The point of it all

AS the sound of 18 diesel engines died away for the last time in Casablanca on Oct 7, a wave of relief swept over every member of the Petronas Trans Sahara 2004 expedition. There were also feelings of triumph, and a sense of personal achievement and team accomplishment.
“We made it!” “Well done, you did it!” Congratulations were in order, and everyone went around shaking each other’s hands and patting one another on the back. There were tears of joy, and eager anticipation of the journey home to much-missed loved ones so far away.
Now, safe and sound at home at last, with all the creature comforts and the great Malaysian food that we craved for while out there in the desert, there has been time to reflect on the meaning of life, the universe, and what the whole Sahara experience has been about.
It was one great adventure. For some lucky members of the Petronas Adventure Team (PAT), there will be other places to visit in time to come, but many of us will remember this trip as a once-in-a-lifetime experience that we were fortunate enough to have been a part of.
The Trans Sahara proved to be many things to many people. It was a journey of exploration, a long trek through nations and environments that couldn’t possibly be more different than the lush world that Malaysians know as home.
It was a test for each individual participant, who had to dig deep into his or her reserves to find the patience, the perseverance and the tolerance to put up with all the unexpected trials and tribulations that came along. Some of the challenges included seemingly endless waiting to cross borders, long hours of driving, extreme heat, gritty sand getting into everything, and having to go for days without a bath.

There were always some people you liked and some you did not, but everyone had to learn to get along, for the good of the entire group. When everyone was forced to spend so much time in such close proximity, the strain could blow the smallest misunderstanding out of proportion and spark off tiffs. But, in the end, the close bond forged by the shared experiences won through.
There were happy moments when things were great, when the scenery was dazzling or the mood enchanting, just as there were times when everything that could go wrong did. We all passed the test and, looking back now, the good times far outweighed the bad.
It was an opportunity for Malaysians, as individuals and as a group, to let other cultures know about us even as we were getting to know them. Initially, the curious locals of North Africa always mistook us for Japanese, Koreans or Chinese visitors. But when told that we were Malaysians, the reaction was always one of warm welcome.
Invariably, their faces broke into broad smiles, their thumbs went up and they shouted, “Malaysia very good, very nice people, welcome!” It felt really great to be regarded in such a pleasant light, even if we discovered along the way that such welcoming salutes were often ploys to lure unsuspecting tourists into souvenir shops.
As travel experiences go, a PAT expedition is not really the best way to visit interesting places. All too often, the need to keep to a schedule or having to pick up the pace to make up for lost time meant that we had to bypass many interesting places. While the 39 days allocated for the expedition might seem a long time, it still did not allow for much leisure because the convoy had to cover more than 10,000km, much of it over difficult terrain. There were stretches of the route which required eight hours of driving to cover just over 100km of ground.
While it was understandable that the needs of the whole caravan took precedence over the wishes of individuals, it did often lead to the frustrating feeling that one had travelled so far under such difficult conditions only to whiz past some place of great significance, such as historic battlegrounds like El Alamein and Mersa Matruh in Egypt, or the remnants of ancient Roman settlements in Libya.

The expedition did enable us to see plenty of interesting sights along the way. Even if the experience was often shallow, most of us agreed that it was ultimately better to have had these glimpses, however brief and fleeting, than not to have seen these wonderful places at all. That was another lesson: you can’t have everything your way all the time, so you should enjoy whatever you can get.
In the main, the expedition served to raise Petronas’ profile in the foreign countries where they have joint-venture operations, such as Sudan, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. Wherever possible, the PAT members took part in community relations projects at local institutions such as children’s hospitals and village vocational centres, which receive support and aid from the Malaysian oil company.
For other sponsors such as Ford Malaysia, which sent along their 4X4 Everest and Ranger vehicles, and Korean tyre-maker Kumho, the gruelling expedition was as an ideal trial by ordeal that proved their products’ toughness and reliability, beyond all doubt. After all, they survived the kind of conditions and abuse the average consumer’s car and tyres would never have to undergo, even in 20 years of normal usage.

Oil everywhere, not a drop to be found

The Blast From The Past series continues with an ironic problem. In an oil-rich country where electricity is so cheap that the people leave their light bulbs on all day, the Petronas Adventure Team runs out of fuel deep in the desert.

With the cars running on fumes and no Petronas station in sight, set up camp.

AN oil crisis is the last thing anyone expects in Libya , where petroleum supposedly oozes from the ground. Yet, that was exactly what the Petronas Adventure Team (PAT) had to cope with as the sun set on Sept 13, 2004, Day 15 of the Trans Sahara 2004.
The convoy comprised 18 four-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicles, rigged with extra fuel tanks and jerry cans that can carry about 200 litres of diesel each.
That evening, every driver had been mesmerised by the amber low-fuel warning light; it didn’t help that the nearest fuel station was at the oasis of Waw el Kabir, 178km away as the crow flies, but there are no crows deep in the Sahara , and no one here travels in a straight line for long.
The problem began when the convoy rolled into the oasis of Tazerbu, about 650km south of Benghazi , the scheduled refuelling stop, on the night of Sept 12. Unfortunately, the petrol station was out of diesel.

