Leaders lead - Learn to lead the desert drive - 19 Sep 2020

[Gaurav]

Leading a desert drive is the most amazing experience to have, where you can combine the fun, freedom, creativity, strategic thinking and survival skills all at once. 

Leaders lead is the drive where all participant of that drive will lead for a certain period of time. Backed with the right techniques, experience and supervision so that you can learn the art of leading with a peace of mind without any fear or pressure.

Due to the basic experience required to read the sand and have basic navigational sense, this drive is only suited to the Advance level off-roaders.

You will be learning the basics of leading the convoy in the desert in three different steps:

1. Advance sand reading, plan your lead, plan your exits.
2. Use of navigational software for selecting the right course of path.
3. How to systematically scale the lead for all the cars in the convoy.

In this second session of leaders lead you will be leading with the help of off-road navigation app or device.

Prepare and mark these basic points and you will be required to reach any one or few of them:

1. Entry and Exit
   1. Tawi Nazwa
   2. 2nd Dec Cafeteria
   3. Pink Rock
   4. Big Red
2. Mark few play area in and around Pink Rock area - Bidayer
3. Mark as many sabka, flat track or easy exits in case of emergency
4. Mark fencing or restricted area
5. Mark technical dunes

Level: Advance and Above

When: 19 Sep 2020, Saturday

Meeting time: 5:30 AM, (Sharp, without any exceptions)

Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/ncdB6oiTm3phW4jH6 Tawi Nazwa Farm

Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance.

Approximate finish time:  09:00 AM

Please RSVP on the below calendar:

 

[Chaitanya D]

@Gaurav I have to skip all drives this weekend as my car is under repair. See you all next week !

[Gaurav]

@Vanessa8580 @sertac @Brette @Kalahari @Tbone and @Rahimdad

Please note that the meeting time has been changed to 5:30 AM instead of 5:00 AM.

[Chaitanya D]

Have fun all of you, please input all your experiences here so that I can catch up with you all next week. 

[Gaurav]

Drive Report

It was fantastic to see all new leaders up in the morning and showing up at meeting point ahead of time and be fully ready with deflation, flags before the drive time. Weather become chilly as per few and that gave us first hour of enjoying the drive with windows down to cherish this much awaited cool breeze.

This was the second session of leaders lead drive where new leaders supposed to show their nav app homework of marking all above points and then drive with nav app to certain locations. Almost everyone did the good work and marked all the required points to start exploring.

We started with @sertac and he manage to lead beautifully well in an area filled with 1000 cross tracks. And he manage to take all of us safely to Pink rock in no time. Perfect handling, confidence and routing choice made it possible to reach pink rock smoothly (almost). Keep it up Sertac. He did covered 8.78 km in 37 minutes.

From Pink rock @Vanessa8580 started to lead till Big Red and she thoroughly enjoyed the drive and followed the track precisely and then gradually moved up to make her own track very wisely. Good thinking Vanessa. She did covered 12.56 km in 36 minutes.

From Big red @Tbone started the joy ride and took all of us for much awaited big rolling dunes behind big red and continue to march towards the pink rock area. He showed a tremendous improvement from last leader lead session where he left with some difficult area to lead, but today he really showed his true potential and capabilities to lead. Well done Tbone. He did covered 10.5 km in 27 minutes.

From Pink rock @Brette took over to take us to Tawi Nizwa farm and we all were truly impressed with his lead capability to find a fresh track in Pink Rock area where just an hour before we crossed through the 1000 cross tracks. This is an exceptional class of leading to always look for a smoother area to traverse (as far as possible) while being creative to explore near-by area than following existing tracks. Very well done Brette. He did covered 12.3 km in 31 minutes.

Last but not least we have had @Kalahari with a different challenge given to tone down from an "Advance level" lead to a "fewbie level" which he perfectly scaled down and took all of us from Tawi nizwa farm to 2nd Dec exit. Well tried Kalahari. He did covered 6.5 km in 19 minutes.

Heartiest congratulations to all new leaders for doing fantastic lead and showing us different flavor (most imp). Like we mentioned in debrief this was not a contest of who can better, longer or faster but a session to train you to lead with a navigation skills and free mind.

Above numbers of km and minutes is not a parameter of any comparison as each one of you have had different stucks, refusal and pop out based on your own leading style. Moving forward you all need to work on making your drives as smooth and enjoyable as possible than competing on any number games (just clarifying).

Get ready for the third and last session of leaders lead where each one of you will be leading through a technical dunes without any existing tracks, purely based on your navigational and leading skills. After that drive we will conduct a session of technical and extreme recoveries to conclude your training and let you practice more under the supervision of existing trip lead and Marshals.

[Frederic]

Congrats to all the new leaders ! I still remember my first lead in Pink Rock at night time and know how stressful it feels, but rest assured it will come as natural as driving in a convoy very soon.

[Rahimdad]

I was very lucky for @Gaurav bhai to allow me to join this very special session which he has designed to give the most deserving members an insight into leading a convoy. My hats off to @Gaurav bhai for his patience and skills to analyze each driver for their skills and hone their talent to becoming great leaders.

@sertac, @Vanessa8580, @Tbone, @Brette and @Kalahari is the new batch of leaders who are preparing to offer more thrilling options in leads as the season gets better. Missed watching Dr @Chaitanya D as he had duty, but totally looking forward to seeing him this coming week. This session is not to determine who can do better, bit to make sure each and everyone of them understand what is expected of them and toning their drive levels to suit everyone. It was a great experience to see how each one of them is moulded themselves to the Carnity DNA keeping safety paramount. Well done all until we meet again.