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This used to be my favourite story to tell in pre-Covid times. I'm sure many of you are interested but many are too shy to ask and some can't find the words or think it's inappropriate to question on that. It's not so bad a question and it's all about friends making new friends and passing on the skills we acquired in over a decade of off roading each. Thanks to Dr @Chaitanya D for asking and @Desert Dweller reminiscing those good old pre-Covid days. @Gaurav bhai is my senior and has been in the desert for maybe 14 years if I'm not mistaken. I just completed 12 years in the wilderness. For @Gaurav bhai he caught up with life and some difficult decisions trying to nurture Carnity since 2010. While I continued to learn where he left off. At one point he supported me in my initiatives and events and started coming back to off-road regularly. He hadn't lost what he had learned since we learned things the hard way. @Carnity started up thanks to his Mitsubishi Pajero which he never gave up on. In 2010 if you googled up your car issues we would just see websites from either USA or South Africa or Australia. Another thing was the Pajero never made it to USA and was known as Shogun or Montero in other places. The biggest concern was these other model specs would be built slightly differently not allowing us to understand or work on our own cars. @Carnity became the first website to share information on GCC spec cars, proudly it is the only one to date in the Middle East. Back in late 2016 when I got really interested and started sharing information about my cars and checking regularly for updates and advise for my Nissan Pathfinder R50, I saw some interest in members for off-roading. I asked @Gaurav bhai if we could start an off-road club to which he was not sure. But after several discussions and couple of months of heated arguments we came to an agreement. @Gaurav bhai proposed I post 3 drives at different locations and he would support me. If we had interested members coming out to drive we would form our club or I would never mention it again. Agreement made. Our first official drive was on 27 Jan 2017. @Srikumar was on that fist drive and never look back. This and all 3 drives went full and soon we had enthusiasts and that's how the @Carnity off-road came to existence. Initially it was all about creating awareness about the different aspects of off-roading and passing on the skills and the art to fellow off-roaders. But the only constant thing in life is change. Thanks to @Gaurav bhai who thought we needed to put the structure into words. Although it might seem that I am a man of many words, but putting the technical details to words is what @Gaurav bhai did best. Revising the structure and improving with every drive became our passion. The newly joined off-roaders seeing things from a different angle became our strength. I'm very pleased to be coming close to 500 members in the club and how each one of you have contributed and made the @Carnity off-road club a success story. Each member brings their own flavour with their experience, culture and point of view as we have over 40 nationalities coming out every week to help us grow this common passion for this ever growing sport of off-roading. We have been through many hardships and difficult decisions. But together we are proud to make the decisions best for everyone's well being. One such challenge was Covid19 which we are still all trying to deal with on a daily basis in all aspects of our lives. We at @Carnity made a decision to be the first club to introduce drives with the Covid19 restrictions in place. Our community who understands and stands by our decisions are our strength to continue doing so in the toughest of times. Love our community and love each and everyone of the members striving to wake up at 3 am for drives posted at 5 am. For taking pics and videos and sharing it on @Carnity and their social media channels and making @Carnity popular among family and friends. My sincere thanks to all of you who read it through. It's your efforts that makes us stand out among a sea of clubs.

Dear Desertnauts. Time to present next Friday AM's Fewbie PLUS drive. First of all, just to further clarify the meaning of this unofficial rank, Fewbie Plus refers to those Fewbie drivers who have had more than 5 drives at this level with Carnity. This sub-category intends to offer drives at a level between Fewbie and Intermediate, with a few more challenges, in order to provide an opportunity to hone one's skills toward a future promotion. Consequently the Fewbie Plus drives will be be conducted on more difficult terrains, at higher speed, and will require more refined skills, that should have been developed during the first Fewbie drives. This drive in particular will venture in what I have called the "Middle-Earth", the land in between Solar Park and Faqa, where one can find a mix of quite technical dunes, long range dune formations and sand canyons, each separated by wide open sabkhas. This combination of terrains will require all kinds of driving skills, from the finesse required to navigate technical dunes, to the momentum, and sometimes the power, needed to sustain going in and out of sand bowls, or side-crossing relatively taller and sharper dunes. As drives normally focus on either Solar Park, Faqa or Little Sweihan, this time we wish to explore also what's in between, that is otherwise skipped on the way to or from these locations. @Janarthan, @Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @Heisem, @Ilya Golubinsky, @Biju Abdul, @Gregory Perkin, @marks, @Tamas Hoffmann, @Islam Soliman , @Nabil Bishara and @Tbone thank for joining the trip. I will share more info closer to Friday morning. In the meantime, enjoy your week.

