COVID19 Compliant - Night Fewbie Desert Drive - Al Qudra - Dubai - 09 Apr 2021

[Ehab]

Hi@Wrangeld is the meeting point decided? I have my off-road lights ready and my Gopro is also ready with 3 spare batteries to record the whole trip👍, looking forward to this trip.

[Wrangeld]

Hi Guys, 

Convoy list for tomorrow is below. 

Afternoon Newbie Qudra 2nd April 2021
Attendees	Level	Car	Radio	Pos #
Wrangeld	Marshal	Mitsubishi Pajero SWB	Y	1
Watteau @Watteau	Fewbie	Ford Raptor F150	Y	2	SL
Gaurav Soni @Gaurav Soni	Intermediate	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	3
Ehab @Ehab	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler SWB	Y	4
Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese	Intermediate	NIssan Xterra	Y	5
Pacific @Pacific	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler SWB	Y	6
Shehab al Awadhi @Shehab Alawadhi	Intermediate	Ford F150	Y	7	CF
Sinol @Sinol	Fewbie	Mitsubishi Pajero LWB	Y	8
Hardik Mody @Hardik Mody	Fewbie	Nissan Xterra	Y	9
Ahab Shamaa @Ahab Shamaa	Intermediate	Toyota FJ Cruiser	Y	10
Arman @Arman	Fewbie	Jeep Wrangler SWB TJ	Y	11
Alexander Alcala @Alexander Alcala	Advance	Jeep Wrangler	Y	12	SW

Radio will be Channel 1. 

Meeting point is https://goo.gl/maps/AxUX7KacsHqwKyAUA

Looking  forward to starting the summer season with everyone tomorrow. 

 

[Hardik Mody]

@Wrangeld 

Captain Richard,

I was very excited for today's Nights Drive.

But due to some unavoidable fmly commitments - I won't be able to make it for today's drive.😢

[Arman]

@Wrangeld i have great news! I awake safely in my bed this morning, thanks to @Thomas Varghese for his help with the tow truck as well as negotiations

Thanks @Jeepie for your generous sacrifice, i'll be sure to pay it both forwards and back.

And @Watteau for your excellent choice in jacks.

@Alexander Alcala thanks for helping save time filling the tyre constantly

lots of people to thank here damn!

As for the drive, it was a great experience to drive at night, got to see some interesting track and even got to pick up quite a bit of speed here and there, plus many lessons learned. 

Attached you will find the weapon that attacked my poor baby, got me descriptively shouting "my tyre's been stabbed!!" to everyone's confusion.

 

Special thanks to @Shehab Alawadhi's terrible puns, btw that counter carries to the end of the year.....you have one bad tyre pun left so use it wisely.

[Shehab Alawadhi]

Thank you @Wrangeld for this INTENTIONAL night drive I really enjoyed just going nose first into the abyss 😂

Thanks @Watteau for lighting the front of the convoy up. I think the international space station was watching us traverse the desert. 
 

Thank you @Alexander Alcala and @Jeepie for not leaving anyone behind. 

@Ahab Shamaa thx for winching me out 😂 always fun to be gently pulled and my passengers got to experience what a crest feels like (see it was totally intentional 😂) 

Thanks everyone else for being good fun! 
 

@Arman I have so many puns I’d like to add but I think they’d lose their meaning on a post so I’m going to save it for when I see you next so I can physically see you face palm 😉

Attached is yesterday’s track. I may have forgotten to stop the recording when I hit qudra road 😂

Edited April 10, 2021 by Shehab Alawadhi

[Arman]

1 hour ago, Shehab Alawadhi said:

Thank you @Wrangeld for this INTENTIONAL night drive I really enjoyed just going nose first into the abyss 😂

Thanks @Watteau for lighting the front of the convoy up. I think the international space station was watching us traverse the desert. 
 

Thank you @Alexander Alcala and @Jeepie for not leaving anyone behind. 

@Ahab Shamaa thx for winching me out 😂 always fun to be gently pulled and my passengers got to experience what a crest feels like (see it was totally intentional 😂) 

Thanks everyone else for being good fun! 
 

@Arman I have so many puns I’d like to add but I think they’d lose their meaning on a post so I’m going to save it for when I see you next so I can physically see you face palm 😉

Attached is yesterday’s track. I may have forgotten to stop the recording when I hit qudra road 😂

Moreover you took this screenshot while driving! Dangerous boy you!

[Wrangeld]

Post Drive Report

Our first night drive of the season, and a great drive it was. We briefed and explained the techniques and additional safety considerations for night driving and got under way. We drove off into the dark and straight into our frist patch of construction sand which led to our first recovery (a winch from @Alexander Alcala for @Arman

That sorted, with @Watteau in second lead [doing a Sterling job throughout] the real adventure began. It started quite tentatively as getting used to the way the light plays on the sand and lights up a few meters here and a few meters there invited caution. Intentionally, I started the route in an area that I had driven in the morning with the Absolute Newbie convoy. Knowing that in general we would not find any rocks or fences meant that the worse that could happen is getting stuck in some soft sand ... which is exactly the problem that presented itself quickly and continuously through the drive. 

