COVID19 Compliant - Morning Intermediate Desert Drive - Solar Park to Little Sweihan - Criss Cross Heaven - Dubai - 02 Jul 2021

[Dodi Syahdar]

6 minutes ago, Thomas Varghese said:

@Dodi Syahdar hope you liked the picture of your car against the sunrise backdrop. 

@Thomas VargheseYes.. I like it very much.. you have great talent in photograpy… 

[Thomas Varghese]

Dear @Kailas

Amazing terrain selection for an IM drive. Really taxed the cars and the drivers with this terrain. I enjoyed every bit of it even though there were refusals and stucks often including mine. This shows how difficult is it to estimate the conditions once inside the desert and how important it is to venture inside only with a convoy. Thoroughly enjoyed from the beginning to the end even though I had to exit with a leaking radiator hose towards the end. Taught me a very valuable lesson too. Never go inside the desert without ample water provisions in case your car becomes thirsty. Thank you @Dodi Syahdar for your thoughtful stock of water and loaning it to me in times of need. The empty water containers helped me a lot in my drive back home as I could fill up the water from every petrol station on my way back home and feed my radiator. Thank you @marks for showing me the quick exit. Thanks everybody for showing up on time so that we could start the drive at the expected time. 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Finally here I am with my  bit on this drive. Usually I share my thoughts within couple of hours of drive. However with this review i typed and deleted multiple times - with mixed thoughts. Not mixed about how I felt about the drive yesterday but how it will be taken by my colleagues on the drive. So before I give my brief about the drive, a humble request to all - plz take it in positive note, we are all learners here and only a feedback (introspective or from others eyes) can help us improve. And what i share below applies to me as well - it's a team sport and team as One should take this feedback. 

@Kailas - Thanks for the lovely drive. Terrain was just awesome, challanges you took us through were amazing with some nice ridges, super avenues to practice criss cross and ofcourse your plan to experience those lovely Little Sweihan bowls (which eventually we missed to explore). It was just the perfect setting for what we (I am sure all will agree) were hoping for as we RSVPed this drive. However sadly enough repeatedly every few minutes the convoy let you and terrain down. 

We all can have stucks, refusals, crests etc. I had my share of them - cresting on a dune and landing in a tricky pocket at the fag end, @Dodi Syahdar had a crest and even for that matter @Kailas had a stuck. However, the fact that through the drive there was not a continuous period of 10-15 min where convoy moved smoothly is not reflective of what we expect in an intermediate drive, specially when though challanging, terrain was well within the zone that we expect Intermediate or even Fewbies plus drivers to be able to manage. 

Without adding sweeteners, i surely believe  performance of convoy was below par. Some basics of self recoveries were not executed well and convoy was just not able to push through the soft sand, with some drivers having repeated stucks and refusals, every few minutes. 

I understand some of us were coming back after a break - then perhaps better to get over the rustiness by going through some Fewbie or F+ drives. 

Overall despite the awesome terrain i would rate whole drive experience  as Fewbie (maybe a plus) drive from drivers perspective, yes from recoveries we executed,  it was a good drive to learn some tricky things @marksidea of using rope to pull the tyre during @Ashok chaturvedi  Pop-out was very innovative yet simple and @Dodi Syahdar with his Raptor is all one need when in tricky position. @Lawrence_Chehimi thanks to your support wouldn't have been able to protect my Jeep's air dam without your support. And @Goutam dude your collection of tools is just super. 

Again all, i have driven with most of you on many drives. We can all have a bad day at work, important is to learn from each day and move on. Thanks 

 

 

[Kailas]

Good evening,

First of all, thank you all for showing up for the drive on time. The plan was to attempt some extreme criss-crossing in the south solar park area and head to little Sweihan area. This took most of our drive time as we had many refusals and stucks. Then as we entered little sweihan and we faced a pop out on @Ashok chaturvedi's FJ. This pop out fix took a lot of our time as the vehicle was in a pocket. Once we fixed the pop out and found a couple of bowls, @Thomas Varghese' Xterra started over heating and was not in a position to continue driving. After giving enough time for Xterra to cool down, we brought it back to nearest Sabkha ,exited @Thomas Varghese and ended the drive. Unfortunately we were not able complete the little sweihan section as time was already past 9:30 AM.

I could find that many had issues while criss- crossing, I understand that this was challenging as we were trying to criss cross sharp ridges mostly at the tallest section. 

@marks- Excellent SL & thank you for your support, especially during stucks and pop -out fix. 

@Gok Krish, @Lawrence_Chehimi & @Goutam, I don't recollect you guys having any issue. Well done guys.

@Archibald Jurdi-It was my first time driving with you. You managed your TJ very well. Few refusals, but you managed to quickly self recover.

@Ashok chaturvedi- You drove well. In terms of pace, you were a bit slow. Had to slow down or pause at times for the yellow FJ to catch up. 

@Thomas Varghese had refusals and stucks. Self-recovery attempts were was not successful at times, later on we were able to learn that couple of tyres were running at 17 psi. This was something you should have checked out early when initial self recovery attempts were digging your wheels. 

