Finished our walk this morning about 6.45 am and on the way home I thought I would swing by this green 'oasis' looking area I can see in the distance on our desert route......my friend tells me its the start of a golf course but construction seems abandoned and there is just a large green area on which the trees and plants are being kept alive....she described it as like a 'wood'.....very tempting! All was going well until I realized I couldn't get round to it the way I was going and so tried to spin around.....that's when our Desert Disaster struck......17 years and Ive never got stuck....and the day I do,I've got the dog in the car with me..... http://www.flickr.com/photos/97066992@N03/9576082524/ After a few wheel spins I realized I wasn't going anywhere...so we bailed out the car,knowing I was about 3 Kms from home and the sun was getting hotter ( luckily I still had some walk water with me)Off we strided,took me about 35 mins with a couple of water stops for Dex.....he walked like a dream over the soft sand( I guess he was tired as he'd already had his walk) but he was still bright and interested in every bush and tree....and walked perfectly by my side NO pulling the whole way home( on his harness though : )Hey,when it counts,he worked with me brilliantly. We were home by 8am......thank goodness I do early starts...it wasn't too hot! Chris was a little surprised when his breakfast and cup of tea arrived in bed......let him get a few bites in on his bacon sandwich before I told him......bless him,no moaning,not even when he realised it was too early to ring anyone on a Friday to borrow a rope( Friday is like Sunday here) its taken a drive to the DIY store,an SOS call to a good friend with a lot of desert driving experience,the help of a random security guard who saw us in the distance and came to offer help,6 diet 7 ups and 2 hours of everybody's time!!! David's help in this would have been much appreciated,I know he's been thrashing through those wadis in Oman and is probably and old hand at getting out of pickles like this!we always have an off road car in the family but it NEVER gets used for off road driving ;D Dexter has slept the morning away with no ill effects from his long trudge home...hes even dreaming that he is running by the looks ofnhim!chris is in the pool with a beer and I'm off to have a nice long hot shower after all the trouble I caused!have a great day everyone x
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure How well behaved Dexter was! After all that, its what you needed Angela! If that was me I'd have been panicking about the rise in temperature for Dexter, the car being stuck and being left, the walk home... :
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Wow, you bogged that baby well and truly!! But all in the worthy name of seeking new dog walking opportunities But what is THIS pic all about? Do tell.
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Good grief Angela , you were proper stuck Well done to Dexter for plodding home all that way, bless him
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Rachael I was talking to Lisa yesterday about a Dexters tail injury in General ....Run Free Dexter.she was a bit perturbed I had said he wagged it off so it was a photo to show her! I forgot to say in my story that I came home when Chris's friend arrived to pull the car out.......10 minutes later, chris is ringing,'Wheres the tow rope?!'.....Er in the back of the car that's just been parked in the garage!.... I went straight back with it and that was the only time he sounded a bit narked! Paige I've been meaning to PM you but I've caught you following this.....I suddenly realised yesterday that I can't remember the last time Dexter went stone hunting/ chewing .......at the grand old age of 11 months he seems to have lost interest .....I hope your Dexter does too.we took up all of the ornamental pebbles in the garden he was such a divil for getting them....he still used to go digging in the soil for them though .....
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Up to the floor pan in sand is THE worst, especially if you are on your own. So easily done too. I think 2 hours to get it out was not bad going. I was with 3 other colleagues in a 110 Land Rover at a place called Lekhwair in Oman near the Saudi, Emirates border when we got bogged on a sand dune. It was really hot and almost impossible to dig the car out because all you did by digging was lower it further into the dune. We needed to get daylight under the floor pan so the wheels were just moving the car and not dragging the sand too. Have you any idea how much sand you have to excavate from under a long wheel base Land Rover? Succeeded in the end but it took most of the day. We were out of radio contact too so the pressure was really on to get it out before they came looking for us as a non-return on the (can't recall now what it was called now) route board in the transport office, thus becoming a statistic and an embarassing item on the morning report. :-[ Anyway Dexter is now a fully fledged desert dog. Whoohoo! ;D
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Oh gosh David that situation was hardcore.....you totally understand the heat element and also digging that blummin sand.....it's like digging water......Chris shouting 'Put your back into it Angela...'while he let the tyres down was NOT helping..... We never do desert driving so even when we had our newly purchased equipment today we still weren't savvy...thank goodness for good friends,we made it!
