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Morning Newbie Desert Drive - The magic of Fossil Rock and Faya - Sharjah - 08 Oct 2021


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Drive Brief
This drive is an evergreen classic at @Carnity. Moving from Mahafiz Tree Shade at 6.00m, we will start in the twilight and then head east straight into the raising sun, which will soon unveil itself from behind the skyline of Fossil Rock. We will enter the desert from a bushy area, riding on large and fat ridges as we make our way to the rock. If not too crowded, we will indulge for some play time at some nice bowls and especially at the Long Dune, a fantastic, super-long dune offering great opportunities to practice side sloping

We will then head to Fossil Rock, which we will admire while heading south-east, moving across a fascinating area populated by dunes with evocative names such as Camel Rock and The Sphinx, with the aim to reach Faya area, where very large and mighty dunes will be waiting for us to leave our tire marks on the sand and undeletable memories in our minds.

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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: 

Drive Details

Level:  Newbie and above (All Levels)

When:  08 Oct 2021, Friday

Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions)

Meeting Point: Mahafiz Tree Shade - https://goo.gl/maps/Tj9WXKFDYB43KpWZ9

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: 10:00 AM

End Point: Mahafiz - Al Faya Road


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 

 

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  • Gaurav changed the title to Morning Newbie Desert Drive - The magic of Fossil Rock and Faya - Sharjah - 08 Oct 2021

Hi Lorenzo, 

I am very sorry I have a personal unexpected issue, I will not be able to make it on Friday morning for this drive.

Could you withdraw me from the RSVP list?

Sorry again for this, I would have enjoyed this amazing drive !

See you on the next session :)

Bruno

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Hi Lorenzo,  please remove me from the waiting list and tomorrow's Ride, I appreciate that you have added me, but unfortunately I have other plans tomorrow morning, see you next time. 

@Lorenzo Candelpergher

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Dear Desert Wanderers, 

this RSVP is now closed.

Please find below the convoy order for our drive:

image.png.25d8d94612ea30affe89a35e7af44ea0.png

@Joji varghese, @Manish Kashyap, @Waqar Sarwar, @Prakash Anoop, @Rsjiv Samuel, @Ferl Brown, @Mohammed Mansoor, @kiranshinde, @eldose baby, @Raman_Dbx, @GauravSoni, this drive is going to be thrilling and exciting, but also demanding from a technical point of view. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, 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 1 (446.00625Mhz).

The meeting point is confirmed at Mahafiz Tree Shade - https://goo.gl/maps/Tj9WXKFDYB43KpWZ9 

See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 6:00am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:40am.

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12 minutes ago, Manish Kashyap said:

Mr. Loreanzo, A small clarification, my car is Ford Raptor not Jeep.......

Hi @Manish Kashyap, I just realized there might have been a cut&paste problem.. I'll fix it, however your position in the convoy will not change. 

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DRIVE REPORT

Dear Desert Wanderers, 

The day started at Mahafiz in a beautiful dawn with the skyline of Fossil Rock over the horizon:

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All convoy members made it to the meeting point quite early, so we would have been ready to move quite soon hadn't it been for the missing flag mount on @Manish Kashyap's Raptor, which required a bit of engineering effort to figure out a way to fix the flag with tie straps and gorilla tape, as I really didn't like the idea of sending Manish back at his very first drive just because of a missing flag. 

As soon as this artwork was completed with the help @GauravSoni we were ready to go trhough our briefing and eventually hit the sand by 6:30am.

The first bit of the drive was quiet and easy, across the bushy and innocuous dunes of Mahafiz, until we reached the first play area were we could practice a few rounds of sidesloping:

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As we proceeded further east, we approached several other bowls where we indulged in more half-moon climbs, until I got crested in a moment of distraction trying to figure out the best way forward. 

