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COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - EXPLORATION: Sea to Mountain: Part 2 - RAK - 10 Oct 2020


Ale Vallecchi

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This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely.

 

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions

 

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST

 

Two Way Radio Guidelines

  • Every Off-roader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic.
  • We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. 
  • Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving.
  • Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops...
  • No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it.

 

Drive Details

Level:  Intermediate and above

When:  10 October 2020, Saturday

Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions)

Action Plan: IMPORTANT NOTICE - This is an exploration drive, in a little travelled area for off-roaders, on very technical terrain. In fact, while Part 1 of this drive has taken place on an itinerary tasted at least once, this drive will be in uncharted terrain! The pace may be slow, and the skills required will include finesse and control, due to the need to pick the right path through an environment possibly with a lot of vegetation (shrubs first, then trees), with sporadic animal farms, and sets of sand dunes with little room to maneuver. This drive will test the complete set of off-roading skills, providing a good opportunity to make you a more complete desert driver.

Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/UsVoyEaC9YdZdJbG8

IMPORTANT: As this is an absolute first, this is just a convenient meeting point, from which we'll try to move into the desert. We can deflate here, hoping the entry point will not be too far.

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

What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Approximate finish time: 11:00 AM

THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. WE WILL END THE DRIVE AT A POINT WHICH IS NOT CLOSE TO AN AIR LINE. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPRESSOR, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE. IF YOU ARRIVE AND HAVE NO COMPRESSOR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. 

 

LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE:

  • Limited to 10 Intermediate and above drivers. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM.
    • If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. 
  • Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
  • Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
  • Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others.
  • Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month.
     

PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR 

 

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Dear Desertnauts,

A few words about this exploration drive planned for next Saturday.

Few words is all that I can use, since I have never been in this area at all. The idea to develop a "Sea to Mountain" route came to me after driving the first portion of this itinerary (before joining Carnity). That drive seemed nice at the time, and indeed it still is extremely interesting, even though the vegetation in the area has exploded since more than 1 year ago, changing the look and feel of the area. That first route was then tested a few weeks ago, and driven by an Intermediate convoy less than a month ago. We managed to go from the seaside (next to Barracuda Resort) to almost E611 (even though the access has been sealed off since 2019, and we had to exit back on E311). 

Hence, the second leg of the "Sea to Mountain" starts where we left off, at the end of E611, heading in an easterly direction, toward the foothills of the Ajar Mountains. The area we wish to explore, roughly from the entrance of the new Ritz-Carlton Resort to the industrial outskirts of Al Ghail town, is relatively large, and is criss-crossed by several tracks, leading in and out of it, connecting what seem to be farms with the major tarmac roads surrounding the area.

Other than this generic information, there is nothing else that I can add: from satellite maps the area seems to be made of rather clean dunes (not much vegetation, apparently), but we know that with the latest cloud-seeding this may have changed quite dramatically. 

In spite of not having done a test drive in this area, and knowing that Part 1 of this route was quite challenging, we have chosen to open the drive to Intermediates (rather than Advance) drivers. This is to give all of you the opportunity to experience the double-edged sword of an "absolute first" drive, where the excitement of the exploration may be balanced by the disappointment of finding the area not as exciting as initially expected. Nonetheless, as for Part 1 of this RAK double route, all off-roading skills will be tested (finesse and control in particular), and at the end of the drive each should have gained a little more experience and knowledge about themselves, their relationship with their car, and the nature in which we'll be driving.

The only thing that I'd like to advise, due to the unknown nature of the terrain and the obstacles we'll face during the drive, is to limit the number of passengers as much as possible, so that all the driver's concentration may be directed to the track in front of each car. Please advise if you plan to bring more than 1 passenger along. 

@Pancho, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Najeeb Mohammed, @Desert Dweller, @Nivin, @Jun Zamora, @Wrangeld, @Jeepie and @Kalahari, you will receive more info on Friday. In the meantime, have a great week.

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53 minutes ago, Nivin said:

@Ale Vallecchi Got the work schedule for next week and unfortunately i have to withdraw my rsvp as i will be working on Saturday :(. See you soon! 

Thanks @Nivin. Hope to see you again soon.

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Dear Desertnauts.

Ready to explore an area never seen before!? Do not forget to bring along your adventurer's spirit, as we truly do not know what we'll find in this "Sea to Mountain - Part 2". In fact, while Part 1 had already been tested before the actual drive, this second leg of the itinerary has not been driven, ever. So we may either be satisfied with what we find, and be anxious to bring another convoy along, or disappointed, and never think of driving here again. In any case, mystery  awaits us. We are not even sure if the meeting point is the right one to enter the desert. We do hope so, but we'll have to check tomorrow morning, after deflating.

Our convoy order will be the following:

@Wrangeld will take Second Lead position

@Yousef Alimadadi at #3

@Jun Zamora at #4

@Pancho will start at #5

@Desert Dweller will be #6

@Najeeb Mohammed at #7 and

@Kalahari will Sweep the convoy

Upon arrival please tune in to Carnity Channel 2 (446.031). Make sure you arrive with as full a tank as possible, and with all the necessary gear for this driving level. Each car will be responsible for recovering the cars just in front and/or behind, depending on who's in the best position to assist.

