Leaderboard

Thank you @Frederic, @Melenany, and @Nivin for leading a great drive today! The area was beautiful with all the trees and shrubbery. Also want to say that it was nice to be done early enough to have the rest of the day to accomplish other personal items. 3.5 hours of focused attentive desert driving is just the right amount for this old man. 😊. Have a great week!

Thank you @Frederic @Melenany @Nivin and the rest of the convoy. Such a nice and different drive. Going to fix my flag pole as it stopped the convoy twice! I tried out gaia GPS for the first time and it was helpful to see how it works.

Relive IM Faqa

Thanks a lot @Frederic, @Nivin, and @Melenany, it was an enjoyable drive, yet with some tricky challenges.

Great leaders, simply super drive, good learning, brilliant convoy. Totally a different flavour. Thanks to every one.

@Frederic @Nivin @Melenany Thank you for the great drive today - A little different than the usual but definitely a lot of learnings. Great convoy as well!! Well done all!! See you soon!!!

1st time in my life I hear I'm awesome. Thanks @varunmehndiratta. All my life I lived for others without expecting even a thanks. Now everybody is surprised why I prefer to be out with you guys whenever I can. I found so many friends here. Simple reason.

Thanks @Frederic for the amazing drive. I really would like to thank and the convoy members for the great efforts and talent during the drive.

When @Carnity drivers intruded into camel kingdom

Good evening fellow adventurers, I'm very much looking forward to heading back into Badayer's red sands. This drive is a perfect training ground for fewbie plus. It has climbs, and bowls with swirling pockets so you will be testing your skills to the max. It's Saturday afternoon, it's fun time, be sure to bring your A game We will be using radio channel 3 (three) My proposed convoy is as follows: Driver Car Level Position Angela @Foxtrot Oscar Black X Expert Lead @Ahab Shamaa White FJ IM 2nd lead @Arman Silver Wrangler Fewbie 3rd @Matt.T White Wrangler Fewbie 4th @Lucky sAm Patrol Fewbie 5th @AlexPol Grey Wrangler IM CF @Paul Zeitoun Dodge Ram Fewbie 7th @Shehab Alawadhi F150 Fewbie 8th @varunmehndiratta Blue Wrangler IM 9th @asifk Pajero IM 10th @GauravSoni@Ashok chaturvedi Yellow FJ IM 11th @Islam Soliman Yukon Adv Sweep

Thank you @Vanessa8580, and @Islam Soliman for the wonderful morning Here is the link to the GoPro video files staring @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil 😂😂 https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1g2TbTT3t-na_6TzZEnrnYPWMtvPjE8cm

@Vanessa8580 and the leads thank you for your unfailing energy and for a super drive this morning! @Warren Flay I hope my missus doesn’t see your post😂 but I can certain say it was a totally different experience in the LC today when compared to my manual Wrangler. P.s. you forgot “ventilated” on the seats 😅 @Gautamaialni @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil and everyone else on the drive - very nice to see / meet you all... And I found the radio banter most amusing this morning 😜 Till next time - stay safe and have a fab weekend 👍

@Ale Vallecchi thank you for a diverse and safe drive, I enjoyed it very much. Also thanks to @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ and @Nabil Bishara for supporting and keeping the convoy moving. Have a nice rest of the weekend and a great week ahead. ~MC

Drive Report I told you it would be tricky. Faqa’s alluring beauty , so enticing, so thrilling and so fraught with hidden dangers. I started off slowly, allowing everyone to wake from their morning slumber as I’m sure we were all still in shock from our alarms going off at an ungodly hour. I know I was. The slopes were steep but we managed to get along the side of them with no issues, we did some crossovers and made our way further into the sand. @Abu Muhammad had a nice moment to rest on the crest when @Mohamed Seidam and @Francois Germishuys got the shovels, out, and then finally a tug as the conditions weren’t perfect enough for the car’s gizmos to kick in. There were a few more refusals as everyone became acclimatized to the challenge Faqa presents. I heard someone sarcastically comment re making the drive more difficult,I think we all laughed at that. Faqa is all the proof you need that IM drives are not all about the big bowl thrills. We continued our journey riding on small ridges as they beckoned us towards them and traversing the dunes as we do. @Rizwan Waheed had some issues on one dune, couldn’t get on top of it to cross over, so we gave him a tug and he deflated a bit more and then we continues to Faqa’s much less ventured other side. Having reached the pristine virgin dunes that run along the Al Ain border there was nothing for us to do but flatten those wonderful ridges with our bash plates. They’re high, there’s a steep slip face on the other side, you require nerves of steel, and complete control of your vehicle to stay on top of them but stay on top we did. One after another after another after another. We sliced tracks through the area at a good pace and only had a few more refusals and one stuck. Well done all, we made it out on time, although I am always tempted to keep driving haha. @Rizwan Waheed, just need to push that Pajero a little more and get better control on side slopes. @Rizwanm2, I think you only had a couple of refusals, well done. @Abu Muhammad, you only had a couple of issues too, nice driving! @Francois Germishuys you didn’t have any, sorry about the choking seatbelt haha , a different kind of challenge for you today. Many thanks to @siddharth maheshwari for executing a perfect second lead, following my instructions and having a good drive and also for pulling me out when I was headed into a pocket. You did well on that recovery. Ask to be more involved with them on your next drives to ensure you keep learning and practicing. Also to @Mohamed Seidam for his role as CF and helping with refusals and stucks. Thank you for indulging the teacher in me and ensuring everyone was involved in their own recoveries which allows learning to take place. I can guarantee you that on my drives I’ll never get into your car to drive you out of trouble , instead I will pass on the knowledge and skills so that you can do it for yourself. We covered 68km in 4hrs 3mins with a moving time of 3hrs10mins. Well done you!!! Until our next adventure 😊

Yes we had great drive full of enjoyment specially ridge riding, loved it so Thank you everyone specially @Foxtrot Oscar, @Mohamed Seidam, @Francois Germishuys (Really nice cultures).

