Leaderboard

I do second Fred’s post and his sentiments regarding the team and the entire experience. i had a great time despite getting stuck almost for eternity in the soft sand at the end. learnt quite a lot from the entire team. i enjoyed it so much that I Would love to join next friday’s drive which rahimbhai was talking about- managed to swop my shift on Friday-phew!!!! Thanks again regards sri

After longing a pretty long time to go for convoy based offroad drive, i was looking for some clubs in the UAE and thanks to @Gaurav for sharing lots of information on his Pajero on this forum, i became a Carnity member and started following the adventures of the Offroad drives you guys are hosting. What i found yesterday was not just a club, but much more a group of friends with a common interest and a deep rooted sense of respect for the desert, and especially for each-other. It clearly shows how much experience your team has built up and i am very grateful to have been a part of this for one day. The radio deemed essential and i was glad to have it sorted just a few days before the drive. The flag was quickly set up the night before but didn't survive for long The next visit will be to Dragon Mart to sort that out. A big thanks to the team as i can't thank anyone in particular because the WHOLE team was so helpful and professional. I'll definitely join up for more drives in the future. What i learned from just this one drive was priceless and so much fun.

Big thank you to all the Newbies for Joining in yesterday's drive. Despite some of the challenges that you faced in terms of refusals you all kept a cool mind and listened to the instructions properly to get out of what could have become a sticky situation. That for me is the first and most important lesson you have learnt, that despite having stuck or a refusal, it's important to keep calm and not panic. It was satisfying to see smiling faces at the end of the drive and that meant a lot to us.

Trip report: It was a perfect day and almost perfect weather yesterday. Everyone showed up on time and some before time respecting the punctuality and importance of timekeeping. We started the Absolute Newbie briefing sharp at 2:00 PM with a newly developed format that lasted for 40-45 minutes and clearing up a lot of doubts and sharing the tip and techniques needed for the first offroad drive. All newbie participated with full interaction and understood most of the points, as observed with their behavior during the drive. Thanks to all the Absolute Newbies: @Frederic Nuyttens @srini62 @Jamshad @Julien V @Brette for listening to all the advice and then follow it very precisely during the drive with a cool and calm approach. After the initial briefing, we have assigned the convoy numbering and made sure every car has a radio - very important for communication. As we started the drive, we kept on the track that goes on top of some flat dunes and sabka, to get all the absolute newbie a feel of going up and down the dunes, but without aggressively tackling the dunes. We all visited the camel farm and took some nice pictures and then continue to bump up the drive speed and level to slightly unpaved dunes and the whole convoy response was awesome with very few refusals and no stuck, pretty impressive for absolute newbie level. As soon as we entered the third leg of the drive, we faced with an unfortunate situation of a rollover of an experienced driver due to the reckless behavior ending with an unexpected result. To have such a situation in absolute newbie drive is quite disappointing as many of newbie thinks this may be the usual occurrence in the desert drive and breaks their confidence before it's being made. To be honest, if you drive sensibly and follow the convoy discipline no one will ever end up in such a situation. There are thousands of offroaders who we know personally and driving for decades but they have never had a roll or even a flip. So with this incident, all absolute newbie need to take away this lesson to be careful and follow the instructions, convoy discipline and not to drive recklessly. From my limited experience I can say that the natural or a situational chance for roll/flip is one in 10,000, but being reckless it increases to one in 10 or 100 (at max). So every offroader irrespective of their experience need to drive carefully and SENSIBLY at all times knowing the vehicle limitation and offroad dangers involved. After this mishap, entire convoy still moved ahead and two cars left behind to exit the flipped vehicle safely to the road. As we were in the third leg of the drive, which is slightly more involved due to medium dunes and cross track closer to the pink rock area. This time lot of newbies struggled and learn their way out with the tips and tricks we shared in briefing and with help of experienced drivers advice on site. After an hour of struggling patch, we all reached the pink rock and had a nice break with lots of snacks and drinks. Few expert drivers start testing their vehicle by scaling the Pink rock to the maximum height and others were simply enjoying the company and socializing. By 7 PM we all started to descend on track from the top of Pink rock area and head to 2nd Decemeber (meeting point) to exit on road. Overall it was a wonderful newbie drive with very healthy and enthusiastic participation and we all made new friends from different parts of the Emirates. Many thanks to @Rahimdad @Asif Hussain @skumar83 @EmVarlet for supporting this absolute newbie drive and also helping in developing our first absolute newbie briefing as per our new offroad structure - upcoming shortly. Please share your pics and videos in gallery: https://carnity.com/gallery/category/91-absolute-newbie-offroad-drive-pink-rock-12-oct-2018/ All absolute newbies, please share your feedback here:

