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Picture of my new 1992 4X4 suburban deep in the "Rub al Khali" - the Empty Quarter - South West Saudi Arabia - world's biggest sand desert. It was a long hot spring day - 30 miles from a one lane blacktop - all ended well, but still. Driving in rough dune country at midday (check the shadows) is highly not recommended. You can't see the contours.

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There were 2 vehicles. Happily my buddy was sort of downslope from me with his Mitsu Montero. We spliced together enough straps, etc to rig a tow. I dug a bit, aired down all 4 tires to about 8 psi, and used "sand ladders" (2 1/2 foot ladder shaped steel things). It took a couple of tries, but it came out backwards. It's also surprising how much a couple of people pushing help in sand.

Leaving the truck wasn't an option, we were about 1000 Km from Riyadh where we lived! Here it is on Google maps - we were a long way northeast of where the pin is on the map.

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Should have been hunting meteorites, but didn't know about that then. The meteorite hunting came a decade later in Oman - but that's another story.

We were picking up buckets full of beautiful Neolithic stone tools - including stone axe heads - today the nearest trees are hundreds of miles from there!

Here's a not very good picture showing sand ladders stuck in the sand before use (you can't see the fourth one which I'm putting behind the passenger side rear). The lines are to retrieve them with. You don't drive on them really. You put them against the tires in the direction you want to go - when the tires rotate, they pull the ladder under the tire - sometimes one such "jump" is enough to get you back "afloat" - usually a couple of "jumps" are required. The ladders are short so that they can do their trick of being self emplacing. The lanyards are necessary because the ladders are completely buried in the process and disappear!

You can see how soft the sand is if you look at the footprints in the lower left of the picture - wven my big size 13 feet sink right in..

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No, don't tie the rope - the end just sticks up so you grab it and pull it out when the ladder disappears in the sand. If you do it really right, the end is nearest the ladder is chain, so the tire can't cut the tie in point.

Also, mild steel isn't good enough for the sand ladders, it bends! Found out the hard way.

Oh yes, always have a metal detector - just in case you drop your car keys - don't ask me how I know!!!

Fun days, long ago and far away.

Note - I edited the post with the sand ladder pictures. After looking at it I realized that there were only three, I was placing the fourth one behind the passenger side rear wheel, you can see my foot, but not the sand ladder. The recovery was to the rear, the way I had come.

You can also see how I got stuck, I tried to turn right withought enough energy to stay moving and therefor afloat.

The tires were special Sumitomo sand radials, H rated and good for pretty much a full load down to 10 psi.

Oh yes, this is way off topic, but thanks for the opportunity.nto think again plesant thoughts and revisit nice memories.

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OK, just for the record, here's the pic.

That's me scrambling for shovel, straps, sand ladders and my prayer book!

Oh yes, no GPS, no cell phones, no satellite phones, just a Bedouin along in a Toyota Land Cruiser looking for a stray camel every couple of days - not kidding - the first time down there the tally for 3 days was 4 stray camels looking for a handout, 3 Jerboas, a couple of strangesand larks and one pickup,truck in the distance. It's so quiet that if there is no wind, your heartbeat sounds like a steady thump. Kind of like being underground.

Big empty spaces of sand are very strange, not quite like anything else I have ever experienced. I kind of miss it.

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Judging by your photo, it looks like you got caught in a witches eye. I guess the best way to explain it is like real dry fine quicksand. It's due to the way the wind blows and how the sand eddies. Much like a river and the low pressure zones, or how snow drifts in a blizzard. I used to go to the dunes all the time, so over the years I've learned how to read them pretty well.

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