Day 3 promises to be a re-run of Day 2, following a largely similar route westwards from the Madinat Zayed Road to the Ghyathi Road. But it proves to be nowhere near as difficult and the only problem is a significant steering vibration which gets worse at high speeds. I guess that it might be the steering damper, and at the first PC pass a message to our crew to get a replacement. Arriving at PC2 Service, we find that Gip has had to go as far as Madinat Zayed to find one, and is still on his way back, so we abandon the plan to replace it at service. Our mechanics look under the hood and find that their hard work re-inforcing the inner wing has been completely undone by the desert – the brackets they’ve installed are broken! They set to fabricating a new bracket from the remains of the old one, while I wait impatiently. Finally they are through and we head off again, having lost a few places in the delay.
The route once again follows much of day 2 and we cross the Liwa Crescent road with another Patrol, 238, hot on our heels. As we head along a gatch track towards the next waypoint, Sheila is watching for the GPS to indicate that we’re within 200m of it, at which point the program will index to the following waypoint. ‘Got it!’ she shouts, ‘now go left!’. Which I do – but we haven’t actually reached the waypoint and we’re now heading across country over some very rough terrain. Suddenly, we find our route to the next point blocked by the local rubbish tip! I swerve to the right, along a dune, but the damned tip is still ahead of me and I can’t avoid it. I stop the car on the downslope, and in front of me is a mess of construction debris, concrete, tarmac, branches, old washing machines, and wooden crates. It’s not pretty and there’s no easy escape. I lower the tyres to 8psi and try to remove some of the rubbish so I can turn the car round, but once it moves I’m firmly stuck at the base of the dune.
We’re stuffed. It’s ‘phone a friend’ time. I get the our exact location from the GPS and text it to anyone who might be in the area – and minutes later our old friend Mike Smith from the sweep team calls me. He and Nobby are coming down the Ghyathi Road and will be with us shortly, the bike-recovery pickup which they were escorting has broken its chassis and is now hors de combat! Sure enough they arrive and Nobby positions his Jeep to winch us out. Sadly we are trapped by an unyielding piece of concrete and I can only watch as Dh640-worth of 3-day-old tyre is ripped to shreds. After re-positioning a couple of times, we’re finally free of the tip and we set about replacing the wheel with our one remaining Cooper STT.
The sun is getting lower in the sky as we head out through some rough subkhas towards the Moreeb Road, which we have to cross before looping back round to enter the bivouac from the east. By the time we reach the road, the sun has almost gone, and Ron Thompson (the chief marshal) tells us this last 12km is the most difficult stage of the day, and are we sure we want to do it in the gathering gloom? I tell him that we haven’t gone through hell to give up now, and we set off across the road into the high dunes beyond. It’s a tough stage, and we need the headlights from the start. But somehow we manage to get through it without a stuck, and arrive at the finish in total darkness. We’re only 22nd, but it could have been much worse if not for Mike and Nobby.
Back at the bivouac once again our mechanics open the bonnet, to find that their latest bodge has held together! They set about improving it further with some more ironmongery. The cause of our wheel wobble is soon apparent – not as I’d thought the steering damper. We’d simply lost all the balance weights from our front left wheel – coincidentally the wheel we’d just replaced. The other damage is of a rather more personal nature. Both my heels are blistered and raw from continual brake/accelerator/clutch action, and my bum is a painful red mass of blisters. The seat is only an inch or so above the floor, which in turn is another inch above the exhaust and my arse is getting barbequed. So after a shower I head off to the medical tent, where I am shown the correct military technique for dressing heels with a gaffer-tape bandage, and given some steroid cream for my nether portions. Neil, the chief M.O., gives me some gel cooling pads which can be frozen, and they are exactly the right size to fit under my seat pad! These will provide considerable relief from the heat over the next 2 days.
After a final check on the car, and a discussion with Ian and Gip to agree who goes where for Day 4, we head for bed.
The route once again follows much of day 2 and we cross the Liwa Crescent road with another Patrol, 238, hot on our heels. As we head along a gatch track towards the next waypoint, Sheila is watching for the GPS to indicate that we’re within 200m of it, at which point the program will index to the following waypoint. ‘Got it!’ she shouts, ‘now go left!’. Which I do – but we haven’t actually reached the waypoint and we’re now heading across country over some very rough terrain. Suddenly, we find our route to the next point blocked by the local rubbish tip! I swerve to the right, along a dune, but the damned tip is still ahead of me and I can’t avoid it. I stop the car on the downslope, and in front of me is a mess of construction debris, concrete, tarmac, branches, old washing machines, and wooden crates. It’s not pretty and there’s no easy escape. I lower the tyres to 8psi and try to remove some of the rubbish so I can turn the car round, but once it moves I’m firmly stuck at the base of the dune.
We’re stuffed. It’s ‘phone a friend’ time. I get the our exact location from the GPS and text it to anyone who might be in the area – and minutes later our old friend Mike Smith from the sweep team calls me. He and Nobby are coming down the Ghyathi Road and will be with us shortly, the bike-recovery pickup which they were escorting has broken its chassis and is now hors de combat! Sure enough they arrive and Nobby positions his Jeep to winch us out. Sadly we are trapped by an unyielding piece of concrete and I can only watch as Dh640-worth of 3-day-old tyre is ripped to shreds. After re-positioning a couple of times, we’re finally free of the tip and we set about replacing the wheel with our one remaining Cooper STT.
The sun is getting lower in the sky as we head out through some rough subkhas towards the Moreeb Road, which we have to cross before looping back round to enter the bivouac from the east. By the time we reach the road, the sun has almost gone, and Ron Thompson (the chief marshal) tells us this last 12km is the most difficult stage of the day, and are we sure we want to do it in the gathering gloom? I tell him that we haven’t gone through hell to give up now, and we set off across the road into the high dunes beyond. It’s a tough stage, and we need the headlights from the start. But somehow we manage to get through it without a stuck, and arrive at the finish in total darkness. We’re only 22nd, but it could have been much worse if not for Mike and Nobby.
Back at the bivouac once again our mechanics open the bonnet, to find that their latest bodge has held together! They set about improving it further with some more ironmongery. The cause of our wheel wobble is soon apparent – not as I’d thought the steering damper. We’d simply lost all the balance weights from our front left wheel – coincidentally the wheel we’d just replaced. The other damage is of a rather more personal nature. Both my heels are blistered and raw from continual brake/accelerator/clutch action, and my bum is a painful red mass of blisters. The seat is only an inch or so above the floor, which in turn is another inch above the exhaust and my arse is getting barbequed. So after a shower I head off to the medical tent, where I am shown the correct military technique for dressing heels with a gaffer-tape bandage, and given some steroid cream for my nether portions. Neil, the chief M.O., gives me some gel cooling pads which can be frozen, and they are exactly the right size to fit under my seat pad! These will provide considerable relief from the heat over the next 2 days.
After a final check on the car, and a discussion with Ian and Gip to agree who goes where for Day 4, we head for bed.
