COVID19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - The magic of Fossil Rock and Faya - Sharjah - 11 May 2021

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

the RVSP for this drive is closed.

As anticipated, we have defined TWO convoys, one led by myself (convoy 1) and one led by @Anish S (convoy 2). Kindly make sure you know which convoy you have been assigned to, as the meeting points will be different:

@Lawrence_Chehimi, @Russ, @Antoz, @Magellan, @Dodi Syahdar, @Kenneth Bollhardt, @JeromeFJ, @Batuhan Kulac, @topgear@Lakshmi Narasimhan, @GauravSoni, the meeting point for Convoy 1 led by myself will be at Mahafiz Trees Shade https://goo.gl/maps/dtw94UrW6Kn99YB18, approx. 200 meters inside the desert on the east side of Mahafiz - Faya Road.

@luis mantecon, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Adhir Saxena, @Ranjan Das, @Darren Brooke, @Rawad Bahsas, @Chris Wing, @Probir Mukherjee, @Islam Soliman, the meeting point for Convoy 2 led by @Anish S will be directly on the west side of Mahafiz - Faya Road https://goo.gl/maps/oZRTdHTDF4Bt3tYm6, i.e. on the opposite side than that of Convoy 1, but close enough for anyone joining the wrong convoy due to lack of caffeine at 5am to quickly move to the right one.

The terrain in this area can be tricky, with many bushes (in the initial part, when we will drive in the twilight) and patches of very soft sand and some technical passages. Accordingly, this drive will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, so make sure you come well rested and fully hydrated and that you don’t have any reason for being distracted. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you.

Convoy 1 will be using Carnity Channel 1 (446.00625Mhz), while Convoy 2 will be using Carnity Channel 2 (446.03125MHz). I was tempted to invert the channels as a way to test how awake all drivers are, but I finally thought it's better to spend 15 more minutes driving rather than sorting out our radios..  

See tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:15am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:00am. 

[Lakshmi Narasimhan]

@Lorenzo Candelpergher, unfortunately my daughter is not well, I will have to skip todays drive, kindly excuse me.

[Ranjan Das]

Guess was adequately caffeinated and awake to land at the correct location and tune to the correct channel 😀; 

last thing I noticed before turning off the lights yesterday was that I had been earmarked as CF for the convoy 2. Was mentally prepared to lot of shoveling (think I even dreamt of it 😉) and if luck could have it would get a chance to inaugurate my rope and shackles. But alas, the august company I had today, led by @Anish S, made sure that I wasn’t lucky today☺️…..we stopped more for fixing flags than for refusals, I counted only two minor ones and no stucks. Thank you @Anish Sfor the drive, it was indeed a pleasure. Thanks @Islam Soliman for the support and rest of the gang for driving and having fun the way we did today.

what a wonderful way to drive into the holidays… 

[Rawad]

5 hours ago, Lakshmi Narasimhan said:

@Lorenzo Candelpergher, unfortunately my daughter is not well, I will have to skip todays drive, kindly excuse me.

Hope she is doing fine man

[Lakshmi Narasimhan]

Just now, Rawad Bahsas said:

Hope she is doing fine man

PCR test came negative for all of us.  Normal fever only, nothing to worry.

[Chris Wing]

Convoy 2: big thanks to @Anish S for the lead today! Thoroughly enjoyed the different terrains and especially these big dunes.

thanks to @Islam Soliman as well, second drive with you and always a pleasure👍🏼
 

 

[Alain Canivet-Abikhalil]

Thank you @Anish S @Islam Soliman @Ranjan Das for the beautiful track and the advices and support. 

 

Fossil Rock is an amazing place and the dunes you took us to today were a lot of fun. 

As a new fewbie, i got to push myself (and my car) a bit further and i found this challenge pretty satisfying. I enjoyed seeing everyone expressing their own style of driving it's a good way to learn.

And as usual, the company was great... see you soon !

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

DRIVE REPORT - Convoy 1

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

There is nothing better than driving across completely virgin dunes and today was certainly one of those occasions where the sand couldn't get any better. 

Everyone made it to the meeting point by 5 am, with no misunderstandings about which of the two Carnity Convoys to join. 

A missing bolt held @Russ from fixing his flag, which took a bit of time to sort out, so we could finally hit the sand by 5.30am.

As we started our move into Mahafiz Desert, heading East, we could enjoy the sun slowly rising from behind the skyline of Fossil Rock, always an inspiring view.

The terrain was very tricky due to the multiple bushes scattered all over the place. We nevertheless made our way in, reaching the first two playgrounds in no time: the two nice and tall bowls offered the convoy a great opportunity to safely practice some serious side sloping. 

