COVID19 Compliant - Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Al Aweer to Mahafiz: Ridge Riding Feast - Dubai/Sharjah - 18 Jun 2021

[Karthik Krishnakumar]

@Ale Vallecchi please add me to waiting list , let me know if you got any free spot for tomorrow. 

 

[Ale Vallecchi]

1 hour ago, Karthik Krishnakumar said:

@Ale Vallecchi please add me to waiting list , let me know if you got any free spot for tomorrow. 

 

Hi @Karthik Krishnakumar you will be #2 on the WL. Thanks

[Darren Brooke]

3 hours ago, Ale Vallecchi said:

Thank you @Senthil Kumar for advising. Get better and see you soon 

Hi @Darren Brooke. You are IN the drive. Can you please confirm your presence?.Thanks a lot. 

I'll be there

Great news

[Ale Vallecchi]

Just now, Darren Brooke said:

I'll be there

Great news

Thanks @Darren Brooke. See you tomorrow.

[Ale Vallecchi]

Dear Desertnauts.

Here's the last update about tomorrow's AM drive:

• our objective will be to complete the crossing of these 2 areas - Al Aweer to Lahbab, and Lahbab to Mahafiz
• the major skill we will practice in these areas will be ridge-riding, in a very controlled situation (not quite in a straight line, but rather steering along curvy ridges)
• the second objective, if time will allow, will be to extend the drive to Nazwa's outskirts, through a mix of long range dunes and technical areas, and a mix of criss-crossing and finesse driving.

The convoy numbering will be the following:

@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil in Second Lead

@Anoop Nair at #3

@Warren Flay at #4

@Tareck will be #5

@Nivin will cover Center Forward

@Hardik Mody is going to drive at #7

@Richard Franks at #8

@Adhir Saxena at #9

@Chinthaka Ruwan will wear #10

@Yusuf Esaf is going to be #11, and 

@Darren Brooke will Sweep the concoy.

Please reach the meeting point, just at the outskirts of Al Aweer, in time, and start deflating, taking into account the need to face soft sand, and increasing temoeratures, as the drive progresses. In reaching the meeting point, pay attention to road works, and a detour to reach Al Aweer coming from Dubai, which is taking place on E611. The road works may cause delays in reaching the location. Once on location, please tune into Carnity Channel #2 (446.031).

Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow. Have a great evening.

[Warren Flay]

What an interesting morning! You just know that the drive is going to challenge you when you get a refusal on the road approaching the meeting point!🤣

Thanks to @Ale Vallecchifor organising and leading an enthralling drive along the crest of the world. Lots of difficulties were encountered and lots of lessons learnt. Cheers to @Darren Brookewho was working hard at sweep and to @Alain Canivet-Abikhaliland @Nivin for ably assisting. I for one enjoyed it even if my energy was starting to sag after 4 hours of wheel sawing and dune reading in the glaring sunlight. Got some good air and some pretty hard landings but nothing broke so I guess the Gadgero has yet more to give... Looking forward to the next ridgefest for sure.

[Chinthaka Ruwan]

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi for this wonderful drive. First time I drove this area and it's a haven for ridge riding. Had good time. Thanks @Nivin @Darren Brooke  @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil   and all the team for the support. Also  I have uploaded some photos to the gallery. See you all in next drive.  

[Alain Canivet-Abikhalil]

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for your pedagogy on the technique and tips and also for the bucolic ride among dunes, wildlife and vegetation.

This intensive ridge-riding session was much enlightening and instructive. Totally recommend it to get more comfortable and confident with this technique. I tried as much as possible to follow you "a la trace" so @Anoop Nair and the rest of the convoy can also follow as much as possible your trajectory.

Thanks sweep @Darren Brooke you got busy this morning  well done !

Thanks CF @Nivin  always comforting to know you're on the watch.

Have a nice weekend everyone and see you soon !
 

[Darren Brooke]

First time to Al Aweer area, and have to say i really enjoyed it!!

Thanks @Ale Vallecchifor a really fun drive, which gave everyone a fantastic opportunity to repeatedly practice and finesse both their ridge riding and criss crossing skills later in the drive. Also thanks for trusting me at sweep for the first time, the occasional bit of digging and guiding off the ridge was all that was required, so well done everyone.

Well done @Alain Canivet-Abikhalilfor another faultless performance at 2nd lead and @Nivinfor being a superb CF and of course the gentle tug off the final dune (so very nearly made it without a recovery). Definitely realising more and more that with the heavy Tahoe that I am asking for trouble if i don't find a clear path when the track is churned up ahead.

Looking forward to the next drive and no doubt learning something else 🙏

 

Edited June 19, 2021 by Darren Brooke

[Ale Vallecchi]

Al Aweer to Mahafiz (and on to Nazwa): Ridge Riding Feast - Drive Report

"You are not meant for crawling. So don't. You have wings. Learn to use them and drive." - Rumi

One of the most difficult things to get used to in desert off-roading is climbing the side slope of a dune, reaching the ridge, managing to get 2 wheels on the other side of the ridge, and... drive on it (before, eventually descending on either side). That moment, between when the sky is almost all you see and the car settles on the ridge, is almost like learning to fly. Daring to leave your comfort zone, and willingly launch yourself on a path which requires trials and errors, persistence and patience, and eventually will make you, literally, fly on top of the dunes. 

As true flight, there are many ways to fly on a dune's ridge. Like flying, sometimes it requires the power of one's wings (read engine), and others just to tweak them in one direction or another, exploiting the momentum that has carried you up, and controlling it. This ridge-riding feast aimed to build  in each driver the awareness that riding ridges requires a delicate balance of power and control, that it can be achieved by alternating burst of speed (climbing and occasionally overcoming the drag of the sand underneath the car) with delicate touches of the wheel (to navigate the ridges curves, without losing control or momentum).

Whether the drive delivered its promise, only the drivers can tell. I know for sure that we rode as many ridges as we could find, which is pretty much everywhere in this area, except close to the crossing of the tarmac coming from Al Aweer, and just prior to reaching the Mahafiz area, where the dunes become shorter and tighter, requiring more technical, finesse, driving. In all, from the drive's recorded track, I could count 45 ridges ridden, which should surely count as a good number of repetitions of this same exercise.

The drive was well managed by all members, without major issues (stucks and refusals are supposed to happen in these kinds of drives, as are part of the learning process). Great Second Lead by@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, extremely reliable support at the Center by a tireless @Nivin, and perfect, hard worked Sweep by @Darren Brooke. Very good performance by @Anoop Nair (you got more confident as the drive progressed), @Warren Flay (always very reliable), @Tareck (not easy to handle your big car on this terrain), @Hardik Mody, @Richard Franks, @Adhir Saxena and @Chinthaka Ruwan, all completing a very strong drive.

We finally extended the itinerary to exit at Nazwa (coming back from the outskirts of Mahafiz, which we reached in very good time), and actually this extension, with mostly criss-crossing exercises rather than ridge-riding, was were fatigue and heat started to create new challenges, and made the drive more eventful.

We exited after a total of 4:07 hours, of which a long 3:26 while driving (with really minimal breaks), covering 81.7 Km, at a brisk average moving pace of 24 Km/h. 

Thanks a lot to everyone for joining, and hope to see you soon. Have a great weekend.