COVID19 Compliant - Afternoon Intermediate Desert Drive - Climbing the mighty Lisaili Dunes - Dubai - 17 Apr 2021

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Just now, Jack Thomas said:

Hi @Lorenzo CandelpergherI have had last minute changes in my travelling schedule. So I will be flying now Saturday morning, and therefore unable to make the drive.

See you soon

No problem @Jack Thomas, pls remove yourself from the RSVP.

Given that @Gaurav Soni has taken @varunmehndiratta's place the 2nd waitlisted, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, will take your place.

@Gaurav Soni, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, pls confirm if you are in. 

[GauravSoni]

Hey @Lorenzo Candelpergher yes i will join! Thanks @varunmehndiratta

[Jorge Stepniak Felippe]

3 hours ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

No problem @Jack Thomas, pls remove yourself from the RSVP.

Given that @Gaurav Soni has taken @varunmehndiratta's place the 2nd waitlisted, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, will take your place.

@Gaurav Soni, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, pls confirm if you are in. 

Yes I am @Lorenzo Candelpergher, thanks 

[Jon M]

Sorry @Lorenzo Candelpergher I also can't make it so hopefully someone on the waiting list can attend.

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Thanks for letting me know @Jon M.

@Francois Germishuys, you are the next waitlisted. Are you willing to join? 

[Francois Germishuys]

Hi @Lorenzo Candelpergherunfortunately not, little late notice, enjoy. 

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

DRIVE REPORT

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

If thrill and adrenaline are what you were looking for, I'm quite sure this drive served the purpose quite well. 

With a few minutes of delay, we left at 3:15pm from Lisaili Fort.

The warm wind blowing from the south was promising a virgin terrain, newly reshaped crests and untamed ridges. 

The first stint of the drive was meant to be an innocuous transfer from Lisaili Fort to the pylon track, but those small technical dunes were too inviting to be avoided, so I decided to ride them all, from crest to crest, as an initial test to measure the convoy's worthiness. With just a couple of refusals the test was passed, and I felt comfortable to set the bar quite high for the rest of the drive. 

The stretch of desert south-east from the pylon track was the most technical one for the day. This is where we had our first pop-out with @Yousef Alimadadi(which luckily we could fix easily) and where I got crested for the first of two times, which required a bit of shoveling. 

Once we made it to the the long range dunes, the fun began. Two weels on one side of the crest and two weels on the other, we started crushing crests as if we had to flatten the whole area. It was on one of the deep dives on the slip face that we had first @GauravSoni then @Tero Vallascrested in nasty positions which suggested we winched both, for the respective pleasure of @Ahab Shamaaand myself. 

We then got back on track, but we soon had to stop again due to @Tero Vallas's defaulting traction control. Luckily we could check that the traction control, whatever the problem may have been, was disengaged, so we decided @Tero Vallas's car was good to continue. 

The convoy did great today:

@AlexPoldidn't give up an inch from @Yousef Alimadadi's tail nor from mine, after I shifted to 2nd lead. 

@Goutam was equally effective in following my tracks, even in the most challenging passages. 

@Tariq Carrimjee got the best out of his JL and showed very little signs of hesitation even in the most daring passages. 

@Ahab Shamaa, no surprise, did great as well. He repeatedly mentioned I should have warned him to bring his pampers for this drive, but reality is he was way more thrilled than scared.. (I'll remember to add something about pampers next time I post an IM drive.. Ahah). 

@GauravSoni and  @Mario Cornejo both had very little to say over the radio today: for sure they were busy with both hands on the steering wheel in this challenging drive. 

@Shehab Alawadhi, a survivor of Tuesday afternoon IM drive in Al Qudra, found again reasons to test his driving capabilities . As far as I could hear, his passenger enjoyed the drive as well.. 

@Jorge Stepniak Felippe was quiet at the back of the convoy. He had for sure a harder day because of the churned up sand left by the whole convoy and the beast in front of him.

@Tero Vallas was "all cool at the back" even if this wasn't his luckiest day as he had to deal with the 2nd  pop-out of the day in addition to the traction control issues. 

After a good 1h 45' drive, we finally made it to the hot spot of the day, the "Mighty Lisaili Dunes", as I call them. We really climbed them from all possible sides and in all possible ways and I must say I really had loads of fun, even if I managed to get stuck once again.

Soon after having completed our endless runs around the "Mighty Lisaili dunes", @Yousef Alimadaditook over to do his partial led.

Wow, what a nice stint we had with him: beautifully chosen lines with long side slopes and a very smooth ride. A perfectly executed lead, that took us safely and with a lot of fun all the way from Lisaili to Al Qudra.

We reached the tarmac by 6:50pm, completing 58.8km in 3h 37', of which we spent 2h 30' moving and 1h 7' stopped. When we moved, we did so with a great pace, for an average speed of 23.6km/h.

Congratulatiojs to everyone for a great performance in quite a demanding drive. 

And congratulations to @Yousef Alimadadi, who is certainly ready to lead his own independent drives. 

[Tariq Carrimjee]

Awesome drive.  Action packed and fast paced, requiring full concentration.   
The Mighty dunes were lovely, and it almost felt like we were far away from the real world.  
thank you.  

[Yousef Alimadadi]

@Lorenzo Candelpergher, thank you so much, it was a great day with fantastic drive and full of fun, new experience and a lot of challenges.

thank you again for letting me to take a partial lead, an amazing experience.   

Thank you everyone and hope you had a pleasant time yesterday.

hope to see you again.  

 

[Shehab Alawadhi]

Great drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher I loved it from start to finish, thank you @Yousef Alimadadi for leading part of the drive inshallah we get to drive with you in lead! Thanks @Ahab Shamaa and @Tero Vallas for supporting. 

See you all in the next one inshallah!