This write up is from a friend of mine Mohit who is unable to access Carnity. But he wanted to share his experience with everyone to learn from his experience. Hope you enjoy the read and any comments will be passed on to him. QUOTE Hi Folks, So, I have been off your trail for carnity. I must admit that got too occupied and now as I picked up a project car thought good to share what I learnt. Now, I am sure quite a few of you would find the content normal but for those who love to venture and have a passion for old cars and saving one from sure death would enjoy reading it. I came across a Jeep Grand Cherokee 2004 gcc specs 4.7 litre quadratec which was literally getting wasted in my friends place. Couldn’t stand the fact that roaring beast is confined. So when I started it, it still had in it, the engine came alive like a boom. The fun started when I took it to road with everything literally jumping, bouncing and looked falling apart. Coolant falling, oil spills, misfires and someone out of frustration had torn the tires with a screw driver along with seats. Anyhow, so after getting the vehicle under my name the actual work started. Tires- Easiest bit got the used one for AED350 with balancing. Amazing road grip I think I got a good deal for 4 pcs. Oil spils – The Hose of Power steering was gone so it had to be repaired and bled/flush the oil ( AED 100 including the oil) Coolant – Surprise came as leak was not from radiator but the reservoir tank was bad so got a used one (AED 100) Misfires – OBD sensors were replaced (2 of them) along with 8 spark plugs ( 8th one had to call a makhratiya as they say to remove plug was just stuck so hard) costed a total of another 600 Here, I did a mistake by trying a guy near my house who claimed its coils and what not I paid AED250 for nothing to him. Engine oil, filters are separate.(AED 150 in total with labour) AC – There was leak in condenser pipe repairable though costed AED 250 with gas run well and cools amazingly. SEATS- This was another AED150 to stich the driver and little patch work on passenger seats. A total of AED 1500+ spend to get the car running on road Adventure actually started when I suddenly experience the turns are little too steep (swaying). Took it back to the Suspension shops the first one claimed it’s the spring coils which obviously did not convince me, I suspected the bushes after trying few shops they explained it’s the bushes which have gone bad and Struts and springs are good to go for another year or so. Lowest quotation for changing them AED 850 with a total of 10 bushes and labour charge. So this makes the car for 2300 + registration and insurance ( AED 4500 roughly is the final cost) Some of you might after reading this will say I could have bought a better working Jeep v8 of 2004 or may be higher model by adding another 1000 or so. Yes, and in my opinion may be not. This car is more a project for the love I felt when I saw it at first glance. It was about saving a really beautiful vehicle from its grave. Mileage on the car is 230000kms GCC specs and is top of the line. but I guess its nothing for Jeep’s of that age. I plan to keep it at least for 2 years and then will look for another affordable project lol. Until I write again C ya UNQUOTE

First time for me in Sweihan and certainly a memorable one. I loved the breathtaking landscape, the awesomely huge dunes and the fantastic bowls, as big and deep as I had never seen. Thanks @Srikumar for your smooth lead with lots of criss-crossing and ridge riding (I had never used so intensely my front skid plate as on these sharp ridges..). Congratulations @Chaitanya D for your lead, too bad events made it shorter than it was meant to be. I was impressed by @Nivin who was at his 1st intermediate drive: despite the two pop-outs (welcome to the club, you'll need several more to get even close to my personal record), having watched you from behind, I think you drove very well. Unfortunately we missed the chance to take the planned drone shots, but I'm sure there will be plenty of other occasions. I stole some footage while the team was helping @Foxtrot Oscar: I'll share it in the next days. Everyone in the convoy did very well., but the man of the day was certainly @Asif Hussain, who was all over the place helping everyone.

@Rahimdad @Gaurav Having been lucky enough to join Carnity before Covid hit @Jeepie and myself have heard this story from you direct. I know I am but one of many to feel so lucky to have found @Carnitybecause, when all said and done this is a club with members who really do care for each other. Driving is what we do. Thanks to you, Carnity is what we are.