In the day time it's a lot easier to read the sand and see if the sand is ridiculously soft. I guess as I practice more in night drives I will get more expert at seeing the patches of soft sand in the night in the same way as in the daytime. This meant that there were a few more reroutes than normal and a chance for me to use all of my self recovery skills to the full!

Implementing the buddy system of fewbie/intermediate through the convoy worked well. The team work was great and as a lead it was excellent to get feedback from more experienced drivers about the less experienced so that we could offer real time feedback to help everyone through the drive. @Gaurav Soni @Thomas Varghese @Shehab Alawadhi @Ahab Shamaa, @Ehab @Pacific @Sinol and @armaan all benefitted from your line through the sand. 

Our biggest general problem through the night? Crests. There were quote a few stucks where drivers misjudged the momentum needed to get over a crest or make a it through a crisscross. This is a quite understandable because depth and distance perspective changes in the night and whereas in the day it's possible to see the height of the dune and have an idea of the descent, in the dark ... 

I was also a bit surprised about the softness of the sand. My expectation was that as the sand cooled it would be less soft than during the day. Perhaps it's just where I drove, but it felt to me that the sand was softer in the dark - I am sure it is not, but all your senses are heightened in the night so the feeling was a bit different.   

As expected we saw quite a lot of wildlife, Gazelle and Oryx feeding quietly suddenly disorientated and unsure what to do faced with bright lights and noise coming in their direction. Sorry if you did not see them by the time the convoy came through, but I promise, they were there. 

Unique moments? I loved seeing the whole convoy riding a long the top of the long range dunes  seeing the long line of lights lighting up the dunes was quite mesmerizing. Watching the same lights snake their way down some stepped dunes and finally the way that the technical section was handled with (almost) everyone getting through without incident. 

The swooping virgin sand Sweihan style dunes we found were quite puke inducing from the driving seat, never mind a passenger seat. The roller coaster section was amazing as we literally swooped through one dune and onto the next.

And then there was Arman's spearhead in the tire. Take a look about to see what he managed to impale into his tyre in the post above. We did out best to repair this which let Arman continue thanks largely to the foresight of @Jeepie in equipping us both with a repair kit. [We did not check before we left, but frankly there is a rule that says don't drive without a spare tire in good condition on your vehicle] which was a chance for @watteau to bring out the big guns in the 'jack' stakes. Frankly I think that this Jack could lift the Burj Khalifa a few feet off the ground. 

As the temporary repair failed we had to make a direct run for the exit point. My Marshal colleagues reading this will all understand what I say if I refer to the exit following @Pancho rules, but even so we have to reinflate a few times to get to the exit. 

Those who needed to leave quickly left and with massive thanks to @Thomas Varghese a recovery was arranged that got Arman home.

Conclusions: At the end of 4 hours, the confidence of everyone was much higher and we were moving at a great pace and I had normalized to reading the sand, as had all the drivers. I imagine that at the back of the convoy it was fast paced and challenging due to the softness of the sand and that it was churned. Night driving is different, scary at times, massively adrenalin pumping and I cannot wait for the next lead. 

Oh, and if by some chance you know that poor camping trip that was convinced they had found themselves that amazing secluded camping spot to which no one would arrive where we drove through their living room. Sorry!

See you soon in the sand.

[Thomas Varghese]

10 minutes ago, Wrangeld said:

 

Oh, and if by some chance you know that poor camping trip that was convinced they had found themselves that amazing secluded camping spot to which no one would arrive where we drove through their living room. Sorry!

 

They must have thought a raiding party has come to pick their stocks and must have got the shock of their life seeing all the big trucks zooming past them out of the darkness and vanishing into the night. For sure the company who organized this camp will have a tough time explaining what really happened and the secluded spot they offered was discovered by a convoy from @Carnity and it was not secluded after all. Imagine the plight of the campers who wished to have a quiet night suddenly startled by the grunts of the big trucks with big flashy lights on top illuminating them. I hope all the campers are ok after the onslaught. 

Thank you @Wrangeld for initiating this fun drive at night. I enjoyed every bit of it. Will surely join another night drive when it comes up. 

[Shehab Alawadhi]

34 minutes ago, Arman said:

Moreover you took this screenshot while driving! Dangerous boy you!

No actually I was at the car wash 😂

[Wrangeld]

7 minutes ago, Shehab Alawadhi said:

No actually I was at the car wash 😂

Current speed ....117.2 kph