Almost4x4

Liwa Sand and Ray – Dec 5, 2025

It was my first time visiting Liwa, and I didn’t want to miss a single moment of the experience. So, on Thursday, I prepared my car and camping gear, planning to head out right after work at 4 PM.

Alhamdulillah, everything went as planned by 4:15 PM, I was on the road. According to GPS, it was a 2.5-hour drive, an easy one.

On the way, I cleared all my overdue calls, which felt like a good start. Then, for the last 30 minutes before reaching, I had complete silence just me, the sunset, and the weather.

I was surprised to see speed limit signs of 160 km/h and cars were like rockets, but I decided to take it easy and enjoy the ride, at 130 km/h.

Around 7 PM, I reached ADNOC, refueled, and explored “Al Hor” camping tools shop (this is not an ad). After leaving the shop, I met Kupa, Eren, then @KIMOz , and finally Al Shamsi. Together, we headed to the camp, where two heroes had already arrived and lit the fire.

We enjoyed the calm of the silent night under a full moon it was magical. Eventually, one by one, we went off to sleep.

I woke up early, started the fire, and had a quick shot of quiet desert while watching the sunrise. Then I started cooking breakfast as everyone gathered. Suddenly, the fog covered us up, and we could barely see anything. Al Shamsi announced we will move once his orange tent became visible. Around 9:30 AM, the glowing tent signaled it was time to go.

We lined up the cars, and I learned two new terms: “Country Cross Drive” and “Balcony”—the latter meaning you’re on the edge of a high slope with nothing visible below. The drive started smooth, but soon we hit soft sand and challenges began. I got stuck on a flat, tried reversing, going forward, even switching to 4L no luck. Thanks to Kimoz and @Pavan , I was pulled out.

Mid day, we stopped for lunch, surprised by the chilly breeze. After an hour, we continued. First, a minor tire pop out, then a major one on the Boss’s car, driven by the smart lady Sara. We learned new recovery techniques and, with teamwork (including me holding the air hose ), fixed it.

By then, the sun had set, and darkness fell.

We began our night exit. The support team lighted up the way and very special thanks to @Mghoneim for his powerful arrow light (Mashallah) it lighted everything.

The hardest part was when we reached the gatch road, where white sand and dust covered everything. Sometimes, we had to stop completely because visibility was zero. Thankfully, we all made it out safely.

Then came the long drive home 4 hours as per GPS i.e. I will reach by midnight. After 10 hours of off-roading, exhaustion hit hard, but with Red Bull, open windows, loud radio, and a few face slaps, I made it home safely.

MORAL OF THE STORY LIWA IS A DIFFERENT STORY

Thank you all for this lovely night and day ..

Looking forward for the next Liwa drive

Hello Guys

The night of December 5th and the full day drive on the 6th became one of my most memorable experiences. @siddharthsai and I reached the campsite around 10 PM, where everyone was gathered around the fire, talking and enjoying the weather.@massaleh had made a special drink that was perfect for the night. We stayed up talking until 2 AM before I finally set up my tent.

The next morning, on the 6th, my tent was soaked and the entire area was covered in thick fog. Since Sid and I had camped about 100 meters away from the camp, we made our way back through the dense fog.

Because of the weather, the drive started late at 10:30 AM. The plan was to cover 130 km before sunset, and since it was my first full day desert drive, I was excited. The sand was extremely soft, totally different from usual, and it made the entire drive feel unique.

The day had everything: technical sections, safari style stretches, tall cresting, second tries, rope recoveries, and a few pop outs. Samshi communicated clearly throughout the drive, and at one point he mentioned 100 km to go, I was bit confused because I couldn’t map time with distance .
I also witnessed a new recovery technique, using one car as an anchor with two trolley jacks to fix a pop out. Watching that level of skill was impressive.

Towards the end, we even drove at night. drive felt completely different and exciting. Eventually, we reached the kacha track and wrapped up the long day. Even if we didn’t cover the full planned distance, the experience felt complete, full of learning, teamwork, variety, and great company.

Thank you so much @KIMOz ,@bobpavan , and @Mghoneim for the support and recoveries, and thanks to @alshamsi_m for organising and leading such a wonderful drive.

Time flies, doesn't it? Last time this year, I still remember heading to Liwa with Kareem to join the almost team. It's been a year? Really? I feel I was well prepared for LIWA this time, including the camping part. As usual, the waypoints were updated on the app by Thursday, and I met Minhaj at his place in AUH since it was on the way. We started from Abu Dhabi city around 7pm, hoping to reach camp at least by 9:30. My digestive system is weird, so I decided to grab something at Liwa and then head to the camp, so @Minhaj and I stopped at the McD at Liwa town and went through the drive-through and got some burgers, and we had them at the McD parking lot. From there we headed to the last petrol station and filled up on 98 as well as my 30L jerrycan (filled around 27L).

