The Shaheen Trip Across 50 American States

One of our favorite stories about crossing lands indefinitely is Ali Al Ghfeli’s tour around the states of America. With a curiosity to meet the different communities that exist on the west side of the world, this Al Ain born national decided to ship his truck (which happens to be the stereotypical farmers car in the deserts of Abu Dhabi) to New Jersey to begin his tour of the 50 states. The photo below displays the merging of culture, city norms and how far one can go in discovery.

A photo of Ali’s arrival to Times Square, New York.

We asked Ali how he had planned to do his trip to which he said, “The main purpose of my trip was not numbers. It wasn’t about how many kilometers I drove or how many states I passed. It was about the people. I wanted to take back roads, meet locals, hear their stories, go to places they recommend.”.  

“I’ve been traveling and backpacking in my breaks throughout college but never did a road trip. I’ve decided that this would be the right time to do it and I didn’t want to do it in a traditional way. So I had the car quickly outfitted and shipped to New Jersey to arrive as soon as I ended my internship. My dream to pass through the fifty states was happening every day.”

Is this something you would do back home? What was your past-time where you came from? 
"I didn’t have the time before to do this back home, since I went abroad to study immediately after high school. I know there is a lot to explore in the UAE and in the neighbouring countries, and I have plans to do so once I come back.”

This story is a quick depiction of how the wander has taken us far, into alleyways we have never seen and across communities we may never meet. Somehow, we manage to live through the stories of those that venture far and it fills a puzzle piece into our ideologies about the world. Allow this story to take you through this mans goal to see the world - in his own way.

As Ali aims to complete the remaining states in time to come, we will be living through his stories on instagram and YouTube.

For updates on Ali’s travels, subscribe to our mailing list on www.wander.ae/subscribe.

The Formation of the Empty Quarter

About 3 hours from the capital and many more hours from other corners of the UAE lies a vast space of numerous dunes we all call Liwa. There is a special place in every off-roaders heart with a significant LIWA 2018 sticker embedded - without a doubt. It is a destination on every foreigner's bucket-list when they head towards this part of the world - partially due to the bloggers that take windowsill photos from Qasr Al Sarab overlooking the dunes. Little do they know that that's all there is and the chances of seeing a mystic revelation are zero. The actual purpose of this piece is a more geographical learning of how sand travels and why our cars are victims of ruthless layers of Liwa. 

Realistically, I would presume the stories that came out of the Empty Quarter paint a picture of grandeur for the travelers only because of the harsh climate that lacks vegetation. Maybe this is why we're so appealed to the stories of struggle in the past. We learnt about it in school, through our books and the standard orally shared stories of Bedouin journeys through these lands that have restructured the nations we currently belong to. Tribal matters went down among the dunes we now wander through, humanity crossed what we now drive through on foot. They utilized the height of the dunes as hiding mechanisms and understood human anatomy to predict performance. Now, why in the world are the dunes a resemblance of canyons and what determined the coloring of rich red and orange with an underlying beige color tone for this landscape? 

If you've been in the UAE long enough, you would know there have been numerous research projects that aimed to solve lots of mysteries about these lands from archeological finds in the plains of Umm Al Quwain to the fort discoveries in Al Ain and the cultures that lingered such as Umm Al Narr in Abu Dhabi. Geologists were sent to study the Empty Quarter at the time (a guy named Hal McClure, to be more precise) who initially brought about the first understanding of how the dunes formed and where they came from. 

The Very Beginning (or so they say) 
I am going to refrain from using time period titles that will make this writing more complex and just say "times long long ago" instead. According to the studies, the Empty Quarter was created around 2 million years ago (in what they call the Quaternary Era which is this era of geological time scales).  But this is just a prediction. Some other dude (John Whitney, to be more precise) says that the Empty Quarter started making a presence much longer ago. Our information is limited as to when it started forming but what good is that? It's obviously here now. 

Ruthless Dune Formation
The wind is your best bet in this case. Transportation of sand is usually caused by strong winds both from the sea and inland. One of the main indications of direction when in the desert is the direction of the dune. If you are standing in front of a line of dunes and there are more crests facing in land know that you are facing the sea (as sea bound winds are stronger than inland winds). If we zoom out of the Arabian Peninsula map, you will notice how the Empty Quarter is surrounded by mountains from East, South & West with an open window of the Gulf Sea from the North. This allows the sand to remain in the area when the wind decides otherwise. 

The Gulf Sea Movement
Theory says that the North had a few pressured glacier caps that decided to intervene with the climate around the Middle East. The sand available at the bottom of the Gulf Sea was forcibly pushed into the corner mentioned above due to the fluctuating water levels. The sand called the corner home and is now a landscape that seeps into Oman, Yemen, UAE & Saudi Arabia. 

The Journey of Sand
As you can see in the map above, we have a variety of color tones of sand as we navigate the country. Lighter in the middle, a little darker around the edges closer to the mountains and white towards the sea. This allows us to deduct that material has been mixed with the sand according to the neighboring terrains such as corals by the sea, dark stone by the mountain ranges and a base of plain sand in the center (almost untouched). Geologists will tell you red sand is the byproduct of iron oxide from rock that has deposited itself in sand. A clear example is the landscape across the Abu Dhabi - Al Ain highway with red sand dunes that are 500m high. Towards the sea line, we experience harsher sand that has mixed with coral through erosion. Along the coastal route to Liwa, we have flats of white sand almost unbearable to look at (tricked you for the Alps a little). Moral of the story, culture and sand have no difference - their composition is highly dependent on surrounding influences. 

That, my beautiful Wanderers, is only the beginning of a long history of stories that these dunes hold. We must always remember the importance of understanding why things exist the way they do to better appreciate and maintain what already exists. 

- Wander. 

Photo courtesy of Obaid Al Budoor

Caffeine Cruise meets Wander

On a corner of an intersection lies a tree-house haven, a fusion of motorbikes and good good coffee is Cafe Rider - a home grown coffee hub built on authenticity and good vibes. Throughout battling the concrete jungle and pushing through the metropolitan lifestyle, people seek comfort in the road most Friday mornings by heading to the furthest point in the Arab Emirates - be it on two wheels or four wheels. The Caffeine Cruise paired with Wander and created memories.