Popular Post Ahab Shamaa Posted December 27, 2020 Popular Post Report Share Posted December 27, 2020 What a wonderful drive this was! I enjoyed every minute of it, and the different nature of the RAK desert made it all the more interesting. Everyone drove so well and everyone was in high spirits I was happy to reconnect with old friends and finally meet up with friends whom I’ve never met in person, but rather through the Carnity Forum. Thanks @Ale Vallecchi & @Gaurav, for creating the second drive so that more people, including myself, can participate. Thanks @Wrangeld for putting in the hours to make a reconnaissance of this beautiful region, and a special thanks to @DANIEL NOGUEIRA, for asking Ale to expand the drive I was really impressed with our second lead @Niki Patel, who is a polite, responsive and responsible leader:) It was great to finally meet you Niki! I’m glad you’ve made it to Fewbie; now we have more drives to choose from:) @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, I’m so impressed with your newly acquired driving skill You have improved so much since you and I were getting stuck very frequently 😂 I think your handsome son should get a go at your lovely Jeep soon! To all my fellow drivers, it was great meeting you and I look forward to seeing you soon on future drives. I have posted some random pictures of our drive; I hope you like them: https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/D1LROdxuRT--VcBs_eKx7g.HLK_zXItpgBKZNQtghvIwf 3 3 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niki Posted December 27, 2020 Report Share Posted December 27, 2020 @Ale Vallecchi @Wrangeld @Gaurav echo what all others shared... this was a really special drive! Anyone who didn’t get to join this drive do make sure to prioritise it when it opens up again. @Ahab Shamaa what a pleasure it was to finally meet and you are the soul of the drive! @Gaurav appreciate you trusting me in the #2 role (surprised even me) and it was a forgiving route so am glad the convoy didn’t need to rely on me to redirect @DANIEL NOGUEIRA your Japanese improved a lot and by the end of that drive you were almost fluent .. nice to meet you and we all heard how much you missed the v8 American muscle but you made us Toyota drivers proud this drive! @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ you are ‘father and son’ goals... I showed my boy your matching gear and he loved it! see you on the next ride... happy new year everyone and in the galaxy I have added @Gaurav having a play on virgin dunes, @Ahab Shamaa arriving fashionably late (Arab time some have told me) and a few views from the top of some stunning tricky dunes! 3 2 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANIEL NOGUEIRA Posted December 27, 2020 Report Share Posted December 27, 2020 54 minutes ago, Niki Patel said: @Ale Vallecchi @Wrangeld @Gaurav echo what all others shared... this was a really special drive! Anyone who didn’t get to join this drive do make sure to prioritise it when it opens up again. @Ahab Shamaa what a pleasure it was to finally meet and you are the soul of the drive! @Gaurav appreciate you trusting me in the #2 role (surprised even me) and it was a forgiving route so am glad the convoy didn’t need to rely on me to redirect @DANIEL NOGUEIRA your Japanese improved a lot and by the end of that drive you were almost fluent .. nice to meet you and we all heard how much you missed the v8 American muscle but you made us Toyota drivers proud this drive! @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ you are ‘father and son’ goals... I showed my boy your matching gear and he loved it! see you on the next ride... happy new year everyone and in the galaxy I have added @Gaurav having a play on virgin dunes, @Ahab Shamaa arriving fashionably late (Arab time some have told me) and a few views from the top of some stunning tricky dunes! You liked my Japanese in the radio... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DANIEL NOGUEIRA Posted December 27, 2020 Report Share Posted December 27, 2020 5 hours ago, Ahab Shamaa said: What a wonderful drive this was! I enjoyed every minute of it, and the different nature of the RAK desert made it all the more interesting. Everyone drove so well and everyone was in high spirits I was happy to reconnect with old friends and finally meet up with friends whom I’ve never met in person, but rather through the Carnity Forum. Thanks @Ale Vallecchi & @Gaurav, for creating the second drive so that more people, including myself, can participate. Thanks @Wrangeld for putting in the hours to make a reconnaissance of this beautiful region, and a special thanks to @DANIEL NOGUEIRA, for asking Ale to expand the drive I was really impressed with our second lead @Niki Patel, who is a polite, responsive and responsible leader:) It was great to finally meet you Niki! I’m glad you’ve made it to Fewbie; now we have more drives to choose from:) @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, I’m so impressed with your newly acquired driving skill You have improved so much since you and I were getting stuck very frequently 😂 I think your handsome son should get a go at your lovely Jeep soon! To all my fellow drivers, it was great meeting you and I look forward to seeing you soon on future drives. I have posted some random pictures of our drive; I hope you like them: https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/D1LROdxuRT--VcBs_eKx7g.HLK_zXItpgBKZNQtghvIwf Great pictures ... was it an American camera ??? 