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COVID 19 Compliant - Morning Newbie Desert Drive - Faqa "The other side" - 9 Jan 2021


Ale Vallecchi

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2 hours ago, Junaid120120 said:

@Ale VallecchiCan i please join ?fridays are not free for me and absolute newbie drive is on friday only

Dear @Junaid120120,  I sympathize with your situation, but it's our strict policy to ask all drivers to take an AN introduction to Carnity, before allowing them to join our convoy. At this moment I cannot make exceptions, which would be unfair to all other members, sometimes even experienced ones, who have abided by this policy. I hope you'll have the opportunity to join an AN drive soon.

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35 minutes ago, Ranjan Das said:

Hi Ale, any luck for me for tomorrow’s drive?

Yes @Ranjan Das, since I had no reply from Goutam you are next in line. Let me know if you confirm, and I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks

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2 minutes ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Yes @Ranjan Das, since I had no reply from Goutam you are next in line. Let me know if you confirm, and I'll see you tomorrow. Thanks

Thanks Ale, confirmed. See you tomorrow 

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@Ale Vallecchi @Jeepie I really enjoy your ‘exploration’ drives - unpredictable and always full of challenges and never disappointed by the views and experience!  I may have missed the fewbie events on Friday but this drive really felt like a fewbie experience :) ... a little cross crossing, a little ridge riding, a lot of technical, lots learnt and fun had! 
 

Appreciate how much effort you put in to teach @Ale Vallecchi ... tough love it felt like when you demand we leave our cars and inspect the tracks we did take vs should have! ... felt like 1:1 coaching for all which was a real privilege (thanks for taking that much care and effort)  
 

 @Jeepie you always bring such a calm and confidence to every drive (thankyou) and if @Wrangeld didn’t pinch your soft shackles I suspect a little easier recoveries also :) 

 

Thanks all in the convoy, was another great group !! 
 

have added a sped up video of the ‘beast raptor’ self recovering and a few pics of the drive.  Look forward to the next one 

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It was such a wonderful drive. A very good experience combined with beautiful sceneries and wild life of UAE. Special thanks for @Ale Vallecchi and @Jeepie for supporting us for this nice experience. Terrain was challenging but everybody did well. Thoroughly enjoyed the whole drive. Looking forward for future drives with Carnity. 

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A wonderful class on Off-roading by Prof Ale. It truly had it all - a beautiful desc to curriculum, tough start to provide reality check, regular surprise tests, continuous assessments/feedback and as is mostly the case with all beautiful journeys - they end before one expects - for that we need to thank the security guys from China State Grid Co...😝😝

Reminded me of my college days - being a backbencher (car no 12) and enjoying every bit of Prof's wrath on frontliners - poor Joe and Mike..😃😃

Funny side apart, Thanks Ale for really good session and especially for all your efforts to ensure that we not only cross the challenges  that track offered (and it offered a lot)  but learn the real basics. 

Thanks Jeepie and Niki..your presence and support been a big confidence booster. 

Looking forward for the next drive with you all.

@Ale VallecchiVallecchi  @Jeepie @Niki Patel

Edited by varunmehndiratta
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Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for taking us through with this beautiful exploration drive and most importantly with all the possible precautions, still making it as adventurous as possible, also taking the extra effort on mentoring everyone on the spot was brilliant from your end.

Thank you @Jeepie for such a supportive CF, you really took care of everyone with every little refusals and gave a pull wherever it was required 👏

Thank you @Niki Patel for being at the sweep position and ensuring the convoy stays together and moving at all times 🙏 

especial Thanks to @Joe Biju Joseph for being at the 2nd lead position and taking all the surprises alongside Ale, and finally giving a pull to Ale when he got stuck with his friends car 🙃

Lastly, Thank you all for being on this drive and making it all the more memorable 🙂

See you all soon in the sand again!

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To the Other Side and back - Faqa Trip Report

Long convoy, long dunes, lots of challenges (all passed with flying colors), a long drive, a surprising, brand new exit area, are the ingredients of a wonderful, crisp, sunny Saturday morning.

The first faint signs of the sunrise, and a cool 6 degrees welcomed all of us as we reached the meeting point. I am usually among the first two of three to arrive, but this time I found almost all drivers already at the meeting point. After a quick deflation on the sabkha, a long convoy of 14 well motivated drivers moved toward the dunes, in the direction of what I call "the arboretum", an area of wide open dunes, with lots of Ghaf trees, that almost looks like a park. The first slope proved challenging: in spite of the cold weather, the sand was extremely soft, so much that after a few refusals we had to re-route around this first set of dunes, toward a more open area where we finally entered the Faqa plateau. A smooth crossing of this area allowed the convoy to reach the unexplored long range dunes "on the other side", down from the plateau toward E14 (on the border with AD's territory). Yet to be driven by me, I found this location fascinating: a succession of long, open, smooth dunes, dotted with just a few bushes, and occasional copses of Ghaf trees. Nice views of the sabkha to the east (where the E14 and potential exit points are) and of endless rolling dunes, if looking north toward Faqa town. After driving up and down this set of dunes the convoy marched back into the higher part of Faqa, where taller dunes, and several bowls among them, provided the challenges and a nice training ground for a group of Newbies that so far had faced every obstacles with great composure. The location allowed all drivers to challenge themselves with some long side slopes, and climbing not-so-high dunes, the flat top of which gave the chance to mimic an approach to criss-crossing, without running any significant risk. Every refusal was reviewed together with the members, and provided opportunities for learning. The only unexpected stuck, on the soft sand at the bottom of a short slope, gave the chance to produce some team-work in clearing sand, that led to a nice self-recovery job. Once past the Faqa plateau, we decided to skirt the sabkha in the direction of the next range of lower, more technical dunes, which would have eventually led us toward the planned exit point, at the end of Little Sweihan's. All drivers did great, even on this more difficult terrain, where we only experienced a few refusals, and a couple of stucks which required some digging and some pulling. Exiting, eventually after a long drive, which lasted 66Kms, 5:11 hours, at an average moving speed of 24km/h, gave us the final surprise. A brand new exit, along the ever changing Solar Park construction site, where we found a recently (very, very recently) laid tarmac road, leading back toward the glass pyramid of Solar Park. That allowed us to inflate at the very beginning of this new road, and head home, tired but content. 

Thank you very much to @Joe Biju Joseph for executing a clean Second Lead on his return to the desert, to @Jeepie for anchoring the convoy, and providing prompt assistance to solve each refusal, and to @Niki Patel in what may have been his first Sweep job, which he managed without batting an eyelid. Great thanks also go to @Mike Kraher for improving how to handle his Pajero as we drove, @Baskaran P.R, @Salty3Arab@Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader and @Osvaldo Porto for bearing with me while correcting their lines on the trickier dunes, to @Ranjan Das@Thomas Varghese, @Harold Roberts and @varunmehndiratta for driving patiently and efficiently at the back of such long convoy, and to @Dodi Syahdar for giving all the opportunity to assist him in a very well handled recovery of his long "beast".

Very well done everybody. Hope to see you soon on the sand. Have a great week.

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@Ale Vallecchi thank you for excellence  guide provided to handle recovery without shovel. This experience gave me great convident to tackle such difficult situation calmly in the future. Your passion and very directive guide and support highly appreciate. Thank you also for @Niki Patel and @Jeepie for great job and all participant for support and collaboration. Look forward to have another trip with you all.. 

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