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Good morning guys, Yesterday's drive at Maliha Fossil rock was really awesome. For me as a newbie and driving an AWD is quite challenging. But thanks God i made it . Thanks Fred, Gaurab, Rahimdad, Shikumar , Mahmoud and everyone who shared us those informations during the early morning briefing, it really help a lot and the instructions on the radio ( Thanks Frederic for lending us your units) is saving us newbies from being stuck (i did twice ) Thank you Javier for the rescue and taking me to the safer route . You guys really did great being patient with us newbies ! I look forward for more adventures in the coming weeks, months and years. Definitely my Murano is not built for this type of thing. Hopefully i can find a pre owned jeep wrangler that would fit my budget. See you soon guys !

You know you are at risk of addiction when: Waking up at 5am on a Friday morning makes complete sense. You’ll drive through ridiculously thick fog to get to a meeting point in the middle of nowhere hoping that you won’t be late. You are already making calculations about what additional equipment you still need to buy. You hate sand, but you start to justify that the sand in the desert is completely different to the sand at the beach. You start looking into upgrade kits for your car. Woe betide anyone that crosses you on Saturday if you don’t get your weekly fix When you hear there’s no drive the next week, you are panic struck and start looking for drivers who want to join you so you don’t miss out. You get up early in the morning and start sharing your thoughts (and don’t really care if anyone else find it interesting @Frederic, with his customary efficiency, had posted a drive report before most of us even got home. Not only that, he is to be congratulated for having printed out the names and cars of every driver, allocated them into convoys, preparing the briefing and sorting out the radios (including the new channels) - @Gaurav @Rahimdad it must be strange only being left to lead the convoys 😂 As visibility in the desert is relatively important (!) and with almost 40 drivers having braved the inclement weather it was a relief once we finally got going to find that first moment when you hit the sand, the excitement is just the same – no matter if it’s Newbie Fewbie or (although I have yet to experience that) Intermediate or above. There really is something quite special about that first moment when you feel the sand under the wheels. @Jeepie kindly gave me the wheel of our trusted little TJ and we rolled out as sweep to @Frederic’s ‘Wrangler’ convoy. Knowing that the Wranglers would never get stuck (hehehehe) we were on the lookout for the mighty Koleos @Denizzalbayrak and the magnificent Murano @Jun Zamora. Truth is, with one or two notable exceptions, these vehicles acquitted themselves well and their drivers must be complemented for, if nothing else, having balls of steel. Talking of @Jeepie , yesterday was her day for winding me up (it seems), so I would like to personally thank her for announcing that the sweep ‘has a little problem’ over the radio as we approached Fossil Rock. Now let me get this straight: There is no embarrassment at all in getting stuck and I had not made it through the churned up loose sand first time, but it was overcome by some swift reversing out of it. Thanks @Javier M for, in any event, valiantly rushing to my assistance despite the fact we were already on the move. Your assistance was much more necessary at the top of Fossil Rock. In the briefing we are always told, remain calm when you get stuck, listen carefully to the instructions, most situations can be driven out of by following the advice of the Seniors. The same needs to be said for tricky situations. The descent from Fossil Rock is exciting and exhilarating, and first time round for sure, launching your car over the side of cliff where you can see absolutely nothing of where you are going is … let’s say, a moment of faith. As someone to whom people have been saying, ‘no, the other left’ his whole life, I get the whole confusion with turn left and right, but it’s moments like launching yourself off Fossil Rock that paying close attention to what’s being said require real attention. Which leads me to @Javier M’s real save of the day. With no kinetic ropes in our tool kit (see point 3 above and guess where we will be this week), the magnificent (but definitely beached and stuck on top of a rock) Murano was recovered by a swift tug from (yes, you guessed it) a Wrangler!! Safely down the hill the rest of the Wrangler crew @Colin Jordan @Rinelle Sanaani @Febin Frederic ended what had been another interesting and challenging drive. Francesco, @Ahmedmustafa90, @balaji0007 thank you for the company and the particularly Francesco for the opportunities to help you out. Hopefully your wife did not notice that her car was missing so early in the morning … As for the other convoys, once again, all we saw was smiling faces and massive grins at the end of the day. And that sort of speaks for itself. Till the next time in the sand …

As always picture perfect report from @Wrangeld . I am always exited to read his report same as the drive. 👍 I was with @Rahimdad convoy and he managed to give us the taste of every bit of sand dunes and experience fossil rock area has to offer. Thank you very much for offering me the second lead of the convoy. Your instruction and guidance was key for our smooth drive. Special thanks to @Emmanuel for his guidance from behind the convoy and helping us to overcome couple of refusal through out the drive . My key highlight of the drive was bashing play area dune for the first time. It was great experience and I loved it so much. Thank you again @Rahimdad. Looking forward to tackle the dune and practice more in future. See you all soon. cheers

Special thanks to @Frederic, @Javier M, @Wrangeldand @Jeepie for their instructions and help in my refusal. Koleos is still in one piece and getting washed now Coming down from the Fossil Rock was amazing! It is getting more exciting and more challenging every week which is good. See you all next week!

