Mid-week Morning Fewbie Plus Drive - Faya "all-you-can-drive" 150 mins blitz - Sharjah - 29 Sep 2021

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Drive Brief
The stretch of desert between Faya, the Sphynx, Camel Rock and Fossil Rock offers a great deal of opportunities for off-roaders to roam across a beautiful landscape and to be challenged in a great terrain. This mid-week Fewbie Plus drive is designed to take the best of Faya in a mid-week late September sunrise, with a fast-paced and non-stop "all-you-can-drive-in-150-mins" route that will take the move from S153 Mahafiz - Al Faya Road, will take the convoy wandering around the big Faya dunes, then coasting along the edge of the eastern end of the red sandy dunes overlooking Mleiha mountains via the Sphynx and Camel Rock, from where the route will head back south in a long loop that will will eventually take the convoy out, exiting again on S153. Starting and ending in Faya, this morning blitz is an opportunity for a 150 mins fast-recharge among Faya's beautiful dunes before heading to work.

General Infos

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely.

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: 

• COVID19 Precautions
• Mandatory Safety Requirements
• Ban from Carnity Off-road Club
• Two Way Radio Guidelines

Drive Details

Level:  Fewbie Plus and Above (All Levels)

When:  29 Sep 2021, Wednesday.

Meeting time: 5:45 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions)

Meeting Point: S153 Mahafiz - Faya Road - Al Tahady Motor Cycles Rental - https://goo.gl/maps/kBcvN7E2LeAd8y2F9

Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance.

What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm, willingness to learn and your own compressor for tire inflation.

Approximate finish time: 8:15 AM

End Point: S153 Mahafiz - Faya Road - Al Tahady Motor Cycles Rental

Limited Spots Available:

• Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM.
  • If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. 
• Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others.
• Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month.
   

PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR EVENT 

 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Wow this would be fun...daughter has some event this Wednesday in school so won't be able to join...perhaps some other week ..

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear @Rawad, I see you are no longer in the RSVP. Are you not joining anymore?

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

this RSVP is now closed.

Please find below the convoy order for our drive:

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie, @PaoloMaraziti, @Pacific, @JeromeFJ, @Ranjan Das, @Ashok chaturvedi, @GauravSoni, this drive is going to be thrilling and exciting, but also quite demanding from a technical point of view, both mentally for the drivers and mechanically for the cars. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, especially when we will reach elevated positions on steep slopes, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you.

We will be using Carnity Channel 4 (446.08125Mhz).

See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:45am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:30am.

[Rawad]

Hello @Lorenzo Candelpergher

Car is still in service since Sunday. Was supposed to be handed over today but its not yet, thats why I removed my self before bothering you with planning my place in your convoy.

If by any chance they hand it over tonight, I will let you know and see of joining is still possible

Enjoy 🤙🤙

[JeromeFJ]

Dear @Lorenzo Candelpergher, many thanks for the drive this morning.

I enjoyed a lot this early workout before going to work. You have perfectly tuned the itinerary to enjoy the best views, avoiding direct sunlight in the eyes, and proposing maximum fun with the dunes considering the heavy soft sand and the so many tracks remaining from the weekend.  Thanks to all the convoy for the company and mutual support. Enjoy the rest of the week !

[Ranjan Das]

Thanks a ton @Lorenzo Candelpergher for organizing today's drive - short & sweet, well paced to get adrenaline flowing through ones of my favorites areas, Faya - Sphinx - camel rock and back; couldn't have asked for more. Thank you!

Thanks @Gaurav Soni for the support and @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, @PaoloMaraziti, @Ashok chaturvedi , @Pacific, @JeromeFJ for the excellent company. Hope to see you guys soon. 

[Lorenzo Candelpergher]

DRIVE REPORT

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

what a drive today!!! 

I think nothing captures the beauty of today's drive better than this shot at The Sphynx: beautiful sunrise, nice and compact sand, virgin terrain almost everywhere, and great (and short) convoy, perfectly disciplined and highly performing:

The plan for the day was to start at 5:45am sharp, in the last minutes of darkness before dawn, and to drive restlessly for the best part of 2h 30', i.e. 150 minutes. Let us say the beginning of the plan didn't work out exactly as expected, as @Ashok chaturvedireached the meeting point just a few minutes before 6am and @GauravSoni had announced he wasn't going to make it before 6:15am.

However, in a coordinated team effort @Ashok chaturvedi's tires where deflated in no-time, so by 6:00am sharp we had completed our briefing and were ready to make our move into the desert.

For the first 15 minutes we roamed around climbing up and down the west side of Faya big dune, warming up a bit while waiting for Gaurav to reach us on the sand. By 6:15am our sweep was in position an we started along the planned route.

Faya big climb was, in itself, a "no-go" today, given the immense amount of deep tracks which, with the sand still soaked from last week's rains, were also quite hardened and therefore very very uncomfortable and annoying to drive on. Accordingly, we shifted on the east side in order to climb Faya dune from the north, quickly reaching the the big bowls at the top, where we had a couple of non-stop rounds before criss-crossing to the west side again:

The sand today was amazing. Clean, compact and mostly virgin, it allowed me to lead along never-ending super-sinuous lines, transitioning from ridge to ridge and from bowl to bowl. It was, honestly, exhilarating: for me one of the most entertaining drives in Faya in recent times, also helped by a spectacular setting, with the sun raising up above the saw-shaped Maleiha mountains on the east-side in the golden hour after sunrise.

