Michael Spies

Today I realized to what extent Driving in the sand is about psychology and that only a part is driving skills.
But let's go a step back.
The day started really cool. The wild sand storm of last night had disappeared, the stress of constantly getting stuck was gone and we woke up into a beautiful calm dawn,
and then I got coffee in bed! YEA!

The group then assembled to discuss today's route which was planed to cross unknown territory between the two red tracks in the
Map (see photograph). This would take between one and two days depending on how much we got stuck and whether a route could be found.
Edi kicked off the discussion explaining that he had studied his "Gaia App" with air photographs all evening and that what we were planning was impossible and irresponsibly dangerous. To cross this region, covered in dunes blocking the path was crazy, one of our cars would tip over, we would get stuck and never get out again. His wife Elsbeth started crying and told that she hadn't slept all night. After lengthy discussion we decided to drive to the beginning of the track in question and then decide there, whether to turn back or not.
We arrived at the point and promptly on the first hill, Tommy (mantoco),the guide, dug his truck into the sand covering both axles!!!!!
We all dug for three hours. The decision had been taken! The question was which route to take to get out?
Here Eddi again showed his App indicating a clear track out of the dunes back to the main road.
The decision was taken to follow this route.
Well, we drove the whole day, miraculously crossing three barrier dunes without anyone getting stuck. Clearly driving skills and courage had greatly improved. Drivers were no longer hesitating, which leads to slowing down and digging-in.
In the late afternoon after 70kms and 6 hours of driving we found ourselves confronted with a dead end. A really high dune was blocking our path with no way over. The only way was back the way we came which would mean three days!Weiterlesen