@Rahimdad, @Vanessa8580, @Frederic, @Wrangeld , @Gaurav , @Shaaz Sha Photos posted in the drive Album.. A small video link below..

Dear Desertnauts, A few words about this exploration drive planned for next Saturday. Few words is all that I can use, since I have never been in this area at all. The idea to develop a "Sea to Mountain" route came to me after driving the first portion of this itinerary (before joining Carnity). That drive seemed nice at the time, and indeed it still is extremely interesting, even though the vegetation in the area has exploded since more than 1 year ago, changing the look and feel of the area. That first route was then tested a few weeks ago, and driven by an Intermediate convoy less than a month ago. We managed to go from the seaside (next to Barracuda Resort) to almost E611 (even though the access has been sealed off since 2019, and we had to exit back on E311). Hence, the second leg of the "Sea to Mountain" starts where we left off, at the end of E611, heading in an easterly direction, toward the foothills of the Ajar Mountains. The area we wish to explore, roughly from the entrance of the new Ritz-Carlton Resort to the industrial outskirts of Al Ghail town, is relatively large, and is criss-crossed by several tracks, leading in and out of it, connecting what seem to be farms with the major tarmac roads surrounding the area. Other than this generic information, there is nothing else that I can add: from satellite maps the area seems to be made of rather clean dunes (not much vegetation, apparently), but we know that with the latest cloud-seeding this may have changed quite dramatically. In spite of not having done a test drive in this area, and knowing that Part 1 of this route was quite challenging, we have chosen to open the drive to Intermediates (rather than Advance) drivers. This is to give all of you the opportunity to experience the double-edged sword of an "absolute first" drive, where the excitement of the exploration may be balanced by the disappointment of finding the area not as exciting as initially expected. Nonetheless, as for Part 1 of this RAK double route, all off-roading skills will be tested (finesse and control in particular), and at the end of the drive each should have gained a little more experience and knowledge about themselves, their relationship with their car, and the nature in which we'll be driving. The only thing that I'd like to advise, due to the unknown nature of the terrain and the obstacles we'll face during the drive, is to limit the number of passengers as much as possible, so that all the driver's concentration may be directed to the track in front of each car. Please advise if you plan to bring more than 1 passenger along. @Pancho, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Najeeb Mohammed, @Desert Dweller, @Nivin, @Jun Zamora, @Wrangeld, @Jeepie and @Kalahari, you will receive more info on Friday. In the meantime, have a great week.

Man please don't show me Jeep project cars. You are pushing me to start another one I might not be able to resist if i see a 1998 Grand Cherokee 5.9.

@Gaurav @Emmanuel @Rahimdad @Frederic @Srikumar @Ale Vallecchi a deepfelt thanks for this vote of confidence. This has been a year of learning, and growth that has been empowered and anabled by all of you. @Shamil @Brette @Asif Hussain @sertac @Kalahari @Vanessa8580 @Desert Dweller @Foxtrot Oscar @Chaitanya D @Tbone (really hope I did not miss soneone out, yikes!) thanks for supporting, keeping us all honest in this game, showing the way for everyone else that loves being out there in the sand.You've all played a big part in enabling me to get to this promotion - I can happily let you all know where you had the biggest impact if you have any doubt about that. And to the rest of the Carnity family, who have been kind enough to come on drives I led, or allowed me to support them in their efforts, thank you. Without these opportunities to grow and learn, the marshals would never be in a position to work out the solutions we sometimes need to find on our drives. As we keep saying, this is a team game. None of us can get anywhere without the other and we never ever leave anyone behind. See you soon in the sand.

Warmest congratulations on your achievement @Wrangeld! It is extremely nice to see how a hobby takes over your life, but it also allows you to grow, forge friendships, gain experience and become a teacher yourself, SENSEI Richard 😁 (teacher in Japanese)

Yeah very tempted to do one but just don't have the time now. The image below is of the last one I did back home in 2013. Took about 7 months to complete it. Bought the vehicle as scrap from the army junk yard and striped it down to bare metal before putting it back together with my trusted mechanic.

congratulations @Wrangeld

Nice write up. Having a project car is amazing and seeing it slowly coming alive and getting better gives a huge sense of achievement, as long as you remain realistic about the money, labor, sweat and tears it might also take. With the money I have spent already on my little project car, I could have bought a nice capable Off-roader with less miles on the clock, but then again I love driving something that’s rare and brings a challenge to tame. I totally understand this guy and wish him all the best to make the beast roar again. Best feeling in the world!

