We are at the border for 7am and this is our forth crossing. Though we worried about the number plate issue again, there was only two cars or so in front of us and we whistled through in record time. It was only 15 minutes for KSA and even with an X-ray machine traverse and a search of the trailer and Jeep. It was only 20 minutes for the UAE border. I’ve queued up for the toilet longer in Manchester airport. That means that if you add up all the time for four border crossing by land, it totals 5 hours 5minutes which I would suggest is as long as it takes from driving into the carpark, transferring from the car park and queuing up to check in even if you have online checked in, getting through security, waited the obligatory 2 hours and then queued up again to then often be bused to the plane, then wait a little longer to take off.
That’s even be for the flight and the reverse rigmarole the other side on arrival.
That said, I know that the border overland land could be a lot lot worse and we have experience it, errors, confusion with we’re to go and what to do, hundreds of cars and of course is always chasing the wrong lane lol, but for this adventure and journey we are super grateful for the lucky break.
Well, we then have a little panic on! I had used the two Jerry cans of fuel as I needed to empty them ready for the car show and thought this was a great opportunity. I had run the Jeep down to next to both g know we were crossing the border into the UAE and the price would be a little cheaper, but as we pulled away from the last gate I had 81km on the and the SatNav said 17km to the garage. Not a problem, unless you somehow miss the turn and don’t even see the garage. We panic and ping google and Garmin for the next closest station. 54km which is worrying as I am now at 64km. What makes this fun is that we are actually driving past the station to only come back up the road to get to it. Teasing us it our time of need.
I am watching the range and my fuel economy like a hawk. After six thousand kilometers without one incident it is the home straight I envisage running out of fuel like a plonker. As we swing around the flyover we hit road works and for a second, I sense a diversion and think ‘oh hell no!’ They save us through and the station is in sight. Ping, I have zero range but Bruce is still going, we slip into the station, drift to the pump and we make it. FULL and make it 98 Super please, Bruce the Jeep deserves a drink.
The last part of the journey seems to take forever and even getting to Abu Dhabi drags. The roads are good but the traffic a lot busier. We then have news that there is a bike race in the city and there are multiple road closures. Seriously we might not make it home after all, thankfully we live outside the city now and this should help. Though the traffic is busy we manage to slide into our drive in half decent time. It crazily feels like we only just left too. They talk about people feeling melancholy and even depression when they get back after life on the road and even only after two weeks, I feel somewhat dulled about being back and a sinking feeling makes anxiety set in like something pressing on my chest knowing that I have a ton of work and home stuff to do too. All is I can think about our amazing adventure and being on the road. Well, now time to start planning the next trip………Where next?