COVID19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Tawi Nazwa to Big Red - Sharjah - 15 May 2021

[luis mantecon]

My first drive with @Foxtrot Oscarsimply great !! Thanks a lot for a wonderful drive, also thanks to @Nabil Bishara @M.Seidam @Gaurav Soni @Dodi Syahdarfor your precious support!! Well done to everybody, good job. See you in the dunes ! 

[Imran Asghar]

Evening all great drive after the Ramadan break with Richard and team. Great to meet some new faces and can't wait for the week ahead. 

The CF and Sweepers handled the drive with pure finesse - you guys were amazing!

During the last stuck of the drive during the FJ pop out my attention was unfortunately diverted and I had almost been hit by fraud - had someone impersonating my workplace to have me almost put a large transaction through. Highly inconvenient and crapped on the fun I was having so having to deal with that whilst driving the last 30 mins was a ballache!

Anyway thank god I cottoned on and got out of the situation! 

Thomas I would of loved to have stayed to have helped but I was stuck dealing with this issue and had to get to my office pronto. 

Anyway have a great rest of the evening and week ahead and catch you all soon.

Edited May 15, 2021 by imranaasghar81

[JeromeFJ]

Many thanks Richard @Wrangeld for the drive this morning. Beautiful dunes, lots of adventures !

Once again I took advantage of your experience and tools to solve a pop-out with Alex @Watteau and Marjan @Jeepie. Great opportunity to learn. @Arman, thanks for the support in sweep, with always very clear indications.

And the parrots ! For sure this drive was special !

[Wrangeld]

Post Drive Report Convoy #2

There was a thought at some stages of Saturday morning when I thought that this drive was cursed. Not one, but two leads pulling out due to car problems, 26 drivers arrving to potentially the longest convoy in many a month and then, our angel, @Foxtrot Oscar conveniently being awake and amazingly prepared to come out and lead the convoy at a single minute's notice. There's a reason how and why people are prmoted to marshal in this club. 

With an exceptionally frustrated @Jeepie by my side we did get under way. As she said herself, she had a plan for the drive (as it was supposed to be her lead and not mine) and I apparently went off plan within around 200 meters of entering the sand. Not having your own vehicle and being a passenger when somesone else is driving 'your' drive is nowhere as much fun. 

It's been a while since I drove at Pink Rock. I tend to avoid this area because the dunes are normally very heavily used and it's a challenge to find a route that is not covered in cross tracks. Up to Pink Rock itself, we did well to find a lot of virgin sand. We could see glimpses of Convoy #1 in the distance, there were not so many convoys operating in the area and our drive was quite incident free all the way up to the base of Pink Rock. 

Seeing that our club compatriates were crossing the Rock, we decided to follow suit. I am not sure what was happening inside @Danish Mohammad Pajero that it has problems getting up the hill - and eventually it managed and we were on our way once again. 

Climbing up through the cross tracks to what has now been named 'Bird Bowl' we saw beautiful birds before swooping down ourselves in the direction Big Red and the slight less Big red dune nearby. 

There was a point at which I think there was someone did a radio check to make sure that the radios were still working, so slilent and trouble free was the convoy initially as we enjoyed a smooth ride on our way to the bigger dunes. @imranaasghar81 was doing a great job in 2nd lead, @Watteau relaxing in the Raptor will little to do apart from the odd reroute or self recovery and @Arman was doing sterling work at the back. We started to have a few refusals as the soft shifting sand impacted the back markers - totally expected on a drive like this as we approach summer. @Russ even got stuck at one point, much to our and indeed, his surprise: probably an aural relief for Danish. 

It's hard to pick out anyone from the convoy who was not perfroming exceptionally well. @Abdul Rahman AK, @Nithin Vaidir @Humayun Ghias, @Chris Wing@Matt.T @JeromeFJ and @Thomas Varghese were making it all very easy and we all enjoyed the fun of chasing, and being chased by Convoy #2. 

For me it's a real pelasure knowing that there are club drivers close by on another convoy, doing the same, enjoying themselves and learing their way through a drive. 

It was also great to have multiple drives over the long break with the same people, so I can see how you react to different challenges. 

