COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - Faqa to Qudra: "100 Km CHALLANGE, The Sequel" - 6 Nov 2020

[Ale Vallecchi]

@Yousef Alimadadi I just saw you added your name to the drive. Do you confirm you will join? Thanks a lot. 

[Yousef Alimadadi]

2 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

3 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

@Yousef Alimadadi I just saw you added your name to the drive. Do you confirm you will join? Thanks a lot. 

@Ale Vallecchi, thanks, Yes I do confirm 

[Nivin]

@Ale Vallecchi sorry i cant make it for the morning drive. See you at the next one. 

[Ale Vallecchi]

3 hours ago, Nivin said:

@Ale Vallecchi sorry i cant make it for the morning drive. See you at the next one. 

Thanks @Nivin. See you soon.

[Gregory Perkin]

Thanks to @Ale Vallecchi for a fun fast-paced drive.

The route was carefully thought out, showed us a variety of terrain and reminded us that the 3rd gear (and even 4th gear) cogs still work 😂

Great to see a variety of wildlife, and the locals playing with the falcons. Not sure if anyone else spotted the red RC plane they were using to train the falcons. It was flying just before we arrived and was on the ground as we passed.

For the stats guys I've attached some pics.

See you all next time. Greg

[Ale Vallecchi]

The day of records: 100 Km Challenge successfully completed - Trip Report

Even though we knew from the previous Challenge that driving 100+ Km in close to 4 hours is possible, there is always an element of uncertainty in such drives. In case of this particular itinerary, from Faqa to Qudra, one variable that adds to its difficulty is that, except from the first part of Faqa, all major dune cordons must be crossed from the slip-face side. This means that criss-crossing is trickier than when approaching from the dunes' hard-face, and that sometimes one must find a way around the cordons. However, there is an advantage with doing this drive in the morning, and in this direction, and that is not having the sun in one's face, making visibility easer. Another element of uncertainty of this drive was the length of the convoy: while the first Challenge was driven by 5 cars, the Sequel saw a convoy of 8 drivers. Initially this many cars worried me a little, also in light of the relative "greenness" of some of the drivers, tackling their first or second Intermediate drive. In the end, it was such a pleasant surprise to see all perform impeccably, bringing home an almost perfect record of no stucks, the only delays being 2 pop-outs.

After a quick deflation and briefing, the convoy moved at 6:17am, first almost at a leisurely pace, in order to ease the transition of the new Intermediates to the new rank, than slowly picking up speed, driving smoothly toward each planned leg of the itinerary. We reached the first way-point at the end of Faqa in 1:02 hours; the second way-point at the end of Little Sweihan was reached in 1:40 hours., after taking care of our first pop-out (and changing the damaged tire); the third planned break, at the confluence of Solar Park into the "Bab al Shams" sector, in just another 1:02 hours (in spite of a second pop-out, this time sorted out just by re-inflating; finally we exited at Qudra west (next to the big farm on the tarmac road to Qudra Parking in exactly another hour.

The most tested skills of the day, besides basic dunes' straight and criss crossing, and finesse-driving in the few technical areas, were bowl riding, and especially ridge riding, this latter mostly toward the end of the drive, on Qudra's super long range dunes. I was really happy to see the convoy move in unison, almost never breaking stride: well done @Mehmet Volga, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Biju Abdul, @marks, @Gregory Perkin, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe and @Janarthan.

Comparing this Challenge to the previous one, we took 3:41 hours of driving time (Vs. 3.18 h), for 114.6 KM. (Vs. 104.4), at a slightly lower average speed of 23 Km/h Vs. 26Km/h (and 31Km/h while moving Vs. 32Km/h), climbing for 871 meters Vs. 570 meters.

Thanks a lot for joining this challenge, and hope to see you soon on the sand.

[Biju Abdul]

9 hours ago, Gregory Perkin said:

Thanks to @Ale Vallecchi for a fun fast-paced drive.

The route was carefully thought out, showed us a variety of terrain and reminded us that the 3rd gear (and even 4th gear) cogs still work 😂

Great to see a variety of wildlife, and the locals playing with the falcons. Not sure if anyone else spotted the red RC plane they were using to train the falcons. It was flying just before we arrived and was on the ground as we passed.

For the stats guys I've attached some pics.

See you all next time. Greg

Yes @Gregory Perkin I noticed the red plane in the ground but didn’t know that it’s used to train falcons. 

53 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

The day of records: 100 Km Challenge successfully completed - Trip Report

Even though we knew from the previous Challenge that driving 100+ Km in close to 4 hours is possible, there is always an element of uncertainty in such drives. In case of this particular itinerary, from Faqa to Qudra, one variable that adds to its difficulty is that, except from the first part of Faqa, all major dune cordons must be crossed from the slip-face side. This means that criss-crossing is trickier than when approaching from the dunes' hard-face, and that sometimes one must find a way around the cordons. However, there is an advantage with doing this drive in the morning, and in this direction, and that is not having the sun in one's face, making visibility easer. Another element of uncertainty of this drive was the length of the convoy: while the first Challenge was driven by 5 cars, the Sequel saw a convoy of 8 drivers. Initially this many cars worried me a little, also in light of the relative "greenness" of some of the drivers, tackling their first or second Intermediate drive. In the end, it was such a pleasant surprise to see all perform impeccably, bringing home an almost perfect record of no stucks, the only delays being 2 pop-outs.

After a quick deflation and briefing, the convoy moved at 6:17am, first almost at a leisurely pace, in order to smooth the transition of the new Intermediates to the new rank, than slowly picking up speed, driving smoothly toward each planned leg of the itinerary. We reached the first way-point at the end of Faqa in 1:02 hours; the second way-point at the end of Little Sweihan was reached in 1:40 hours., after taking care of our first pop-out (and changing the damaged tire); the third planned break, at the confluence of Solar Park into the "Bab al Shams" sector, in just another 1:02 hours (in spite of a second pop-out, this time sorted out just by re-inflating; finally we exited at Qudra west (next to the big farm on the tarmac road to Qudra Parking in exactly another hour.

The most tested skills of the day, besides basic dunes' straight and criss crossing, and finesse-driving in the few technical areas, were bowl riding, and especially ridge riding, this latter mostly toward the end of the drive, on Qudra's super long range dunes. I was really happy to see the convoy move in unison, almost never breaking stride: well done @Mehmet Volga, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Biju Abdul, @marks, @Gregory Perkin, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe and @Janarthan.

Comparing this Challenge to the previous one, we took 3:41 hours of driving time (Vs. 3.18 h), for 114.6 KM. (Vs. 104.4), at a slightly lower average speed of 23 Km/h Vs. 26Km/h (and 31Km/h while moving Vs. 32Km/h), climbing for 871 meters Vs. 570 meters.

Thanks a lot for joining this challenge, and hope to see you soon on the sand.

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi we had a fantastic drive and this was my first intermediate drive and thoroughly enjoyed. 

[Yousef Alimadadi]

Thank you so much @Ale Vallecchi for the great leadership and arranging this fantastic drive, it was full of joy and new experiences.

thank you everyone 🙏🙏🙏

[Mehmet Volga]

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for excellent leading as always and all other drivers for such a high performance with zero stuck. it was animals' day greetings with oryxes, gazelles, falcons, lizards, rats... see you next drive!