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JUST CRUISING


I don't know which I like best, cruising on the ocean or cruising off-road in the desert.  I've done them both, and both have a lot commend them.  That may be the reason why I like land cruising and ocean cruising so much - the experiences are so similar

It may surprise you to discover that the ocean is the biggest desert in the world.  When I'm on the high seas, there's water everywhere and not a drop to drink.  When I'm out in the terrestrial desert, there's water nowhere, and there's still not a drop to drink.  It doesn't matter which desert you're cruising in, you have to take your water with you or make it when you get there in order to survive.

The real problem with land cruising is there's hardly any land left in which you can freely cruise.  The only places remaining are remote sections of the Middle East, and then you have to be careful in some countries to be sure there are no landmines underfoot. 

I've traveled off-road for tens of thousands of miles in Saudi Arabia, and as far as I am concerned, Arabia has the best land cruising in the world.  There are escarpments, wadis, mountains, volcanoes, and humongous seas of sand to entertain you.  Imagine land cruising in a playground that encompasses a million square miles, and there's hardly a fence or farm to restrict your movement. That makes Arabia one of the biggest sand boxes in the world.

The picture at the top this page shows Wadi Rum in Jordan.  This vista is the stuff land cruising dreams are made of.  Sandstone mountains (inselbergs)  rise up from the desert floor.  A Land Rover with four-hundred liters of fuel and two-hundred liters of water could cruise for weeks in all the nooks and crannies of this special place.  Like twenty-first century bedouins, we could pitch our tents in a hundred different places in this sandy wilderness.  At night billions of stars would twinkle before our eyes, just like they do when we are sailing offshore in the darkness.

Desert survival is very much like surviving at sea.  You must have your wits about you and not do stupid things; both the sea and desert are harsh masters that can kill you in the twinkling of an eye.  Make one mistake, and you are a goner.  At the same time, if you know the rules and obey them, you get to go where few people ever go and see things few people ever see.

If I had to design a perfect life, I would spend split my time between the desert and the sea.  I would explore remote deserts for six months, and then hop on board Exit Only and sail on the ocean of my dreams for the remainder of the year.  I would have the best of both worlds.

 

Now, let me see, I've got two Land Rover's down under in Australia and New Zealand, and Exit Only in America.  Maybe I should cruise the outback of OZ in my Land Rovers for six months, and then spend six months cruising the Bahamas in Exit Only.  That sounds like a plan to me.

 

Life is good.
 


Log 1 Peter Pan Around the World
Log 2 Weapons of Mackerel Destruction
Log 3 Pirates of the Malacca Straits
Log 4 Kissing Cobras
Log 5 Debriosaurus Rex
Log 6 Go Ahead - Live Your Dreams

Log 7 The Man Who Built His House on a Rock
Log 8 Ambivalent Eagles
Log 9 One-Shovel Full at a Time
Log 10 Hitchhiker's Guide to Planet Earth

Log 11 Keeshond

Log 12 The Red Sea Blues

Log 13 Feel the Freedom

Log 14 The Danger Zone

Log 15 Lucky Man
Log 16 Dream Machines - Land Rover Defenders

Log 17 Trade Wind Dreams
Log 18 Logs With Fins
Log 19 Everywhere, Everything
Log 20 Shark Slayer Is History

Log 21 Viking Funeral - Burial at Sea
Log 22 Improbable and Impossible

Log 23 Keep on Trucking
Log 24 Dream Machines II
Log 25 Bodysurfing Whales
Log 26 Hitting the Wall
Log 27 Surviving the Savage Seas

Log 28 The Next Step
Log 29 Welcome to Barbados
Log 30 Atlantic Rally for Cruisers
Log 31 The Man with the Unplan
Log 32 Dali Dolphins
Log 33 Flying Like a Turtle
Log 34 The Foolish Man Built His House on a Pitch Lake
Log 35 Go West Young Man
Log 36 Crossing the Atlantic in a Row Boat
Log 37 The Unsinkable HMS Diamond Rock
Log 38 Catamaran Capsize in 170 mph Winds
Log 39 When Are You Coming Home?

Log 40 Master and Commander of Anegada - Frigate Birds
Log 41 Baths of Virgin Gorda - Batholiths of Central Arabia

Log 42 Free at Last
Log 43 Stalking the Wild Manatee

Log 44 Spreaderman
Log 45 Attack of the Flesh Eating Bees
Log 46 Sharks and Coconuts
Log 47 Stingray Picnic
Log 48 Boo Boo Hill
Log 49 Whale Slayers
Log 50 Noddies (Not Naughty)

 

Log 51 Exumas Land and Sea Park
Log 52 David and Goliath
Log 53 Turquoise Clouds of Paradise

Log 54 Momma Nightjar
Log 55 Maximillian The Great
Log 56 Chiton Kingdom
Log 57 Flying and Holding On
Log 58 Far Horizons
Log 59 Clouds Are a Sailor's Friend
Log 60 Getting Connected
Log 61 Fear
Log 62 Grand Schemes and Other Important Things
Log 63 If Jellyfish Had a Brain
Log 64 Cousins That Don't Kiss
Log 65 Swimming With Sharks
Log 66 Perfect the Way You Are
Log 67 Space Travelers
Log 68 Aliens
Log 69 Monsters of the Mind
Log 70 My Butterfly Collection
Log 71 Somewhere Other Than Here Societies
Log 72 Five-Hundred Pound Spiders
Log 73 Red Sea Sunsets
Log 74 Gibraltar Sunrise
Log 75 Big Sea - Small Ship
Log 76 Just Cruising
Log 77 Castle Mania
Log 78 You Must Know the Sea
Log 79 Flying Like a Goat
Log 80 The Joy of Photography
Log 81 Universal Camouflage
Log 82 My Rainbow Collection
Log 83 Indian Ocean Reward
Log 84 Fiber W
Log 85 Turkish Reflections
Log 86 Mirrors and Mirages
Log 87 Lycean Tombs Rock
Log 88 Rigging Emergency
Log 89 Pamukkale
Log 90 Volcano Land
Log 91 Sniffing the Air
Log 92 Why I Don't Kite Surf
Log 93 Resurrecting Exit Only in Turkey
Log 94 Greased Pole Competition
Log 95 Tsunami Damage
Log 96 Afraid of Living
Log 97 Living on the Edge
Log 98 Borneo Adventure
Log 99 Uligamu Tree Tender with Full Benefits
Log 100 God's Fireworks Display

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This web site is a companion to Outback and Beyond.com.

http://www.outbackandbeyond.com