Morning Fewbie Plus Desert Drive - Nahel - Abu-Dhabi - 22 Oct 2022

[Charbel]

climbing-mount-Everest kind of a drive. 

thanks Jerome 🤘

Edited October 23, 2022 by Charbel

[JeromeFJ]

1 hour ago, Charbel said:

climbing-mount-Everest kind of a drive. 

thanks Jerome 🤘

Whaou ! Great pic ! Thanks @Charbel

[JeromeFJ]

Thank you all for joining the drive yesterday. We had a great time exploring this area of Nahel. After the technical warm-up, the first portion of nice rolling dunes was just beautiful. Smooth slopes, gradually building up to a big dune. still some soft sand patches, bumps and pockets were spread around, as a reminder to keep the focus in any conditions. A pop-out of @Jessica Lambert was fixed in record time with an excellent team work. 

On the way down to the sabkha, @Beide Worku noticed weird noises from the front axle, and wisely asked to exit early. Using sabkha and tracks I took him back to the starting point, and we were ready for the second set, crossing to the E16 Sweihan Rd. Again we started with a nice set of rolling dunes, higher than the first ones, and in a deeper desert environment. We were lucky enough to watch a falcon enjoying his breakfast prey, and of course the more common camels. 

Again the dunes were building up on our way to the West, until we reached the majestic slopes of Nagrah dune. Circling around the massive dunes, we found some play areas, to get a good feel of height and big slopes, despite the cross tracks and the other turbulent convoys. Time passing we made our way to the exit, through a challenging set of climbs in the soft sand where you all impressively followed your lines, until we reached the exit track.

Well done everyone in this terrain apparently not so difficult, but requiring a continuous attention, and for controlling you momentum in the bigger climbs. Big thank you to @Zixuan Huang - Charlie and @Charbel for the support and the few tugs, @Chris Wing, always very reliable 2nd lead, @Imran Kashif, always helping also when a car is stuck. @Salim Akhtar, very well driven,  @Jessica Lambert, you are getting used to your new car, in a few drives, you will make the most of it. @Gerrit Bus, always nice to have you, I hope your passengers will remember the good part of it. @Beide Worku, sad you had to exit early, but I see you participated on a drive the day after, so I guess the damage to your car was resolved.

Enjoy the rest of the week end and stay tuned, I will program a second edition to continue to enjoy the area !

[Jessica Lambert]

Thank you @JeromeFJ for another wonderful drive. This was the toughest in my new car so far, as I am new to the level and had previously been third in the last couple of drives. This time, once I learned to leave a bit more space between myself and the car in front, I had more options over controlling my momentum. My thanks again to my team mates for the tugs. As for my pop out, I had a further THREE on another drive yesterday! Looks like 18" rims on AT tyres are not going to cut it for my current skill level, so I'm going smaller and looking at bead grip too. Thank you to the team for a pit-stop level fix!

Just want to give a shoutout to @Gerrit Bus- you calmly and you skilfully avoided anyone getting hurt in a split second situation caused by the other convoy cutting off your dune climb. My heart was in my throat. It reminds me that I really was lucky to start with this club because our leaders prioritise skill and safety while having fun, rather than silly stunts and showboating. Thanks again all.