Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Faqa - Dubai- 15th Apr 2023

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Drive Plan

In the desert, when the sun comes up, I couldn’t tell where the heaven stops and the earth begins - Forest Gump

An early morning adventure through the awesome long range dunes and beautiful ridges of Faqa. 

General Overview

We request every member that joins this drive to go through the below information and strictly follow these guidelines, etiquettes and responsibilities.

MUST READ AND COMPLY

• Offroad Flag Guideline
• Two Way Radio Guideline
• Off road Driving Etiquette's
• Emergency details for all off-roaders
• Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities

Drive Details

Level: Fewbie & Above

When:  15th April’23, Saturday

Meeting time: 6:00AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions).

Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/WbWFK5iwurzey1dF8
 

Type of Car: Any  4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance.

What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. 

Approximate finish time: 10:30AM

THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE UNLESS YOU HAVE A COMPRESSOR. ANYONE ARRIVING AT THE DRIVE WITHOUT A COMPRESSOR, FLAG, PROPER SHOVEL AND DEFLATION KIT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. ALL TOW POINTS WILL BE CHECKED BEFORE DEPARTURE. 

LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE:

• Limited to 10 cars only. 
• Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS.
• Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others.
• Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month.
   

Please RSVP on below calendar

 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Thanks all for RSVPing for the drive. We have a small and strong convoy, a perfect setup to enjoy the Faqa dunes - actually we have the complete Fellowship of the ring  - just Boromir is fasting due to Ramadan and Mary and Pippin needed a break post Easter feast 😊. It’s going to be some nice fun time. 

Have a nice week ahead, I will update the details during the course of the week and looking forward to see you all on Saturday. 
 

@Juan R @Pieter Pot @Sunil Mathew @Tom V @Sebb

@Glenn W

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Welcome onboard @premindra rajaram long time we drove together, good to have you on drive. See you on Saturday, 

Now only Boromir is missing from the fellowship but then wasn’t he the one who tried to take the ring… no place for greed on this adventure, plus it’s My Precious 🤑🤑

[premindra rajaram]

@Varun Mehndirattamy pleasure see you on Saturday!

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Welcome onboard @Daniel Rodas

Fellowship is now complete. 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Oh we have some additional  stakeholders as well ofcourse story couldn’t have been complete without @Mehmet Volga and @Looper - I don’t want to say who is who 🤪🤪

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Ahoy Sailors

Hope all of you have had a nice week and are looking forward to start the weekend with a early morning drive in dunes of Faqa. 
 

Key info for our drive tomo. 

Channel : 4

Meeting Time : 6am

Convoy Order : 

Varun on Maroon Wrangler.

@Looper will be SL

 @Sebb On white safari

@Juan R on white wrangler

@Mehmet Volga will be Cf

 @premindra rajaram on his Xterra

@george charbel

 

@Sunil Mathew    Will be sweeping the convoy.
 

I believe most of you have been to Faqa and know the terrain. Still for those not been there - located on other side of Solar Park (opp of Qudra) and border of Dubai/Abu Dhabi, Faqa offers some of the most beautiful long range dunes in Dubai with never ending avenues to enjoy some nice climbs and criss crossing through those sharp ridges.

Explored mainly by experienced off roaders, it’s one place with clean and cross track free dunes - that’s becoming a luxury in Dubai desert. There are multiple watering holes and farms around the place - so rendezvous with some nice wild life is surely always on cards in this area.
It’s undoubtedly my fav place to visit in Dubai, whenever looking for that shot of adrenaline rush. 

See you all on Saturday. 

[Glenn W]

Hey guys, really sorry I’m having to drop out unfortunately due to work commitments 🤬
 

have a great drive, great weekend and I’ll see you next time. 

[Varun Mehndiratta]

Thanks All for joining in for the drive and making it a fun morning on sand.

It started off as a very beautiful morning with amazing weather, oryx lined up to welcome us in Faqa, all riders on time and  ended up with a smile on face having successfully traversed  through a beautiful terrain that offered some amazing views while regularly challenging our driving skills. The pleasant morning start, followed by hot and soft sand provided us with a good idea of what lies ahead in coming months.
 

Thanks @Looper for this lovely route planning. Very well executed drive, it literally had it all - some steep climbs, a beautiful over landing experience through bushes and for me the most amazing part was the last one hour with all the criss crossing. 👏👏👏

Every one did really well throughout the drive. Apart from a 45 min stoppage due to tyre issue at beginning of drive, we had minor refusals and minor stucks, which were either self recovered or at most sorted with help of little shoveling. This meant that we had ample time to even practice on 1 on 1 basis - criss crossing - hope came in handy for all. Thanks @Mehmet Volga and @Looper for executing some demos on it. 
 

@Sunil Mathew day didn’t roll out positive for you, hope all went fine on your way back home after that early exit. Do share feedback on that tyre with whole convoy - always good to know what went wrong. 

Overall a wonderful day, thanks all for joining and looking forward to see you all sometime soon. 
 

@Juan R @premindra rajaram @george charbel @Sebb

[Sunil Mathew]

18 hours ago, Varun Mehndiratta said:

day didn’t roll out positive for you

Yes, indeed @Varun Mehndiratta, it didnt. 🙂

A tyre shop gave me couple of temporary replacement tyres (used), in place of 4 of my tyres (Yoko Geos) removed from my previous car, which the shop guys "lost" for some unknown reason. It was a stop gap arrangement until they could locate my tyres. I saw the treads of these tyres before they put them on , but did not get a good look at the beads, as it was stacked one above another , and higher than our eye levels. Yesterday, I directly went to them and had it removed, and found that the beads were damaged/torn at couple of places. Looks like the previous owner was using them on bead locks and took some heavy beating. So thats it -  bad beads;  i was deflated to 12psi, and the beads were not holding on to the rims as it should have, lost air, ended up flat with a semi pop out, which is why we could not fill the air back , They put the tyre back, with that paste thingy, and it held perfectly at 35psi - no leaks.

Now negotiating with the shop for a solution and aiming to sort out before the holiday drives 🤞🤞

Thanks for all the help and patience in sorting this out and installing my spare tyre - @Varun Mehndiratta, @Looper, @Mehmet Volga, @george charbel and sorry to keep you waiting and partially ruining your morning  - @Juan R  @premindra rajaram, @Sebb

Am sure @Looper must have made up for it by taking you through a fantastic drive, making the best of what was remaining of your precious saturday morning !!