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Haha 🤠, hold me back!!! @Frederic I cannot wait ! One more drive with you on Friday before I go out to play with the big boys & girls Thanks @Wrangeld I'm always itching to grab the wheel off @Desert Dweller when I'm on co-pilot duties...but its amazing what you learn just by observing .

Yes, I concur. Noisy, rattly, sounds like the car is exploding every time you come off a dune, but bullet proof engine (as long as you don't mind a bit of jeep 'overheating'. There are still reasonably priced TJs available. You're not buying one for the interior/interior space but for the fact it was designed to do this stuff. Who needs creature comforts out in the desert like airco and electric windows?

Congratulations @Foxtrot Oscar for reaching the fewbie level with Carnity Offroad club. Based on your last newbie drive you have demonstrated skills required deserving this new offroad rank. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Once you have all the required off-road gear, you are most welcome to join the fewbie level drives with Carnity Off-road club. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Fewbie: Number of drives 10 (16 Newbie + Fewbie drives) Level of drives Willingness to learn + Enthusiasm + Basic dune reading Off-road gear Flag, deflator, tire gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio, compressor. Drive teamwork Observe recovery from a safe distance and offer help when needed Drive posting/joining Join newbie and fewbie level of drives only Forum participation Active participation on forum. Share drive experience + feedback on forum and pictures in gallery Forum participation and helping with community spirit is recommended for faster upgrades at all levels.

Wow 😲 Thank you so much, I really appreciate the vote of confidence. I hope I can continue to grow and learn with the guidance offered by all the amazing members of Carnity.

@Rahimdad - what an amazing report, adding so much color it brought it all back once again. We all miss that essential Carnity warmth (and I am not talking about the desert here) which is denied to us because of COVID, but this report feels like a big Rahimbahi hug just hit me. Thank you. The little details you pulled out here as well help us all learn - I, for one, hope for notthing more than to see you soon in the sand.