I would firstly like to thank @Gaurav bhai for his relentless efforts to create a structure and important notes for any person joining off road for the very first time. The patience to deliver it and making it enjoyable for everyone to learn from and knowing before hand what to expect. Secondly, I would like to thank @skumar83, @Asif Hussain and @EmVarlet as senior members to lend a helping hand and guiding and keeping the convoy moving at good pace. A special mention to @Shafiq for helping out in every way possible to assist the drive even with his limited experience. Moe importantly I would like to thank all the newbies who attended in great numbers and their willingness to learn and grow within this community. With our wealth of knowledge and years of repeating the same drills over and over again, it the new people joining us that keeps us charged, as we believe in sharing our knowledge and passing on the wealth to those who want to learn in a safe environment. The drive was great and I believe we all learned from each other and with great spirit kept moving forward. A great lesson in life too. Failure is a part of learning and trying things differently to move forward as a team, with a little help from friends we make in this journey called life. With the exception of an incident with our experienced friend @shadow79 the spirits of the group were not dampened and with experience and help at hand we had the situation in control. After the newbies departed the experienced drivers took off on an intermediate drive. And with all good intentions comes good fortune. We were fortunate to help a couple of jeeps from another group. They had a pop-out and without the necessary equipment to fix it. We helped them out in the middle of the night and allowed them to join us to lead them out safely. Thanks to a team who wants to help people selflessly even if they are not part of the club. In the desert we only have each other to count on and we never say no. My hats off to all attendees and looking forward to some long lasting friendships in years to come. To my new friends welcome to your community who cares.

What did you enjoy about the drive? The perfect organization and clear communication, and the proper briefing which is essential for every newbie. And of course the adrenaline of tackling the dunes ! Which part of the drive you think you enjoyed the best which you would like to repeat? The track had a very good combination of an easy start to find the harmony in the convoy, followed by a few more trickier areas where i found out that getting stuck is perfectly normal and there is almost always a way out. The best advice was indeed getting out of the car, having a talk or smoke while assessing the situation at hand, and only then decide which technique to use to get out of your tricky situation. I've used that technique already and again it proved to be essential to remain calm and composed. Do you think there was a good mix of lecture and practical, was the lecture too long, and any part that can be avoided or done in a shorter or different way? The briefing was very well documented and all basic topics were discussed. For newbies a proper briefing is definitely mandatory to avoid the possible dangers around the corner. Do you think anything else could be added to the lecture? I had the impression that some newbies struggled a bit with the 4WD settings on their car. Modern cars have many electronics and switching off the traction and electronic aid controls is indeed necessary for desert driving. A small separate workshop for 4WD and the different diff-lock settings, crawl modes, and the blip technique might be a good optional side-training. Do you think prior reading material would help? In my opinion every one that wants to become a part of an offroad community should master the theory, understand his car and its various settings, and read as much as possible as there is so much info available on the net. This gives at least some foundation and will definitely bring newbies faster up to fewbie level. Would you know where on the Carnity forum you would be able to find the information you are looking for? Yes, the forum is well arranged and the search function can be used at all times. Is there anything you think could be done in a better way? The team was very supportive, friendly, and approachable. In a place like Dubai where a lot seems to be about the material side of things, i was relieved to find a group of friends that prefer values like friendship and respect over anything. Many clubs in the UAE can learn from this ! How do you suggest to make things better for the new comers? How do you think you can progress within the current atmosphere and learning opportunities provided? The absolute beginner drive was definitely well organised. I will do my utmost best to join more drives in the near future and it might be interesting to have something like a "beginner family introduction day" where family could join in and see what this fantastic group is all about This could be like a half day with some easy dunes, followed by a camel farm visit and BBQ / snacks.

<iframe src="https://www.google.com/maps/embed?pb=!1m18!1m12!1m3!1d3123.7724511837714!2d55.57451922752972!3d25.23493935374808!2m3!1f0!2f0!3f0!3m2!1i1024!2i768!4f13.1!3m3!1m2!1s0x3ef58b78a9f07c55%3A0xd0a346f8d6922cfc!2sADNOC+Service+station!5e0!3m2!1str!2sae!4v1539421611398" width="600" height="450" frameborder="0" style="border:0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

After the launch of the new structure and an Absolute Newbie drive its time for a Newbie drive to help the Absolute Newbies learn and develop their skill further.. Looking forward to an easy relaxing drive for everyone with plenty of opportunities to learn and grow, hill climb, and ridge riding. Newbies and Fewbies will have great chance to see and learn the real fun that off-roading offers in a very safe and organized environment. Level Newbie and above When: 19 October 2018 Meeting time: 02:00 pm, convoy will move at sharp 02:15 pm Where: Adnoc Petrol Station Maleha Road GPS Coordinate: https://maps.google.com/?cid=15033938015658585340 Level of drive: Newbie - Fewbie - All are welcome Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. Plan: Drive, train and enjoy till about 6:30 pm What to bring along: Loads of snacks, plenty of water - whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 7 pm Those interested please mark accept on the below calendar.

Hope you get well soon. Will miss you.

Now you have been tooooo generous today buddy, what happ few cans already down.....!

People considering buying the best car battery in UAE, should read my latest post on to how to avoid fake car battery in UAE?