@Francois Germishuys where did you see the space for 2? I really wish I could make space, but I'm too fat to fit anyone over the limit.

This is the only club started by 2 friends. But all like minded friends joined in making the journey more pleasant for all who want to continue as part of this community.

@Ajiesh George Kannankara what a nice video mate. Live the sound track also. Sometimes it funny to see videos and think my car would never do that. But what a nice day out and beautifully captured through you lens.

I'm absolutely delighted for you Richard @Wrangeld . I remember your first forrays out in front,with @Rahimdad passing over the reigns on your first lead . You picked your way through the overgrown dunes (never had I seen so much vegetation in the desert) and I seem to recall @Jeepie led for part of it too. All wonderful memories and its a privelige to be part of your story.

@Wrangeld congrats!!

@Wrangeld Very Well Deserved Super Happy News & Looking forward for more drives with you

I am missing my Jeeps too bad. Nissan definitely not giving the same feeling. Not even close. When i was driving my XJ i was feeling pride to have it. Now Xterra like another Japanese crap on the road.

@Rahimdad The drive was simply superb. Felt like we drove for a long time and cover some distance with minimum number of Refusals...Thank you so much for the energy level and support..and more over, we are meeting again this week and looking forward to drive with you again. @Vanessa8580call yourself wonder women🤪.. you really took every one for a toss by driving through that long sidies and that bridge drive ... this is my first experience to do that for long and happy that I managed well with out any trouble. Thank you so much. will be posting the pictures in the Gallery and videos will follow

Congratulations @Wrangeld! Your dedication and involvement surely lead to this. Looking forward to drive with you.

Hi, I bought last week 1 that need this reprogramming, so yesterday I went back to dragon mart, returned it and got the baofeng UV-5. It cost 140aed for a pair...

Congratulations dear @Wrangeld! Absolutely well deserved. My only fear after your promotion is that we won’t be able to drive together very often...

@Wrangeld well deserved promotion kind sir. Many congratulations. We love watching people learn, become pationate and grow. Watching you and @Jeepie grow with the passion burning inside was a first for me. Love the connection you have with each other and the way it comes down to us. We love tasting different flavour of drives and once I have the choice you would be my flavour of the week.

Thank you @Rahimdad for this wonderful thread and I felt proud while reading the words you wrote about how the story begun exactly the same fire of passion growing with each single drive I have done so far. I have seen Liwa dunes Up to Ghaiathi in the heart of the empty quarter when I was at age of 10 or younger when I my dad used to take us by his land cruiser ( his nature of work let him drive ) ... I realize Carnity has relighted the fire of passion of the desert in me and more than that all the help and support from the very beginning from @Gaurav and off course my colleague and friend @Chaitanya D . at times of crises ( Covid 19 ) we stand still at home, at work , and yet behind the steering wheels Navigating the desert that we all love , with all the precautions on ! cheers 🚙❤️🌷

We will do it better coming week. Hopefully the location is a flying zone..

Amazing video !!

Hi @Rahimdad, I got a spot on Ale’s fewbie + drive, so my spot on this drive can be taken by someone on the waitlist. Thanks !

Indeed the JGC is a roaring beast , Ask me about it ,especially the 10 years back models , and still roars till now in , I would say , a delicate fine and sharp way with all of the electronics and sophisticated Data in it . I agree with @Rahimdad friend about why not , as long as the project within reasonable time frame and budget . I had to make a tough decision wether to make a project on my existing JGC 2015 and to make it to be Sand “ resistant “ vehicle thorough couple of mods ( ground clearance , High profile tires, spacers suspension related to its trim , under car armor to protect radiator and engine , electronic modifications to kill things you all know ...etc ) and with best hands the coast of all that was approaching a figure near 18000 . Also keep in mind the maintenance which is quite not cheep .So I took a step back and had a second thought. .... eventually I left the luxury for home and got my X with best deal and the parallel projects had almost compatible final price .However with X peace of mind ( personal opinion ) cheers 😎🚙👍

@Wrangeld Congratulations for the promotion, well deserved! I've done several drives with you, and I frankly just assumed you already were a marshall from the way you have been leading!

