Dubai's Half Desert Roads and What Not To Drive With Them On
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You may be wondering what are Half Desert Roads. Remember the UAE and many chunks of the GCC are just deserts; sandy or rocky. Whole swathes of civilised cities of the UAE are reclaimed land, and many islands are man-made as well. Thus, removing all the sand is not feasible and if you build roads the sand will naturally invade. Half Desert Roads are quality roads with roundabouts with the sand invading most of the roundabouts and parts of the roads (one or both lanes).
Move off the roads and you are on sand along with some small dunes. In the cooler months the locals come out to setup camps, have barbecues, play with drones, fly model aeroplanes and even bring their hawks/eagles/falcons with them. Beware some of the photos you see online are fake which show a straight road, sand and the city centre with the Burj Khalifa in the middle of the photo in the distance. The area is maybe up to 4km square and there are no services or shops there.
Off-Roading and Off The Beaten Path In The GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council)
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Mention Qatar, UAE, Oman, KSA, Bahrain and Kuwait to anyone, and they will likely say there is little to do there. Shopping malls, skyscrapers, indoor theme parks and maybe a fort will come to mind. Excuses will include I am chicken, it is too hot, or I am not adventurous. Visiting such typical sites will mean you have little else to do.
I am known for my adventurous spirit and have little fear when travelling, especially when in a car. -10 or +40 I will still drive or walk for a few kilometres, and I’ll be the only person on the road or pavements. Atlas Obscura is my go-to app to find unusual things to do and in the GCC many locations are deserts or ghost towns. Like the very cool and allegedly haunted: Buried Village of Al Madam of Sharjah.
The photos in this article are from Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman.
What about my car?
Many of these places are based on dirt tracks, rocky deserts or full-blown sand dune deserts. Either an average car will suffice, something entry level like a Mitsubishi Outlander AWD, or Toyota Prado, Suzuki Jimny, Mitsubishi Pajero or Montero Sport will be needed.
What about preparation for off the grid trips?
Many folk will think I will be out of phone coverage and in the remote deserts of Qatar the signal is still strong. Of course, take water, food, a full tank of fuel & jerry cans and a car pump to inflate/deflate your car tyres. Tyre pressure should vary depending on what you will be driving on and a good place to see suggestions for PSI depending on the scenario is https://skippaoffroad.com/suzuki-jimny-tyre-pressures/. In some desert start points there are men who inflate/deflate tyres at start and end of the trip to sand dunes.
Belarus: The Last Battalion of the USSR
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Mention the country and many people in the United Kingdom will tell you the same things, which I will not repeat. After entering Belarus five times, I have strong experience of what it is like between 2019 and 2024. Travelling to places like this really changes your views of the country and where you came from. You can research online why I entered and exited five times, though the first trip, at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, was for tourism.
Belarus is really one of the few places that still feels quite Soviet, along with Transnistria, and is a bit socialist, which actually has a lot of pros over the West, even though I would view the United Kingdom as a bit socialist in parts. The country strongly appeals to me due to its Soviet communist relics and has a lot more to offer than communist sights. When I visited, it was pretty cold, from December to January, travelling solo in a normal VW non-4x4 rental.
The plan was standard: do a lot of research, write down a plan focused on a loop, fly into Minsk, hire a car (VW Polo or Golf manual), pre-book the initial hotels, book other hotels as I went along, and fly out from Minsk Airport once the rental had been returned. Back then there were direct flights from London to Minsk, and now you need to travel via the UAE, Turkey, or cross by land from the EU.
Let’s cover the normal question. Is it safe? Do not believe everything you read. Yes, it is on the FCDO no-travel list; however, crime, scams, and terrorism are way less common than in the United Kingdom or Western Europe in general. You will not be arrested for minding your own business. Just respect the country's customs and laws.
In five visits, I had plenty of interactions with government officials and never had any issues. A shocking thing to say is that the government is actually more compassionate (and way less greedy) than the British government. Once, I even broke the law by accident by entering a closed border zone, and I was neither fined nor arrested. The border guard was nice and polite and showed me the way to the correct checkpoint.
What is there to see? Castles, palaces, forts, bunkers, both natural and man-made lakes, impressive churches, communist relics, museums, parks, sanatoriums, nature, Chernobyl-related sites, and operas. Twelve days was enough to see a high percentage of the country's sights if you do not mind long days and a lot of driving. The country has a lot of nature, mainly forests, and you will see a lot more wild animals than in the EU. Birds of prey, beavers, moose, deer, wolves, and more.
