Afternoon Newbie Desert Drive - L2L: The Lahbab Loop - Dubai - 13 Aug 2022

[Ale Vallecchi]

1 hour ago, Waqas Parvez said:

@Ale Vallecchihi i think you forgot to add my name🙂

Sorry @Waqas Parvez. Will put you in the convoy order, of course. Looking forward to driving with you. 

[Thomas Varghese]

@Ale Vallecchi got to drop out as there is a marriage reception scheduled for tomorrow evening. 

[Ale Vallecchi]

On 8/11/2022 at 6:06 PM, Ale Vallecchi said:

Dear Desertnauts

let's prepare for our excursion on a very little driven terrain, where mostly locals roam, and where all kinds of off-roading skills will be tested. Thankfully, the convoy will be quite experienced, so we should be able to maintain a brisk pace, and add some learning options to the menu. We'll try to build up the drive all the way to almost its end, when, just before exiting, we'll have fun riding the soft red sand bowls that overlook Tazi Nazwa. 

The convoy order will be the following:

@DP1011 , Deepak wrangler in Second Lead

@Anthony Cupit at #3

@James Lovell #4

@Usman Basit at #5

@Thomas Varghese will be at the Center of the convoy

@Ali Shah at #7

@Andrei S #8

@Arshad Roojee at #9

@salah2u #10, and 

@Sunil Mathew in the Sweep.

The radio channel will be confirmed at the meeting point, which is just after passing the village of Lahbab, on the way to Badayer.

See you all on Saturday PM.

 

Dear Desertnauts. 

The meeting point just past Lahbab is the following:

Dropped pin
https://maps.app.goo.gl/srGQfnEFe4epYysu7

Also posted in the drive's page. 

See you tomorrow.  

[Daniel Rodas]

Hi @Ale Vallecchi, I'd like to join this drive if possible. Thanks!

[Ale Vallecchi]

1 hour ago, Daniel Rodas said:

Hi @Ale Vallecchi, I'd like to join this drive if possible. Thanks!

@Daniel Rodas you are welcome. See you tomorrow.

[Sunil Mathew]

It was indeed a Lahbab loop and here is how it looks - the loop we took , approx 49 Kms driven

 

Thanks to @Ale Vallecchi,  we had a very relaxed newbie drive, which occasionally bumped up to a newbie plus level, with some criss-crossing and  ridge riding thrown in for added flavour. A mid drive briefing , as is usual on Ale's NB drives helped all of us to learn the theory behind what we practise on the dunes.

Other than @Arshad Roojee 's car giving up on him with an immobilized transmission shifter, the drive was pretty smooth with only a couple of minor refusals and a stuck which was easily sorted out by @Waqas Parvez -  excellent support at the back. Arshad has informed that he managed to get the car to a garage.

@Usman Basit in his GMC Sierra was driving in front of me who did pretty well most places. What was missing was accurate throttle control during some maneuvers , ending up in excessive wheel spin and throwing up/churning sand. You just need to find the sweet spot where you give just enough gas to maintain required momentum, and not to get through with raw power which your car obviously has  .

For me the drive was a first with my new (used) car - a 2015 fortuner v6, (an obvious downgrade from the jeep wrangler JKU )_....now getting used to the car's behaviour, gearing etc to prepare for higher level drives and find its limits, as well as mine.

 

Good to meet all new faces - @Anthony Cupit - hope you got a solution for your disobedient flag  , probably a rubber gasket between the clamp and the roof rail would hold it in position. @James Lovell, @Ali Shah, @Andrei @salah2u @Daniel Rodas - see you all soon!!

 

[Ale Vallecchi]

L&L: The Lahbab Loop - Drive Report

"Dance when you are perfectly free" - Rumi

One never knows how a Newbie drive can go. Due to a combination of mostly unforeseeable factors sometimes it gets complicated, moving on at a halting pace, others it flows smoothly and naturally. There was a long period during this drive when the convoy danced, perfectly free of concerns. It danced with sinuous movements on top of smooth ridges, across gentle dunes, in and out of sand bowls from which gazelles darted out of their hidings, in the shade of gnarly trees. For almost an hour, the convoy moved without interruptions, to the music of radio silence, navigating the dunes to the north of the Lahbab pipeline, across it, and first onto the longer cordons west of the gas facility, then through the technical area reaching out to the red sand bowls overlooking Tazi Nazwa.

The dance started after the unfortunate incident to @Arshad Roojee's Wrangler, with the gears stuck in parking. After evaluating the situation, considering the complications of carrying out repairs in the extreme heat of that time of day (and the impossibility of towing the vehicle out), it was decided to leave the car there, marked the spot, selected a close-by entry point for the mechanic who had been located in the meantime, and chose to move on, taking Arshad and his passenger with us.

The dance ended with a couple of stucks on the same soft ridge, just before Margham's red sand bowls. After a small break, and a quick briefing on how to deal with ridge-riding and criss-crossing, the convoy moved to tackle this interesting area, before closing the loop, and returning to the tarmac, a few meters east of our meeting point. 

At the end of the day, we covered 56 Km., driving 2:32 hours (and pausing for another hour), moving at an average of 22Km/h (16 Km/h total moving speed). All in all, a well executed Newbie Plus drive.

Great job by @Daniel Rodas in Second Lead, and extremely useful and competent support by @Sunil Mathew at Center, and @Waqas Parvez in Sweep. Very well driven track by @Anthony Cupit, @James Lovell, @Usman Basit, @Ali Shah, @Andrei S, @Arshad Roojee (until it lasted) and @salah2u.

Looking forward to seeing you soon dancing in the desert.