Liwa Oasis, UAE

Trip to the Liwa Oasis, United Arab Emirates. 

I finished my first year of uni and thought I would do some travel over the summer, seeing as i had until the 1st of October to be back at uni to start the new year. I headed back to Dubai to see the family and took the opportunity to have a look at the impressive sand dunes in Liwa.

Liwa Oasis is about 100 km south of the Persian Gulf coast and 150 km South South West of the city of Abu Dhabi, on the northern edge of Rub' Al Kali desert. The drive took about 3 hours with no traffic apart from the odd water transport truck speeding by, on its way to a power plant somewhere in the desert. 

The Empty Quarter (Rub Al Kali) is a colossal sand desert encompassing most of the Southern Arab Peninsula, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, United Arab Emirates and Yemen. 

The desert is 1,000 kilometres (620 mi) long, and 500 kilometres (310 mi) wide. Liwa is among a belt of 50 other oasis villages that mark the northern reaches of the Empty Quarter. The unmarked boarder of Saudi is only 16 - 35 km South.

                                                                                                               

Every now and then you would see a tracker along the side of the road, which i can assume is used to keep the every changing sand dunes at bay from swallowing the road. The road is a new feature to the desert, making it easier for less adventurous travelers to trip and get a glimpse at the epic sand dunes. However if your feeling up to it you can grab a few friends, lots of water, essential gear and most importantly powerful 4x4 for cruising over the desert peaks and weaving in and out of sand bowls. Always travel with more than 2 cars, never 1, because the sand is really soft and the heat is difficult to bare.

5 Miles to the Saudi Arabian Boarder.

Daily maximum temperatures in summer average at 47 °C (117 °F) and can reach as high as 56 °C (133 °F)!

Although the temperatures are insane in summer the 

humidity levels seemed to be lower than that of Dubai or Abu Dhabi, so it was a bearable heat, especially as the sun started to set.  I would recommend anyone who wants to visit Liwa to go in winter when the weather is much cooler and the sand is harder with annual rainfall, making driving easier too.

There are plenty of places to camp along the side of the road and a few hotels situated in the desert, one in particular stands out called, Qasr Al Sarab. Its like living in an old French Foreign Legion settlement. Very cool! 

Please come back to check out some more blog post about 'post TastyTrek'. There are more Liwa trips and even a trip to an old peoples home in Goa. 

Stay cool and chill out DM Ford. :)

Canyons

So I get a week off at a time every 3rd week and my girlfriend (Alex), being a reporter, gets a mid week weekend with Wednesdays and Thursdays off. Unfortunately this means that we only get 2 days together every month, and therefore we try and make the most of those days. So last Wednesday we packed up the car and headed to The Black Canyon of the Gunnison. National Geographic rates one of these day-hikes in the top 20 in America! and its only 1.5hrs away from Grand Junction. National Geographic's best day hikes.

Alex chilling on a 2000ft cliff

Landey at sunset lookout

Inadvertently we ended up at the South entrance so we spent the afternoon driving along the rim view road and checking out the view points and playing on the rocks before finding a spot in the campsite. It just happens to be the week after labour day so there were about 50 people with our idea but we managed to find a pretty sweet spot. You're not allowed to collect wood at these campsites, we asked a ranger and he said we had to drive 10 minutes into the gorge to find some drift wood. We got a fire going eventually and cooked up some chicken and then went and found a place to cotch and watch the stars come out. With the milky way clear as day I tried taking some photos with my new camera, but no good ones to show for it.

A fairly uncomfortable night with a rock in my back, and after something fell out of the tree above us and hit me I couldn't shut up my neuroses. In the back of my head I couldn't help remembering all the bear warnings - clean up all your food, don't have anything scented outside of a bearproof container. I was still wearing my jumper that I cooked all the chicken in! Oh well, we survived. 

Had to get to the North entrance of the park to do the hike we wanted. 1 hour to get to the other side! Convenient that Delta was half way so we could get some cooked breakfast! But the North entrance is kinda a challenge to find. 

View down the Canyon

Going down is hard on the knees!

Parked up at the North campsite which was empty, and AWESOME! you can pretty much camp on the edge of the canyon with a 2000ft drop below! wish we had come here. Anyway a quick change of plans we decided to hike down the SOB draw. The ranger warned me that its a bit more than people expect but I figured after hiking the Te Araroa, pshh it'll be fine... It was slow going, we took our time and stopped to take lots of pictures and breaks but there is lots to look at so we didn't find it too hard. About half way down though there was a minor, major problem. Poison Ivy was everywhere! My skin really doesn't agree with this plant and like most people I get an insane reaction to it (*still no rash at this point, so fingers crossed). Progress was somewhat slowed by having to treat every plant like it was out to get you but still we made it down in the posted 2hrs. We even had a little chat with 3 guys who were heading up from their 3 day camping/fishing trip. 

View through the trees near the top

Poison Ivy: Evil plant

The bottom of this canyon is sooo much fun. Went for a swim in the freezing-but-not-too-cold water and Alex stretched out on a rock while I cruised around taking pictures. After 40 mins we decided it was about time to go. I wish that we had brought more gear and cooking equipment etc, and well, that Alex didn't have to go back to work tomorrow but well, another time. 

Going for a swim

Alex catching some sun

The route up was much more eventful. We passed the same guys - going slow, weighed down by their multitude of gear. I think each one was carrying about 1.5 - 2 times the amount of stuff we carried on the Te Araroa. We made much, much better time coming up until we nearly died. That's a little over-exaggerated but we took a wrong turn and ended up with quite a challenge. Alex was leading and I was a little out of it since we didn't pack enough water. In an effort to scope out the easiest route up she accidentally headed up the wrong side of a ridge. It started out easy but by the time I realised that we missed we were about 400ft above, and 15 minutes above the turn off. So close to the top we decided to just scramble on up. The granite here was weathered to hell and was crumbling and loose. Nowhere to put your hands. Couldn't get a foot hold, one of those precarious situations where you were balancing, trying not to disturb the scree and hoping the rock didn't give way. We were about 15ft from where the trees had managed to make it down the sheer face so we just went for it and, luckily, all was well. A boulder nearly took me out but I managed to sidestep it and it landed fine on a ledge a little lower. 

At this point the wind picked up, howling up through the canyon and the sun was covered by and ominous cloud. Isn't this just always the case. It added the feeling of urgency and we had no idea that this wouldn't end in a polished cliff face. I really didn't feel like sliding down what we just barely made up so we pushed on and after scrambling through thorn bushes we climbed out pretty easily onto the top and met the trail in less than 5 minutes. It was only 5pm, we had like 3 more hours till sundown! Nice. Felt a little sick due to dehydration but got some water and was soon fixed. Got home by 6pm and put in a pizza and watched some frozen planet. Colorado is such a crazy and incredible place!