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Good find and valuable share @Shamil. Thanks a lot. For outdoor venturing in desert and mountain, every offroader should wear "Closed Shoes" or boots, best is leather or suede to be water resistant and bite resistant. Those fake military shoes I have tried once and they didn't last for 6 months and the sole came off, due to aggressive stress they receive in climbing dunes and soft sand. Best is to go with known brand shoes, and on such model and shape, you get discounts almost all year round as in UAE very fewer people demand them. I used Sketchers for 3 years and now im using Timberland from almost 2 years. I guess they both were in the range of 300-400 dhs after discount. Those fake military shoes come cheaper in the range of 100-150 dhs, but they don't last long like good brands. The second advantage with good brand shoes, your feet will be comfortable for long hours due to better padding, insole and support. I have done 16 hours of continuous climb (13 km) on feet with these timberland shoes.

Those Or any closed shoes, not too thin.

I received an interesting video the other day and I realized it would be a good idea to share the same to enlighten our off-road community about the importance of wearing shoes during our off-road drives. In the video, you can see a desert rattlesnake making its way into a gas station and bear in mind that this is a venomous breed. An unsuspecting fuel attendant then, accidentally steps over the reptile after which, it attacks the man on his foot and since he's wearing shoes, he's out of harms way. It made me realize that this scenario could happen to us whereby we may come across a snake or another aggressive desert creature. They could attack us in a similar fashion and if we happen to be barefoot or wearing slippers, flip flops or anything that keeps our feet exposed, we could be running the risk of being on the receiving end of a nasty sting/bite. So in conclusion, I'd say - its better to be safe than sorry and protect ourselves by wearing shoes. WhatsApp_Video_2019-06-02_at_11_49.15_AM.mp4

Closed shoes or boots also make it much easier to walk in the sand when doing recovery work.

Great share @Shamil. Much appreciated. We keeping repeating in our newbie brief the importance of wearing full shoes. But we do not have any video evidence although we have seen loads of such incidents over a decade. The snake is a side winder and can travel very fast sideways. It does have a rattle but will only attack if it feels threatened.

All kidding aside, this is a very good contribution, @Shamil. Very important to wear proper shoes, especially in summer nights when snakes and scorpions are out. The better is to wear boots or high hiking shoes.

It was yet another amazing drive indeed. I think one of the most exciting parts of the drive was when we were heading for Suhoor, we tackled some dunes with a little bit of speed and that part was a lot of fun. When we finally stopped by Faya to freely play about and climb that massive dune, i realized that I still have a long way to go before i can become half as good as our marshals - @Rahimdadbhai and @Emmanuel Looking forward to more exciting drives

Emmanuel spotted this new & beautiful "Dubai Lake" near Margham on Dubai - Al Ain road, just opposite SkyDive Dubai. From this Dubai lake picture spotted in google maps, looks quite an exciting place to visit other than Qudra lake. I'm thinking of doing a quick recce trip tomorrow to explore the area and dunes in the surrounding. If anyone wishes to join, please let me know here. When: 3 June 2019 Meeting Time: 5 PM - Sharp Meeting Place: Emarat Petrol Station on Dubai - Al Ain road Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/zebzWZVy7cBARF2v7

I will join

i would call upon the seniors to ask about what kind of shoes would be required. @Gaurav bhai, @Rahimdadbhai, @Emmanuel?

the Video was bi scary, it’s true if we are with bare foot it will be dangerous, same time the shoes we chose should also good enough to handle this snake bite, does any specific brand or model we have to chose for desert, have seen the tour operators were using a sand colored military kind of shoes

Trip Report. 2 rocking drives in 2 consecutive weeks. So similar in the way both drives were conducted, yet in different terrains the challenges and fun was very similar. I think @Emmanuel attended both so he would be a good judge. Everyone was on time, and seeing the participants I decided to change the level to Fewbie. @eduardo, @Shamil, @Brette, @Frederic, @Fuad and @Emmanuel were all in agreement and we headed to enter from Khatim. After deflation and a short brief we all were off on what was going to be a challenging start. The first hour and a half saw us through a few refusals and stucks, @Gaurav bhai would have been proud of me. As we negotiated through some tough but fun patches we reached the top of Fossil Rocks. As @Emmanuel and I evaluated the decent we were surprised to see all the sand gathered on the left side leaving a sharp drop to the naked rocks on the right. To be on the safe side I came down first to make sure all was well below. Once it was clear the rest in the guidance of @Emmanuel made their way down. Now it was time to search for a suitable spot for Suhoor. This bit of drive was quick and just towards the end we experienced a few refusals. This led us to a fantastic spot to lay our spread. The Suhoor was very refreshing and enjoyable after which we switched off the lights to enjoy some dark time. While we lay down we were able to see part of the 60 satellites in a convoy of their own. All moving on one path one behind the other, they were viewable with the naked eye and a treat to watch. I was caught by surprise to see one satellite out of convoy and moving in the opposite direction, I guess the reason for it is that they are not part of Carnity.com and don't know the importance of a convoy. Throughout the Suhoor break we were treated to several laughs sponsored by our comedian @Frederic. After we offered our Fajr prayers we were off to our final destination - Faya. We had a very smooth and quick run and the convoy was now enjoying the last leg of our trip. The most fun was just on the back side of Faya where we enjoyed vast open space with no tyre marks. I was a little confused to see the Nissan Bowl and the place was just a little unrecognizable due to the shifting sands, but a little peak to the other side confirmed we were on top of Faya. We has to cut through the razor sharp ridge to get to the front face of Faya. Quickly everyone continued to the bottom only to try climbing the front face. As usual @Emmanuel just glided through as though he was on SZR, only others struggling confirmed that Faya was still holding its reputation to be difficult to climb from the front. After having some fun we decided to exit. I was still in some mood to play which resulted in a pop-out. The team was quick to respond and we quickly fixed the pop-out and were out. After inflation, huge smiles and warm hugs we were off home bound and looking forward to more fun in the coming weeks. Until that time Adios and take care.

