Liwa Adventure

A desert adventure
I was driving in the desert about 10 kms from Liwa when my car broke down. I was with my friend Ali and, of course, we both had mobile phones but unfortunately neither phone would work in such a remote location.

We were hoping another vehicle would spot us but after about an hour we hadn’t seen or been seen by anyone. Neither Ali nor I is a mechanic and we weren’t sure what was wrong with the car, apart from the fact that it wouldn’t start. The fuel gauge showed that we had plenty of petrol. It was very hot but we had plenty of water with us. But the water wouldn’t last for ever and neither of us wanted to spend the night in the desert. What were we to do?

We decided to set off in the direction of Liwa. We took a map and a bag containing water bottles and we started to walk. After about 5 kms we saw a Land Cruiser ahead of us. We waved and shouted like crazy and fortunately the driver spotted us and drove in our direction. We told him what had happened and he drove us into Liwa. We decided to stay in the hotel as it was getting dark.

Next day a local mechanic drove us back to our car. He discovered that the problem was a faulty fuel gauge: we had run out of petrol. How embarrassing! Still, the mechanic fixed it so it should never happen again.

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