Trip Report I know it is too late as @Wrangeld has already put his thoughts for this drive in words and that is a hard act to beat. I was excited just to be able to attend the drive after all the tough times I have had recently, and I was even more excited to maybe reach a bit early and have a little fun, but the Sharjah Police for some reason even after the curfew time had blocked the one road I was trying to use. They delayed me along with the few other cars trying to use the road, only after a little over 20 minutes did the cop car move and allow us through without a word exchanged, so really don't know what it was all about. This meant I was about 10 minutes late instead of my early arrival as anticipated. Kindly accept my sincere and humble apologies for delaying everybodies fun in this hot weather. Guilty as charged. As we were about to start it was brought to my attention that @andy_macdxb did not have a radio which put me in a difficult to send him back after having made it to the drive for safety reasons, however a quick help from @Mikhail Lukichev with his spare radio meant I was saved from this task. However keeping the Covid19 safety in mind I would appreciate it if everyone carries their own equipment, and in case of radios please take help if required to buy and set them before the drive to avoid any further delays. It is not advisable to share any equipment, food or drinks in these trying times, although this goes against everything we have been standing for in the club pre-Covid times. Once this Covid19 threat is eliminated we will be falling back to our nature of giving and sharing, but each one of us carries the responsibility to follow the Covid19 restrictions to their best. So thanks to @Srikumar for putting me in lead, I had @asifk as my second lead who did really well and the distance he maintained was perfect as he was not too close at any time and not far behind to loose me either. Behind him was @Janarthan who manged the whole drive with ease except for the last part, more dirt on that later in my report. @andy_macdxb was next followed by @Shiju Manuel and @Srikumar who was my centre forward. Than came @Jose Martin. @Szymon Stankiewicz, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Mikhail Lukichev, @sertac, @Nacho and swept by our very own @Jeepie. Since it has been over 2 months when I last lead a drive I started with some simple easy tracks to get used to the ups and downs of this terrain. Luckily this is one of my favourite terrains and once in I can lead a newbie, fewbie and at time an intermediate drive also. Just love this place, maybe not as much as Sweihan or Liwa or any tracks laced on the Al Ain highway, but you get the point. As I picked up the pace through the second part everyone kept up and since it was getting too quite I turned to our first play area. I was surprised to see everyone do so well, my pick of the day on the play area would be @asifk who managed to do it twice, as per my understanding it was his first time to do a sidey, he manged it nicely, not to high, not too low and well controlled at all times, he never seemed to be hassled by the maneuver. My second pick of the day goes to @Szymon Stankiewicz as with his Mitsubishi Montero sport he manged it so well, 10 extra points for him driving his Montero sport like that. Moving on we managed to reach to the power lines, from here things got interesting. We had a refusal and a pop-out which was well managed by @Srikumar and @Wrangeld. later we had some refusal in the same area so I made an alternate path, Everybody made it through and soon we had reached and crossed the power lines. As mentioned by @Wrangeld the dunes became more challenging all the way to the base of Fossil Rocks, but once everybody had crossed the difficult section everybody reached the top of Fossil Rocks to enjoy the serene atmosphere on top, With a quick brief we were descending the Fossil Rocks one by one with @Wrangeld to keep the traffic moving at the right pace. To my surprise I saw 3 beautiful ladies hiking down Fossil Rock on foot in what was already a hot day, as I reached the bottom I sparked a conversation with them and discovered they were air hostesses from Emirates Airline. As I appreciated them for the hike down in the heat, they were surprised how our cars could come down that way. One of them was interested in joining and buying vehicle suitable for light off-roading, camping and some beach trips. She has taken my number and I am waiting for her to call or Whatsapp me in order to suggest her to join Carnity. My only concern was with @andy_macdxb coming down as it seemed too fast and uncontrolled at times, I would highly recommend you to please understand your vehicle better. When i checked you were in 4 HLLC instead of 4 LLLC. Heading out after everyone had made it safely to the bottom there was a blaring on the radio to continue by playing on the left for 10 minutes. Against my better judgement the true off-roader took over and checking with @Srikumar I accepted the proposal. After a few tries the inevitable happened. This is the time to dig on dirt which I had spoken out earlier in my intro. @Janarthan in the H3 made it almost half way and took a sharp U-turn hitting the bump in the dune at the bottom, this resulted in a bent facial and a pop-out. Since it was in deep soft sand and in a slight slanting position we had to back him up slowly to a flat ground. As @Wrangeld mentioned it had popped out from both the exterior and the interior rim so our first part in trying was unsuccessful. Soon @Srikumar did what Gaurav bhai would have done, he removed the stem from the tire valve, kicked the tire till it was really soft and cleaned the rim from both the front and the back. He connected the most powerful air compressor and within 2 minutes it had popped in from the front first and within seconds the rear part also came on. Since we were going to drive on a track we left it inflated at 25 psi. This was the most comfortable part which lead us to the closest road, this prompted us to remove the flags before touching the road. As we hit the road we slowly drove to the Adnoc pump and started inflating to head back home. It was time to say good bye with a lot of gratitude to all for adding to this exciting trip and everyone is looking for their next adventure off-road. Such positive energy from all levels gives us extreme strength to carry on. Until next time I bid you farewell.

Hello everybody, it was a very good drive! Please find attached some pictures.

Congratulations @Vanessa8580 for reaching the Intermediate level with Carnity Offroad club. As per your recent drives, you have shown tremendous progress and well deserve this new offroad rank. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Keep up your great contribution on the forum and get socially involved in the newbie and fewbie drives to impart your knowledge. Once you have all the gear required, you are most welcome to join the intermediate level drives with Carnity offroad club. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Intermediate: Number of drives 10 (26 regular drives) Level of drives Willingness to learn + Enthusiasm + Basic dune & sand reading Off-road gear Flag, deflator, tire gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio, compressor, tool kit, tow rope Drive teamwork Help in recoveries under Marshal / Crew supervision Drive posting/joining Join newbie, fewbie & intermediate level of drives only Forum participation Active participation on forum. Share drive experience + feedback on forum and pictures in gallery + drive and route suggestions Social media sharing & inviting friends & family to join offroad club is recommended for faster upgrades at all levels.