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Angela do you not have enough excitement in your life without the desert adventure, I would have been panic striken being stuck in the desert with Charlie boy Helen xx Glad you are both OK. xxx
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Oh my goodness....just having got back from the heat of Palm Desert I can truly appreciate the panic you must have felt. Good thing you weren't further away. Glad to hear all was well in the end.....enjoy your rest today!!!
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Hope you and Dexter have fully recovered from your ordeal. I'm impressed that all was sorted by 10.00am. Alice
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Ah, of course!! Seeing his pink tail end and your pink toes I put 2 and 35 together and came up with the assumption that Dexter had got into your nail polish. Silly me. Sometimes I wonder if I am a lateral thinker or just plain dumb : ;D
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure On my! What "adventures". I will never moan about the Scottish weather (believe that you'll believe anything ;D ) Glad there was a good outcome to both these desert adventures. Didn't like the sound of "out of radio contact" bit. .....still laughing at the nail polish comment....my family think I'm loopy.....
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Don't be giving him ideas Racahel.....he gets into enough things as it is! X
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Sand is always very tricky, Angela. And, for those who haven't experienced it, it's more like talcum powder than beach sand and as you say it flows likw water. Most of my driving was on gravel and rock which is what most of the Oman is like in the interior - gravel plain.Our incident at Lekhwair was just bad luck trying to reach a spot off piste that we shouldn't really have been doing . Have you ever watched that film "Ice Cold in Alex". The intrepit group survive extreme hardship and arrive at the club in Alexandria, get the beers lined up, but refuse to drink them until the condensation on the glasses runs down on to the bar. The beers back at base in Yibal were like that! ;D Golly seems a long time ago now. Hope you are having as much fun in Dubai as we had in Oman! Did some teaching in Abu Dhabi a couple of years ago and chatting to a group of the Emiraty students they thought it must have been a real punishment posting to Oman when we were there in the 70s/80s. They asked if there were any roads. Well not really was the answer. ;D
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Ah it sounds like I have made you reminisce in a good way...and not brought back bad memories!there will have been so much change since you were there. We needed a couple of Emiratis yesterday.....now they are experts at getting you out of the sand.....the amount of equipment they produce from the back of their car.....pieces of cardboard,spades,ropes the lot,they have you out in a jiffy and they love to help the dosey expats that haven't got a clue!
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure ;D Yes we had nothing but a spade as we weren't supposed to be there. A tarpaulin orsome sand boards would have donethe trick. We got good a digging though. ;D
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Angela - note to self. Water, spade, mobile phone, rope. All in the car next time!!!! David, did you do the Wadi Bani Auf drive in Oman? Other Half and I did - we were TERRIFIED, even though it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever driven...
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Karen we are fully equipped up now,although our practical skills at using the equipment are somewhat lacking ;D Chris isn't that keen either for me to get bogged down again in an effort to create practice opportunities ;D ;D wonder why? You sound more experienced than us ...I'm very impressed,and you are a well travelled girl......what on earth would have taken you there doing that drive as a day trip?was it your friends that are now in Dubai?you intrigue me! ;D
Re: Dexter's Desert Adventure Hi Karen. Yes we did, but it was a long time ago and I can't recall all the locations and trips now. I'll have a look at the Oman on Google Earth plus our albums to jog my memory and make a few jottings - probably tomorrow. We were in Oman from 1977 to 1986 with a short break 1979/80 when we were posted back to UK for a short time. It changed out of all recognition to what it was like when we first arrived by the time we left in july 1986 to go to Brunei.
