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Night Fewbie Plus Desert Drive - The Need for Speed in Area 53 - Sharjah - 24 Jun 2022


Srikumar

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Quite an adventure, with guys getting lost in the dark night in the high dunes, but towards the 2nd half of the drive everyone got the hang of it and kept close to one another and unrelenting pace with @Srikumar's crazy night shenanigans a night to remember for all. Thank you @munkybizness for your excellent 2nd lead and @Ashok chaturvedi for your duties at the back as sweep.

I & @GauravSoni did notice a UFO later that night 😜. The UFO was quite bright and looked like a bright bird of prey and it faded away as it left the earth towards the alpha quadrant. Later a moon appeared in its place shrouded in clouds.

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don't drive like its your last one.

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Thank you everyone for a wonderful evening. Yes, the drive and terrain was challenging which got further compounded with a longish convoy. In such pyramid shaped dune formations  keeping the right distance becomes even more paramount else one can easily loose the track. @munkybizness was mentioning to me a small trick which I wish to share with all the drive participants - As a SL in the pyramid dunes he would ensure that he would closely follow my track and reach the top of the dune before I would crisscross. By doing that he would be able to see in which direction I had crossed over. So it means he was driving a lot closer in the pyramid dunes with an additional focus. Driving in the dark requires a different driving style than during the day and the more you practice the better you will become. 

As @Looper rightly mentioned, the convoy started getting the hang of drive style in the second half of the drive and the result was a smoother convoy movement. 

Thank you once again and look forward to driving with you all on another Night Drive. 

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Thanks @Srikumar for leading us through the dunes in the night! what an experience! As my first proper night drive, I learnt quickly how easy it is to lose the track and a need to follow the car in front much closer, while still making sure to do it safely. tough learnings, and big thankyou to @Ashok chaturvedi for looking after us at the back when we got detached from the rest of the convoy! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon! 

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@Rob S @Srikumar  Appreciate Rob your comments, it was an honor for me to be the sweep that night and great experience.  I am amazed how Sri sir handled it and twice could locate us, proves beyond a doubt that our marshals and senior leads are true experts.  Incidentally, I am looking for a night vision device but how do I see over the dunes...  :-) 

 

 

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HIIT. A common acronym on posters of gyms that are constantly staring at me to get into better shape. Alas, I walk right past and into the seat of my gas guzzler. Why should I be subjecting my legs to the intensive interval training when I can effect the same from a hundred and some horses.

That's what driving @Srikumar's FB+ drive felt like to me: High Intensity. Interval Training.

We arrived at the meeting point, in complete darkness not just from the night that had quickly fallen around us but also of the convoy order. Hoping to not have to keep up with Sri, I was expecting myself to get a middle berth somewhere down the middle. I even had my windshield tinted in the hopes that a less than perfectly clear view would help aid him in putting me further back. All of my plans failed as Sri repeated to me "aap second aa jao" (you should come in second). It's not that I don't want to drive in the second lead spot with Sri. For any adrenaline junkie, this is exactly where you want to be - in the hot seat, right behind our very own "Maverick". Except, on a rollercoaster, you're just a passenger. Here, you need to scale up and match his movements. And that's where the real fear and thrill is.

We went in to Area 53 hunting for close encounters of the third kind, but I went into it, chasing a UFO that itself darted from corner to corner in pitch darkness like it was powered by something extraterrestrial. In one of the stops, @Vaibhavand @Waqas Parvezasked me what it felt like up front. I replied, "like a rollercoaster". Because, that's exactly what it was. And I'm never going to ask for any other seat. From the second turn, he was riding ridges climbing up the pyramids. And I just tried to hold on and like the Top Gun exercises, did my best to just keep him in my sights. If it meant pushing with complete abandon, I did just that. And boy, what a thrill it was.

To everybody else in the back, I can only imagine what keeping up in the short undulating, always ascending dunes of Area 53 would feel like. It's a constant thrill ride that tested every driver out there. Thank you @Ashok chaturvedi for ensuring we left nobody behind. And we were fortunate to have @GauravSoni in the middle driving new FB+ drivers through to stay connected to the chain.

I do want to commend @AlexMfor his impeccable line in keeping up. As I tried my level hardest to not lose sight of Sri, he was always there, just a few paces behind me. And in some moments when he saw me struggling over ridges and in soft patches, he course corrected beautifully.

I wish I had more to say about the rest of the convoy. I have some vivid memories from seeing the chain of lights snaking up and down the pyramids. And boy, was it a sight to behold.

See you all out on the sands again soon. This time too, in pitch darkness. But this time for a more intense cardio training program. Not of our legs, but of the horses powering us on.

🐵 ]

 

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Thanks for the awesome drive @Srikumar, this is my second FB+ night drive with you and it totally lived up to the expectations, and even more! Still remember the sound of the side airbags popping in a car in front during the first 5 mins of our Sweihan Adventures, my wife was adamant to turn back at this point but I managed to convince her 🤣🤣 

Luckily nothing too extreme this time, but what an adventure! Big thanks to everyone on the team for keeping up the pace, and despite us finishing up late and me turning up home around 5.30am (its a long drive back to AD), was smiling the whole next day remembering excitement from the drive and my little mishaps. Thanks again, and see you on the next drive!

Edited by AlexM
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