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to respect and follow these guidelines strictly in order to not jeopardize someone's health and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives. MUST READ: Not following these rules and precautions = Not allowed to drive. No Gathering | No Briefing | No BBQ | No Eating Together | No Touching | No Hugging We are only allowed to drive through the desert, as we are driving on the road now. So we will only do the desert driving just by sitting inside our cars at all the times and leave the drive without socializing or coming close to each other. Just like before we like to continue our desert drives through out the year, but this time we need your immense support to understand the strict control and to help everyone follow them all the time. How to maintain "STRICT" Social Distancing Meeting point will be set slightly (100m - 200m) inside the desert track. You individually deflate your tires on the tarmac before reaching the meeting point. While deflating tires, stop cars 10 meters away from any other car. Drive signup on calendar will be closed on Thursday morning by 9 AM. Convoy numbering and briefing will be posted here on this drive post before 6 PM on Thursday. All participants need to read & acknowledge the briefing by clicking "Totally Agree" reaction Switch on your radio when you reach the meeting point on the set frequency advised by the trip lead in the critical briefing here. Once everyone reaches to the meeting point, everyone stay inside the car at all the times. Trip lead will do the roll call, convoy numbering recap, critical briefing over the radio. Any suggestions or issues will be discussed over the radio too. You can also speak to other members through the radio only. So please make sure that your radio battery is fully charged. Once all set, trip lead will start the drive as before. Refusal and Recoveries with Social Distancing Every drive will have 1 lead Marshal and 1 or 2 supporting senior members/crew. Whenever there is a stuck or refusal, only a Marshal / Senior Member / Crew is allowed to handle the situation. Everyone else including the stuck car driver, stay inside the car - AT ALL TIMES. Marshal / Senior Member / Crew is only allowed to step out to access the situation and do the recoveries: They will wear mask and gloves at all times when they are outside their car. They will try to help self recover through the radio guidance. If not they will use required recovery gear and do the needful (shovel, tug or winch, as required). If at any time Marshal require help, then only you are allowed to step out by wearing face mask and gloves at all times. Drive completion and inflation There will not be any gathering or sitting down together for food-break like before. Once drive is finished, after reaching the tarmac, everyone is requested to move away 50-100 meters before starting their inflation. For drivers having no compressor, can head to the near by fuel station. If drive is ending at a place where there is no fuel station near by, then trip lead will inform in advance so that drivers having their own compressor can join only. Strictly no sharing of compressors, radio, shovel or any recovery gear, at any times. Mandatory things you require to attend the drive Face mask - at least TWO face mask is needed in case one get damage or fly away. Disposable rubber gloves - at least two sets are needed. Wear face mask and gloves at all the times, when you are out of your car. Carry plenty of hand sanitizer and object sanitizer (spray). Use your sanitizers generously, whenever you step out to help or recover. Sanitize your hands before getting back into your car. Sanitize your recovery gears, if you have used them. Fully charged and programmed radio - without any excuse - No radio = No drive. Shovel - Must for every car, to do little self recovery Safety flag - Must for every car, like before Compressor - If joining the drives that is ending far from the fuel station. Mandatory precaution that you need to take at all times Do not step out of your car UNLESS/OTHERWISE advised by Marshal / Senior Member / Crew. No shaking hands, hugs or touching each other. No sharing of food, drinks or recovery tools. If you are not feeling well, please stay at home and take a lot of rest. If you have travel in last 14 days, then please do not attend this drive. If you feel unwell during the drive, please let trip lead know so he can plan an early exit. Not more than 3 pax in a car and if all 3 aren't living together, then they should wear the mask inside the car too. Two Way Radio Guidelines Every Offroader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic. We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving. Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops... No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it. MUST WATCH: OUR NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING: Drive Details Level: All Levels When: 05 June 2020, Friday. Meeting time: 7:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Action Plan: Morning drive till about 10:30 AM Meeting Point: Mahafiz - https://goo.gl/maps/n9Hfccra6uQaaGqh9 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 10:30 AM End Point: ADNOC Station - https://goo.gl/maps/hGg82AoRqUjn73WA8 LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 12 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. 1 Lead Marshal + 2 or 1 Senior Members + 9 or 10 Members. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE CALENDAR