The scrounger score some diesel, but not enough.

The PAT’s scrounging skills worked, though, and the local fuel supplier sent four 200l drums to the camp at midnight. Each car got a ration of 65 litres, which was not a lot; nevertheless, the participants headed into the desert anyway, to explore an extinct volcano.
The difficult terrain resulted in higher fuel consumption than expected, and most vehicles were running on fumes by the time the convoy pitched camp as night fell, still 200km from the nearest source of diesel.
Expedition leader Halim Rahman then decided to collect every jerry can and fuel container available, pool every last drop of precious diesel to fill up a couple of cars and send them to Waw el Kabir to buy more diesel. It was a six-hour round trip.

While the quest for fuel continues, some
 people find time to practise their golf swing.

Meanwhile, the guys (and three women) took advantage of the rare leisure time to catch up on vehicle maintenance chores, such as cleaning the air filters. Expedition sergeant major Asst Supt Mohd Shahidan Mohd Mahmud, who had brought along 100 golf balls, finally got the chance to polish his chipping and sand trap skills, while the others played rugby and football.
The fuel eventually arrived and the convoy moved out just after 4pm, way after the usual 6.30 or 7.30am starts. The wait proved to be a good opportunity to experience the Sahara during the day. Temperatures there can soar to over 40°C, but, surprisingly, it was pleasant in the shade, especially when the wind blew, which seemed to be most of the time.
Several days earlier, the convoy had crossed from Egypt into Libya near the town of Salum and made smooth progress on sealed roads to the port city of Tobruk. This city was the scene of two major World War II battles – that between the German-Italian forces led by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, a.k.a. the Desert Fox, and the British and Commonwealth troops who distinguished themselves as the Desert Rats. Unfortunately, there isn’t much left for history buffs to see today, except for a small French military cemetery.

All hands on deck to help with refuelling.

Along the way, the convoy rolled through El Alamein (now called Al Alamayn by the Libyans), site of the British victory that proved to be the turning point for the Allies.
My first impression of Libya was that of overwhelming filth: there was garbage strewn as far as the eye could see. Plastic bags, in particular, looked like crops growing on the ground; many hung from the numerous barbed wire fences.
Libya could just as easily be dubbed the “Land of Green Doors”, since nearly every squarish house is either sand coloured or unpainted concrete, and has green doors. Apparently, the colour is popular because the Libyan flag is a plain green rectangle, and it seems to be effective in scaring away flies!
En route to Tobruk, the long line of uniformly-coloured PAT cars drew admiring stares from everyone, including the unfortunate drivers of two cars which collided with a mighty bang when the man in front slowed down to gawk, and the driver behind him, who did the same, did not slow down. Assistance was rendered immediately by Khairuddin Mohd Ali, the expedition doctor,who examined the injured drivers.

No fuel, never mind, we have authentic
Italian pasta cooked by authentic
Italian chef Alessandro Arada

The Sahara reputedly springs surprises on the unwary: well, there was heavy rain and floods in parts of the deep desert that the expedition was supposed to visit, thus forcing a change of route. It hardly ever rains, but when it does, the water does not seep into the ground. Instead, it is channelled into narrow riverbeds that are normally dry.

Is that a Petronas station ... nah, just a mirage.

“After lunch, the local guides will lead us through the minefields,” expedition leader Halim Abdul Rahman announced over the radio during a refuelling break just before the convoy was due to enter the real Sahara desert.
That certainly got the adrenalin pumping, but as it turned out, we did not have to drive through any minefield. However, the convoy did go near many thick barbed wire entanglements that marked out areas where there might still be mines left over from WWII and the subsequent border conflict between Libya and Egypt.
The Sahara proper is a fascinating landscape, vast and varied in textures and hues. It is not all just sand dunes, although there are many of these. There are also large areas of hard-packed sandy and rocky ground, strewn with stones which vary in size from pebbles to huge boulders. Colours range from white to beige to dark brown and black.

The expedition vehicles travelled over soft sand dunes that resembled the huge waves of a storm at sea, as well as perfectly smooth flat sand that afforded We drove through powdery dust (like talcum powder) that severely taxed the engines and cooling systems.
The Sahara is beautiful in a stark, wild kind of way. It is enchanting and entrancing, yet totally unforgiving because a traveller can go hundreds of kilometres without seeing a blade of grass, or so much as a beetle. There’s no life there, except that which passes through on the backs of camels, or in 4WD vehicles, like us.

More photos here

An extinct volcano in the middle of the Libyan Sahara (at 24°55'9.67"N 17°44'45.88"E).

What doesn’t kill you…

Yet another blast from the past, this one from 2004, BEFORE I went off to the Sahara with the Petronas Adventure Team (which, sadly, no longer exists).
I dedicate this to the memory of the late Halim Abdul Rahman (pic above, with leg up), the inspirational leader of PAT who made it all happen. This was a story I wrote as part of the run-up to the PAT Trans Sahara 2004.

