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Morning Newbie Desert Drive - Faqa - Dubai- 29 Oct 2022


Islam Soliman

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Thank you all for a wonderful drive this morning, I really came to understand the importance of momentum when crossing over.

Thank you to all shovel help when I had the frame buried on a crest.

Thanks for the guidance following in your tracks@munkybizness and @Islam Soliman for leading.  And of course @Benjamin for your 2nd lead. Impressed each time I see you other there.


See you all again soon

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Thank you @Islam Soliman for a wonderful morning drive. The convoy was long (longest Ive been in carnity 😃) with quite a few newbies and absolute newbies but everyone drove so beautifully that it was difficult to make out that some had not been regulars in the desert. 

@Benjamin well driven in the 2nd lead. Thanks to my friends @munkybizness @Simon Dawood & @Gaurav Soni for the support and guidance to everyone, always a pleasure driving with you. Lastly, great to see our brother @Mohamad Anwer back in the desert restarting his LC legend with his beautiful LC73. Good to see you again and all the best bro! 

See you all soon in the desert. 

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14 minutes ago, ASAD. said:

Thank you @Islam Soliman for a wonderful morning drive. The convoy was long (longest Ive been in carnity 😃) with quite a few newbies and absolute newbies but everyone drove so beautifully that it was difficult to make out that some had not been regulars in the desert. 

@Benjamin well driven in the 2nd lead. Thanks to my friends @munkybizness @Simon Dawood & @Gaurav Soni for the support and guidance to everyone, always a pleasure driving with you. Lastly, great to see our brother @Mohamad Anwer back in the desert restarting his LC legend with his beautiful LC73. Good to see you again and all the best bro! 

See you all soon in the desert. 

Thank you brother @ASAD. seeing my desert buddies again offroading felt great 👍  

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@Islam Soliman what an amazing drive! Thanks for the opportunity to ride alongside you in 2nd lead I enjoy to take any opportunity I can to develop skills with recovery and most importantly how to do this safely. I’m looking forward to the next drive with you! Enjoy the rest of the weekend. 
 

amazing drive to everyone else who attended it was amazing to see the massive link of cars riding through the desert.  Great job to the absolute newbies and newbies this drive truly put skills to the test.

@munkybizness great to see you again out on the trail looking forward to joining more drives with you soon 
 

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@Islam Solimanthankyou for the opportunity to join the newbie morning drive and for the advices this morning. And thankyou everyone for being passionate when I have to do re-attempts. It has been a wonderful drive for an absolute newbie. 

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Really enjoyed this drive and have learned a lot. Thanks @Islam Soliman and @munkybizness for your tips and guidance throughout the drive.

But I have to admit there were more side slopping (is this also called sidies?) than my nerves could handle 🙈 But I understand this will need practice to be able to handle those better.

However as a newbie, would it be better for me to wait for the car that is in front of me to clear the dune before I start to move?

Even if I leave a space of around 8-10 cars, I still found myself closing the gap really quickly when doing the side slopping and having to slow down or sometimes braking which makes me lose momentum. 

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Thanks for the feedback @Bashar Beasha.. it’s natural during early drives that you have such a feeling .. we have all been there .. it takes a couple of more drives to get the comfort and confidence. You did very well for the level and for sure whenever you feel you need more time/space to feel more comfortable don’t hesitate to share on the radio or 1:1. 
As we always say during the briefing and throughout the drive, we want to have fun and keep it interesting for everyone but there is no competition or stress as safety is no 1 for all.

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There's a certain amount of mystery in the air every time @Islam Soliman takes to the sands. And no doubt, on this hazy Saturday morning, as my Patrol pierced rammed through the fog settled in Faqa hopping over every hump in my way, I could feel the unknown getting bigger and bigger still. After all, when Islam takes you to Faqa, you know there's going to be lots of sideys. Lots and lots of it :)

I arrived late to the meeting point so without any pleasantries, I jumped right away into setting up my flag and deflating my wheels. To the left, a duotone classic caught my eye. I assumed it was a mirage (or the fact that I was still waking up). It's only when I was all done, did I realize that what I'd assumed was a mirage was just that - a cool blue sight with a shimmering white top in the form of a classic Land Cruiser 70. There's only two people I know who look after these with this much care. And from the roster, I knew it was @Mohamad Anwer. What I didn't know was everything that had transpired in the past month and same to bring this blue bird rather than his usual supercharged box. After hearing the story, I was and am just so glad to see him on his feet, smiling away as a beautiful sun peeked across the horizon. He, of course, came back to the desert not just with a classic, but one with "balloon" tyres. If ever you needed a greater sense of how to conquer your fear, it was on this morning with Mohamed piloting a car with tyres designed only for the most courageous.