@Vanessa8580 oh yeah! Congrats! You deserve it 100%. Last drive you did a fantastic job as second lead!

Well done @Vanessa8580

Way to go Vanessa!! Well deserved promotion 🤗

Tell me about sharing the driving! ... and you're right @Foxtrot Oscar we learn as much observing as we do from grabbing the wheel. It's truly an experience that a lot more drivers should try.

Congrats @Vanessa8580!

Congrats!

Well done!!

Congrats @Vanessa8580. It's wonderful to see how you have created a space of your own with your Big Blue. And I can assure that driving the Bug Blue is definitely not easy but you manage it so well. Look forward to seeing you at the next level drives.

Well deserved Angela ! Are you ready for a new rodeo ? 😜

Dear @Gaurav, this is great news!!! Thank you @Rahimdad, @Srikumar and @Wrangeld for having a close look at my driving skills. The off-road gear for fewbies is all set and stored in the trunk.. I am ready for my first fewbie drive!!

@Najeeb Mohammed As you also drive an FJ I can try to offer you my view, as it was watching you from a bit far away. First question is what gear were you driving to go up the dune in the play area? With shifty sand, and a few ruts (you were going 4th or 5th) you probably needed more momentum, using perhaps a lower gear than 4H-4. Did you try a lower gear? Also, as @Emmanuel mentioned on your second attempt, it was important that you approached the ridge where you had problems from a higher point. The FJ has power, but it's still quite long, and if you climb from a low point, the rear will tend to be dragged down on the incline (especially if the momentum is not enough). Your car is lifted (if I remember well) so the issue was not clearance over the ridge. You will have time in the next drives to get more acquainted with each gear you can use in 4H, based on the different terrains and angles (all the way to the lowest 1 gear, very handy in steep climbs of tall dunes, where you need power and control), and see how the car and yourself feel when taking a bit higher approaches. Side sloping is a good time to practice these skills, so try to use these opportunities, while always having the possibility of going down the slope safely, as soon as you feel the gravity is pulling the back of the car, or the momentum is no longer enough.

If you are really looking into a pathfinder search for 2004/2005 as they have bulletproof ECM and Maf sensor for gcc models. Go for a really good one even if the price seems high.Scrap pathfinder engine costs 800-1000 maximum. If u have manual i would suggest getting a manual one. Note:- i would suggest build an engine/transmission(manual) so you are tension free (if u intent to abuse your toy n desert).

TJ All the way! The 2007-2011 JK's have a really bad engine and struggle for power. With a TJ you have an AMC Straight 6 engine which are known to be almost bulletproof and are very cheap to maintain and modify if needed. Yes, if you want something to drive daily also then the rattling in the TJ will be annoying, but its the perfect desert toy!

@Wrangeld thank you for your precious support and for the amazing trip report. I agree with every single word in it. Indeed, since I started off-roading, I never ever saw Big Red area in such a beautiful shape. Usually you see 4x4 footprints on each dune, but yesterday it was like another world. @Najeeb Mohammed you did absolutely well all along the drive, don't focus on a little refusal. With practice you will learn how to unleash your FJ power and reach the highest dunes of the Emirates. @Desert Dweller it was so nice to see how much you got confident. Very well done !

