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Good morning fellow adventurers, Y'all up for this? The dunes will be scarred from the constant flow of traffic, we may have to give way to marauding dune buggies as they dart in front of us, and we could encounter tourists keen to see the sunset from the top. Will it be worth it? You had better believe it! Badayer/Area 53 is an off roaders dream. Here's hoping the conditions are good to us today and we have the best adventure. We shall be using radio channel 3 (three) My proposed convoy is as follows: Driver Car Level Position Angela @Foxtrot Oscar Black X Expert Lead @Ilya Golubinsky White Wrangler IM 2nd lead @asifk Silver Pajero LWB IM 3rd @Hisham Masaad Black FJC IM 4th @GauravSoni Pajero LWB IM 5th @Kailas Red Wrangler Adv CF @Ashok chaturvedi Yellow FJC IM 7th @David Ortells FJC IM 8th @siddharth maheshwari White Wrangler IM 9th @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ Yellow Wrangler IM 10th @Francois Germishuys F150 IM 11th @Islam Soliman Yukon Adv Sweep

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi, @Vanessa8580 and @Rajeevan Vickneswaran for a very enjoyable drive yesterday. As usual, with @Ale Vallecchi's lead, the drive is very educational, and @Vanessa8580 adds the twist of fun to it. Though the drive was easy, it was a combination of nice scenery and some enjoyable dunes. Noticed though we don't have a slot in the gallery, hot some nice photo. @Vanessa8580 got a nice photo of you on top of a dune, is it ok to post? or I share directly with you?

I quite agree that we should never venture out alone. I can narrate my personal experience yesterday opposite to Global Villege towards Emirates Road I took my dogs in my Pajero which had nothing on board as everything has been shifted to my FJ. The sandy and shrub area looked appealing and I ventured put only to be stuck in a sandy trail. Tried to deflate tyres with car key and used my hand amd a piece of wood to spade out nothing happened. Had to later call my wife from work to bring my loaded FJ to tug out the pajero. So learned my lesson not to venture out alone and never without gear and tools on board. These desert area look innocent and appealing but can become difficult and embarrassing to call for help.

Thank you once again @Luca Palanca Falsini @Jeepie @AlexPol for your guidance on the drive. It was a good drive, barring a couple of risking moves which was a matter of poor judgment on my part. Nevertheless all of those have been chalked up to experience. Cheers!

Drive Report I started the afternoon by making every member of the convoy aware of exactly what I expected from intermediate drivers on an Intermediate drive. Pace, no babysitting and if you have a refusal? Get yourself out of it! I didn’t want to hear constant chatter on the radio, I wanted a drive like no other and by goodness did the convoy deliver! We limbered up as usual in the smaller dunes, which offer excellent practice for the mammoth dunes that lay ahead. We swept around them at some pace, warming up our desert wheels. @Ilya Golubinsky 's mother asked for bigger dunes, and who am I to disappoint someone’s mother?! As we began to climb into the labyrinth of bowls we had a couple of refusals but nothing much, we continued and @GauravSoni experienced a nice crest which @Kailas tried in vain to dig him out of, we got the ropes and @GauravSoni was on the move again. It’s fair to say that the initial climbs met with a fair share of refusals, I asked @GauravSoni to check his tyre pressure and after deflating he was back in the game and then some. Then @asifk found himself in a nice pocket of soft sand and the recovery saw his transmission oil heat up. We stopped to allow it time to cool down and got the magic spray out (water).That seemed to do the trick and we were on the move again. I usually try to convey a sense of what a drive was like in these reports but it is difficult to truly reflect this afternoon’s drive. Perhaps my instructions over the radio would be better. “Climb, push it, push t , sweep the bowl, criss-cross, sweep, cross, push it push it! Control the descent , sweep, cross, sweep, momentum, stay high , cross, stay high, sweep. Cross, sweep, cross, climb PUSH IT PUSH IT!! OWN IT! YALLA! Repeat x 50 🤣 Thank you all so much for your excellent driving skills , you were all utterly fantastic and I had a great time leading you. Special note to @Hisham Masaad who was on his first IM and had a flawless drive and also @asifk who did exceptionally well. It was great to drive with @Francois Germishuys for the first time too. Love how you have control of that beast! To @David Ortells, @siddharth maheshwari , @GauravSoni, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQand @Ashok chaturvedi, you all had great drives, thank you. Special thanks to @Ilya Golubinsky who once again was excellent as my second lead, to @Kailaswho kept an eye on everything at the front of the convoy and to @Islam Soliman who was sweeping at the back. Brilliant support! And that was that, Sharjah’s Bowls….Owned! Until our next adventure.