How were the people? Firstly, English is not widely spoken, and Google Translate or something similar is your friend. People can seem a bit cold at first in Belarus, and this applies to other former Soviet countries, such as Ukraine, as well. Very seldom will people try to scam you, and the prices of everything are extremely low. The roads are decent and the drivers are not rough. The police do not try to harass you either, nor do they seem too corrupt compared with some other countries. The locals can be very hospitable at times. Once, I was randomly invited to the birthday party of a man in a small village pub, complete with food, tons of Scotch, and of course vodka!
Day #1
- Arrive in Minsk in the evening
- Got rental
- Night in Minsk
- Minsk Gate
- Got a SIM
- Red Church
- National Library
- Lenin Station (Metro) for a very Sovietesque station
- Belarusian Great Patriotic War Museum
- Island of Tears
- Night in Minsk
- Walk around the old town (Trinity Suburb)
- Look at the outside of the Soviet KFC on praspiekt Pieramožcaŭ 1
- Drove to Babruysk
- Lenin Square with a Soviet era government building and of course statue of Mr. Lenin
- Night in Babruysk
- Explore Lenin Square in light
- Two beaver's statues
- Tank monument
- Central market
- Central library
- Shura Balaganov monument
- Babrujsk Fortress
- Nazi labour camp
- Drove to Mazyr
- Walked around the centre inc. wooden castle
- Night in Mazyr
- Day tour of Polesie State Radioecological Reserve – Belarus's Chernobyl equivalent exclusion zone
- Check in & paperwork
- Left my rental
- Got in a minibus with driver + guide
- First checkpoint
- Little museum
- Bison feeding station
- Abandoned schools, flats, farms, clubs, villages, vehicles, factories & veterinary centre
- Climb of viewing tower to see into Chernobyl exclusion zone
- Lake with beached boats
- Handwash station
- Fire station stop with fire engine tanks
- Left zone
- Stop at inland oil well pump
- Drove to Gomel
- Night in Gomel
- Gomel Palace for the palace, park, lake & church
- Tank memorial
- Soviet buildings
- Circus show
- Museum of Military Glory
- Criminalistics Museum
- Night in Gomel
- Drove to Mogilev
- Stop off at radiation signs in the forest
- Memorial Sign in Honour of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander
- Lenin Square
- Lenin statue
- House of Soviets building
- Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Stanislaus
- Astronomer statues & clock on a square
- Stop in Orsha
- Iyezuitskiy Kollegium
- Pamyatnik Bm 13 "Katyusha"
- Pamyatnik Geroyam Afgantsam
- Mill
- Walk around river
- Night in Vitebsk
- Svyato-Uspenskiy Kafedral'nyy Sobor
- Monastery of the Holy Spirit
- Other churches nearby
- Walked around rest of old town
- Al'gerd statue
- plošča Pieramohi park & monument
- Soviet era military hardware next to it
- Marc Chagall House museum
- Marc Chagall Art Centre
- Summer Amphitheatre – best go in July
- Quick stop in Polatsk
- Saint Sophia Cathedral
- Geograficheskiy Tsentr Yevropy – centre of Europe marker
- Pamyatnik 23-M Voinam-Gvardeytsam
- Symeon of Polotsk statue
- Lenin statue
- Paperino. Memorial complex – this is not in Italy or Spain but in a village call and is a giant very cool Soviet memorial for WW2
- Night in a forest hotel in Dudinka
- Khatyn Memorial Complex
- Mound of Glory
- Rovanichi abandoned house & nearby church
- Stalin Line
- Night in Zhodzina
- Belarus tour including: interpreter, video, museum, view of trucks, manual assembly line, ride in a monster mining truck (extra charge) and view of worlds largest mining truck
- Night in Lida
- Lida Castle
- Masty for suspension bridge
- Drove to Grodno
- Church of Our Lady of the Angels
- Grodno Castle
- New Castle Museum
- Walk the old town, Soviet Street
- St Boris and Gleb Church of Kalozha
- Great Synagogue
- Firewatch Tower
- Forts No. 1 + 2
- Night in Kamenyuky
- Belovezhskaya Pushcha National Park
- Tower of Kamyenyets
- Brest Fortress memorial complex
- 5th Fort Museum
- Railway Museum
- Kobryn old synagogue ruin
- Night in Ruzhany
- Palace of Ruzhany
- Palace of Kossova
- Nesvizh Castle
- Night in Mir
- Mir Castle
- Navahrudak Castle
- Tatar cemetery
- Jewish graveyard
- Jewish Resistance Museum
- Drove to airport
- Dropped off car – 2960kms done
- Flew home to LHR