We then continued to move east and, after I got suck on a crest in a moment of hesitation (thanks to @GauravSoni, @Dodi Syahdarand @Lawrence_Chehimi for the shoveling), just before reaching the 3rd big playground bowl, we had the first serious setback for the day, an unexpected and unfortunate pop-out by @GauravSoni, which however turned out to be a nice learning experience for all those who had never seen one and even less witnessed how to repair it.

This little delay accumulated with this pop-out unfortunately made it impossible to respect the plan hatched with @Anish S which was supposed to have the two convoys reconvening at designated meeting points / times during the drive. Convoy 2 ended up always being ahead of us, very often in visual distance, but never close enough to be reached. 

As soon as we could move again after fixing the pop-out, we made our way to the 3rd playground bowl of the day and then to the Long Dune, which the convoy exploited sidesloping from North East to South West with great fun and then admired in its majestic beauty while driving by in the opposite direction. 

From there we quickly found our way to the Pylon Track and immediately started the epic ascent to Fossil Rock. Unlike most of the other times, the sand on the way up on the West side was not too badly churned up and the sand cover on the East side was thick enough to allow us to attempt a breath-taking descent, brilliantly executed in 4LO 1st gear by the whole convoy. 

As we made our move again from the bottom of the rock, the second half of the drive, the most exciting and challenging one, in Faya, started. 

Progressing on our way to the massive dunes of Faya, we drove along a spine of rocks emerging from the sand and perfectly aligned, connecting Fossil Rock to Camel Rock and The Sphynx. The terrain was just fantastic compact sand with no tracks: we couldn't have asked for anything better. 

As we got closer to Faya, refusals became a bit more frequent, and we decided to move  @Antoz in 2nd position so he could benefit from following directly my line across the most demanding stint of the drive. 

Unfortunately, both my son Michelangelo and @Antoz's passenger started to feel some motion sickness at this point, so we took a short break to allow them to get some fresh air.

As we happened to be, at that point, right in the middle of Faya's complex dunes, we had no immediate easy exit, so we proceeded south to reach the famous Faya bowls and, eventually Faya Big Dune, close to the exit point. 

When we reached the top of the big dune from the back, we could see once more Convoy 2 playing around with @Ranjan Das and @Darren Brooke in the middle of their attempts to make it to the top, under the vigilant eyes of @Anish Sand @Islam Soliman. 

As we descended to the bottom of the dune, Convoy 2 was making its exit, so we had the whole place for us: the convoy spent some good 20 mins climbing Faya Big Dune from all sides, with many successful attempts (I can remember those by @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Dodi Syahdar, @Kenneth Bollhardt, @JeromeFJ, @Batuhan Kulac, the others who made it to the top will forgive me if I won't mention them).

In the end we exited by 9:30, after driving for 45.6km in 4h 03', at an average moving speed of 16.9km. We covered an overall ascent of +476/-430m, which means we really climbed and descended a lot. 

Everyone did very well today: @Lawrence_Chehimi@Russ, @Antoz, @Magellan, @Dodi Syahdar, @Kenneth Bollhardt, @JeromeFJ, @Batuhan Kulac,@topgear@GauravSoni, congratulations for a very good drive and special thanks to @Dodi Syahdar and @GauravSoni for their precious support.

See you next time in the sand! 

[Rawad]

Convoy2- An awesome day that could have been better if only we met Convoy1, but, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, cars on Convoy2 just refused to refuse😅 No shovels, no seniors out of their cars... We've had a lucky day indeed. My wife joined me today for the first time since Newbie drives and she was surprised how we managed the whole trip with such ease. Gr8 job all

Special thank you @Anish S, @Islam Soliman, and @Ranjan Dasfor the lead and support. You guided us through the annoying bushes, all the way to the playing areas, climbing and descending fossil rock, and eventually the beautiful bowls on our way to Faya big dune

@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Darren Brooke @Chris Wing @luis manteconalways a pleasure driving with you pals.@Chinthaka Ruwanhope nothing is serious with your ride man and hell of a job on Al Faya showing the true power or Nissan beasts 🤪🤪

see you all again soon🤙🤙

[luis mantecon]

Thanks @Anish S @Islam Solimanand @Ranjan Das for another wonderful drive, I have enjoyed the drive a lot as always, but today we have had the opportunity to ride incredible big dunes pushing our machines and ourselves, improving with each attempt thanks your teaching and also learning from other mates, what a level !! 
 

@Chris Wing @Rawad Bahsasit is alway a pleasure driving with you guys And @Alain Canivet-Abikhalilthanks a lot for lending me your spare radio, you saved my life today,  it is great seeing you driving your beauty with such a technic and determination, well done, I hope to drive with you many times. 

Thank you all the rest to for another epic morning !!! See you on the dunes !