I’m happy to offer my services when I can 😂. @Arman and I try our best to make everyone laugh and not think about the difficulties of shoveling every now and then. Thank you @Wrangeld for making me your second lead I hope I did you proud, and I hoped I helped and did everyone else proud in the convoy! I thought sweep was fun, but being second lead is more so fun to be honest 😂 now I’m in a dilemma, second lead or sweep.

Good drive today. Few hairy moments on high ridges and unexpected turns. Smooth sailing though. Thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks a lot @Luca Palanca Falsini

Oh then you missed the RAK drive in December. It was close.to area that you refer to and was awesomely scenic...again thanks to @Ale Vallecchi and @Wrangeld for exploring that track...was simply the most scenic drive i have been to.

Hey all, did anyone take any videos or photographs? I had a GoPro on my roof for the drive so will share the video once edited.

Hi @Foxtrot Oscar thanks for the add. C u later

In addition to the new constructions on going, which I Don't know what for?! Could it be more ghost roads🤔

Thank you Fred for leading and all the support crew for their help on the drive! I felt that I needed to keep the revs high mainly in first to get into the sweet spot torque band to tackle a few of the higher dunes. And to trust the momentum of the car to take you across the ridge when you reach the top Clearly lots to learn and explore Really nice to meet everyone and looking forward to future drives😀

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi would be interested to visit this place... 😀

Hi @Ashok chaturvedi. It's an area off of E611, with a grid of tarmac roads and roundabouts almost all buried by the desert. Beyond these disappearing grid is a nice desert area (reaching toward E44) with great views of Downtown Dubai, the Burj Khalifa and the Burj al Arab. Very nice area.

Hi @varunmehndiratta. That's still the plan, with a full day drive that I would like to post in another couple of weeks. I am still "re-educating" the FJ to the sand, and will wait just a little more for a long range drive. Still, this should be quite a long drive (in the realm of 60+ Km). Hope to see you there.

@GautamaialniMost of the off road garages and workshops can fabricate and install the skid plates for you...You can find these garages in Ras Al Khor and Al Quoz area...just ensure the thickness is between 8mm to 10mm for the front and for the back you just need one just to prevent the rear bumper to scoop sand. The front skid plate should not exceed 1100 dhs and the back 450 dhs max... You might need a front bumper trimming as well.

Hi Humayun, it is not very hi res as an extract from a video. 750kb I do have other photos, check the gallery ( for some reason named E66)

Hi Paul, very nice pictures! would it be possible to get a high res version of the second picture?

Of course you can share it 😉

Thank you @Vanessa8580 for taking us to such an adventurous ride. You and @Jeepie (Mariam) have tackled all the hurdles very professionally even it was very bad weather. Thank you once again.

Hi Thomas. It's not that close to Business Bay. Its to the right of E611, in the direction of Sharjah, after E611 intersects E66. The grid is visited by many, for picnics and photographing. There you will not get lost. Going beyond it, toward E44 is tricky, you need to know your way, and things can happen like in any other desert. So no going there alone is suggested, as at Carnity we never suggest to venture in the desert alone, ever.

Yes I hav heard that expats are not allowed to export car older than 10 years... No idea about exact rule though...

Indeed very sad incident Dr @Mohamed Seidam. This is laziness or lack of knowledge which created such incident. The stuck vehicle did not budge an inch. The way the Patrol was stuck it would have been better to recover it from the other side. As we are unable to see the other side for any dangers, securing the rope with a heavy bag or a bungee cord could have saved the Hummer driver. Diging behind the wheels to create an easy path could have also saved the hard tugs. Such a hard tug is never recommended. Much better to have a few tugs of much lower intensity.

Today was really nice drive. Despite extremely hot weather for March we had lots of fun. 6 driver was ready to leave at 6.30am so we left around 6.35. There was some late comers reached us trough radio around 6.40 but as per Carnity rules we can`t wait for anyone. We had to leave otherwise it would be disrespect for the people were ready to leave at 6.30. Anyway we found our way to beautiful Big Red. We had few refusals but everyone managed to handle the big dunes. After that we came to front side of Big Red where we pushed our climbing abilities. From Big Red we start driving towards to Pink Rock. Drivers were so flawless we didn`t even touch our radios for long time. Once we reach to Pink Rock we made some climbs. Man that Tundra was looking amazing, sounding amazing and climbing amazing. Anyway we start moving to Suwaydan area where our little Jimny start shining. That thing had hard time at long climbs but impossible to get it stuck in technical dunes. Anyway overall that Jimny shocked everyone. It reached every point with all other V6 and V8 cars. Suwaydan was scenic drive with trees, bushes and camels around. From Suwaydan we found our way to Faya. We were lucky to find the Faya empty. We had several climbing attempts and since still we have time we drove bit further to my famous Bowl. After playing in the bowl and driving around the Faya we reached safely to the Exit. Thank you all for joining. You guys were amazing. Special thanks for @Nivin for his fabulous support. I am unable to share the drive log since my phone got overheated and closed while recording the track.