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Every recovery is a learning moment @Jun Zamora If we don't get stuck we think that it's too easy and don't gain much from the experience. No doubt the next time when we are at the top of Fossil Rock the lessons we all got will be remembered.

Short trip report from me, I don’t have the writing skills like Wrangled or the other gents on here, but I’ll try to give my point of view of the drive. Was lucky with my standby roster, they gave me a late standby starting from 23:00 on that day, that gave me the oportunity to prepare some things in the morning, join the drive, getting tired and when I would come home that evening, crash the bed. The start of the drive was a little bit delayed due to 3 seperated convoys and we had to wait that everybody came back from the morning drive. I think we departed at 13:45, Sri leading, Javier 2nd lead, 3rd myself, 4th Manuel and Gaurav in the sweep. As soon as we started, I felt the boys were already warmed up from the morning drive and the pace was fast. I just cruised 1 hour ago with cruise control and now I had to change to fighter mode. It didn’t take long before we had to stop because I was too agressive with my Land Cruiser, skidding my right front tire in a turn that resulted in a pop out and litterly ripped my whole tire of my wheel. Thanks to the team we managed to jack, clean and inflate the tire again. To avoid a pop out again, I adjusted my driving technique and kept the tire pressure on 16psi. Fortunately I kept the tire on my wheel for the rest of the drive. We continued to Big Fire? (Correct me if I am wrong). Trying to keep up with Javier, but with my experience and heavy car I had to alternate/ cheat sometimes the route he was taking. Espacially on some sideslopes I had difficulties to keep the car going straight forward, what also ended in a nasty refusal next to a small tree. The rear difflock is a big help, and I was able to get out in reverse by myself. Arrived at Big Fire and we all made an attemp to get on the top. Javier made the top after first attemp? At the top we changed the lead and Javier took over the lead with Sri now in second. Now with Javier in lead, the pace was a bit faster and I had to stretch my leg that ended up to hear my cooling fan of the radiator for the first time. First seconds I was confused of the different sound coming from my engine, I thought something was wrong, but then I understood it had to be the fan. I was not the only one with an engine that was heating up due to Javier’s lead. After a 3ish hours drive, we came to flat earth again, inflated, asked some info regarding tires and received some feedback regarding my driving skill to improve for next drives. @Srikumar @Gaurav @Emmanuel @Javier M Thnx for the drive, and have a nice weekend!

Thank you everyone for the awesome drive yesterday! Especially @Frederic for the general arrangements and good briefing and @Gaurav for the great instructions during the route! It was exciting and even challenging drive for a newbie level driver like me, but enjoyed it very much! You learn the best once you push yourself a little bit! The grand finale on top of fossil rock was amazing! Would love to do it again!!!

To Richard, Rahim , Mahmoud and everyone . Thanks for your help when i got jammed on the rock . It happened for a reason guys, to demonstrate the used of kenetic rope , the power of Wrangler and the swift action of Javier to pull me out. Has somebody took photo of that scene ?

Hello Everyone, first of all I am extremely sorry for not to reply you all at/on time and thank you so much for all your messages and lovly wishes. 🙏🙏🙏🙏 And thank you so much to all senior team members and decision makers of Carnity Group for showing confidant in me and upgrading my profiles to next level....🙏🙏🙏 I have enjoyed every drive and time i spent with you all and wish to continue in future as well with more enthusiasm and positive energy .....👍 @GauravYes You were right I couldn't check my messages on form as I was not having habits of cheking regularly 😔... but now onwards I will do so...... 🥁 @Gaurav I didn't check the messages that's why I was requesting/ reminding you all to promote me this morning ....... I wish I knew it that I have been promoted already. 😔 Thank you @Rahimdad @Gaurav@Srikumar and all group members for all your support 🙏🙏🙏 Regards, LuCky sAm