And then, as we got into the higher more challenging dunes, two pop outs and a very difficult FJ stuck in a pocket and we had some receovety work to do. This slowed down progress on the way to big red, but was a great learning experience for all concerned. @Abdul Rahman AK and @JeromeFJ  - thanks for the lessons. 

Once again, we played tag with the 1st convoy. I wish someone could have got a picture of the Raptor moment on the hill with @Dodi Syahdar, @Watteau and @Russ all powering up and down at the same time, the two leadfoot beasts looking like a stereo picture as they misirrored each other. 

This was great fun and we were all planning to leave the area when suddenly @Thomas Varghese vehicle literally concked out. It turned out the batter was simply exhausted and hd given up the ghost, but meant we had to quickly lead everyone out of the desert and then leave a small group to return to recover the stricken Xterra. 

Special call outs for the day. 

1. @Jeepie sorry you missed out on your lead. 
2. @Foxtrot Oscar the saviour of the day and shall now be known as St. Angela
3. @Arman who impressed so much as the sweep
4. @Watteau a wing man that antone would be proud to have on their side
5. @Nabil Bishara well done on your first lead

Strangely, this was officially my 50th lead and I have apparently clocked more than 100 drives. Truly, these numbers mean nothing because I continue to learn every time I take a vehicle out into the desert. There's so, so much more than I need to learn and to practice and try to perfect that every drive feels a bit like the first. 

See you soon in the sand. 

[Nithin Vaidir]

Congrats on your 50th lead Richard @Wrangeld. It was indeed a fin ride . Each drive is a new experience  and I wish to learn more from you all.

[Russ]

Great report @Wrangeld Richard and great to be a part of one of your drives again. Good to drive with some familiar faces and meeting some new ones too, including fellow Raptor and instagrammer @Watteau Alex keeping things going in the Centre.

What a bonus seeing those beautifully colored parrots, awesome creatures!

Thanks to the support team and a pleasure to meet @Arman for the first time.

Hope everybody who had car issues before and during the drive manage to get them sorted in time for the weekend coming!

As for the ‘stuck’, I preferred to call it a minor refusal

See you all soon.

[Foxtrot Oscar]

1 hour ago, Wrangeld said:

Post Drive Report Convoy #2

There was a thought at some stages of Saturday morning when I thought that this drive was cursed. Not one, but two leads pulling out due to car problems, 26 drivers arrving to potentially the longest convoy in many a month and then, our angel, @Foxtrot Oscar conveniently being awake and amazingly prepared to come out and lead the convoy at a single minute's notice. There's a reason how and why people are prmoted to marshal in this club. 

With an exceptionally frustrated @Jeepie by my side we did get under way. As she said herself, she had a plan for the drive (as it was supposed to be her lead and not mine) and I apparently went off plan within around 200 meters of entering the sand. Not having your own vehicle and being a passenger when somesone else is driving 'your' drive is nowhere as much fun. 

It's been a while since I drove at Pink Rock. I tend to avoid this area because the dunes are normally very heavily used and it's a challenge to find a route that is not covered in cross tracks. Up to Pink Rock itself, we did well to find a lot of virgin sand. We could see glimpses of Convoy #1 in the distance, there were not so many convoys operating in the area and our drive was quite incident free all the way up to the base of Pink Rock. 

Seeing that our club compatriates were crossing the Rock, we decided to follow suit. I am not sure what was happening inside @Danish Mohammad Pajero that it has problems getting up the hill - and eventually it managed and we were on our way once again. 

Climbing up through the cross tracks to what has now been named 'Bird Bowl' we saw beautiful birds before swooping down ourselves in the direction Big Red and the slight less Big red dune nearby. 

There was a point at which I think there was someone did a radio check to make sure that the radios were still working, so slilent and trouble free was the convoy initially as we enjoyed a smooth ride on our way to the bigger dunes. @imranaasghar81 was doing a great job in 2nd lead, @Watteau relaxing in the Raptor will little to do apart from the odd reroute or self recovery and @Arman was doing sterling work at the back. We started to have a few refusals as the soft shifting sand impacted the back markers - totally expected on a drive like this as we approach summer. @Russ even got stuck at one point, much to our and indeed, his surprise: probably an aural relief for Danish. 

