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.
Getting stuck in this area is common as I found out on my second visit so taking a non-SUV or 4x4 is a dumb idea. You may think the sand is under one foot deep but go a bit further and it can reach one metre. Pack tow ropes, a shovel, sand ladders, drinks and enough fuel.
On my first visit I came close to darkness and a little low on fuel, so I did not spend too long there and on the second visit I came with a full tank, and by 10am or so. After not too long driving around happily I passed a stuck rental Porsche 911 driven by a Russian man & Russian girlfriend from Kazan. With few places flying to Russia the UAE has tons of Russians holidaying there or living there. They wanted my help since my rental at the time was suitable, but I had no rope.
We tried to remove the sand and find debris to get the wheels to spin with no luck. A pickup passed and lent a rope, but it snapped swiftly. My rental had a few tow loops and the 911 had a tow attachment at the front you screw on which I told them about. A policeman passed and had no tow rope so moved on after a few minutes. The Russian man called a recovery firm I was given the number of by another passer-by - £100 or so was the fee which they agreed to.
After keeping them in my car with the AC on we followed a mini-monster pickup truck with chunky tyres, very high ground clearance, a 5l+ engine and an electric tow winch. At first, they thought it was the paid rescue vehicle they ordered but it was not. The pickup pulled them out and told the man to pick up speed and leave the area. With them on their merry way I explored more and left to Al Ain.
A Porsche 911 may look nice, but it has two-wheel (rear) drive only, low ground clearance and low-profile tyres. The man who rescued them said cars get stuck many times a day and yesterday he pulled out a Lamborghini! He also said the police are not allowed to rescue cars due to insurance so private firms only assist unless you get lucky like the Russian couple did.
