COVID19 Compliant - Mid-week Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - Little Sweihan Blitz - Dubai - 26 May 2021

[Dodi Syahdar]

12 hours ago, Lorenzo Candelpergher said:

DRIVE REPORT

Dear Desert Wanderers,

I must say I am really starting to get addicted to these Wednesday mid-week morning drives.. Certainly a beautiful drive like the one we enjoyed this morning contributed badly to my addiction.. When you happen to meet @Gok Krish, @Hisham Masaad and @Dodi Syahdar at Last Exit Petrol Station at 4:50am getting the last shot of caffeine before the drive, it's a mixed feeling: on one side you realize you are totally mad, on the other side you realize you are not alone in such madness!

We were all set to go by 5:23am, well before the sunrise. We quickly drove around the fence of Solar Park, then headed South towards Little Sweihan, where we reached exactly at sunrise time, only to realize it was so foggy in the distance that we were only going to see the sun much later.

We then entered Little Sweihan Area and started testing the terrain and the convoy response, while the light (and visibility) where still quite poor, which - to my disappointment - caused my first pop-out as I completely missed to see a mini but nasty pocket at the bottom of a very innocent small dune. Luckily the pop-out was fixed in no time with the great help of the team and we moved again.

With better light we started increasing the level and the pace. @Frederic had rightly warned me that "Little Sweihan can be deceiving" and he certaingly wasn't wrong. The sand is beautifully shaped by the wind in apparently gentle and round fashions and, given the absolute absence of any tracks, it is incredibly appealing, however the dunes layout in this area is very irregular, with frequent small and medium pockets, deep and steep bowls, sharp and curved crests.. in other words, the perfect ground to challenge a well motivated Intermediate convoy, a chance that - of course - we didn't miss!!

As we moved slowly east, we had a very entertaining stint of rapid climbs, ambitious criss-crossings, evasive manouvers to get out of deep bowls, all combined in an amazingy fun "spaghetti drive", as can be seen from the below photo, taken real time from my navigator display (this is what I call "Spaghetti Little Sweihan Sauce", which has quickly gained one of the top ranks in my favourite mid-week breakfast menu:

As we continued in our restless wandering, we experienced a 2nd po-out by @Nivin, who was greatly supported by @Dodi Syahdar while the rest of the convoy enjoyed the fantastic morning views, some of which are here below:

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It was during this short break that we made radio contact with @Wrangeld who was leading a Master Class not too far away. 

As the 2nd pop-out was fixed, we continued satisfying our off-road appetite with more spaghetti, putting the whole convoy to a hard test. The terrain was indeed quite difficult today, with sudden patches of soft sand and very tight maneuvering spaces in many occasions, but everyone did very well:

@Hisham Masaad was a great 2nd lead, following without hesitation my funambulist lines or holding back waiting for me to complete the full round of the next fun bowl. 

@Gok Krish, at his very first Intermediate Drive, showed a brilliant performance, handling most difficult situations very well and managing every time to get out of trouble by himself.

@Ahab Shamaa found hopefully enough challenges for his experienced drive, while providing precious radio guidance to Gok in the occasion of a his very rare refusals.

@Rob H managed his Tundra magnificently, considering the inherent difficulty of maneuvering in such tight spots and across many sharp crests. Exiting one of the big bowls he got crested in a moment of hesitation, but a quick winching got him out in no-time.

@Watteau had "THIS IS FUN" written in capital letters on his face during the whole drive, exhibiting a 32 teeth smile every time his tinted window was down, as documented in a photo published in a previous post. I guess it must have felt great to handle the F150 across such a demanding terrain!

@Dodi Syahdar was equally awesome at the back, managing the drive with very little hesitation, betrayed only by a small tricky step at the entrance of the last big bowl of the day, which costed his first ever pop-out. As with @Christian Andras last weekend, experiencing the first pop-out after having made it all the way to Intermediate was a bit of a shock for Dodi, but the supercool temper prevailed in just a few seconds as he was already on top of the truck digging into his mega storage box for compressor and floor-jack.

@Nivin at the back was as cool as a cucumber, diligently updating me about the status of the last cars in the convoy and super-helpful with Dodi's pop-out.

With the 3rd pop-out fixed, we were all in the mood to continue for another couple of hours, but I had the unfair duty to be mindful about the time and to lead the convoy to the sabkha to reach the fence of the archeological area on the west side and then head north towards Solar Park long range dunes. We moved so fast on the dirt track that @Hisham Masaad raised his concerns about the possible presence of speed traps 😂,.., then entered the dunes again starting to ride some very long and appealing crests.

It was again a beautiful moment, but it lasted just a few mins as @Gok Krish's Wrangler had a few sudden power cuts due to overheating. After cooling down the car, it was decided to make our way out through the fastest and easiest route, i.e. along the existing dirt tracks, all the way to Bab Al Shams. It was the right thing to do, as we reached the exit point by 8:15am, our intended exit time.

Overall we drove 58.2km (of which approx. 22 on dirt tracks) for a total time of 2h 55', of which 1h 55' moving and 1h 00' stopped, for and average moving speed of 30.3km/h (clearly doped by the long stints on dirt tracks, where we exceeded 90km/h).

It was an energizing short morning drive, distilled fun in Little Sweihan, thanks to a wonderful and capable convoy. Too bad @GauravSonicouldn't make it today! Kudos to all, as the terrain was all but easy to drive through. 

And see you next time in the sand!!!!

 

@Lorenzo CandelpergherAs usual, your lead always make me learn many new technique as well as get more confidence as the result of challenging route selected by you.. look forward to meet you again tomorrow. 

@all, great to meet you again in this trip, really enjoy the drive with you all.