@varunmehndiratta also had refusals and stucks. You are still having issues when crossing the dune straight. I have seen you getting crested several times in my past drives. Your should not take your foot from accelerator until your engine has crossed the ridge.

@Dodi Syahdar thanks for sweeping and helping with recoveries. One crested situation when criss crossing, which with some shoveling's was able to self recover.

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for the pictures. 

Stay tuned, I will be posting a drive through the same area some other time.

Cheers!

 

 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

48 minutes ago, Kailas said:

Good evening,

First of all, thank you all for showing up for the drive on time. The plan was to attempt some extreme criss-crossing in the south solar park area and head to little Sweihan area. This took most of our drive time as we had many refusals and stucks. Then as we entered little sweihan and we faced a pop out on @Ashok chaturvedi's FJ. This pop out fix took a lot of our time as the vehicle was in a pocket. Once we fixed the pop out and found a couple of bowls, @Thomas Varghese' Xterra started over heating and was not in a position to continue driving. After giving enough time for Xterra to cool down, we brought it back to nearest Sabkha ,exited @Thomas Varghese and ended the drive. Unfortunately we were not able complete the little sweihan section as time was already past 9:30 AM.

I could find that many had issues while criss- crossing, I understand that this was challenging as we were trying to criss cross sharp ridges mostly at the tallest section. 

@marks- Excellent SL & thank you for your support, especially during stucks and pop -out fix. 

@Gok Krish, @Lawrence_Chehimi & @Goutam, I don't recollect you guys having any issue. Well done guys.

@Archibald Jurdi-It was my first time driving with you. You managed your TJ very well. Few refusals, but you managed to quickly self recover.

@Ashok chaturvedi- You drove well. In terms of pace, you were a bit slow. Had to slow down or pause at times for the yellow FJ to catch up. 

@Thomas Varghese had refusals and stucks. Self-recovery attempts were was not successful at times, later on we were able to learn that couple of tyres were running at 17 psi. This was something you should have checked out early when initial self recovery attempts were digging your wheels. 

@varunmehndiratta also had refusals and stucks. You are still having issues when crossing the dune straight. I have seen you getting crested several times in my past drives. Your should not take your foot from accelerator until your engine has crossed the ridge.

@Dodi Syahdar thanks for sweeping and helping with recoveries. One crested situation when criss crossing, which with some shoveling's was able to self recover.

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for the pictures. 

Stay tuned, I will be posting a drive through the same area some other time.

Cheers!

 

 

Yeah working on this cresting thing @Kailas over last few drives managed it well however agree with you need to work on it for consistency, honestly sometime it's more of overconfidence that does it for me - always a small dune that gets me crested. ...didn't had any refusals through the ride . was a pretty smooth drive for me till the last min one at fag end where came too close to Gautam while gliding through the bowls..

[Thomas Varghese]

14 hours ago, Kailas said:

Good evening,

First of all, thank you all for showing up for the drive on time. The plan was to attempt some extreme criss-crossing in the south solar park area and head to little Sweihan area. This took most of our drive time as we had many refusals and stucks. Then as we entered little sweihan and we faced a pop out on @Ashok chaturvedi's FJ. This pop out fix took a lot of our time as the vehicle was in a pocket. Once we fixed the pop out and found a couple of bowls, @Thomas Varghese' Xterra started over heating and was not in a position to continue driving. After giving enough time for Xterra to cool down, we brought it back to nearest Sabkha ,exited @Thomas Varghese and ended the drive. Unfortunately we were not able complete the little sweihan section as time was already past 9:30 AM.

I could find that many had issues while criss- crossing, I understand that this was challenging as we were trying to criss cross sharp ridges mostly at the tallest section. 

@marks- Excellent SL & thank you for your support, especially during stucks and pop -out fix. 

@Gok Krish, @Lawrence_Chehimi & @Goutam, I don't recollect you guys having any issue. Well done guys.

@Archibald Jurdi-It was my first time driving with you. You managed your TJ very well. Few refusals, but you managed to quickly self recover.

@Ashok chaturvedi- You drove well. In terms of pace, you were a bit slow. Had to slow down or pause at times for the yellow FJ to catch up. 

@Thomas Varghese had refusals and stucks. Self-recovery attempts were was not successful at times, later on we were able to learn that couple of tyres were running at 17 psi. This was something you should have checked out early when initial self recovery attempts were digging your wheels. 

@varunmehndiratta also had refusals and stucks. You are still having issues when crossing the dune straight. I have seen you getting crested several times in my past drives. Your should not take your foot from accelerator until your engine has crossed the ridge.

@Dodi Syahdar thanks for sweeping and helping with recoveries. One crested situation when criss crossing, which with some shoveling's was able to self recover.

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for the pictures. 

Stay tuned, I will be posting a drive through the same area some other time.

Cheers!

