Kilometers travelled: 1385 Km

Filled both tanks on the way, and filled one tank on the way back.

I have to say that this is probably the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in my life. More beautiful then snow, the ocean or the mountains. We left Kuwait around 8:30pm and we got to the border by 9:45pm. We were two Chevy Silverados and One Landcruiser. We packed the Landcruiser and One Silverado until it was full and the leading Silverado had the tanks of fresh water. I met one person for the first time. It seemed interesting and I was going to be completely relaxed and loose!

I was the last car to watch if anything flew out of the back of the Silverado, we were 5 people and two were going to come the next day. It was funny since we had walkie talkie between us so you can imagine all the comments being thrown back and forth. The lead truck had two gps units and a hell of a lot of other tools which certainly were essential for where we were going. I heard horror stories of the Saudi border crossing, but I have to say that we must have been lucky since the person who stamped our paperwork were very decent and nice, maybe we were very lucky. After getting across we made a quick stop at a gas station and took off, and we were averaging between 140 to 170 kph on the highway until we got to our destination Dhanah which showed that we travelled 480 Kms, and we were only 200 to 250 Kms from Saudi. It was around 1:30am and when we stopped before taking our off road route we stopped and for the first time I looked up into the sky and I was mesmirized. I have never seen something as beautiful as a clear night sky and I was happy I will be seeing that every night. There were thousands if not millions of star in the sky and I was completely overwhelmed by the sky. It was in awe of the beauty of Gods creation! And this was just the beginning of this trip.

(This is long and if you dont want to read then just look at the pictures!)

We setup camp the first night, and some of us were hungry and around 2 am we got everything setup so we started the fire to start grubbing on the Kabab! It was great, we were completely stuffed in the freezing cold! I loved it, and then I got into my sleeping bag which is nothign short of a mummy suit! I got a few nicknames on this trip one was the mummy or worm. That was just the beginning, when some of the guys got to know me the name changed.

We woke up early in the morning to change locations and we were flying around in this beautiful sand, and we were jumping around. One of the bigger dunes that I took I flew up and then there was a huge dip on the other side which I took with a smile and my co-pilot had a heart attack. I think the seatbelt gave him a nice bruise, and the Landcuirser was kissing the ground faster then I thought (Dent #1 to License plate). It was insane driving on my part and we were enjoying driving up these amazing dunes and beauty.

This trip was fantastic, it made good friends closer, and new friends became close friends. You shed all formalities and become a bunch of guys around a fire. It was great and we were really enjoying ourselves. Fires, cooking, different kinds of tea! Great stories! There was one dune specifically that I really wanted to conquer and I didn’t want to give up, and that is when I was named “Vertical“, I took it with a vegence that made my back tire touch the ground and the car behind me saw my Toyota symbol. My Landcruiser was dubbed “Risk” and later it was changed to “Airborn Express.” I racked up some milage with the air that the Landcruiser saw, I know how the guys in the Dakar Rally now feel.
The best thing was when were taking a break during the day I really learned how to play Risk, and it was becoming one hell of a competition. It was great on the second day that two more friends could join us and they were in a Prado. So it became two Toyotas and two Chevys. It was a hilarious bunch on the radio shooting comments back and forth we didn’t leave any openings for real orders or comments! It made for funny reactions during driving! At some points I felt like we were in a movie and I was looking from the outside!

It became so cold at some points that it dropped below zero and we woke up the next morning with the morning dew frozen next to us. It would drop below zero because of the wind chill. But we tried to keep warm, and my 24 sweatshirt was extremely useful especially for the hoodie! The funniest part was using the idea of the bathroom and shovel, we were men in the raw and did what we had to do and I will leave it at that.

The best part that we would sleep under the beautiful night sky and that would be the last thing I would see every night before waking up to the sunlight of dawn! Now that was an amazing feeling. You get used to the cold, and the sleeping bag was pretty good, and I loved sleeping to the mp3 player. It was so cold that you didn’t want to move, but sleeping was just fantastic even though I was only sleeping for a couple of hours a night, there was just so much to do and organize and we were all working together.

There was also a box of tangerine which I almost devoured completely by myself, it was great! One thing is that I needed chap stick for my lips but I didn’t have that, so that got a bit annoying! I have to say that it was extremely fun and educational! I will be doing this again! I never thought that my mind could be completely purged of everything and I loved that feeling of the cool wind and my mind being completely free of everything. Great people, good food, and a good time.