Dear @Wrangeld, Congratulations for a truly deserved acknowledgement of the great passion you put in every drive. Looking forward to the next drive toghether.

I know you have earned it. Congratulations🎉

@Rahimdad and @Vanessa8580 - superb drive on Friday! Don't loose that humour either, it was great listening on the radios!

K let me try 👍

Re size . Is there any specific size ?

@Carnity can you please help @Shaaz Sha to upload his pics in the Gallery.

@Mohamed Seidam Thanks for sharing this thread. This is @Gaurav recovering the Pajero from last week drive at Pink Rock with the radio guidance.

Thanks @Nabil Bishara for keeping me informed. @Anand Nataraj you're the first one on my waitlist and have been added to the drive. Please confirm if you'll be able to make it? Below is the revised waiting list. 1. @Francois Germishuys 2. @Franco Swart 3. @luwaimn 4. @jodha singh shekhawat 5. @Luca Palanca Falsini 6. @Ali Abas Ali 7. @Sreejith Sreenivasan 8. @Ashy

Dear @Gaurav I am driving 2013 Dodge RAM .I have been couple of times In newbies with my Friend @Islam Hassan using same car But I was on the passenger seat. looking forward to drive under your guidance

Hey I drive a 2020 Nissan Patrol, Super Safari, 2 door, stick shift I do have prior offroad experience on daily friday drives but that was almost 15 years ago....... and then the casual beach and barbecue drives. But im afraid ive lost touch and probably some guts &) I can bring a radio as we use them for work so we have quite a few Will be bringing deflator, guage, tow strap and compressor. For flag and shovel if possible yes; but certainly next drive onwards I have 1 front recovery hook. Have replaced the back with a hitch receiver but I will put the original pintle hook back. So then we should be good with front and rear points.

Is there a location where the recovery videos can be uploaded?

Congrats @Rizwan Waheed!

Congrats @Francois Germishuys!!!

Looks cool

Congratulations @Mehmet Volga!

Can’t deny it’s temptation 😎

Congratulations Richard @Wrangeld !!! This suits you perfect!

@Gaurav ...honored and humbled that you've put this trust in me. You've been a great and important supporter, mentor and friedn through this process and feel blessed to have been 'attracted' to Carnity. It will be responsibility now not to let this rank or club down. @Yousef Alimadadi many thanks. @sertac you next buddy! @Asif Hussain incredible to think that because of this crazy situation, we never met yet. Thanks for the wishes and hoping we will ge tto meet some day. @Srikumar Thank you for so warmly including us into the Carnity family. You've been there since the beginning and supported every move and mishap with kind and generous words and deeds. It's somethiing you are still doing, and for which I am truly, truly grateful. @Vanessa8580 you're hot on our heels! Thanks for all your support and friendship. Looking forward to supporting you on a drive as soon as possible. @Najeeb Mohammed thanks a lot @Kalahari looking forward to that for sure and to being your support on a drive soon. You're hot on the heels of all of us, and will be even more once the covid thing lets us get together again properly. @Ale Vallecchi could not have done this without you my friend. Your support, friendship, wisdom and everything that you so generously give as a part of being in your slipstream is simply humbling. Looking forward to the next time. @Chaitanya D that passion is not greater than your, nor the dedication. I am so glad you are a part of this story and that you are creating your own in Canity as well. @Jeepie thanks go to you more than anyone else at this point. We found a new hobby together, and were inseperable for months (OK - not a lot of choice,we only had one car). I still love being your passenger, supporting your drives and seeing how incredibly you handle the leadership of drives. There's a whole load more I love about you ... but this might not be the right forum for that.

In a time not too very long ago, Richard and Marjan joined our club with the main desire of doing some stuff together on the weekends and enjoying the wonderful scenery that UAE has to offer. They came across Carnity but little did they probably know how far this would bring them. Fast forward a year or something and both of you have come to an off-road level in the club that requires patience, skills, mental resilience, and so much more. All skills that both of you bring and demonstrate every single week and I am delighted with this news. The Carnity family has another pillar and I look forward to many more drives with you and cracking jokes together over the radio or while deflating at 03:00 in the morning with eyes still half shut 🤣. To many more valve stems flying out, compressors exploding, and flags falling off the coming years !! See you soon in our sands or my backyard 😜