COVID 19 Compliant - Night Fewbie Desert Drive - Al Yahar - Abu Dhabi - 20 May 2021

[Ruan van den Heever]

39 minutes ago, Chaitanya D said:

Drive report 

Well by now you all know it started with some last minute niggles.  My pcr was negative but it wasn't reflecting on the Al hosn. The excitement of going to Sweihan did not let me wait. I went straight to the mina Rashid seha center where I did my pcr and asked them why not updated. They informed me that on Thursday the Al hosn app had some technical issues.

Straight from there I left so that in a worst case scenario I could atleast let u all know well in advance and especially to Richard who was already close to the start point.

At the check point , I had a discussion with the officer who said I need to make a U turn back to Dubai. Well this was when I had to extend our discussion,  show him all the reports,  receipts and the messages I received.  With lot of checking which was right on their part , they let me through. It was indeed a relief to be back where I personally love driving , be it day or night.

Glad to see all at the starting point. Great to catch up with some new friends in Xavier , and good old mates - Ruan, Hasan, Mustafa and Karthick. We had a covid safe brief and off we go. We drove along the direction heading north from Yahar which meant we were climbing the slip phases . This made driving a task, and especially leading for me daunting at places as I could not find easy exits going into some deeper bowls.

With Richard and Marjan sweeping I was assured of some fantastic support and guidance which we experienced through the drive. One pop out in a nasty pocket like area meant we had to break for a considerable amount of time, but it was a good experience.  Fixed up and good to go!

We entered further venturing into an area notorious for sand formations,  went as close but avoided going directly there. @Mus_hus78 might agree on this.

While it was a great experience for me leading in night in a challenging terrain at Yahar, a big shout out to you all for driving with min issues, and almost to perfection except for few issues needing a quick pop out fix, some tugs (including one for me) , shovelling and some great self recoveries in the dark by Mustafa, Hasan, Xaviet and Richard. Mustafa now might know a new trick getting out from a wierd crest situation.

@Xavier Treasurer a big thank you for being a perfect 2nd lead and doing the correction when I made mistakes . Well done

@Karthikeyan Govindarajan impressive how you drove, but for the last crest - a karthick special. Which we all enjoyed, but you did well considering the terrain.

@Mus_hus78 drove beautifbeautifully managing the challenges well. Your commaradrie on the drive is wonderful bring some smiles on everyone with your talks.

@Hasan Wahlan managed his LC to perfection,  even though being slightly back. Improving every drive , looking back from your NB we did some time back. Well done, make sure you balance your wheel after removing all the sand inside thoroughly. 

@Ruan van den Heever was unstoppable,  conquering every dune with ease. Great to have you everytime we have been in sweihan. Well done

@Wrangeld and @Jeepie thanks for sweeping, and helping on all the advises. How you had a great time being in sweihan. We enjoyed your company. 

Some pictures and stats uploaded  in gallery.

See you all soon.

 

Please share some feedback, and the feasibility if you all would be able to join for a weekday drive . Let me know which time would be convenient so that it can be planned well for max participation .

See you all soon

 

I am all in for a weekday drive....anything from 17h00 is perfect