Thomas Varghese Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 @Lorenzo Candelpergher I need to cancel my desert drive with you as an urgent meeting has come up for me tomorrow morning. Kindly excuse me. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looper Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 (edited) ADNOC Service Station | Al Wathba (890) https://goo.gl/maps/zyFcAtiFUKbXCXKu8 is perhaps the nearest petrol station which is around 17 KM (26 minutes) away from the meeting point. So plan accordingly. alternatively this might be in the way if coming on E30 ADNOC Service Station | Al Dafra (949) https://goo.gl/maps/bPASW4jtgcUK9Ls9A and this one on E11: ADNOC Service Station | (171) https://goo.gl/maps/Cj7CsK2zSmXWq2cA6 If anything near please let us know. Edited November 26, 2021 by Looper 3 1 1 don't drive like its your last one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looper Posted November 26, 2021 Report Share Posted November 26, 2021 5 hours ago, Looper said: ADNOC Service Station | Al Wathba (890) https://goo.gl/maps/zyFcAtiFUKbXCXKu8 is perhaps the nearest petrol station which is around 17 KM (26 minutes) away from the meeting point. So plan accordingly. alternatively this might be in the way if coming on E30 ADNOC Service Station | Al Dafra (949) https://goo.gl/maps/bPASW4jtgcUK9Ls9A and this one on E11: ADNOC Service Station | (171) https://goo.gl/maps/Cj7CsK2zSmXWq2cA6 If anything near please let us know. Please go this E11 station, previous one is in the wrong side of the road. Apologies. ADNOC Service Station | Shawamekh-(South West) (755) https://goo.gl/maps/aYA57VMqvch4ZGSy6 1 don't drive like its your last one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MUSTAFA hussain Posted November 27, 2021 Report Share Posted November 27, 2021 On 11/21/2021 at 7:04 PM, Mus_hus78 said: Damn this drive just gone full in seconds 🤪 seems like everyone was waiting for this drive and had there fingers ready to click going Morning @Lorenzo Candelpergher I can’t make it as my car is showing some issue , it drives but goes on limp mode . Tried to remove the battery wires but doesn’t change anything . Sorry can’t drive with this risk . Really feeling bad as I was waiting for this drive badly and last minute my car doesn’t move properly 🥲. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ranjan Das Posted November 27, 2021 Report Share Posted November 27, 2021 What a fabulous drive! Even more exciting than what Lorenzo had billed it to be while posting. If I was (a bit) tired after a 90 mins drive to the meeting point following a long Friday escapade, there wasn't any hint of it left by the time we reached the Wathba Lake - the short ride was thoroughly refreshing and promising a even more fantastic drive that lay ahead. Fantastic it was. A few refusals and stucks actually gave the much needed breather from the continuous fast paced, adranaline filled drive. Didn't realise how fast the time flew-by with us covering 95 KMs - incredible! Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergher for curating yet another gem of a drive - will remember it for a long time. thanks @Christian Andras and @Dodi Syahdarfor the support. @Rawad, @JeromeFJ, @Looper, @Mario Cornejo, @Lawrence_Chehimi was an absolute pleasure meeting and driving with you gentlemen. Thank you and hope to see you soon. 1 1 1 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Lorenzo Candelpergher Posted November 27, 2021 Author Popular Post Report Share Posted November 27, 2021 DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, What a drive, what a day!! It all started with some disappointment, as we made our way to Fossil Dunes at sunrise, ready to frame in some nice photo shots these incredible rock formations, but found that the whole area (visited just 3 weeks ago when I did my recce to prepare this drive) had been fenced and was no longer accessible. Luckily, the disappointment was meant to last for just a minutes: as we entered the sand on the south side of Wathba Canal, we immediately revved up our engines with a 15' fast paced warm-up around a wonderful set of large round and swooping dunes in a shining bright sand. The warm-up took us to the east end of Wathba Canal, from where we could admire the imposing size of the man-made excavation: As we moved away from the canal, we headed south-east across a long stretch of mid-sized dunes offering large and round ridges combined with sharp crests and long slip faces, totally virgin everywhere, with no tracks anywhere to be seen. As we kept moving south-east, we found ourselves in a progressively narrower strip of dunes, with two sabkhas on both sides (north and south). The fact that the strip was less than 500m wide didn't make it any less fun, as we roamed around poised for leaving our tyre marks on as many ridges as we could see: This first session of the drive was very fast and enjoyable, as the dunes were not too big, the ridges were often fat and round and thus easy to approach and the spacing allowed to roam around with some speed. The sand was humid on the surface but dry and soft just a couple of centimeters below which made it at the same time compact to drive on but also tricky when churned up. When we were about to exit to cross the sabkha on the south side, @Lawrence_Chehimi's back-seat passenger