 

 

The Xterra is fine now after a visit to the garage. A water pipe leading to the oil filter to cool the engine oil developed a leak. I was surprised the engine oil going in and coming out of the oil filter has a water circulation line to cool it. The torture it gave while coming home after the drive was too much. Every 15 min I had to stop and fill the radiator with water while engine was running. Combined with the hot weather and the hot engine with hot radiator made me dead tired. Regarding the air pressure I had deflated to 12 psi all the tires at the beginning of the drive. No idea how it went up to 17 psi on 2 tires. After @marks helped me to deflate the tire to again 12psi after half an hour the pressure rose up to 15psi. Probably had to do with the climate and the fact that those tires have done almost 40000kms. Maybe its time to change all the tires in a months time. 

Edited July 4, 2021 by Thomas Varghese

[Looper]

Desert driving is always a learning process, it never ends. I had a good run at criss-crossing on Friday as was promised by @Kailas - and thanks for a wonderful drive.

I too had a 2-3 minor refusals but nothing I couldn't recover myself from and @varunmehndiratta behind me was of considerable help guiding me whether I wanted or not 😁. Towards the end though the terrain became bit difficult as the sand became very loose due to the heat.

A big shout out to @Dodi Syahdar for all the hard work you put in, at the Sweep end of the convoy.  I got the way 4 hose from the same place you got. I had known them before but wasn't sure about them, but thanks to you I was now confident to buy one from them, it was promptly delivered COD next day.

[Ashok chaturvedi]

18 hours ago, Kailas said:

Good evening,

First of all, thank you all for showing up for the drive on time. The plan was to attempt some extreme criss-crossing in the south solar park area and head to little Sweihan area. This took most of our drive time as we had many refusals and stucks. Then as we entered little sweihan and we faced a pop out on @Ashok chaturvedi's FJ. This pop out fix took a lot of our time as the vehicle was in a pocket. Once we fixed the pop out and found a couple of bowls, @Thomas Varghese' Xterra started over heating and was not in a position to continue driving. After giving enough time for Xterra to cool down, we brought it back to nearest Sabkha ,exited @Thomas Varghese and ended the drive. Unfortunately we were not able complete the little sweihan section as time was already past 9:30 AM.

I could find that many had issues while criss- crossing, I understand that this was challenging as we were trying to criss cross sharp ridges mostly at the tallest section. 

@marks- Excellent SL & thank you for your support, especially during stucks and pop -out fix. 

@Gok Krish, @Lawrence_Chehimi & @Goutam, I don't recollect you guys having any issue. Well done guys.

@Archibald Jurdi-It was my first time driving with you. You managed your TJ very well. Few refusals, but you managed to quickly self recover.

@Ashok chaturvedi- You drove well. In terms of pace, you were a bit slow. Had to slow down or pause at times for the yellow FJ to catch up. 

@Thomas Varghese had refusals and stucks. Self-recovery attempts were was not successful at times, later on we were able to learn that couple of tyres were running at 17 psi. This was something you should have checked out early when initial self recovery attempts were digging your wheels. 

@varunmehndiratta also had refusals and stucks. You are still having issues when crossing the dune straight. I have seen you getting crested several times in my past drives. Your should not take your foot from accelerator until your engine has crossed the ridge.

@Dodi Syahdar thanks for sweeping and helping with recoveries. One crested situation when criss crossing, which with some shoveling's was able to self recover.

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for the pictures. 

Stay tuned, I will be posting a drive through the same area some other time.

Cheers!

 

 

 @Kailas thanks and everyone for the pocket issue.. actually I did some analysis for the reason of the pocket which happened nearer to the end of drive. My pop out happened just moments before the slipping into the pocket. I appreciate very much your decision to repair the pop out in the pocket itself. However I am not too sure about slowing down the convoy. It was not me but the guys in the back of convoy requesting you to slow down. Dear Archie in front of me in his jeep can vouch for that also the Nissan Petrol in the rear. We did have refusals and stucks plus the re-attempts to climb out more than the usual and near everyone could experience some things or the other. The terrain was a bit tricky but not challenging but not difficult. I am sorting out a nissue with my diff lock/crawl control and kill switch. Overall such experiences add to everyones skills.  Hope to be on drive this week end.

[Gok Krish]

Thanks @Kailasfor choosing a creative route like this and trusting the team to deliver......Endless Crisscrossing over long crested dunes. It is a long video that captures the color transformation that occurs between Dawn and Sunrise and then fully blown Sun. I have not edited some sections of the drive though there is no action in them but action is substituted by the lovely relief that comes from the appearance of trees, scattered clouds, blue sky bordering the yellow horizons etc...The 180 deg camera capture gives it an added effect! Welcome your comments in the Youtube site.

Thanks @marks, great to follow u the 2nd lead...re-routing at times was useful ....

@Archibald JurdiGood to meet you...Good to know you.  @Lawrence_Chehimi  @Goutam @Thomas Varghese   @Dodi Syahdar @varunmehndiratta @Ashok chaturvediGreat to drive with you guys!