Welcome to the COVID 19 "new normal" lifestyle with restrictions and precautions for everyone safety. Moving forward and respecting authorities guidance all desert drives will be done under strict control. No Gathering | No Briefing | No BBQ | No Eating Together | No Touching | No Hugging MUST READ: Not following these rules and precautions = Not allowed to drive. We are only allowed to drive through the desert, as we are driving on the road now. So we will only do the desert driving just by sitting inside our cars at all the times and leave the drive without socializing or coming close to each other. Just like before we like to continue our desert drives through out the year, but this time we need your immense support to understand the strict control and to help everyone follow them all the time. How to maintain "STRICT" Social Distancing Meeting point will be set slightly (100m - 200m) inside the desert track. So, that you individually deflate your tires on the tarmac before reaching the meeting point. While deflating tires, stop cars 10 meters away from any other car. Drive signup on calendar will be closed on Thursday morning by 9 AM. Convoy numbering and briefing will be posted here on this drive post before 6 PM on Thursday. All participants need to read & acknowledge the briefing by clicking "Totally Agree" reaction Switch on your radio when you reach the meeting point on the set frequency advised by the trip lead in the critical briefing here. Once everyone reach to the meeting point, everyone stay inside the car at all the times. Trip lead will do the roll call, convoy numbering recap, critical briefing over the radio. Any suggestions or issues will be discussed over the radio too. You can also speak to other members through the radio only. So please make sure that your radio battery is fully charged. Once all set, trip lead will start the drive as before. Refusal and Recoveries with Social Distancing Every drive will have 1 lead Marshal and 1 or 2 supporting senior members/crew. Whenever there is a stuck or refusal, only Marshal / Senior Member / Crew is allowed to handle the situation. Everyone else including the stuck car driver, stay inside the car - AT ALL TIMES. Marshal / Senior Member / Crew is only allowed to step out to access the situation and do the recoveries: They will wear mask and gloves at all times when they are outside their car. They will try to help self recover through the radio guidance. If not they will use required recovery gear and do the needful (shovel, tug or winch, as required). If at any time Marshal require help, then only you are allowed to step out by wearing face mask and gloves at all times. Drive completion and inflation Now, there will not be any gathering or sitting down together for food-break like before. Once drive is finished, after reaching the tarmac, everyone is requested to move away 50-100 meters before starting their inflation. For drivers having no compressor, can head to the near by fuel station. If drive is ending at a place where there is no fuel station near by, then trip lead will inform in advance so that drivers having their own compressor can join only. Now Strictly no more sharing of compressors, radio, shovel or any recovery gear, at any times. Mandatory things you require to attend the drive Face mask - at least TWO face mask is needed in case one get damage or fly away. Disposable rubber gloves - at least two sets are needed. Wear face mask and gloves at all the times, when you are out of your car. Carry plenty of hand sanitizer and object sanitizer (spray). Use your sanitizers generously, whenever you step out to help or recover. Sanitize your hands before getting back into your car. Sanitize your recovery gears, if you have used them. Fully charged radio - without any excuse - No radio = No drive. Shovel - Must for every car, to do little self recovery Safety flag - Must for every car, like before Compressor - If joining the drives that is ending far from the fuel station. Mandatory precaution that you need to take at all times Do not step out of your car UNLESS/OTHERWISE advice by Marshal / Senior Member / Crew. No shaking hands, hugs or touching each other. No sharing of food, drinks or recovery tools. If you are not feeling well, please stay at home and take a lot of rest. If you have travel in last 14 days, then please do not attend this drive. If you feel unwell during the drive, please let trip lead know so he can plan an early exit. Not more than 3 pax in a car and if all 3 aren't living together, then they should wear the mask inside the car too. Drive Details Level: Fewbie and above - NO NEWBIE ALLOWED. When: 5 June 2020, Friday. Meeting time: 4:00 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions - and already deflated Action Plan: Evening drive Meeting Point: Near Solar Park - https://goo.gl/maps/mCzXReD13McjR18F7 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 8:00 PM End Point: https://goo.gl/maps/mCzXReD13McjR18F7 LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 12 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. 1 Lead Marshal + 2 Senior Members + 9 Members. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE CALENDAR

