Dubai, Dec. 7 ...the sand.

["Steph Teeter" <step@fsr.com>]

So we all met at the entrance to the Ghantoot Polo 
Club (this is where all of the barns that stable the
horses are). 40 countries - and at least one 4wd rig
per country. We played musical jeeps for a while until
everybody had a vehicle to ride in. I ended up going 
with Bill Anderson and Glenn ? who are part of the
Kanavy crew - they had extra room, and the Belgian
rig was full, and I welcomed the chance to speak
English instead of struggling with French.

2:00 and we're all ready to go. 2:30 and we're all
wondering if we're at the right place. 2:40 and Jim
Bryant showed up - apparently the native guide who
was to lead the procession through the desert had
gone to the wrong place and had been waiting for us. Big
sigh of relief, the trek is still on, ten minutes later the
guide arrives and we're on our way. 

We didn't start getting stuck in the sand until about
20 miles into the journey. We left the highway via
an old access road, and kept heading inland on rapidly
degenerating 'roads'. There were camels everywhere - 
some running toward us in curiosity, some just staring,
some making love calls (or maybe they were threats).
There's really nothing like seeing these inelegant beasts
roaming the wilds... yes, this is Arabia.

We kept diligent track of the time and mileage between
the start at Ghantoot, and the pit-stops. The p-stops
were small stations with tents - tanks and barrels of 
water, and probably eventually more amenities. We have
been assured that there will be water every 5 km along
the course. (the horses will need it!!). 

Somewhere between P-2 and P-3 we started hitting
the deep sand, and then the fun started. We were
feeling pretty cocky - keeping our speed up,
zooming and fish-tailing through the deeps drifts in
the track ... until the car in front of us got stuck. No
problem, bodies poured out of rigs and pushed and
heaved to get the stuck rig started again. Meanwhile
rigs started dropping down below us and attempting
to go cross country to get around the stuck rig. So of
course they got stuck. Then they tried going above us
cross country. Yep they got stuck too. And we were
also hopelessly stuck by then. It was looking
rather grim until a UAE national (our hero) came along
and with a quick smile let air out of our tires - to 20 lbs
pressure, another quick smile and he was behind the
wheel, confidently slogging our rig through the deepest
sand until it was in a better position. Our hero deflated
more tires, and we all helped each other push, and 30 
minutes later we were on our way. The real trick was 
the tires. This is not like driving through snow or mud 
(Bill's from Montana, I'm from Idaho, we were both 
clueless in the sand). There were a few more minor
episodes, but eventually everybody got the hang of
driving the dunes... and we straggled into the vet
check area. 

The area is still under construction - there were close
to 100 workers busy erecting observation towers, laying
pipe and electrical wires, building huts for the vet officials,
etc. It is going to be an incredible vet-check complex - and
they will be working around the clock for the next 2 days
to finish it. Each nation will have a large shaded area, with
a water tank and *huge* fan ... looked like it should be 
on a jet engine! I'm not quite sure what the horses are
going to think of the fan... but what a cool thing! The
in-gates to the vetting area are thatch roofed 'huts' - I'm
sure they'll have electricity, cooling, etc for the officials
who are in waiting. There are grandstands, concession
sheds, observation towers ... you name it. It will be the
permanant vet-check station for races in UAE.

We still don't know a lot about the course and how it
all fits together with the p-stops. The map has not been
distributed yet, but there is a chef d'equip meeting tonight
and hopefully all the unanswered questions will be answered,
and maps distributed and we can all relax a little... it's
getting a bit worrisome not being able to jell our plans for
crewing - transport to vetcheck, p-stops, etc. But it will
come.

And this course is tough!! I was told a lot of it was hard
sandy road.. well from what we saw, I would say that at
least 25% will be deep sand - in drifts across the roads,
and in large dunes. (and Truman ... I think this sand may
rival the Ocallala sand! It blows dusty, penetrates everything,
is finer than the finest sugar... it's real sand.)

Everybody is worried about the course, worried about the
horses, all the things they *should* be worried about in a 
ride of this magnitude, so I'm hoping that reason will reign,
and  people will take the course slowly and with great
caution. It's going to be an incredible challenge for horses
not used to the sand. It's going to be a challenge for horses
that *are* used the sand... the muscle power required to
move through this stuff is incredible. And 100 miles is a long
way. And yes, the days are hot and sunny, though the
humidity has been quite low - hopefully it will stay that
way. 

I hope to have a little more info tomorrow.. it's dinner time
now. 

Steph