amount of greenery, passed few small villages on the road and finally came to the middle of Oasis close to the Mezairaa . It was our point of interest because from here You can go further to the Empty Quarter on the new road heading towards well known Moreeb Hill. Before that we bought some firewood for upcoming night and we hurried to the Moreeb. But the sun went down so quickly , we decided to leave the way and entered dirty road from which we went to the sand to find nice spot for sleeping . For the first time we used 4x4 in Empty here , went up to one of the big dune , found the right spot . Then Tim decided to re park his vehicle for more convenient spot for few metres and unfortunately he had got stuck … we decided leave his H3 stucked , set up fire and prepared something for dinner after really exhausting all day driving from Saudi . Just a piece of Arabic Moon was on the western side and sky was full of stars as we are used to see it deeply in desert with really no light pollution …. Following day after breakfast Tim decided to pull out everything of his heavily packed car for next expedition to Oman . It was much more easier to rescue him from sand than I expected and we were ready ( after repacking of all of his stuff back to his car ) to explore area . First we visited Moreeb Hill ( Moreeb means Scary dune in Arabic ) – very huge , more than 100 altitude meters high dune where annually competition of special 4x4 cars is held to reach the fastest time to the top of the dune . Hardly to believe that more than 250 meters distance on its really steepy dune is less than 8 seconds …. We tried to go few metres up and both ours cars were not be able to do more than 50 meters up …. Here was the last hard top of the road so we deflated our tyres and did some adventure and sand driving in real Empty Quarter . We went up to the more than 100 meters high dune from where was an amazing view to the emptyines of this sands …. And just few kilometers from this point to the south was border with Saudi Arabia as my GPS show it to me . We came back to the bottom of the sabkha , where Moreeb is and drove around sabkha on the sand dunes up and down . Sabkha looks like a salty bottom of dry lake - salt water from some 120 kms Gulf coastline is penetrating here so sometimes sabkha is very muddy and unpredictable . And , sabkha is very common here , filling every valley in between the huge dunes . Late afternoon we went back to the Liwa to see some fish farms – it is very funny to see such a this things here in the middle of the dry sandy desert . Due to the underground sources of water that contents salt almost equals to the sea water they are farmed bulti – a species of saltwater fish . Then we splited our journey and went for next adventures on our planned way . Tim and Naomi to Oman around Muscat , for one week , me and Iva to visit our Czech friends in Abu Dhabi , not only for skiing to Dubai and to explore eastern part of Emirates in between Dibba and Fujeirah and visit two small parts of Oman ( Oman is divided to three parts ) on the north side of Arabian peninsula – Musandan , where we actually were 2 years back and to visit very small part in between Fujeirah and Dibba , where we entered two wadis , Dhib and Wurayq . Well , it was another story ..
Few statistics for those they want to visit Liwa :
From Riyadh to Saudi-Emirati border it is aprox 550 kms , can be done within 5 hrs , from Al Kharj there is just two lane road but one part of the way is absolutely straight for more than 250 kms heading exactly to the East . Crossing the border takes usually less than 40 minutes , depending on traffic . What is necessary is a Car Insurance for Emirates , costs 100 SR for minimum of 10 days and it is sell just at the end of the Emirati border . From here to Liwa it is another 250 kms to the edge of the Oasis , which is very long . On Google You can find so many weblinks to Moreeb hill and Liwa itself for those they want to find hotel , resthouse , articles about annually 4x4 competition etc . For most people , a trip to Liwa inspires further visits , so do not cramming too much in – You’ll be back !
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