Congratulations @Shiju Manuel for reaching the fewbie level with Carnity Offroad club. Based on your last newbie drive you have demonstrated skills required deserving this new offroad rank. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Once you have all the required off-road gear, you are most welcome to join the fewbie level drives with Carnity Off-road club. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Fewbie: Number of drives 10 (16 Newbie + Fewbie drives) Level of drives Willingness to learn + Enthusiasm + Basic dune reading Off-road gear Flag, deflator, tire gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio, compressor. Drive teamwork Observe recovery from a safe distance and offer help when needed Drive posting/joining Join newbie and fewbie level of drives only Forum participation Active participation on forum. Share drive experience + feedback on forum and pictures in gallery Forum participation and helping with community spirit is recommended for faster upgrades at all levels.

Congratulations @Vanessa8580.

Congratulations

Congrats @Foxtrot Oscar. Can’t wait to drive with you.

Congrats !

Well deserved @Shiju Manuel !! I heard you have the most ingenious off-road flag mount system in Carnity ! Would love to see it next time we meet !

Well done!!

@Vanessa8580 so well deserved, so well earned, so well driven. You have shown just how in control of your big blue you are, how much you enjoy every minute of being behind the wheel and just how lucky we are to have you in this club. It's fantastic news. Looking forward to seeing you taking more and more opportunities to let us all see what a brilliant addition you make to the team.

Congrats @Vanessa8580 👍

Congrats 👍

Congrats @Foxtrot Oscar on your promotion. Looking forward to seeing you out in the sand this week.

Congrats vanessa

Hi Guys, Today i have fix the rear bumper issue of my Pajero with an aluminium sheet neatly bended and fix along with the rear bumper. The work i did in Ajman ( Al Reem Garage) and they charged me only 100 Dhs and it was nearly one hour job. They have done the work very neatly. If any one wants to do the same, i have attached the garage business card. Contact person Mr. Raju.

@Wrangeld cannot thank you enough for your enthusiasm, efforts, support, intelligence which you bring to Carnity. Such a positive influence and very calculated and mature thinking along with the freedom with which you present your opinions. We highly appreciate your advise and points to improve and will definitely be trying to implement them on the coming drives. Moreover I would like to thank you for keeping with the Covid19 safety rules set by Carnity, but everytime I am inclined to hug you all again. We are waiting in anticipation for the day when it will be safe to give a hug again. I saw a plastic curtain with hand space from both sides used by some Canadians to give their loved ones the hug they deserve. Can anybody arrange for these, I would really like to use them on drives. I promise to be the old grandmother.

I want to sign up! 🤪

Love his channel, been following it for a while. He has a calm, methodical, non-judgemental approach to helping people out of sticky situations, while also providing a lot educational tips and tricks. Carnity’s crew has a similar approach. I was thinking it would be very valuable for Carnity to make similar recovery videos on its desert drives. It would provide a lot of educational value, while also being an excellent marketing tool to promote the site and its amazing crew. It could be done on a very low production cost: on each drive, a cameraman (or 2) with a gopro is nominated, someone narrates a storyline, and an editor puts it together in an entertaining and easy to follow clip.

Great and enjoyable drive yesterday! We were back to almost the same spot of the week before, amazing to see how the sand got harder due to the mid week heavy rain. I still have loads to learn, but it is good to see that drive after drive you sort of "anticipate" how the car will react in some passages... a part from when you misjudge and get stuck! This happened to us in the beginning of the drive, when I approached a steep up and down dune a bit too fast and being overcautious I hit the brakes in the wrong moment in time and way too hard, resulting in a stuck with the car sitting on the dune crest with no way to move it other than waiting for the help of @Xafwho pulled us out in no time. A bit of a shame only having to wait in the car without being able to get our hands dirty and help him to help us due to Covid restrictions. From my side - experts please feel free to jump in and elaborate - lessons learnt are: 1. very important to look at what car in front is doing, otherwise I would have not known how steep the descent was. 2. Try not to approach the up hill slope too fast (ok, not even too slow though!), if you recognise you are too fast approaching the top, 3. do not hit breaks at the very top and do not do so too hard. Doing so would cause exactly what happened to me, the car "broke" the dune crest, pushed sand forward rather than slowing down gently and got stuck! The drive moved ahead proving to be exciting and in an amazing scenary, see pictures here. We climbed up Pink Rock, this time we went uphill with no issues at all to end up at the Cafeteria to inflate tires and sort ourselves for the trip back home. Thanks @Gaurav for safely leading the convoy and to all the participants for the time spent together (but distant) yesterday afternoon... see you next week!