Trust me its better to let her drive so she joins too, otherwise wifey drive joining quota last 2-3 drives as a passenger. I learned offroading for my wife and then after 3 drives she got bored and I got the sand bug for life.

@Tbone don't have words to describe the fun we all had during your drive. Short convoy more enjoyment. @Mario Cornejo, @Rob Harper, @Anvar Sadath Bekal all driving good. Not even one stuck to free the hands from the wheel. The entire drive I couldn't smoke as both my hands were busy holding the wheel. 1st time in all these almost 20 plus drives with @Carnity I had to switch off the AC. Thanks for the amazing side slopping areas you showed us and let us practice. Shall I call this side slopping and ridge flattening drive? The apt word is motocross. The way you let us drive after checking out fun areas yourself for our safety is commendable. You not only check out for safety but every step of the climb is being announced on the radio for us to watch and understand. I wonder how you do this during the climb. The black Xterra sailing through those dunes really inspired all of us. The advice you gave at the end of the drive turned out to be true about hypertension. I checked my BP and was surprised to see it has dropped down to levels unbelievable. I was planning to drop out of drives once summer is in full strength but now in 2 minds. Anyways going to consult my physician to check out about the medicine dosage as BP has dropped dangerously low.

@Wrangeld @Jeandre Bezuidenhout @KalahariThank you for a super drive today! The trip felt like we were supported by 3 marshals!! I know you didn’t sign up for a workout @Kalahari @Jeandre Bezuidenhout however you left us feeling a complete comfort/confidence at the back of the convoy -thankyou. I didn’t say much during the whole drive, I was concentrating as the route was challenging and a faster pace for me, however the main reason was I was enjoying the @Shehab Alawadhi and @Arman show! You two are a gift to any convoy as you both really do make it a laugh the whole ride! My personal favorites ... @Shehab Alawadhi offering his washboard abs as a jack-board, being branded the bridge maker for his unselfish and consistent flattening of dunes and both of them doing pull ups and dips on the TJ as one of the group was being recovered! ... there were many more hilarious moments and thank you both for the energy and great vibes throughout! @Wrangeld drives are famed for being technical torture (my motivation for joining them ) so massive kudos to @Shehab Alawadhi for being a SL with the boat and managing it with such poise and control... seriously impressive! I was excited to have a chance to use the ATRAC butting at the beginning of the ride ... it felt like a magic button!! It was great to be with some old newbie/fewbie friends @Danish Mohammad @N@ved ... And my favorite Jeep has been the TJ so to be sandwiched in the convoy by @Arman and @N@ved made me feel like I was cheating on my FJ at times! Thanks again @Wrangeld for what was a challenging, technical, fast and fun ride! I’ll try and speak up a bit more on future drives (and write less)

Hi @Frederic your feedbacks are spot on and invaluable. I remember every word of yours, I can feel that I am already started learning quickly about Pajero and started loving it. Probably couple of more drives I should learn more coupled with all your inputs. Thanks to all seniors who did a great supporting role making every one feel comfortable. Thanks to entire convoy for sharing the great day and providing such opportunity to learn from every moment. @Thomas Varghese you are very true, already off roading is making me crazy about it. I had just recovered today morning from covid vaccine side effects and was on my first drive. Could imagine how far it can go. I believe now every one above 40 age can get vaccinated, kindly go for it asap as per your convenience. Thanks, Lakshmi narasimhan

Hello @Chaitanya and the rest of the team leads! Thank you for a fantastic drive this morning. It felt good to get stuck a few times and get some assistance in recovery. All of you are class A in my book!

@Rob Harper with his Tundra is amazing. He was with us during our Mahafiz drive with @Tbone. He was right behind me and man the beast is like a meek toy in the hands of @Rob Harper. Never seen anyone handling such a beast with so ease. He sure knows how to tame a beast. @Tbone had to comment he has only seen 1 man driving a beast like this which is @Francois Germishuys.

Thanka @Ale Vallecchi @Vanessa8580@Rajeevan Vickneswaranfor the excellent scenic drive

Guys is the meeting time accurate? 630am or 7am?

Hi @Ale Vallecchi thank you for these information Can’t wait to discover the «Ghost Road » 👻👻👻👻 i had the same question as @Ahmed Wagdy but he was faster than me 😉 See you tomorrow

@Tbone, please can you add me to the wait list? This will be my 2nd drive of the day. Thank you.