COVID 19 compliant - Evening Fewbie Desert Drive - Moonshot: Tawi to Big Red 18 Sep 2020

[Wrangeld]

Moonshooters Good Morning, 

@Jun Zamora, @Tero Vallas, @Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @David Ortells, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Jolly Abraham, @jodha singh shekhawat, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Miguel Ibarbia, @Ilya Golubinsky ( @Shiju Manuel, @Jeepie, @Kalahari

The plan this week is to shoot for the moon. The idea - to start at Nawi farm and see the sun go down high up on the dunes of Big Red or the other dunes nearby and exit with a short night time drive. With such an experienced convoy, we should be able to push both the pace and complexity of the drive to practice side sloping and criss crossing on some of the most inviting dunes ranges in our region (or at least the region in which we are permitted in these covid times - where we cannot enter Adu Dhabi).

It's is lunar month moon end, so we will hope to see the last slivers of the moon for this month form up high. 

More information to follow as well as a some nice additional 'features' planned for this drive. 

Have a great week. 

See you soon in the sand. 

 

[Ashok chaturvedi]

Thanks a lot..

[Miguel Ibarbia]

@Wrangeld unfortunately I won’t be able to join on Friday. I’ve updated the RSVP status. Enjoy! 

[Wrangeld]

@siddharth maheshwari I am afraid you have been signed out of this drive as you were not on the original wait list and @Shiju Manuel was signed in to the drive as he was on the waitlist before you. I think that you took advantage of Miguel having signed out of the drive. 

Hope you will understand that if we have a waitlist from Sunday, they take priority over someone that sees that there is a spot midweek. 

[siddharth maheshwari]

Hi @Wrangeld thats fair and noted!

[Wrangeld]

1 hour ago, siddharth maheshwari said:

Hi @Wrangeld thats fair and noted!

Thanks for your understanding Siddharth. We really do try to be as consistent as possible on these things. 

[Wrangeld]

Good Morning Moonshooters, 

Here is the convoy numbering for Friday evening's Drive.

We will be using Carnity Channel 2. Start time/meeting time is 4.30pm (not 5pm as stated in the topic). Please be sure to get there on time. 

Evening Fewbie Desert Drive Pink Rock 18 Sept 2020
Attendees	Level	Car	Radio	Pos #
Wrangeld	Expert	Mitsubishi Pajero SWB	Y	1	Lead
Kalahari	Advance	Nissan Xterra	Y	2	2nd lead
Jodha singh shekhawat	Fewbie	Nissan Xterra	Y	3
Ashok Chaturvedi	Fewbie	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	4
Ilya Golubinsky	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler	Y	5
Lorenzo Candelpergher	Intermediate	Nissan Patrol Y62	Y	6	CF
Jun Zamora	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler	Y	7
Tero Vallas	Fewbie	Toyota Landcruiser Prado	Y	8
David Ortells	Fewbie	Toyota FJ Cruiser		9
Jolly Abraham	Fewbie	Toyota Fortuner	Y	10
Shjiu Manuel	Intermediate	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	11
Jeandre Bezuidendhout	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler SWB		12
Jeepie	Expert	Jeep Wrangler		13	SW

 We will save some of the surprise details for you until the breifing Friday. 

See you all soon in the sand

@Kalahari @jodha singh shekhawat @Ashok chaturvedi @Ilya Golubinsky @Lorenzo Candelpergher @Jun Zamora @Tero Vallas @David Ortells @Jolly Abraham @Shiju Manuel @Jeandre Bezuidenhout @Jeepie

[Wrangeld]

Don't Defy the Drive God's

Sometimes things just don't go your way. When that happens, there is no point fighting it, just like there is no point fighting gravity in our drives. It started so well, with everyone raring to go, but a totally innocuous recovery that happened on almost flat ground, that turned into the impossible pop out was clearly a message from the drive gods to watch our step. 

We tried everything to get the pop out sorted, with the whole team coming up with solutions and suggestions. No matter what we tried, the end result was a change of wheel.

Even so it was possible to see that

@Ilya Golubinsky and @Jun Zamorashowed as usual that the Jeep is a great tool for all drives. 

@David Ortells grows well in the FJ and @Jolly Abraham was unstoppable when ever help was needed. @Tero Vallas you are starting to understand so much better how the mighty Prado moves  

Back on the move again, we made it to Pink Rock without incident, finally able to push the pace and complexity a little.

To say Pink Rock was busy is like saying that the Burj Kalifah is quite tall. It was full of convoys and crazies and cross tracks, so with @Kalahari in the lead we moved on. 

The drive gods clearly had not determined we would reach Big Red. Too many refusals to deal with had eaten into our daylight and we were simply too far to propose driving in the dark all the way there. 

Everyone was doing really well @Ashok chaturvedi and @jodha singh shekhawat as new Fewbies realised this game gets more exciting as you get promoted. 

Talking of promotions @Lorenzo Candelpergher did a great job in C.F. and @Shiju Manuel showed why he earned his recent elevation. 

@Jeepie, as ever kept everythj my tidy at the back. 

Will this drive go down as one the best ever in the pantheon of Carnity drives. Probably not, but it's one that will be remembered for not quite making it to the moon, but getting important learning instead. 

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear @Wrangeld, dear @Kalahari, dear @Jeepie,

today we were meant to look at the stars but it looks like there wasn't the right star alignment for this drive to go as planned. 

I have championed for quite some time the very special ranking (😂😂) of those who had the most frequent pop-outs (for my son's pleasure) and sweated in learning how to handle them, but today's was the trickiest ever seen for me and the first one which, despite all efforts, couldn't be fixed. 

This unfortunate event stole the best time of our ride, which - combined with SZR-style traffic at Pink Rock - made it impossible to reach Al Badayer by daylight.

@Kalahari smoothly pushed the pace a bit but after sunset the east side of Pink Rock became soon very dark and it was really not safe to continue towards Al Badayer by night, especially after we spent some more time helping @Ashok chaturvedi get out from a difficult longitudinal cresting.

In all this, I also discovered (I'll leave it to your imagination "how" I did it) that my daughter (who was joining me in the desert for the 1st time) doesn't really get along well with the shaking and tossing of desert riding: an early exit was, in her case, definitely the best option. 

As @Wrangeld said, we may have not reached for the moon as hoped, but the ride was anyhow valuable experience and the sight of the sunset from Pink Rock alone was, as usual, worth every effort. 

Looking forward to the next attempt to the moon. 

 

PS: @Wrangeld, as I was on the rush when I reached the meeting point I forgot to turn on the tracking app on my mobile. Can you share, if available, the ride data (distance / duration at least) for my records? Thanks in advance 

Edited September 19, 2020 by Lorenzo Candelpergher

[Tero Vallas]

Hi

Thank you for the evening ride, it was surely enjoyable despite of not reaching Big Red. Guidance by @Wrangeld, @Kalahari and @Jeepie kept us safe again, not to mention @Lorenzo Candelperghers hot efforts to fix tyre issues. My big appreciation for you all !

 

See u next time on the sand...

Edited September 19, 2020 by Tero Vallas