Liwa Oasis: The Shah Fields - Is the Party over?

Sandman · Post by **Sandman** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 3:02 pm

Hi Guys,

I have been dune bashing in Liwa since 1997 and it has been a lot of fun but I am beginning to think the party is finally over, or last least over when it comes to happily exploring the Shah Fields.

On Sunday I did a reconnaissance trip with my desert driving partner to our favorite camping spot, the CD dune in the Shah Fields down close to the Saudi border. It is a huge sand dune that has a nice big flattish ledge close to the summit at the top of the southern face that is a perfect camping spot.

Well all was cool at our favorite camping spot until you wander up thirty feet and look over the dune summit toward the Liwa Crescent Road and suddenly you discover the Empty Quarter isn’t as empty as you remembered it last winter.

In three huge interconnected Sabkhas spread out and growing by the minute is a giant cancer tumor called the Al Hosn sour gas complex. It really is freaking huge. I think the road encircling the Al Hosn complex fence is about 10 kilometers in length and there have to be thousands of workers on site.

Anyway after the hysterical crying got under control we drove back out to the Liwa Crescent Road by taking the four lane paved “highway” surrounded by dozens of cars, 4x4s and trucks and as you can imagine it is not nearly as much fun as crossing the dune ranges whenever you drive North/South between the Liwa Crescent Road and the Saudi border.

The current four lane highway is bad enough but who knows what the planned rail way will do to desert driving in Liwa when they start laying rails between the Al Hosn sour gas complex and the sulfur storage and export facilities at the port of Ruwais on the coast.

For the last couple years our standard Liwa outing was jumping off into the desert close to Qasr Al Sarab resort and then follow our noses through the Shah Fields to overnight camp at the summit ledge of the CD dune. Then the highlight was enjoying an evening of nice barbecue, cocktails and checking out the Milky Way across the night sky with only artificial light coming from the Saudi border post on the horizon. In the morning we would continue west once again following your nose to exit at Moreeb dune. A nice route which made for a great couple day desert getaway.

Now with paved roads through the heart of Shah and the gigantic Al Hosn Gas Complex sitting in the middle of everything it is time to find another playground in Liwa.

I am thinking that I just might have to dust off my 1990s trip notes on the routes going west to Arada and onward into the Western desert because it really looks like Shah and the Eastern Desert is lost to the industry and the modern world.

Any ideas would be appreciated!

Cheers Sandman

PS As an aside does anyone know if anyone is Abu Dhabi is carrying any Nitto Desert Grapplers inventory? My desert driving partner is looking to replace his current set on his FJ. His current set he got at ICON in Dubai but they appear to have either dropped Nitto or just aren’t carrying any in stock.

Arabia · Post by **Arabia** » Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:00 pm

We should start exploring the UAE/Oman, once again, as it would be a new beginning !!

mamoun · Post by **mamoun** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:18 am

Sandman wrote: PS As an aside does anyone know if anyone is Abu Dhabi is carrying any Nitto Desert Grapplers inventory? My desert driving partner is looking to replace his current set on his FJ. His current set he got at ICON in Dubai but they appear to have either dropped Nitto or just aren’t carrying any in stock.

They are every where in sharja in size 31 10.5 R15 for 650AED each

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:20 am

yeh in 15 and 20 inch rim they are about .....other sizes not about

Arabia · Post by **Arabia** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 9:55 am

Sean wrote:yeh in 15 and 20 inch rim they are about .....other sizes not about

Looking for a set of 16" Dune Grappler since a few months now !
Does anyone have a hint ? (apart from shipping them from abroad)

F

desert_hawk · Post by **desert_hawk** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:13 am

Arabia wrote:
Sean wrote:yeh in 15 and 20 inch rim they are about .....other sizes not about

Looking for a set of 16" Dune Grappler since a few months now !
Does anyone have a hint ? (apart from shipping them from abroad)

F

let someone else ship them for u from abroad, then you pay him, it's a diffitent suggestion

mamoun · Post by **mamoun** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 10:39 am

Arabia wrote:
Sean wrote:yeh in 15 and 20 inch rim they are about .....other sizes not about

Looking for a set of 16" Dune Grappler since a few months now !
Does anyone have a hint ? (apart from shipping them from abroad)

F

the main dealer for nitto is supercars in mussafah, call them and give it a try

Sean · Post by **Sean** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 11:41 am

mamoun wrote:
Arabia wrote:
Sean wrote:yeh in 15 and 20 inch rim they are about .....other sizes not about

Looking for a set of 16" Dune Grappler since a few months now !
Does anyone have a hint ? (apart from shipping them from abroad)

F
the main dealer for nitto is supercars in mussafah, call them and give it a try

Be interested in their response....good luck..