On the last of these play areas @Ferl Brown's XTerra remained stuck on a slope and had to be winched down. Probably due to the high inclination and an excessive quantity of fluid in the circuit, the coolant of his engine had been overflowing and therefore spilling out, so once on the flat ground, we took a break to check that there were no leakages and that there was enough coolant to proceed the drive.

After a good 30' break, we were able to move again and we quickly made our way to the glorious Long Dune.

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There we practiced as many half moon climbs as we could possibly think of, as can be seen from our track:

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As we moved further east, we eventually reached the pylon track on the west side of Fossil Rock and the new fence around the Natural Reserve there. 

Once on the south side of the fenced area, we had a chance to give a last glance to Fossil Rock, with the company of some very scenic camels:

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We then headed south, aiming at the evocative Camel Rock, where we stopped for a good convoy photograph:

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We then moved again, driving by the Sphynx and then entering Faya area:

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As we moved south, the sand got more and more soft and churned up, with tons of tracks from other convoys, which made our life way more difficult than expected. 

The convoy, however, was excellent, so we kept marching on with very few refusals and stucks along the way. 

Faya is a fantastic place, with higher and higher dunes that our Newbie convoy successfully climbed all the way to the south side, where @Prakash Anoop got crested at the edge of a nasty bowl, which required some shoveling and some maneuvering to get out of.. 

Eventually we made it to the famous Faya climb, which was as badly full of tracks and bumpy as I had never seen it, to the extent that none of us could make it to the top, so after a couple of attempts, we eventually made our way out to the tarmac on the Mahafiz - Kalba Road by 10:15.

The convoy was excellent today:

@Joji varghese was an excellent second lead, always careful and responsive to my instructions. Kudos! 

@Manish Kashyap was undoubtedly the star of the day: on his 1st Newbie Drive after the Absolute Newbie one, he found himself on the heights of Faya and made it through them like a pro in his blue Raptor. Well done for your 1st drive! Just remember to follow convoy discipline and stand still when the convoy halts for a stuck/refusal and to never overtake the car in front. 

@Waqar Sarwar is gaining confidence at every drive and did very well today in a challenging terrain like Faya with his Wrangler. Still some temptations to fight gravity here and there, but definitely a grest performance today.

@Prakash AnoopAnoop had his 5 minutes of celebrity in that final bowl, when reversing out, but all is well what ends well. For the rest, some refusals today were totally part of the game, and they only demonstrate that you were pushing yourself to the best of your current capabilities. Keep up the good work!

@Ferl Brown certainly won't need the gym today after performing an endless left & right steering recovery attempt when stuck on a side slope. Luckily your coolant issues were just an overflow, and I'm glad you could complete the drive, as otherwise you would have missed the best part of it!

@Mohammed Mansoor is also showing great progress at every drive. Less fishtailing, less fighting gravity, better distancing. Keep it up, as you are doing great.

@kiranshinde is coming to terms with his Y62. As with Mohammed, controlling fishtailing will be your most important achievement, as it is also the biggest challenge with your back heavy vehicle. For the rest, the car has tons of power, you just have to learn being less shy on the throttle! Well done today, it wasn't an easy one.

@eldose baby pushed his Lexus where probably 95% of these luxury cars never get, and did it very well and effectively, with few hesitations only on churned up sand.

@Raman_Dbx, quiet but sure at the back, came through everything that was thrown at him today, while still finding the time to enjoy the newly discovered landscape.

@Rsjiv Samuel was an excellent Sweep at the back, always responsive on the radio, and never hesitant along the way, even when having to face incredibly churned up sand. Great job! 

We overall drove for 41.3km at an average moving speed of 15.3km/h, stopped for 1h 6' out of 3h 49' of total time spent from tarmac to tarmac. Great distance and pace for a Newbie Drive. 

Last but not least, a great thank you to @GauravSoni, on his 100th drive with @Carnity in just 365 days. Invaluable support as Center Forward, all over the place helping everyone, giving clear and effective instructions and meaningful insights during the drive. Fantastic!

See you soon again in the sand! 

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