My Adventures to Liwa Oasis

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:00 +0000

My Adventures to Liwa Oasis

Chapter 1: Introduction (Emotions with a Jacket)

It was about 1:15 PM on a lazy afternoon. We had had a very lucky five-day stretch of vacations and I had decided I was going to go all road-tripping on the bike. But then the safer, wiser me decided against a five-day marathon since I didn’t really have the cash to support myself in case my bike failed me and I had no other form of transportation.

So on the fourth of those five days, whilst sitting at home, I realized that it SUCKS! I mean, I had just killed four days without having me a little adventure.

I then remembered a place called Liwa Oasis somewhere near Abu Dhabi. I quickly Google-mapped it and charted out my route and how I was planning to head there.

Here was the plan: I would ride up to Liwa, reach in about four hours, or so I assumed, and then spend the entire day with just me and the oasis. Or at least how I envisioned the oasis to be. And the next morning I would ride back happy that I had had my little adventure.

So I began packing my bag: the usuals, nothing fancy. Two kuffiyes, a big knife, matchsticks, a torch and some other “survival” stuff. I can’t really remember the stuff.

You know, I didn’t want to have to cut my hand with a pen knife like in the movie 127 Hours, just in case I got stuck somewhere.

Oh, I forgot to mention: I had decided to write about it when I had come back but never got the chance. It was actually so intricate. There were so many emotions I had felt at that time, so many thoughts, feelings, victories, fears that arose during those 13 hours, that deciding to write about it was in itself a fear.

I didn’t want to do the trip an injustice.

So I never did write about it, thinking it’s better left as part of my subconscious memory.

The reason I did start to write about it was because I remember seeing a map of the journey I had charted out after I had reached home and, for a weird reason, I reminisced about it. Then I thought to myself, that was a f’ing brave journey and, well, decided to write about it.

And I had already given it enough time to sink and be a part of me in the way I want it to be that no amount of bad writing can mess with the core of it.

Liwa on Omar Niorah

My Adventures to Liwa Oasis

My Adventures to Liwa Oasis

Chapter 1: Introduction (Emotions with a Jacket)