After having exhausted every possible ridge in Faya, we started heading north, again roaming around the fantastic ridges and bowls aligned along the east edge of the desert, overlooking the below sabkha. I find this area really fascinating, especially when riding on the very edge of the last dune, after which a steep slope falls down by at least 50m in altitude. Next time I'll broadcast via radio Areosmiths' "Living on the edge" while going through this stint!!

It was in this area that we experienced the only stuck of the day with @PaoloMaraziti who, in a rare moment of relaxation, was betrayed by a tricky small crest, where he landed with his car's belly, requiring a quick tug from the back. 

As we moved further to the north we reached The Sphynx, where we took the 1st short break of the day:

It was here that I had to admit I'm safer behind the steering wheel than on my own feet, as - coming down from the rock - I managed to perform a stumbling stunt landing on my belly in the sand 😂...

We were soon on the move again, making our way to Camel Rock and further north until we reached the new fence that has been installed around Fossil Rock around 7:15am. It was about time to head back south, so from there we coasted the spine of rocks that connects Fossil Rock, Camel Rock and the Sphynx on the west side, quickly making our way to Faya, where again we indulged along fat and magnetically appealing ridges and the other super-bowl in the area:

As we continued heading south, we climbed again Faya dune from the back (i.e. from the north side) and then enjoyed the 2nd short break of the day, contemplating the view from the top:

As we still had a bit of time left, we descended and roamed around, progressively heading to the west side across increasingly bushy dunes, eventually exiting on Mahafiz - Faya Road next to the Mahafiz Roundabout by 8:15, as planned.

The convoy today was magnificent: one stuck only and very few refusals / reattempts, all very well managed with minimal need for support or rerouting:

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie was an excellent 2nd lead, always responsive to my requests for small re-routings or to my warnings here and there. I know the fast pace took him by surprise in the beginning, but I can confidently say that he drove perfectly and handled all situations with great calm and effectiveness. Kudos.

@PaoloMaraziti was still inebriated by the last drive in the big dunes of Sweihan, but I'm sure he found today's drive equally challenging and fascinating, also because of the beautiful landscape. A very well driven session today: he kept the pace, had very minimal difficulties and managed well in all situations.

@Ashok chaturvedi was back  in one of my drives after quite some time: certainly his was a coming-back in great shape in a  challenging terrain. Well done!

@Pacific mentioned that, prior to today's one, he had had only one previous occasion to join one of my drives, in which he was forced to an early exit. I hope he enjoyed it and look forward to see him again in future drives. From what I could see in the frequent occasions when I looped back in our spaghetti-style route, he was in perfect control at all times. 

@JeromeFJ was particularly appreciative of today's punctuality in completing the drive. I think this is key in mid-week morning drives, as all of us have work commitments to respect. Once again a very well driven session: I think he should have no doubts at all about joining @Srikumar's IM drive in Abu Dhabi next weekend. 

@Ranjan Das was a perfect interim sweep for the first few minutes until @GauravSoni joined us. For the rest, he had to drive through a lot of churned up sand, but did so with confidence, taking the best out of his Rubicon. Kudos!

We drove in total for 44.5km at an average moving speed of 22.1km/h, with just less than 22' of idle time over a total of 2h 12' overall drive duration. Our total ascent was +1023/-1019m:

Last but not least, thanks to @GauravSoni for his support today. Luckily we didn't need much of it, but the simple knowledge to have him at the end of the convoy made my lead way more relaxed. I know Faya is one of @GauravSoni's favourites (his profile photo is taken from our last night drive there), so I'm curious to read his feedback on today's drive, where he jumped right in the action having missed the first warming-up bit.

Thanks to everyone for a nice mid-week morning drive, which gave me every reason to plan more in the next future.

See you soon in the sand!!

 

 

 

 

[JeromeFJ]

Thank you @Lorenzo Candelpergher for the exhaustive drive report. It is always a pleasure to relive the drive, and often an opportunity to realize things we did not notice, as depending on the position in the convoy, the experience is different.

The first  picture is beautiful. Honestly I was wondering why you were putting so much efforts to take a backlight picture, directly facing the sun.  I don't know if it was worth eating the sand, but it is definitely part of what I like in your drives, it is a complete experience with the desert environment, not only the driving practice.

And thanks for your support, I've already signed for the IM drive in Abu Dhabi on Friday  

[Cha]

Have been to Faya twice with Fred and was wondering that a higher level drive in Faya must be exhilarating, and it was indeed!

Thank you @Lorenzo Candelpergher for making a mid week morning drive, and bring us to the Faya dunes. This drive definitely  pushed me a lot beyond my limits and made me a better driver. Surely I still need to work on the climbings, I have failed 2 major climbs today.

A lot of my 2nd LD experience was: Charlie you need to keep more space (Fewbie & Newbie). And I think it will never apply to Lorenzo's drive. Half of my view was the grey jeep being so far away and the other half was only the tracks left behind. If I hadn't accidentally taken a large cup of coffee, the grey jeep would have escaped from me before sunrise

Thank you all for joining today's drive and I believe that we have done well, everyone of us had tremendous fun and adrenaline rush. @PaoloMaraziti @Ashok chaturvedi @JeromeFJ @Pacific @Ranjan Das @GauravSoni

 

Till next time!