Morning Newbie Desert Drive - Starting Fresh in Al Fayah - Abu Dhabi - 04 Jan 2026

[Frederic]

Dear @bruno.sousa

Welcome to Carnity Offroad Club! As this will be your first club drive with us, kindly reply on below questions and take your time to watch the Newbie Briefing Video.

FIRST TIME JOINING US?

• Please share your vehicle details - Make, Model, Color, and Year.
• Please share your prior off-road experience if any.
• Confirm your vehicle has front and rear tow hooks/eyelets.
• Confirm you have a programmable radio and safety flag.
• MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING
   

[bruno.sousa]

Dear Frederic 

patrol 4x pro with winches in front and back 

had a private class with Gaurav last week

flag and programmable radio will try to purchase 

[bruno.sousa]

dear Frederic

In case I don’t get the radio and flag can I still join tmw?

harder to find the flag mount as car is new …

radio bought by only arrives in a few days 

[Frederic]

41 minutes ago, bruno.sousa said:

dear Frederic

In case I don’t get the radio and flag can I still join tmw?

harder to find the flag mount as car is new …

radio bought by only arrives in a few days 

Will lend you a radio for tomorrow, no worries. With regards to the flag we can accept it for the first club drive but will definitely need to be sorted on your second onwards. 
 

see you tomorrow !

[Rawad Ahmad]

Dragon mall EA section you can find find auction flag mount. I bought one for a friend yesterday 

[Frederic]

RSVP IS NOW CLOSED

@JC_E@nithish468@Gunjan Jain@Hansmtb@Yerem Davtyan@Infaz@Ahmed Farouk@CY Bong@Rawad Ahmad@Taka@Mohammed Reza@Amal Sunil@Menon Arun@Arravind@Pramod Sathyaseelan@DG707@bruno.sousa@Nabeel Abdul Rahman@Riyad@Peterman@Jabir @M.Seidam@Asif Hussain@J-P L@Bjoern@Andrew John Melvill@ChrisW

Thank you all for signing up! You can find your convoy positions for tomorrow here below:

We will first all meet up together for the briefing. After that each convoy will go its own way.

Some important pointers for tomorrow:

1. Please try to arrive by 6.45AM, so you have time to deflate your tires and set up your flag. Beware of morning fog on the roads and the fact that the speed limit is 100 on Faya Truck road (no 20kmh grace)...

2. Please bring the following gear: pressure gauge and deflator tool, walkie talkie, a compressor, offroad flag, and a shovel. If you do not have a radio yet we can lend you one for your first drive with us. 

3. Take your time today to rewatch the briefing video if this is your first time with us. You can of course skip the COVID part  

See you all tomorrow morning!

 

[Yerem Davtyan]

Hi @Frederic and team! Apologies, I won't be joining tomorrow's drive. Enjoy and have fun! 

[DG707]

Hi everyone, short recap of my first experience with you.

Huge thanks for letting me to experience such an interesting hobby (sport), many thanks @Asif Hussain for leading us into the beautiful world of sand, dunes and a little bit of camel poop 😄

I had a really strong start at 04:30AM from RAK, navigation showing that i will be at 06:40 at the place, which was beautifully planned from my side, nevertheless adventure started while passing Dubai and realising, that there will be no fuel station within next 40-50KM 😆 and i had a range of 40 or smth km left (Rubicon loves fuel). Tanks god there were unbelievable low visibility due to Fog, which made driving even at 50 KHM a challenge, but same time it saved me fuel, what allowed to reach gas station, which was not even possible to see from the road. There met first guys going same direction so we came precisely at 07:00 AM

 

The drive itself  was interesting experience. Before the event, I have had only one masterclass with @Gaurav, which was smooth as silk, so this drive was first real world application of newly developing skillset, which is kind of similar which i do during the winter races in Europe, but opposite to what i do driving on the dry tarmac.

 

I would love to get stuck at least once, to learn more, but Wrangler just did the job flawlessly. Got one refusal, which was due to too low climbing speed and rest of the ride was smooth.

Thanks @J-P L for advice, i was there to learn.

Thanks everyone and see you next time. Hopefully very soon.

 

@Rawad Ahmad if it happens that you have some shorts of me driwing, would be really nice to get the footage

 

Have a great evening, guys, i am into this.

 

[ChrisW]

Hey guys, was a pleasure being out with you this morning - and specifically with @Frederic’s convoy. 
 

The low visibility didn’t hold us back and we enjoyed a gentle drive through the rolling dunes, giving us a chance to simply enjoy being in the desert and practice driving in convoy. The sand was firm and generous to us today, meaning we only had a small handful of refusals and one stuck. The fog was unusually persistent today, not really lifting much until at least 1030.

The main feedback I would offer as general takeaways would be:

- If you have a refusal, it’s good to announce on the radio quickly and succinctly so the convoy doesn’t get too far away from you

- Following the line of the car ahead of you is important; however you will still need to navigate the path for yourself (avoiding getting too close to a soft ridge/edge, or churned up areas that become difficult to cross)

- Each of us will come to learn the details of driving our own car and the techniques it requires, for example with an “up and over” ridge crossing the longer cars may require slightly more momentum and to lift off the gas later to avoid cresting. 
 

Overall nicely driven and I had fun being out with all of you. I very much hope to see all of you again, where we can test ourselves and learn from less generous sand!

 

@Jabir
 

 

 

[Infaz]

Thank you @Frederic for leading the convoy, @ChrisW and @Andrew John Melvill for the support and guidance. 
 

A great start to 2026. Despite the heavy fog on the way to the meeting point everyone arrived safely and stayed committed!! 💪

Posting a few pictures of today’s drive!