TRIP REPORT This foggy morning reminded me a bit of the winter season in my home country Belgium, so when I left the house I was a bit worried that the fog would remain for the whole morning. I was delighted to see most people made it on time, with @Tbone being the winner as he arrived shortly after me. Some came a bit later due to the fog, but these things happen and we need to keep safe in traffic. This was my first ever briefing so I hope i kept it a bit interesting and I heartfully thank the others that stepped in to help to complete and detail on some points. Also this was the first time we started using 3 different frequencies for the separate convoys. We will come back soon with more updates on that as it still needs improvement. After having split up the convoys in two newbie convoys led by @Rahimdad and me, and one slightly more thrilling newbie+ convoy led by @Gaurav, we hit the dunes and started enjoying the beautiful area. @balaji0007 was my second lead and I was really impressed in his calm and composed driving and clear communication. @Denizzalbayrak aka Koleos managed well, so as @Jun Zamora with his Murano. These AWD vehicles unfortunately possess lots of electronical gizmos so I can imagine it’s not always easy to unlock the full power. The next coming months with dryer sand coming up this might become even more challenging. Francesco and his 3.8 Pajero, the Wranglers @Rinelle Sanaani @Colin Jordan @Febin Frederic , @Ahmedmustafa90 his Xterra, were all driving great with their capable cars and with @Javier M as our center key player and @Wrangeld and @Jeepie in the sweep, i was surely in good company. The tow rope stayed in the car, only some small refusals kept us a bit busy and at the same time we got to learn something. Again thanks for Richard, Rahim and others who were at the top helping out @Jun Zamora and a special thanks to @Javier M to lead him around the mountain. My apologies for not having the proper place and time to do a full debriefing and feedback session after the drive, we lost a bit of time climbing over Fossil Rock. We will make that up on the next drives. I thank you all for joining us on this beautiful morning and hope to see you all back soon !

Consider yourself lucky in the presence of these drivers ;) I am sure they were able to give you a taste of high-octane thrills and adrenaline and I’m sure you’ll be coming back for more of that stuff 😋

Hi Gaurav & other Marshall's, It was a wonderful day. Well organized event indeed. Good team mates. I was in Gaurav’s convoy. Good coaching/ guidance. Looking forward for more thrilling rides!!!

Just like any other sport or hobby, off road driving too has it's own etiquette's. Often times these are not spoken out loud or mentioned in public to not to embarrass anyone. If you like to continue off road driving, you should know these basic offroad driving etiquette's and follow them. Pay 100% undivided attention to the instructions: Whether it's in briefing or on radio communication while recovering, give your 100% attention and if you cannot due to some incoming call or passenger distraction, ask them to repeat. Most of the instructions are given so that you can drive safely. If you still live in the mobile world or loud music or radio volume turned down, you will miss out on critical safety instruction that can end up breaking your 4x4 or bones, seriously. Follow the instruction PRECISELY: From as simple as deflate to 12-14 PSI, drive in HI gear, engage to LO as soon as you get stuck. These instructions have been given to YOU for YOUR safety and enhancing your offroad driving experience. If you deflate to 22 PSI instead of 12, you will have endless refusals, stucks and A/T Transmission & Engine will soon overheat. If you don't engage on LO as soon as you get stuck, you will lose the most critical surface area in which LO gear could have saved the day, rather than toiling in HI gear for first few minutes and making the stuck even more worst for your car. Acknowledge the message: Always acknowledge the radio messages as the reliability of radio communication is highly questionable. Step out and help: When you are stuck and someone is helping you, it's a BASIC MANNER to step out of your car and help the Marshal or senior member who is helping you. You can help them clearing the sand, fixing the rope or inspect the stuck or plan of recovery. Sitting inside a stuck vehicle and waiting is the worst and most offending thing to do. If someone is helping you to check tire pressure, then step out and observe, how to delate to precise PSI. Disclaimer: In some 1% tricky angles or situation, if you have a doubt or difficulty to come out, ask the Marshal or senior member: If its safe for you to step out? Please don't assume and sit inside. Observe and learn: Every stuck and recovery has a lot to teach. Observe and learn from your stucks and discuss with Marshals how to not to get stuck again in a similar way. If you don't observe and learn you will end up doing the same mistakes over and over again. Learn Vs Serve: All the knowledge and experience are there to help you learn offroading and not just to serve you. So that as soon as you learn, you start practising it and become more capable offroader and be able to help others in the future.

I had a wonderful time, Thanks to my convoy and marshals. I can't wait to hit the desert again. Be safe and stay blessed guys !

Congratulations Fred @Frederic You more than deserve it. You gave us the confidence not to be nervous on our first attempt. Well organized to guide us and the sense of humor at the briefing ! Thanks man!

Congrats @Lucky sAm

9 email notifications when we all quoted @Lucky sAm since last 5 days went to spam/trash or he is really keeping busy "always" just like everyone here - Always busy - to not to check, read, write or respond. Wish we knew this today morning Thanks @Wrangeld for bumping this post to make me feel less bad.

@Gaurav @Frederic @Rahimdad Very well organized!! This was my second drive and already feel like I’m addicted ; ) Thank you. To all, Be safe and be well until we meet again. Best, Denver

We will miss you and your stories dearly, specially after the drive.