From there the points to the camp were very straightforward. I had Gaia on my Android display, and trust me, it is super useful for navigating. Points 1 & 2 were easy enough, although I misjudged point 3, as there was a dirt road leading straight to it. I took a detour but soon enough caught up to the track. As I was approaching the camp site location, there was a bunch of cars parked right next to the original end point, thinking that's almost, I went up to them just to realise they were some other group. They were realy friendly and told us they were not almost. We then navigated to the exact point and @alshamsi_m and a few others like @massaleh was already there preparing to cook.

Now this is my fav part of camping. We sat around the fire and just started talking about random stuff. Always love to hear everyone talk about different things. We started at Jupiter and ended up talking about Arc Raiders with @Kuba ..

This is the part of camping I love. Pure conversations, and it was simply lovely.
Me and @Minhaj camped around 150 metres from the main camp, we found a nice dune with a view of almost everyone, including Shamsi. Set up camp, clicked some photos and out on some 60's Jazz music and we sat for maybe around 1 hour and then decided to call it a day. @Minhaj gave me a kit with a couple of pieces of camping tech stuff. Thank you, brother. I think this was my first gift from someone other than family. Appreciate it.

Don't know when I slept, but morning came all of a sudden. I woke up when Minhaj called me, opened the tent and was surprised to see no fog around 7am. I was thinking about how Shamsi got it wrong about the fog. I brushed my teeth and was packing the tent, came out of the car, and I couldn't see the car parked next to me. LOL. It just came in all of a sudden. The thickest fog I have experienced in the UAE. Like not even 30m visibility. @bobpavan also camped with us, and as I was just sleeping the night before, he just left in the fog, and Minhaj and I were wondering how to get to the main campsite. At first we moved around and realised the fog was just too thick to even find out where they are. But then I put the location on Gaia and trusted my gut. In 2 mins we were parked next to everyone. We all sat around and waited for the fog to clear. @bobpavan ... bro, you are a legend for making that milk coffee in the morning and also giving me a cup of noodles. Gestures like this go a long way in my head. That moment is when you realise there are people out there kind enough to subconsciously understand you are hungry and give you food. I'm emotional as I type this but grateful to be part of such an amazing group of people. I would also like to thank @massaleh for his amazing thick milk we had at night too. Truly grateful.

Once the fog cleared and we could see @alshamsi_m 's tent that was like 200M away, that was the sign to pack up and leave. @OmarShams's Jeep had a CV joint issue, and he decided he would be a passenger.

The drive:

The drive was almost 12 hours long. Imagine not thinking about anything for 12 hours and having just the drive on your mind. Insane. We did a lot of drops this time, some really huge (of course it's LIWA). In this drive, I can say everyone did well; everyone was calm and composed. Just a few refusals here and there, some popouts, nothing out of the ordinary. The last pop-out took maybe an hour to fix as the car was inclined. Shami showed us that massive recovery live along with the intermediate and advanced support. That was quite the learning point. I still can't do that recovery by myself, but what I saw was next to magical. The team managed to fix it, but fortunately (yes, not unfortunately) it was sunset, and we did the next 2 hours in the dark. It was challenging for many, but exposures like these are rare. Can you imagine the might of Liwa at night? My spotlights came so much into use that I forgave Baja Designs for charging me a bomb for them. They just worked exactly when they were supposed to. We reached the road around 5 mins to 8PM, inflated, and then left back home. It was a 3-hour 48-minute drive for me to reach home. I stopped and fuelled up and also picked up a Red Bull so that I don't risk falling asleep on the way back.

I was extremely tired, but knowing that I was able to conquer with Liwa for the second time put a small smile on my face before bed.

Thank you, Almost, for letting me be part of this incredible family. Love you all

Ciao,
Sid

Hello Everyone

First of all, I would like to thank @KIMOz , @Mghoneim and @bobpavan for the support because it was needed for our newbies.

The hype for this date was not high because everyone where fighting for the seat to Moreeb drive. The least they know that even this area has it's own magic .

We had our camp in our usual place for the last 10 years with beautiful balocony in the morning along with our friendly local farmer aka The angry bird . Once the drive started there was no turning back and we head to the dunes.

The convoy did very well and all came out safely and happily . The main highlight I would like to mention for the far drives is a good navigation system or app because the challenge is increasing and the marshals won't be waiting for you by the road to escort you in and out. Secondly, You need off-road lights even if you are a newbie because you never know when you will be caught in the dark in this hobby.

Thanks again for everyone who participated with us and shared a great vibe.

Looking forward to see you soon.

Shamsi