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow morning, I wish you a nice Friday evening.

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Hi.  I am at Fewbie level in the club, but have extensive experience in all the terrains back at home.  And this is the kind of trips that I love the most (Exploration and different terrains).  If I am allowed I would love to join this trip.

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1 hour ago, Alexander Alcala said:

Hi.  I am at Fewbie level in the club, but have extensive experience in all the terrains back at home.  And this is the kind of trips that I love the most (Exploration and different terrains).  If I am allowed I would love to join this trip.

Hello @Alexander Alcala. Nice to hear from you, and thanks for your message. I totally understand your interest. On one hand, the good news is that it's possible we'll offer a trip like this one at Fewbie level, soon. We found the area has a lot of tracks, made by locals travelling between camel farms, which can make the going easier and more accessible to many more drivers. On the other hand, when we plan these kinds of trips (first ever exploration drives) we usually open them to no less then Intermediates (and more likely Advance drivers), since we may encounter situations that will require a great command of the car and more sophisticated skills (we did encounter a couple of such situations yesterday, which would have proven tricky to Fewbies). In any was, being promoted from Fewbie to Intermediate will only require a bit of time and dedication, which I am sure will be even easier in your case, given your experience. In fact, with our current ranking structure, you can apply for promotion, which will be certainly taken into consideration. Looking forward to meeting you.

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Thank you for your kind message.  I certainly understand, and the last thing I want to do is to break the rules.  There will be other opportunities.

Kind regards,

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EXPLORATION DRIVE "SEA TO MOUNTAIN" COMPLETED - Trip Report

Fog, crispy wet sand, un-scalable dunes, free ranging camels, wild donkeys, longitudinal (Seif) dunes that suck your car down into their molasses-like sand, and, most amazingly, wide open plain areas with the look and feel of a savannah. This are some of the amazing situations and sights we found and saw during this first ever exploration of this un-named area, between the new Ritz-Carlton Al Wadi Desert Resort and the farming/industrial village of Al Ghail.

Fog was the protagonist of the first hour of the drive. It hung on the whole area like a blanket, with visibility of less than 20 meters. Tired of waiting for it to clear, we ventured off the marked track, only to be bounced back on that same track by an un-scalable sand wall, made very slippery by the thin layer of wet sand on top, and at the same time very sticky by the soft sand underneath. Hence, we followed the marked track around the first group of dunes, very careful not to lose ourselves, having to venture out of the car at times, to take a better look at the many pockets and unseen drops that suddenly materialized in front of the lead. With only a stuck and a few refusals, and having to re-route only a couple of times, we finally found our way out of the fog, to emerge in an area inhabited by free ranging camels and wild donkeys, and characterized by stunning longitudinal dunes (or Seif), a few kilometers long and separated from each other by vegetation-rich stretches of flat land. The first and second sets of these amazing dune formations were divided by the greatest surprise of the whole drive: two huge sabkha areas with a completely flat and smooth surface made of an almost black hard soil, dotted with lonely acacia trees. Beautiful places for camping, in fact one of these "savannahs" was occupied by a small group of locals training their falcons. Here we rounded up our cars in a circle around a giant tree, for a quick stretch and to allow Najeeb to play with his drone, (which was luckily spared by the falcons 😅). From here we progressed toward the tarmac road which separates the industrial area of Al Ghail from its farming district. After crossing the tarmac we proceeded into the last stretch of the drive: a small but interesting plateau, full of intricate and very soft yellow dunes (some of which with hugely tall, Liwa-like, slip faces), which ends abruptly where the desert literally slams into the dark foothills of the Hajar Mountains. We could finally say: Mission accomplished.

Thanks to all the Explorers who joined this "blindfolded" drive: @Wrangeld and @Jeepie, for advising me on a couple of tricky re-directions, which surely saved us a lot of headaches and precious time, @Yousef Alimadadi and @Jun Zamora for showing excellent control and continuing to show impressive progress in their driving skills, @Pancho for relaying all radio information to the back side of the convoy (even adding some personal touches and interpretations to the messages, that kept the whole convoy entertained), @Desert Dweller for managing to drive extremely well even at that horrific hour (it must have felt like sleep-walking) and @Foxtrot Oscar for sharing the ride and drive with Jamy, bringing her enthusiasm and energy along, @Najeeb Mohammed for documenting his first Advance trip from the sky, and finally @Kalahari, who took the sweep's position in great stride, and perhaps felt at home on a terrain which, in places, greatly reminds of some parts of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana.

At the end, we drove for 60.3 Km, in 3:44 hours, at an average speed of 16 Km/h (22 Km/h while moving), and reaching from a lowest altitude of -63 m under the sea level to 230 meters (with almost 1 Km of total climb).

Looking forward to the next Exploration drive (somewhere out there there are still little visited stretches of desert waiting for us), I wish you all a great week.

 

1 hour ago, Alexander Alcala said:

Thank you for your kind message.  I certainly understand, and the last thing I want to do is to break the rules.  There will be other opportunities.

Kind regards,

No worries. It's very much appreciated. We'll soon post this drive again, as we now know that it can be adjusted also to a Fewbie level. In the meantime, I am looking forward to driving with you (and to your promotion, soon),

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