It's time to visit our beautiful Al Qudra Desert just behind the Qudra lakes and all the way to the Solar park and exit. This area offers a great mix of playable dunes and small technical dunes to test your control. Depending on convoy strength and liking will plan the route on the fly. Though Ramadan fasting and suhoor time are over so will start and end little early to reduce the driver's fatigue to drive back home. When: 06 June 2019, Thursday Meeting time: 09 PM, the convoy will move at sharp 09:15 PM Where: Al Qudra parking GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/7zhLC3Mw6iXuiJLy9 Level: Newbie, Fewbie & Above (NO ABSOLUTE NEWBIE PLEASE.) 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 2 am and then break for snacks What to bring along: Snacks whatever you like with little extra to share, water, liquids, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 3:00 am Please RSVP on the below calendar:

Dont know, will check it out tomorrow

Isn't this inside the DDCR ?

I’ll do my best to come. Will confirm tomorrow.

Ironically one of the things I hate most is sand in my shoes and these ankle length shoes just would not stop the sand getting in. After trying many pairs I still ended up with small dunes in my house after I came back from work and took my shoes off. Then I finally bought a pair of military boots from these shops that do uniforms for the police and military for 300dhs. Best 300dhs I've ever spent. literally light as a feather, sand, water and oil resistance and after a full day in the desert even in knee high sand, not a single speck of sand. They were light, never got hot and ltook about a couple of seconds to get on and off as I kept them slightly loose on the top and just slipped them on and off like cowboy boots. I don't have a pic but they look something like this but with a thinner sole and proper laceeyelets all the way to the top

Wonderful drive, @Rahimdad! Special thanks to my sweep team partner @Frederic, who has been very active and helpful on this tricky terrain.

What a great drive this was ! I’ve been out of the sand for a few weeks and it felt great to enter the desert again with such wonderful people. The terrain proved to be a bit tricky and we indeed had to pullout the tug rope a few times but that’s all part of the fun and adventure. Out of the full trip I had the most fun seeing @Rahimdad taking my pajero up Faya from the scenery backside, sitting with him in the car as he was singing and just enjoying the moment and fun our little pajero gave us ! @Emmanuel again proved that Xterra is made for this kind of terrain. It was a joy to see. Also thanks for showing us the satellites ! See you soon buddies !

I don’t think so. DDCR is located on the southern side of Margham road and the lake is on the northern side. The lake area itself is fenced but it looks like there is a public access.

Most of Markham is in the DDCR which is sad because it has some real beautiful bright red sand dunes but the sand there is many places is like talcum powder. Just stopping on a flat area can get you stuck. I had the chance to drive there several times before it was fenced off and turned into conservation reserve. Last time I was there was with a LWB Chevy Dually pickup and it got crested on totally flat hard area on a 2ft high pile of sand! Lol

I agree dude on walking with kgs of sand is no fun. To this problem I found a solution by chance to wear a boot cut Jeans that snuggly cover the shoe neck and prevent sand seeping in 90 out of 100 times. I hated the military shoes long neck as you cant drive comfortably for long with tight hold of ankle and calf area.

Some boosters develop rust and dust in them then they make sound when friction affects it while pressing the brakes it's normal until the Bellow itself starts to leak...then things will go south a little bit...

Hello @Gaurav i hope you are well. Just i can take a video of the noise etc, but I have already taken it to my mechanic who pointed out exactly what was wrong, and assured my my braking system is fine. It was only after this i decided to see if there was a solution for the noise, which is how i found FJC video. Although i am not 100% sure, I believe the principle would be the same as what the video suggests in terms of cleaning, but it would be great to be accompanied by someone with more experience under the hood... and with tools.

Can you explain what type of squeaking sound you are getting? Nothing shows on video other than how to fix it in FJC. May be you can record a video or sound file of your car to point in right direction.

Who told you I liked my jeep? I HATED IT!