welcome to my adventure in the United Arab Emirates six days we've been on the
road and this is our file capsized on the beach and a personal syllable
six days it's taken to get here we started at Russell Hamer right up the
furthest northernmost point in the Emirates and also the highest probably
one of the highest campsites in the land deep in the mountains off the mountains
crossing the vast gravel plains into the Empty Quarter crossing all of seven
emirates and now find ourselves here the most furthest southerly point very close
to the border with Saudi Arabia how we got here next I'm Andrew st. Pierre White
join me as I share my passion for bowling four-wheel drive trucks and
traveling to the remotest parts
at the invitation of His Royal Highness Sheikh Hamad Bin ham done on ion it's
something really special okay good and I have just spent the past
four days at his Highnesses new off-road museum but that one without horrible
very poor very poor policy as well as being coddled in a five-star hotel now
we're about to throw off the shackles of room service pillow menus chauffeur
driven cars to hit the trail in a jeep and are not quite sure how to feel about
that
I'm in the Jeep I'm in the United Arab Emirates I'm driving down a 1e a 1e is a
local name for a riverbed and in the Emirates they are normally covered in
tracks because for drivers absolutely love to drive down them and come under
the trees what we're doing today is exactly that and I am driving what I
consider to be probably the perfect vehicle but this particular application
the vehicle is the Jeep Wrangler j/k and I love cheap well what I love
most about them is the fact that every new model they write unlimited or
limited and what limited means is that they'll only sell it to those people
that really want about it and unlimited means that I only sell it to everybody
that really would want us to buy it and the reason why I say the Jeep is ideal
for this kind of excursion is well it's light small fantastic off-road and just
plain fun and because we're not doing epic distances it's perfect and this
particular Jeep JK has a new unique feature with its roof rack it has
signals an alarm when the roof rack falls off it stops rattling
this is actually the first vehicle I've ever driven where whoever decided to put
a roof rack on thought that scaffolding would do and I remember this well from
my previous trips to the area these mountain passes are fantastic so we are
at 250 metres above sea level and the campsite in these mountains right next
to the amani border campsite is 1,000 meters so 750 meter climb and to tell
you the truth right now I cannot think of a single thing that I'd rather be
doing
well this is a little unexpected little spot only the local farmers collect
water in these flat areas and then they go grafts on them and we can cap on them
but that's something to do with farming
of nowhere this is my go-to spot for summer and then I can do reviews on kit
and it's too hot so I get up here and you've got the greenery park of fel my
own do review I love it a bit of a wind so he'll probably be a cool tonight
Audrina and Sean have already got their fleeces on I mean this is their winter
for us the system
tomorrow is the second of December and the United Arab Emirates celebrates its
day that it was created basically it's like Independence Day when seven
emirates got together and decided to create a country and of course that's
means a long holiday and most people are taking over ten days and most people
during that time heading into the mountains or heading down to the sea so
we're not absolutely alone but it still is a very very remote area for those of
you in the channel but don't know and i'm not familiar with my other trips to
the Middle East this is Sean and Andrew net Maher that's Quinney
and they run a channel called it's yeah expedition extreme there we go one of
the first channels dedicates to travel tips and gear in the Middle East they
are based in the United Arab Emirates and they are our guides for this trip
again very good become very good friends of us and you are the first guys to have
introduced us to this area and we absolutely love it so thank you for that
to start with I think we're gonna have a good time you said last night that the
wind would stop when the Sun went down you were wrong
yeah tomorrow afternoon when the Sun goes oh right okay cuz Lipton last night
it didn't actually stop did it no it actually got stronger and stronger it
struck when I catch you more and morning it's wrong now we got the days wrong I
must say it's it's sunset this afternoon
we were loaned the Jeep by a company called off-road zone they're big into
4x4 modifications company based in Dubai and part of the operation is you drive
and our idea of that is that you go and rent a 4x4 don't take it into the desert
with a guide and looked around at what we were doing here and these
the way we could drive business is to get people in jeeps be them out in the
desert teach them to love going out in the desert camping but especially the
Jeeps and then selling them G so really it
came about wanting to sell more cars to get more long-term customers and to do