With seventeen cars on the roster, this was no small convoy and definitely one that I hadn't witnessed in many months. Ahead of me lay some fresh newbies and with it came the responsibility to also not push too hard. To make matters even more interesting, the foggy and humid night before had seeped moisture into the sands making them clump up after every passing car. So, by the time it came to car #4, the tracks were already deep and compacted. The fact that nobody had a severe popout, save the partial one, is a testament to how well the convoy drove in these conditions.

If you drive long enough with Islam, you begin to recognize that he has a unique skill in positioning his behemoth of a car, in the middle of a dune face. I am going to call him the Dunesurfer from now on for this exact reason. And behind him, a very competent and supportive @Benjamin kept up. This is exactly why Islam pushed the pace as much as he did in this newbie drive. Between Benjamin and I, was a team of newbies all coming to terms with their machines and it reminded me of my early drives and both the lack and exuberance of throttle I too would put in then. Keeping the right gap also seemed hard for each driver. But all I will say to each one of you is that you don't need to think so hard. Practice makes better, and you will get better at this. The more important thing to focus on is throttle management. And it is a skill I am still learning to this very day. Over time, you'll know what is just enough as you get closer to what your machine is telling you.

@Frans M, driving a manual LC70 is no easy feat. And if you ever need the guidance, there is no better voice than @Mohamad Anwer. Please do connect with him. Not only is he one of the most amazing human beings, but his knowledge of the platform will also give you tremendous insight into how to better yourself. The going away of the fear and the understanding of which line to take, will come with time.

@Stan, whether your car is green or black or sparkly is a debate that will rage on for some time to come. But what you should know is that you have a very capable machine, but it too has its limitations, apart from the restrictions that the desert will throw at you. You already have a good grasp on how to read the lines of the desert. For now, in your newbie drives, err more on the side of caution and exit out rather than trying to fight gravity and muscle your way up. With time, you'll find exactly how to surf the dune face while managing your fishtailing effortlessly like Islam does. We have an unwritten rule that we don't enforce this early on about "leaving the lightest of tracks". This comes when your car is using just the right amount of momentum that it floats over dunes rather than digging in and churning up the track.

@Bashar Beasha, it's always nice to see another Y61 on the convoy roster. And yours is a stunner. It also has oodles of power that you will get better at managing as the drives go by. Trust me, I've been in your exact seat. Where you were good at climbing up the dune, you continued to throttle too hard through the dune face even when your car was slipping down in the wake of tracks left behind. In situations like these, it's always better to exit out rather than trying to pitch your nose up again and try to climb up. Towards the end of the drive, I could see you exiting out early and taking a loop to re-attempt. This is the right way to do it. There is no shame in re-attempting a climb.

One of my early issues was that I would always worry what people would think about how terribly I was driving such a legendary car, so much so that it got into my head and for many drives and I couldn't shake it off. That may not be an issue for you but almost all new off-roaders are significantly worse than what their car is capable of. This is why even the most experienced off-roaders still do Newbie drives when they get a new car because no two cars are the same. Through practice, they inch up and closer to what their machine can truly do in their hands and with their feet. 

And to @Gary F behind me, all I can say is that apart from that crest which gave our shovels and your arms quite the workout, you drove really well. I especially liked seeing how you chose the line and height that you were most comfortable with. You do have a long long-wheelbase motor so it will require even more attention when crossing ridges and doing narrow twisties, but on long range open dunes, you were up to the mark. And I loved seeing the smile that was constantly plastered on your passenger's face. It's moments like these that really instill the awe of adventure and motoring into the young ones.

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn't call out my favorite security detail (@Simon Dawood) who would be by my side in every refusal and recovery. Having you shoulder to shoulder is a real pleasure and thank you for your input. In bouncing ideas off of you, I learn so much. In the back, thank you @Gaurav Soni for playing an excellent shepherd running up and down the ranks and sniffing out the tracks. It saved me a couple of times. And since we left none of the seventeen behind, thank you @ASAD. for sweeping us up and depositing us ever so gently back where we started.

See you all out on the sands soon.

🐵 ]

Edited by munkybizness
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