It's hard to pick out anyone from the convoy who was not perfroming exceptionally well. @Abdul Rahman AK, @Nithin Vaidir @Humayun Ghias, @Chris Wing@Matt.T @JeromeFJ and @Thomas Varghese were making it all very easy and we all enjoyed the fun of chasing, and being chased by Convoy #2. 

For me it's a real pelasure knowing that there are club drivers close by on another convoy, doing the same, enjoying themselves and learing their way through a drive. 

It was also great to have multiple drives over the long break with the same people, so I can see how you react to different challenges. 

And then, as we got into the higher more challenging dunes, two pop outs and a very difficult FJ stuck in a pocket and we had some receovety work to do. This slowed down progress on the way to big red, but was a great learning experience for all concerned. @Abdul Rahman AK and @JeromeFJ  - thanks for the lessons. 

Once again, we played tag with the 1st convoy. I wish someone could have got a picture of the Raptor moment on the hill with @Dodi Syahdar, @Watteau and @Russ all powering up and down at the same time, the two leadfoot beasts looking like a stereo picture as they misirrored each other. 

This was great fun and we were all planning to leave the area when suddenly @Thomas Varghese vehicle literally concked out. It turned out the batter was simply exhausted and hd given up the ghost, but meant we had to quickly lead everyone out of the desert and then leave a small group to return to recover the stricken Xterra. 

Special call outs for the day. 

1. @Jeepie sorry you missed out on your lead. 
2. @Foxtrot Oscar the saviour of the day and shall now be known as St. Angela
3. @Arman who impressed so much as the sweep
4. @Watteau a wing man that antone would be proud to have on their side
5. @Nabil Bishara well done on your first lead

Strangely, this was officially my 50th lead and I have apparently clocked more than 100 drives. Truly, these numbers mean nothing because I continue to learn every time I take a vehicle out into the desert. There's so, so much more than I need to learn and to practice and try to perfect that every drive feels a bit like the first. 

See you soon in the sand. 

Awe @JeepieI'm sorry you missed out on the drive and worse still had to be a passenger. @WrangeldI loved that you guys were nearby . It was so much fun! And great to catch up at some points too. I can't wait for this covid hell to be over so that we can get back to having real Carnity 'Community' drives and can all mingle and share our stories out there in the sand! 

[Nithin Vaidir]

1 hour ago, Russ said:

Great report @Wrangeld Richard and great to be a part of one of your drives again. Good to drive with some familiar faces and meeting some new ones too, including fellow Raptor and instagrammer @Watteau Alex keeping things going in the Centre.

What a bonus seeing those beautifully colored parrots, awesome creatures!

Thanks to the support team and a pleasure to meet @Arman for the first time.

Hope everybody who had car issues before and during the drive manage to get them sorted in time for the weekend coming!

As for the ‘stuck’, I preferred to call it a minor refusal

See you all soon.

Driving behind the 2 Raptors, it felt like there was not enough hill for them to conquer !!! It was a treat watching and hearing the roaring beasts. 

[Looper]

As usual it was great driving with you @Foxtrot Oscar at the lead. Everyone drove exceptionally well and during the first half of the drive, I was literally thinking if there could be a drive without the word "refusal" uttered and a momentarily zoned out me was not able to climb a teeny tiny slop and then heard the word spoken by @M.Seidam who was behind be. I was a bit irritated at myself at that. The drive kept on getting mildly more challenging as everyone was keeping up as the drive progressed and I loved every bit of it.

[Danish Mohammad]

Thank you  @Wrangeld @Jeepie @Watteau @Arman for this lovely drive !!! Thanks for your support & guidance. 

It was great fun day as two Convoy crossing each other this is the best part of CARNITY to let everyone learn, enjoy and to feel they are in safe hands.

It was a nice experience and good learning to drive at the back of two Raptors in such a super soft sand 🤭

Thanks to everyone in Convoy for your help, support and patience during refusals, stuck and pop outs!  

Mr. Richard congratulation for your 50th lead.

See you in next drive!