SAND DREAMS
After driving thousands of miles in
the Empty Quarter, I'm hooked on driving in sand.
If you asked me whether I would rather sail the seven seas on my
catamaran or land cruise in the Empty Quarter in my Defender, it
would be a toss up as to which I would enjoy the most. I
like both equally well.
They are actually the same thing - they're all about living my
dreams.
Our Arabian sandbox had nearly a million square kilometers of sand
- plenty of room for sand dreams. And when you are out there
driving over the rolling dunes, you almost feel like you are
skimming across the giant swells of the Pacific Ocean. The
difference is that in the sea of sand, the waves aren't moving.
Sand dreams and sailing dreams have one other thing in common.
The only way you can make them come true is to say yes to
life.
It's easy to say no to life, because when you say no, you don't
need to do anything. You can sit in your easy chair and make
bun prints in the sands of time. You don't need to lift a
finger.
The word "no" is a destroyer of dreams.
The word "yes" makes dreams happen, but it's not enough to say yes
only one time. You must say it again and again. You
must keep saying it until your sand dreams happen.
When you say yes to life, the work has just begun. You have
to save up your money to buy your Defender. Next, you put a
full length Brownchurch roof rack on top of your truck. Then
you add some long range fuel tanks and put airbags inside the rear
springs to upgrade the suspension. You load thirteen jerry
cans into and on top of the vehicle. Next, you add 200
liters of water, food, camping gear, firewood, and sand ladders.
Then, you load four people into the truck, drive 500 kilometers
into the Empty Quarter, and finally your sand dreams come true.
Only those people who say yes to life can expect their dreams to
come true.
In this picture, we
are land cruising in the Mundafin region of the Empty Quarter.
The smiles on our faces are proof positive that we are living our
dreams.
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