Thank you everybody for a nice drive....Thank you @Frederic for the leadership.... @Brette and @Ale Vallecchithank you so much for your assistance and guidance in the recovery when I got stuck.... Nice video JJ, I like it.....thank you @J J

Boy, it's warm in the late afternoon at the moment, so it's great that our afternoon adventure into the desert started more or less on time. For a few people this was a first Fewbie drive, for others it was the first time back on a more challenging route. @Emmanuel replaced Srikumar as drive lead (as he had led the newbie drive in the morning) with @Ale Vallecchi in sweep and myself and @Jeepie as centre forward. As you'll know by now I share driving responsibilities with @Jeepie and on reflection it's a bit of shame that we had not swapped round the duties this Friday as we would have had three amazing female drivers showing us all how it's done. Normally I would not make the distinction between men and women, but it does seem that this hobby is disproportionately weighted towards men (even when a lot of women - assume wives - accompany them on the drives. I was delighted to see @Vanessa8580 taking an excellent second lead and @Desert Dweller (I think you used to be Jamy.B) showing us all how it's done in the Xterra. We have at least three amazing drivers here: controlled, careful, courageous and generous with their help. There should be more, but let's celebrate and encourage more women drivers in our club. There is absolutely no reason all the women should not be driving and every reason they should. Ladies - get out of the passenger seat and let the men be your passengers for a while! This area has a great mix of technical, sweeping and playable dunes so a great way to bring fewbies who have not been in the sane for a while back into the groove. And it all started off well, with everyone handling the challenges well. @Chaitanya D had the mightly Y62 out because his new toy was not quite ready, @Najeeb Mohammed was there with his black FJ and it was good to see @Jolly Abraham who once again did an aamzing job with the Fortrunner. Unfortunately, Jeeps are not great in the heat of the desert (our own TJ had a moment where it needed to cool as well) and it quite soon became clear that this was going to be an ongoing problem for @Jun Zamora Jun showed us that it's possible to get to places that seem otherwise impossible in his Murano, but yesterday the Jeep was having none of it. Despite all our best efforts and after a few refusals we regrettably had to escort Jun to the safety of the highway and reinflation to allow him to get home and start investigating why the oil was overheating to badly. For the rest of us, we dived back into the sand to play and find our way back out into the big red. @Martin. @Rinelle Sanaani & @luwaimn aquitting themselves extremely well through out the drive. Playtime was had by all, everyone learned soemting new and we even got the chance to recover a large crested Patrol to add to the fun. Conscious of the impending curfew despite being a little earlier than planned we exited and reinflated with everyone, no doubt enthisuastic to sign up for the next chance to hit the sand. It was good to be back. The sand was a little soft in places, despite the rain from this week, and that made it more challenging in places, but the beauty of this part of the desert, expecially seeing now almost untouched because there have clearly not yet been a lot of drives coming through here since lockdown is stunning. We are blessed to be able to call this part of the country our playground. See you soon in the sand.

Thank you @Frederic @Ale Vallecchi. As mentioend the sand was really forgiving and i was looking for more challenges 🙃.Thanks for your efforts in getting us to those side slopes . Happy to see offroad friends after a while.

