A week of off road driving on an exciting route through the south of England. [More]
This adventure is running between August 12th to August 25th 2013 [More]
This week long adventure in Spain is running between 12th and 18th October 2013. [More]
New adventure in Morocco along the Atlantic Coast and into the Sahara [More]
Gallery - Morocco - April 2009
Photos
April 2009
19 images
Video
Sand Dune Driving
During a Morocco adventure we spent several days driving in the desert, culminating with a day in the 'big' dunes where Neil leads all the vehicles in, picking a way through the dunes that tower up all around us. After a while Neil picks a suitable big dune and asks us to pull up while he checks it out, if it looks good then we get to drive up and over the dune which is an exhilarating experience.
The climb is long and momentum must be maintained because if you fail the climb then it's a reversing back down job, which isn't the easiest thing to do on sand. When you make it to the top there's a moment where all you can see is sky and you have to keep enough power on to go 'over the top', come off the power too early and you stop on the peak and you're likely to be grounded, so the weight of the vehicle must be on the downward side so that you aren't stuck. The downward side is first or second low, so you can drive down the dune and keep the wheels turning, watching to make sure to stay straight on the sand as the downward side of the dune is a steeper angle.
It's one of those moments you don't forget but usually do forget to video because you're concentrating on getting up. We did manage to record this clip of such a climb, thankfully the sand was firm and the Defender didn't have any trouble getting up or down.