asked for a recess as she was struggling with motion sickness.. Unfortunately, this kind of drives are really not advisable for back-seat passengers, and in the future, also based on this experience, I'll make it clearer to avoid other uncomfortable situations, which are a pain as much for the passenger as they are for the driver who, as happened today, ends up quitting the drive earlier. In light of the situation, we made a quick 5km detour crossing the sabkha on the north side to let @Lawrence_Chehimi reach the nearest tarmac road. We then backtracked and moved to the south sabkha to continue our journey. Again to my surprise, the passage I had marked to enter the sabkha through a gate in the fence had been blocked by some huge piles of sand clearly moved there with escavators to block the way, but luckily @Looper noticed a Y62 crossing a bit more to the west side, so we followed through. We crossed the sabkha and headed south, in the 2nd great area of the day, where we found big dunes to climb and giant slip faces calling for endless slideslopes: We indulged in the area for quite a while: it was very difficult to drive away from those dunes which were as enchanting as singing syrens: When we eventually had enough, we started heading south-east, moving fast across a fairly easy and relatively flatter section of approx 12km, which eventually led us to the big dunes of Razeen. Having managed well our time, we were blessed with a full 90' mins non-stop, supercharged, fast-paced, high-adrenaline stint around Razeen. This image doesn't give justice to the amazing lines we followed all over the place: Endless climbs to the very top of super tall dunes were most of the time culminating in daring criss-crossings and dives down equally endless slip faces, in a totally addictive sequence that the convoy interpreted with an incredible performance with almost no stucks and refusals. As time was flying, the time came for us to exit. After almost 4h spent at top levels of focus and adrenaline, as soon as we had close visual on Razeen Road, the convoy started to relax and had a series of last minute stucks, among which a nice cresting by @Ranjan Das, definitely worth a shot: By 11:00am we were eventually out on the tarmac after 4h 13' of total drive duration, of which only 46' were actual stopped time, with an average moving speed of 27.4km/h across 99.2km of total distance, with an ascent of over +/-1000m. The convoy was stratospheric today: @Christian Andras, great second lead, @Ranjan Das, @Lawrence_Chehimi (for as long as it lasted), @Rawad, @JeromeFJ, @Looper, @Mario Cornejo and @Dodi Syahdar, perfect Sweep at the back, were all brilliant, capable of maintaining peak performance focus for the best part of 4h, resulting in minimal stucks and refusals. It was a memorable drive, too bad @Arman, @Thomas Varghese, @varunmehndiratta and @Mus_hus78 couldn't make it. They all missed a great one! Kudos to all, thanks to @Christian Andras and @Dodi Syahdar for the support and see you soon again! 1 1 5 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeromeFJ Posted November 28, 2021 Report Share Posted November 28, 2021 @Lorenzo Candelpergher, this drive was amazing and for sure to keep in the records ! Every thing was there. Beautiful empty spaces, endless climbing and side sloping, breathtaking crest crossing, deep narrow bowls, steep slip face descents ... it was a real festival ! The sand was compact at the beginning, and became rapidly softer with the sun rising (and the 2 Patrols making their ways ;)) and it was real pleasure to drive through these almost virgin areas, with no tracks, and no sight of any other convoy. The short and compact convoy was in perfect configuration, focused on your lines, and following the intense pace with no hesitation. @Christian Andras, @Ranjan Das, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Rawad, @Looper, @Mario Cornejo, @Dodi Syahdar, it was a pleasure driving with you all. Thanks again @Lorenzo Candelpergher for taking us full throttle through this beautiful itinerary ! 4 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JeromeFJ Posted November 28, 2021 Report Share Posted November 28, 2021 A Marshal with determination! 3 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lawrence_Chehimi Posted November 28, 2021 Report Share Posted November 28, 2021 Thanks @Lorenzo Candelpergherand everybody for the amazing drive, the first hour was definitely one of the best drives I've ever had. It has been so long since I red lined my Patrol, and the mix of Intermediate, Abu Dhabi and @Lorenzo Candelpergher made it the perfect combination. I'm really sorry I had to exit out early, I guess at a certain point we got used to Intermediate drives and didn't expect it will be that thrilling especially for my passengers. I hope we have such drives with super large dunes and endless side sloping and criss crossing more often. @Christian Andrasthanks for the dramamine pill you gave to my passenger (not sure if this is the correct name). 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Seidam Posted November 28, 2021 Report Share Posted November 28, 2021 1 hour ago, JeromeFJ said: A Marshal with determination! Is this a reconstruction sand?🤔 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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