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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:

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

Hello Gaurav, wishing all a happy Eid. I wish to join this drive. Not sure, if I will qualify. I have not been to a night drive earlier.

Not sure about the day will try to join Missed last drive 😌

Well don't do too much of that, there are people assigned to protect them from exactly such stunts and you might find yourself in unnecessary trouble or the very least a long telling off and not to be doing such shenanigans again. I don't know how they monitor them but they suddenly appear out of the blue and flag you down.

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

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

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.

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.

Those Or any closed shoes, not too thin.

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

Lovely area and basically my backyard, but working the whole week 😣

Would love to go and have a look, but I’ll be working the whole week 😔