Sandman · Post by **Sandman** » Wed Sep 19, 2012 1:08 pm

Arabia wrote:We should start exploring the UAE/Oman, once again, as it would be a new beginning !!

Hi Arabia,

I usually do explore and camp in Oman’s Musandam Peninsula and Fujairah over the summer when scuba diving and fooling around in the mountains takes over from the desert. Then during the winter the main focus shifts to Liwa and most of that is spent in the Shah Fields in the Eastern Part of Liwa between the Crescent road and Saudi border.

Now that the Oman border guys have got strict about entering Oman through Dibba and ten billion dollars in development including a paved highway and of all things a railway is happening in Liwa I really don’t know what I am going to do on the weekends.

When I first came down to the UAE we did a fair amount of exploring down along the Saudi border west of Muzairaa and out past Arada into the western desert as far as the old prison. It was a great couple day run to jump off at Muzairaa and head west following your nose and in the evening camp some where between the Arada police fort and the prison. Then in the morning do a straight run north to Ruwais then it was a nice late afternoon drive on the coast road back to Abu Dhabi.

It was fun at the time but in the last ten years or so I just got spoiled and started jumping off in Himeem so we could hit the sand ASAP rather than drive for another 45 minutes or so to Muzairaa. Also the trip back to Abu Dhabi was a lot shorter from the Shah Fields verses coming out of the sand far west of Maroob dune out to Arada or in the Western Desert.

Years ago the guy that ran Off Road Emirates told me when the government began to lay down the asphalt on the sand track from the incinerator to Himeem that it was the beginning of the end for Liwa desert driving.

I thought he was being overly negative by about 40 years until I saw what 10 billion dollars worth of Al Hosn Gas Complex looks like sitting in the middle of my favorite place in the UAE.

I thought it was horrible when they put up the Liwa/Saudi border fence but compared to the Al Hosn gas complex the border fence looks like a minor inconvenience.

Of course I am ranting about problems for which there are no suitable solutions and maybe it is just the Canadian in me coming out but if there is one thing wrong about the UAE it is that the country is just not big enough.

If the UAE just extended from the Liwa/Saudi border another two or three hundred kilometers into the Empty Quarter the country would be just about prefect.

Anyway thanks to all for the help regarding the Nitto Desert Grapplers!

Cheers, Sandman

Bluelionesse · Post by **Bluelionesse** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 7:49 am

Was thinking about this post earlier this week as I was driving in the Oman Empty Quarter, just south of the Umm Al Sameem (Mother of All Worries) area. The dunes here are very similar to Liwa and I can only imagine this is how Liwa was 10-20 years ago. No phone signal, some evidence of tracks but very faint, nobody else's tyre tracks and no light pollution when camping at night!

It's a long way to get there - over Al Ain Mezyad border, down to Ibri then follow the signs for "Rob'a Al Kali" - but might be worth one journey to experience the "Empty" Quarter that really is empty....

Will blog about my journey once I have slept for a few days

and will post the link here if anyone is interested,

desert_hawk · Post by **desert_hawk** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:44 am

Bluelionesse wrote:
Will blog about my journey once I have slept for a few days and will post the link here if anyone is interested,

thanks, very much interested

Xof · Post by **Xof** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 3:49 pm

Bluelionesse wrote:Was thinking about this post earlier this week as I was driving in the Oman Empty Quarter, just south of the Umm Al Sameem (Mother of All Worries) area. The dunes here are very similar to Liwa and I can only imagine this is how Liwa was 10-20 years ago. No phone signal, some evidence of tracks but very faint, nobody else's tyre tracks and no light pollution when camping at night!

It's a long way to get there - over Al Ain Mezyad border, down to Ibri then follow the signs for "Rob'a Al Kali" - but might be worth one journey to experience the "Empty" Quarter that really is empty....

Will blog about my journey once I have slept for a few days and will post the link here if anyone is interested,

sounds very interesting, especially if i move to muscat

Bluelionesse · Post by **Bluelionesse** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:11 pm

Umm as Sameem blog here - http://mbfullemptyquarter.blogspot.com/ ... ameem.html. Willing to share our track with marshals and other suitably experienced drivers. Not that I recommend our exact route but you can get an idea of what terrain and where you will find it.

all the best
Marina

Wasabi · Post by **Wasabi** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:08 pm

NIce one Marina

we should organize a week trip over there!!!!!

Arabia · Post by **Arabia** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:18 pm

Definitely we should go "OUT THERE" again ....... Overlanding ............