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COVID19 Compliant - Afternoon Fewbie PLUS Desert Drive - No Man's Land: to Ganthoot and back - Dubai - 20 Apr 2021


Ale Vallecchi

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3 minutes ago, Shehab Alawadhi said:

@Thomas Varghese your photography is getting better. Keep it up!! Soon @Carnity might have their own personal paparazzi 😂

Did u like ur RAM 150 pic? One of the best pics I have taken 

IMG_3162.jpg

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5 minutes ago, imranaasghar81 said:

WOW!

 

Its only an editing trick which brought out your headshot from all the darkness inside the car. Next time we will take a proper picture if time allows. This is what you can do if you shoot in Camera RAW format rather than JPEG. Your head was lost in the darkness of the interior of the car. I just cleared the darkness and your head just popped out

Edited by Thomas Varghese
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No Man's Land: To Ganthoot and Back - Drive's Report

"What you seek is seeking you" - Rumi

 As soon as we passed a dirt track that cuts through the desert close to the Dubai/Abu Dhabi border, I started looking for the large herd of oryx that usually roams this area. It usually requires a patient zig-zagging exercise, driving around the dunes, using some beautiful, lonely, palm trees pushing through the sand, as visual waypoints. It may take some time, and the oryx may not be gathered together, to offer the spectacle we hoped to find.

This time, what we were seeking was seeking us. In fact, as soon as we started looking for them, the oryx materialized walking their own dusty trail, across the dunes in front if the convoy. We followed for a while half of the herd, while a few minutes later we reached the watering hole where the rest of the oryx were resting, only to see them move away toward the blazing sun. Always a great sight, the families of this bovines, calmly trotting away with their little ones, the males turning toward the convoy, stopping often, as if asking "are you done looking at us?"

We had reached the "zenith" of our drive after an adventurous itinerary, through the entry technical area, past the first massive dune we used as our first beacon, and on crossing a few sets of tighter cordons alternating with smoother, more open canyons and sand bowls. Along the way we met with a few unplanned situations: a lost phone and its miraculous recovery, two back-to-back pop outs, a coupe of cars with leaking tires. Nonetheless, all drove very well, on a track that I was hoping may prove accommodating to Fewbies, but likely will have to remain a Fewbie Plus drive.

Looking back on the drive's management, I would like to thank the whole convoy for a great handling of the soft sand, the tight dunes, the string of sand bowls, and the tricky criss-crossing into repeated rocky areas. Everybody responded with skills and control, making the drive as smooth and as safe as possible, and contributing to extend it through the last cordons separating the military shooting ground and Solar Park, where we were able to witness a stunning sunset. 

Invaluable help and support were provided by @Chaitanya D (record holder for the quickest pop-out fix),@Foxtrot Oscar (welcome back, from snow to sand), and @GauravSoni with a well executed Second Lead. Great driving by the "younger" members - @Ranjan Das the only Fewbie + of the convoy, and @Watteaudebuting at Intermediate. @imranaasghar81 you had more trouble with your phone than with your FJ (well done). @Shehab Alawadhi hats off for your ever more expert handling of your big truck: did you find out why your tire was leaking? @Thomas Varghese thanks for the assured drive, as well as for the beautiful photos you posted. @jodha singh shekhawat, well done with your new mount: the more you drive, the more you two will become a perfectly coordinated unit. As for @Arda Yagcioglu, @AlexPol and @Ali Abas I rarely heard from you, which means you were enjoying a smooth, relaxing and well done drive.

Thanks everybody for driving 69.5 Km, in 2:36 hours of moving time (for a total of 3:32 hours), at a moving average speed of 27 Km/h (20 Km/h total).

See you soon in the sand.

 

 

 

It was only part of the herd, which we followed for a short while, before going to search for the other half, still visible on the left of the convoy. 

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@Ale Vallecchiit was a fake pop out as you said, after I filled my tires to 25 it stopped leaking and hasn't leaked since, i even went to an auto pro and checked for leaks and nothing. So great deduction on your part. The hit I took was quite nasty I think @Chaitanya D saw it.

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Just now, Shehab Alawadhi said:

@Ale Vallecchiit was a fake pop out as you said, after I filled my tires to 25 it stopped leaking and hasn't leaked since, i even went to an auto pro and checked for leaks and nothing. So great deduction on your part. The hit I took was quite nasty I think @Chaitanya D saw it.

Did you remove the tire to see inside and clean it? Better check as in this scenario the tire may take in some sand and cause a pop out later. 

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7 hours ago, Shehab Alawadhi said:

The hit I took was quite nasty I think @Chaitanya D saw it.

Quite difficult to exactly pin point where the air escaped.  It could be a pseudo pop out on a sharp turn, or a bump or when u come down fast on a side slope.

Always look at your tire profiles when u take a break , if in doubt check the pressures. As you get in sync with your car, you will actually start feeling the difference the moment air escapes while driving in the form of shuttle changes . I suppose this happened with you which is very good you rectified it before a pop out actually happens

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