MANY of us dream of adventure. Of travelling to far-off lands and experiencing exotic cultures … and then we wake up to the harsh realities of bills and mortgages and deadlines and commitments.
Then there are the people who actually live those dreams. A nice holiday for these people, known collectively as the Petronas Adventure Team, might be a 20,000km drive over 60 days or so from Istanbul, along the historic Silk Route, and back to Kuala Lumpur. Or, how about a trip through China, Mongolia and Siberia over a month and a half?
Names of places that most Malaysians would know only from National Geographic are memories for them, and photographs of scenes we know only from the magazine’s pages are their holiday snapshots.
Each year since 1999, the intrepid Malaysians members of the Petronas Adventure Team have been setting out to explore remote places in their rugged four-wheel-drive vehicles, brightly painted in the colours of Petronas, their main sponsor.
The programme was the brainchild of Halim Abdul Rahman, who first made headlines as an adventurer when he made the cut for the first Malaysian team to take part in the Camel Trophy in Madagascar, back in 1987. After several years of organising local 4WD events as a business, the adventurer in Halim longed to venture further and wider.
“The world is such a big place, and I wanted to see more of it,” said Halim, adding that, “quite a number of people shared the dream.”
With backing from the national oil company, he and several partners put together an expedition to Tibet. The success of the trip, entailing 15,000km in 41 days over some of the toughest trails in Asia, prompted Petronas to sign on for the long haul and the Petronas Adventure Team was officially launched under the auspices of Petronas Motorsports in June 2000.
Since then, team members have driven through Indochina (2000), along the Silk Route (2001), and through Siberia (2002) and Southern Africa (2003).
Now, final preparations are being made for what could be the toughest challenge to date, the Trans-Sahara 2004 that will flag off from Khartoum, Sudan, on Aug 30, and trek through Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, ending in Casablanca on Oct 7 – if everything goes according to plan.
The team’s members go forth in search of experiences beyond the ordinary and, more often than not, find challenges in the most unexpected places.
Crossing from Myanmar to Tibet, for instance, the entire expedition of 1999 were placed under “house arrest” by suspicious Chinese local authorities, who had never had to deal with so many travellers in foreign-registered vehicles before. Each day, the team members would pack their gear and load up their Land Cruisers, climb aboard and wait for permission to leave. They repeated this routine for five days, and each time, they had to dismount despondently after hours spent sitting in the cramped confines of the heavily laden vehicles. The confusion was eventually sorted out and sets of local licence plates were flown in from Beijing, clearing the way for the adventure to continue.
It takes a special kind of person to be an adventurer, Petronas Adventure Team-style. Physical stamina, mental endurance and patience are essential traits, obviously, as well as a sense of humour (to maintain sanity) during gruelling journeys that often, by choice, take the road less travelled.

It also requires money, lots of it. Even with the generous sponsorship of Petronas and other big firms such as the Malaysian International Shipping Corporation, participants have to come up with over RM20,000 each “for the privilege of suffering,” as one team veteran put it.
That’s in cash (to cover airfares, insurance, hotels and other expenses, excluding pocket money), on top of the considerable expense of buying a suitably rugged 4WD vehicle. Count on spending between RM100,000 and RM140,000 for a Toyota Land Cruiser. The big rig, known affectionately as the “Ninja Turtle” because of its rounded lines, is the team’s vehicle of choice because it is famous for reliability and has the capacity to lug around the copious amount of food and water, clothing, camping gear, spare parts and other miscellaneous equipment needed to sustain the adventurers for up to two months.
This is not to say that other 4WD vehicles can’t cope, but it makes sense for everyone to use similar equipment in order to cut down on the quantity and type of spare parts that need to be brought along. For the coming Trans-Sahara, Ford Malaysia is sending along two Ford Everests and a Ranger.
Then, there’s another RM30,000 to RM50,000 needed to modify the vehicle with protective bumpers and roof racks, winches, extra tanks for fuel and water and assorted paraphernalia, and a heavy-duty suspension system to hold up all that extra weight.
Once a vehicle is suitably kitted out for the rigours of an expedition, it is no longer suitable for use as daily transport because the suspension would be too hard without a load, and it would probably be too tall to enter any basement car park.
But the reward can be enormous: journeys not only to foreign and distant places but also voyages of self-discovery in which they find out how well they hold up under stressful conditions that are so far removed from routine normalcy. Try to imagine, if you can, what it must be like sharing the confined space of a vehicle with two other people, up to 12 hours a day, for 45 to 60 days. And enduring all this while traversing alien landscapes that range from desert to snowy mountains to mud, and coping with vehicle breakdowns or getting stuck in mud or sand, and, basically, facing many more trials and tribulations than most Malaysians endure in a lifetime.
Those who return for more are living proof of the adage “that which does not kill you, makes you stronger”.
When Petronas Adventure Team members say their motto is “no obstacle too difficult, no challenge too arduous”, believe it because they are not mere daydreamers. They do have dreams as well, though. There is always the next long trip to look forward to.

Next up: What type of car can withstand the rigours of a Petronas Adventure Team trek?