Morning Fewbie Desert Drive - Lisali to Qudra Secret Dunes - Dubai - 17 Jan 2026

[Emanuel]

1 hour ago, Jose Luis Campos said:

I'm so sorry @Emanuel, but I had to retire myself. Sorry for the late hour, but I hope someone from the waitlist can still step up. 

 

have a nice drive, and again, sorry for retiring so close to the drive

See you next time buddy. 

Convoy list updated.

[Emanuel]

Lisali to Qudra Secret Dunes — Post Drive Report

🌅 Introduction

Thank you everyone for arriving on time and fully ready for briefing. Your punctuality meant we were able to roll into the desert immediately after the briefing—a perfect start to our planned southwest and Qudra bound route.

At the briefing, I mentioned there would be a special midway activity, teasing only that it would be a fusion of Bollywood and Offroad. With curiosity levels appropriately high, the convoy moved out smoothly into Lisali.

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🛞 First Incident – Tire Rupture

About an hour into the drive, @Myrko unfortunately experienced a pop‑out. Upon inspection, it turned out not to be a simple pop-out issue but a rupture of the inner sidewall, requiring a full tire replacement.

• @Sam Selim immediately took the lead on the replacement
• Assisted efficiently by Myrko and some of the team
• The job was completed quickly and safely

Given the nature of the damage and lack of another spare available in the convoy to fit his car, the prudent decision was made to escort Myrko out via the nearby track running alongside the camel racetrack. We bid him a good weekend there before continuing.

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📍 Strategic Change of Plan

Since we were already around the halfway mark of our allocated drive time, I opted to take the convoy directly toward Qudra, following the pylon track.

Upon entering the iconic Secret Dunes of Qudra, we paused for our planned break—and for the special activity (details will be revealed in a separate post later today 👀).

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🏜️ Secret Dunes – Clean Lines and Coaching Moment

The dunes in this area were beautifully clean and sweeping, giving everyone great flow and rhythm.

We did have one instructional break where I used a model of a very fine offroad car to demonstrate:

• Correct ridge entry approaches
• How to achieve proper weight transfer
• When to exit left, right, or straight ahead depending on dune shape
• Options available on wrong approaches

This was in response to some observed fishtailing and counter‑steering—but after the briefing, the improvement was immediate and impressive.

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🚗 Convoy Performance

The entire convoy maintained excellent spacing, steady pace, and good control throughout the drive.
Well done to every single one of you.

Special thanks to the support positions:

• @Stumpy — Second Lead
• @J-P L — Center Forward 1
• @Bjoern — Center Forward 2
• @Sam Selim — Sweep

Your support, communication, and coordination were outstanding and very much appreciated.

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🎉 Special Mentions

Carl & the New Beast

Congratulations, @Carl Stanley, on bringing your 2022 Bronco Wildtrak out for its maiden desert voyage! She performed beautifully in capable hands. As we discussed after the drive, all those Pajero years gifted you the sensitivity and finesse to understand your car’s feedback—skills that translated perfectly to the Bronco.

Ash & Passenger

Massive thanks to @Ash S. and his passenger for assisting with our very special Bollywood x Offroad activity. Can’t wait to share the results with everyone!

Welcome to Fewbie!

@Riyad, congratulations on earning your Fewbie rank. Hope your first drive at this level was fun, exciting, and carried just the right amount of thrill.

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🌄 Closing

Thanks again to everyone for a great morning in the sand, for the teamwork during the tire incident, and for the great energy during our special activity.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend—and stay tuned for the special post later today!

See you all out there soon.

— Emanuel

[Riyad]

Thanks a lot @Emanuel. The drive was heaps fun and definitely a lot of learning. I appreciated those pauses and demos, it definitely helped and I felt more confident tackling those “trickier” dunes.

Thanks also to all the support team. A special one goes to @J-P L too for his help with the refusal, and for taking the time to share his insights with me as well.

 

[Emanuel]

Good morning everyone!

A huge thank you to all of you for the amazing support on the Bollywood Offroad Fusion video. And a special shout‑out to @Ash S.’s friend Doua for helping us bring it all together so smoothly.

I’ve posted the video—as well as the little challenge I’ve thrown down to the drive leads—in the forum thread linked below. I’ve tagged each of you there. Thanks again for making this happen… it really was a team effort.

Let’s see where this momentum takes us next!