Please, do use protection before you do it.
Another key ingredient for a great journey is planning. Needless to say the immense amount of planning that went into our trip to take care of the essential things, such as online research and writing to distant friends to map out all the impressive authentic eateries from Sela’a at the UAE/KSA Border to Capadoccia in Central Turkey.
And just like any good strategy you don’t have to take care of every small detail. Lack of detailed analysis is what spices up the journey, details such as Visas to Syria, Booking a hotel in advance, spraying the car with anti-sand coat or taking enough cash with you just in case plastic cards are not accepted in one of those rusty Petrol stations in the middle of nowhere.
The plan was to depart on Friday before Fajr to avoid July heat in the Gulf. Actual departure date was Sunday 10:00am crossing UAE/KSA Border around 1:00PM on yet another sunny day with 47 Deg.
Crossing the border went very smooth as if we were the only passengers crossing. The Saudi Customs said that the peak was usually on Friday early morning! This was a first sign of how sound our strategy was.
Not having sprayed the car with proper anti-sand coat to prevent paint erasure by an expected strong sand wind on the open Saudi roads, we stopped by Musafah and got a 10Dh spray can and paid the attendant another 5 Dh to spray it. By the time we got to our first stop at Salwa KSA, 125KM from the border, the car had two tones of whites, a pearl white and a flat white and no trace of the 10Dh powder we sprayed. Looking shamefully at my sandblasted Land Cruiser front grill that has acquired new rough steel colour where it was once shining proudly in glittering gold, a young Bangali offered to soak the car with what looked like the remnants of an old beaten sponge drenched in a murky brownish liquid, coupled with overwhelming assurances that his مغبرة solution will stand the strongest of winds. With the choice between DIY Fairy liquid and the Bangali’s “No Frills” offer, I chose to go for the latter. 
Suffice to say that the car has now three-tone colours with a fine earthy colour band around the bonnet and the front guards…The right size protection, Don’t leave home without it
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