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Ale Vallecchi Posted December 29, 2020 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted December 29, 2020 Sand to Mountains, RAK Exploration Drive - Report: The more the merrier Dear Desertnauts What a pleasant way to spend a Saturday morning. With so many of you!! Rarely I have seen such an enthusiastic response. Thanks to all of you for the trust, and active participation. This was veritably a case of "the more the merrier". This is not always true in off-roading, as bigger/longer convoys often lead to headaches. But last Saturday, thanks to Legend @Gaurav's availability to lead half of the group, to the nature of the terrain, as well as (and in no small part) to the consistent ability of all drivers, we managed 26 cars, with no major stucks, through a very long drive, in sometimes uncharted terrain. The drive started with a very timely meeting (not gathering 😅), in the tight spot where the dirt track leading into the desert leaves the tarmac road to the Ritz-Carlton Resort. We managed to separate the two groups, each on one side of the road, and to conduct a briefing in the chilly open air, before a rather early departure. As mentioned in the pre-drive briefing, this is an area where locals operate mostly camel, goat and sometimes vegetable farming, with a great number of tracks which lead over and around dunes. The open terrain is not easy to navigate off-track, due to the large amount of vegetation (you never know if there are trees or bushes on the other side of a dune, and when one finds out it may be too late to redirect), as well as a lot of pockets, double ridges, and other features created by the proximity of the dunes to each other. In fact, I had to exit the car twice, as I was uncertain about what laid ahead, to find the right path for the convoy, away from tight pockets full of soft sand, or bushes. Besides the intricacy of the paths we followed, the beauty of this area is given by its most prominent feature: the Longitudinal (or Seif) dunes. As explained in @Frederic's essay on dunes (available among this site's threads). these run alongside the direction of prevailing winds, and both sides (especially closest to the ridge, which tends to be less sharp, as smoothed by the wind) have quite soft sand. We enjoyed the beautiful landscapes' panoramas, from the top of some of the higher dunes, looking down onto the waves of these Longitudinal dunes, separated by sabkhas, the larger ones looking like dark lakes, with lone Acacia trees dotting them, like small green islands. Once we managed to reach the largest two sabkhas, surrounded by lower, still baby Saif dunes, we could not resist riding on top of their humpback, wider ridges. Hence the snaking around up the very ling length of these dunes, which most managed to ride all the way, while a occasionally exiting safely down the low slope onto the safe, hard plain (most of the early exits due to the sand getting softer, and looser, on top, or to some breaks in the ridge that invited more caution). Great job by all the Newbies, @frederic demolder, @Mike Kraher, @Baskaran P.R, @Alphin Aloor, @Arman, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Paul Zeitoun, in practicing a skill - ridge riding - which is more of a Fewbie level trick. Yet, the environment felt safe, so we pushed the drive a little bit toward the end, to add an extra layer to this great off-roading day. Once reached the exit point, on the outskirts of Al Ghail Industrial Area (after driving 53 Kms, in 3:15 hours), with Gaurav we decided to pull an ace from our sleeves, and attempt a "recce" drive in the last area of dunes before sand turns into rocks, and meets the Ajari Mountains. Hence, with the group's Fewbies, @Ahab Shamaa, @Niki Patel, @Federico De Chirico, @Federico Galbieri, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ. @Mahmoud Hamzawy and @DANIEL NOGUEIRA, we remain deflated, exited the industrial area on the main tarmac road, crossed it, and re-entered the sand in the direction of Al Ghail village proper. This is a small plateau of sand, with a variety of dunes, all very young and shifty (moved around and re-arranged by the wind), mostly of soft golden yellow sand, which first cascade onto a smaller, lower plateau, then eventually drop onto a gravel path, where the sand abruptly ends, and the black mountain rock begins to rise on the other side. This makes for a short, but exiting drive, with possibility of ridge riding, some criss-crossing, and, the final bonus, a straight climb, or sharp side sloping, on the wall of a very tall slip-face (where the plateau takes its first step down). Stunning views of the mountains accompany the ride, with a glorious mix of yellow, black and blue colors. After the bonus "recce", we reached our drive, which totaled 67 Kms, in 4:31 hours (3:12 moving), at an average speed of 15 Km/h (21 Km/h while moving). Thanks again to all the members who joined and have already written very good reviews of the drive: well done @Santhosh kumar Rajasekaran, @Bala Krishnan, @Ben84, @varunmehndiratta, @AlexPol, @Hisham Masaad and @Harold Roberts. One final special thanks goes to the 2 support drivers in my convoy: well done to @paolo dassi as a sure-wheeled Center Forward, and @Luca Palanca Falsini as a vigilant Sweep. See you again on the sand, as soon as my FJ will be returned to me. 4 1 1 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Federico Galbieri Posted December 29, 2020 Report Share Posted December 29, 2020 Thanks @Ale Vallecchi and @Gaurav for this amazing experience! And a special thanks @Ale Vallecchi for leading the way to a really nice exploration drive first, and then to this short but outstanding drive int the dunes towards Ajari Mountains! A great opportunity to start as a fewbie! Looking forward to the next drive with you guys! 4 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Federico De Chirico Posted December 31, 2020 Report Share Posted December 31, 2020 totally agree with @Federico Galbieri, amazing drive and great crowd, thanks @Ale Vallecchi and @Gaurav for the nice exploration, and first taste of fewbie drive! See you soon in the desert. 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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