Parts are available for both TJs and JKs, as Fuad said a 2004 or 2005 model in Pathfinder will be amazing. I would not recommend something where the engine has already changed. Sure its only done a 100k Kms after the change, but can you verify how much it had done before the change, it is not a brand new engine. Plus you do not know what type of job was carried out during replacing the engine. I would not buy someone elses headache and I will not be in a hurry. Dr @Chaitanya D was lucky to get a 2008 model X-Terra with less than 200k on the clock for a very good price. Keep your eyes open and don't feel like there is nothing around, surely something better will come along at a price which will be more acceptable to you. Check for something above your budget and try to bargain, UAE is a bargain market, don't be scared to try out the vehicle and if you like it offer a slightly lower price you can afford. That way you will have some space for bargaining up to the price you want to pay. If you really like the vehicle than don't be afraid to go a little over your budget as long as it satisfies you. Don't be afraid to walk away if you feel it is not worth it, you will be sure to find more. Tragedy in my life is whenever I have made the best deal possible and buy a car at what i think is a fair value, I see an ad placed for something similar at a lower price. All i can do is kick myself for having such bad luck. I bought my LR Disco 1998 model for AED 7500/- only after 2 days I saw one going for AED 6k pointed out by @desertdude, the Red one with the steel bumpers. I bought my Pathy for 10k and found one advertised within the same week for 8K. Although the difference is not much, but it is just my luck to get the short end of the stick.

I'm going to restore this, It's a 1957 Sun motorcycle. I think it's a Hornet with a 99cc Villiers single cylinder but I have no paperwork to confirm and there is very little information about these bikes online. The engine is missing and all I have is the frame number. I want to put an original engine in it but it has to be the correct engine type. If anyone has any information or knows where to start looking, the help would be appreciated.

Thanks @Chaitanya D for this info👍😊

7am in Sharjah and almost everyone was ready and waiting for our adventure to Fossil Rock. If the Police stop you getting to the meeting point on time that's certainly acceptable ... and even more, if you happen to be the drive lead Otherwise ... you're keeping other people waiting, and in my opinion (and it's just my opinion) that's not. One of the potential advantages of the new video briefing is that we can get going quicker than before, so please, please respect the rules. It's hot in the dunes these days ... ok rant (almost) over. RTFM. Back in the sand, and as a passenger I had the privilege of @Jeepie sweeping the convoy which was led by @Rahimdad and @asifk in second lead so we knew we were in for a great drive. On the way to Fossil Rock there are some lovely wide dunes, some technical challenges and some nice descents to test the newbie drivers. And it looked like everyone had their driving heads on this morning after a break due to COVID. With excellent leadership and driving discipline, we reached the first play area quickly and without incident. Time for @Shiju Manuel and @Lorenzo Candelpergher to show what they have learned and experts like @sertac @Srikumar and @Rahimdad show us all how it's done. With Fossil Rock in our sights we moved on towards the rock through some increasingly technical dunes and not surprisingly we faced our first challenges of the day and our first refusals, reroutes and a pop out. Thanks to everyone @Jose Martin @Szymon Stankiewicz @Mikhail Lukichev and @Nacho for the patience waiting for these refusals and stucks to clear. The reward was reaching the bottom of Fossil Rock in good time to allow for an unrushed decent. This would be a good moment for @Janarthan and @andy_macdxb to enjoy a sharp descent. The wind, rain and lack of drivers at the top of the rock meant that the start of the descent was sandier than it has been in the past. It's no easier but slightly different ... and the key instruction remains the same whenever 4 low, 1st gear. As anyone who did not put this into action will no doubt have learned the lesson, 4 low means 4 low. With everyone down, a request was made for more playtime at the base of the rock. I have a principle to which I try to work 'if in doubt, don't'. And this morning sort of validated that as we had a second pop out which took the play time and a little more to solve ... which @Rahimdad and @Srikumar handled with aplomb particularly as it was a pop out on both rims. Pop out sorted, we exited to the gas station to reinflate. Thanks to all for an extremely well handled drive, for keeping to the rules, for bringing your humour and help and adding to the learning we all get each time we venture out. See you soon in the sand.