that make people fall in love at driving a Jeep Wrangler and that's how it was
born but good and I decided that we didn't want one of the ther guides we
wanted our own personal guide and we got one in the shape of Shawn and under net
guys scaffolding turn out to sort out the very ratalie mount for the rooftop
tint this is why deserts enchant me every plant every creature is so well
adapted to its environment and those adaptations are so extraordinary and
diverse watch this this is a very very spiky inedible plant now if I pour some
water on it watch what happens the
surface cells change exposing the chlorophyll and enabling them to absorb
water and photosynthesize sunlight during times of drought they are able to
protect themselves during which they appear gray yesterday by yes sure it's a
route where we have come where we are now yeah and the plan right so I've
brought you to the most northern part probably one of the highest mountains
accessible in the region we're up just on the border over here I'm on is
actually that that's that in two parts just to clarify that's a modder and
that's a month first camp we heading to for today and then we're heading down
towards Melia ancient ruins and then we're heading towards the Bedouin camp
which is here and then we're heading down to the Tropic of Cancer
which is there and then we're gonna pop up on the beach here and this is the
Saudi border so basically I'm taking you from one end of the United Arab Emirates
to the other side of the United Arab Emirates as much dirt track as we
possibly can I'm in low range first and second nice
and slowly carefully down the mountain
these passes this and we were spectacular coming up yesterday this
morning coming down oh my now the Emirates and Mara they're not big
four-wheel-drive destinations why maybe because people just don't know about
them I have to assume it's that because they are unbelievable this is the
perfect driving road
and Malia I think I know why it's not a well-known 4x4 destination for visitors
is because Dubai is so good at their own publicity that and the activities close
by to divide our sand driving and Land Cruisers driven by other people we're
whole lot of people get packed into a Land Cruiser and get driven around and
after half an hour feel sick and that's so well publicized that the other side
of it this side of it isn't well publicized
because there is enough information about tracks and things
Sean himself created a lot of the information available where you can just
you just rent it for Drive like we've done some camping equipment and come and
experience this because it is unbelievably good I see not so little
about it as a place to come four-wheel driving maybe maybe it's because people
think it's unsafe and it's an error of the nation now they have two official
languages Arabic English so you can get by with English pretty well anywhere is
it safe yes it's a safe it's safe it's its reason Mountain many North Americans
will think that it's not safe for them to come here this is complete nonsense
there are lots of Western tourists that come here but not a lot of them that do
this kind of adventure I feel as safe here as I do anyway you know and maybe
the problem is that the news about the Arab nations is so prevalent in on
political news networks that have their own agenda it's rubbish
just be sensible likely wouldn't traveling to any other place well
morning off day to day things gonna change a little bit in that we're gonna
move out of the mountains into the true desert itself and so a lot of driving I
really don't know what is happening today dr. blue worried
letting shon-kar just lead the way he knows the area extremely well and if you
can hear very listen carefully very carefully you can hear the calming tones
of Glynn snoring as the Morning Sun kisses the mountains I think I'll just
leave her there to sleep don't don't laugh don't laugh at snoring people
never ever laugh at snowing people snoring is God's Way of helping all the
people know that each other is still alive it's been a very nice morning
count very leisurely morning we sorted out some hot water will have a shower
and it's a kind of camping that I absolutely love the relaxed we don't
have a long way to go today means we're going to arrive at the campsite between
3:00 and 4:00 p.m. no rush into time to do stuff and the
magic is now it's that camping and chilling
this Arabic mud and stone architecture thick walls dark rooms faded glory
really inspired the world building for one of my books blood rice and a lot of
the reaction takes place in a city just like this with these fabulous buildings
with intricate too ornate doors and hidden nooks and crannies and I just
love it I could get last year I could spend all weekend now they could come
back and fetch me well good and I we're making our films Sean and Andrew net
we're making there's a bit about how good and I film our shows running around
for about 15 minutes and you're looking for a spot yeah what advice can you give
to your viewers and to our viewers the perfect time-lapse what are you looking
for how am I going to watch that on expedition extreme it'll be released
about the same time as this video there'll be a link to that video on the
end frame