Last time I camped inside my car. I don't remember how I got there but that's a different story. 😂

This whole love story actually started with me looking for a small off-road car that I could also use as daily driver. My previous dear colleague that was my mentor during my first year in Dubai drove a nice 2004 Pajero SWB, and I kinda fell in love with that little quirky thing. So I went looking for a nice Gen 3 SWB Pajero until I saw that little blue Gen 2.5 '99 one for sale. I threw my common sense overboard and bought it while knowing that it would take time, money, and work to get it in the shape that I really wanted. After googling all the information I needed but coming back with little answers, I joined Carnity and came across a guy who literally knew everything there is to know about this generation of Pajero. His name is Gaurav and thanks to him I came to realize this little blue Pajero was actually pretty solid and suitable for some serious offroading, but I knew at the same time that the 3.0 was definitely not the same as the 3.5 you hear roaring every weekend on Carnity drives. On the picture below you see me on my very first offroad drive in October 2018. I clearly remember that drive like it was yesterday. We all got stuck multiple times, were shoveling the whole afternoon, and my friend who joined me that day had no clue why people would spend their Fridays goofing off in the Sharjah deserts shoveling away and toiling in sweat. But I drove home that day and felt that this was an amazing day where from the start till the end I was guided, supported, and felt part of a family that looks after each-other. I felt a bit like Brian when he joined Dominic his crew in F&F and realized that this was a group of people that have one aim in mind: making you a better version of yourself. Were there times where I thought that I reached the limit of myself or my car and could probably not make it to the next level ? YES almost every week.... But at the same time after every drive I learned something new and went home with that little bit more baggage. And that confidence, support, love, and care that the Carnity family gave me, was the thing that kept me coming back every week. As my buddies @Srikumar and @Gaurav mentioned on the last briefing, we all leave our egos at home and enter the desert with a curiosity and a keen desire of leaving our daily worries behind us for a few hours and enjoy each other's company. @Gaurav your dedication and hard work to bring Carnity to this level has paid off already and will continue to pay off in the future. I cannot put in a single list how much I have learned from you...it would take years to jot that down. Our combined love for the Pajero has created a bond and your love for Belgian chocolates has brought us even closer 🤣 @Rahimdad from the very first hug you gave me, the jokes we crack together, and the sheer love and dedication you put into the Carnity family has created an atmosphere that I have never felt at office, or in any other club that I have been in. You have created for all of us a family away from home and I will do my sincere best as a Marshal to keep bringing that family approach to every new joiner and Carnity member. It is indeed true that we ALL are equals and that lifting each-other up to become a better version of ourselves should be the ultimate goal in life. @Srikumar I have only been with Carnity for a short time, and even in that short time I have you seen taking an enormous leap in capabilities and leadership qualities. It is simply stunning to see how you perform when being challenged with multiple tasks, scheduling, and leading drives, and you deliver every single time. You're a true example for me and I look forward to many more drives to come. @Emmanuel I remember one of my first drives where we took on Faya and I was trying hard to keep in pursuit of your Jawaher with my little oldie. You made it look so easy and effortlessly attacking dunes, and got out of the car five minutes later to smoke a cigarette totally relaxed like Serge Gainsbourg would do. You possess a higher power of being totally in tune with your "jewel" and I truly enjoy your company every time we venture out looking for creamy dunes or stars. @Asif Hussain You were with me on my first drive and I remember that whale you drove very well. I was amazed to see how effortlessly you took it through every dune and quickly realized you had a unique talent. You have been out of the sands for a little while but i am committed to make up for lost time and I am sure there is so much I can learn from you. To all the other members that drove with me for the last year, I truly thank all of you. I hope my story sheds a little light on how I became Marshal and I hope that everyone that has aspirations of reaching this level realizes that Carnity Offroad club is the PERFECT breeding ground to get to that level ! IF I CAN DO IT SURELY YOU CAN TOO !! - Fewbie in Jan 2019 - Intermediate in March 2019 - Advance in Sept 2019 - Expert in Dec 2019 - Marshal in Feb 2020

@DJSTORMTROOPER A Prado is very capable as is and has all the under body protection it needs, only you night want to protect the bumpers with a skid plate which is about 8 mm thickness, the lesser is better. You may also install a 2 inch lift kit just to improve the approach and departure angles. The only other thing I can think off is a button to switch of the airbags and disable the ABS/TCS instead of having to remove the fuse and add it after every drive. Have you ever driven your Prado off-road or are you planning on mods even before you have taken it out for a ride and feel. Heavy metal bumpers would be a no from my side. They might only look good but are heavy and can really add serious weight to your car, with the power to weight ratio your car will offer you lesser power per kg on your ride. Besides passing metal bumpers on your 4x4 when passing at RTA is a huge problem and you would either have to keep your stock bumper stored somewhere on invest in a new one every time you want to pass the car. As opposed to skid plates which are bolt-on applications and can be removed at any time. Just my 0.02 cents.

I have a situation due to which it’s not certain if I can make it for this drive so as of now, I’ll decline. If there is a change, I’ll sign up back for it as soon as I get the update.