@Foxtrot Oscar thanks fun drive today, lots of skid plate action today, it was fun..... except for the choppy surf at the end 🤪 See you all next time 🤘🏻

Great drive, very impressed with everyone in the drive, few stuck and refusals but other than that very avid drivers! (I never doubted anyone, don’t get me wrong) Thank you @Vanessa8580 for being a great lead as usual, @Arman for being a great second lead, and @Islam Soliman for being a great sweep. Learned a lot about getting out of tight situations like what happened with @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, (That was a very nasty way to get stuck). But I hope you learned a lot of gas control and how to “play” with your steering to displace sand. Other than that great drive. Hope I didn’t let anyone down as CF and could help as much as possible.

@Foxtrot OscarLovely drive. Thx alot, enjoyed the drive. Thank you everybody for the support. take care and stay safe. cheers.

Being just on time ( either Google was wrong or I was faster than usual within the upper margin of speed allowed 😅), I reached the deflation point and in no time we all vanished deep in the desert of Faqa ! What an amazing Drive I enjoyed every slope, cross cross, crest or ridge riding which in a time was like a sharp razor like peculiar to Faqa long range dunes . Also loved the technical part toward the end which I consider the added flavour to any drive . An awesome lead by our lead as usual for Angela @Foxtrot Oscar and no less for the sweep @Francois Germishuys with his red beast. After the drop out our proposed second lead was @siddharth maheshwari you did great especially with your crest recovery without the need for a rope. And I have to say totally I agree with Angela “ involve me and I learn 👍” is what we all need . @Rizwan Waheed nice to meet you bro and practice always makes perfect you did good. @Rizwanm2 it has been for a while since fossil rock . It was pleasure driving with you.you were driving in front of me directly and you made it easy for me 😉 @Abu Muhammad nice drive and it’s always a pleasure having in any drive . Well done 👍 once more thank you Angela for this great fast pace drive which covered almost all what was intended to do with great pleasure 🙏 cheers and take care 🌷🙏 pict in gallery

Thank you @Vanessa8580 and @Islam Soliman for the ride, the patience and the good advice. I learned a few more tricks (especially after being stuck in the pocket Also, super cool convoy - had some good laughs on the way ^^ I will add some pictures to the gallery. @Shehab Alawadhi I'll send you the link to the videos as you pretty much feature in all of them (and you'll probably hear some french on them ...) @Rawad Bahsas would love to get some of your GoPro footage too Have a lovely weekend and see you soon !

Thank you @Foxtrot Oscar for pefect Friday morning drive. Everything was perfect. The weather, pace, untouched virgin dunes, long ridge ridings, side slopes and we even get to tackle some technical dunes as well. Everyone did well and thank you for the team spirit. 👍 See u next time..

Beautiful drive @Vanessa8580 thanks for leading us. @Arman great job on being the second lead hopefully you can drive the beast f150 next time. Great to meet @Warren Flay and tim. Thanks for the great support morale and Tim I am glad the cruiser tasted the sand today Warren the garage I was talkin about was radical in ras al Khor/ have a good weekend guys see you around next time.

Thank you Vanessa and Islam, I had a fantastic day and the first 'clean' round of my career😂. The Gajero was flawless with her new bashplates and 2 inch lift kit (thanks Icon) now if only I could get better than 44 litres per 100 km life would be good... Lovely to meet my new offroad buddies Gautam and Tim, Gautam driving the family Pajero was perfect for me to follow (anywhere the big bus could go, the little Gajero could follow) and I raised many a smile watching Tim plow the sand with his 300 thousand dirham shovel (at one stage I saw the nose wings go deep and I thought he was going to have to switch off his vibrating, massaging, leather captain chair THAT'S VENTILATED and concentrate!) Great day and looking forward to the next one already🤙

Thanks to @Hasan Wahlan, I found the trick to getting LandCruiser to climb up with power & ease is to shift it manually to L (in 4-High of course). Unfortunately I was too excited with this discovery and fear of getting stuck on the crest triangle made me step on the pedal a bit too much 😂 So my LandCruiser flew, as soon as it touched down @Srikumar bhai asked me to check the radiator. Radiator was ok and we continued... Two days later "clicking" noise started coming from the front-driver side, as seen from this video: Can you guess what the culprit is? If you say CV Boot close enough, it did start with the CV Boot leak, but eventually I had to replace the whole front-left axle 😂 No need to buy new one though, new OEM will cost 2000dhs++ , since i may break it again *touch wood, a good second-hand that costs 400dhs is enough for now 😄

Wow Thomas you are awesome my friend...it's great..thanks a lot..👍👍

@Foxtrot Oscar Saturday drive will be near last one this season as I am leaving for 3 weeks to India from coming Wednesday.

OJ, Agent Orange

GJ is a new one for me Angela @Foxtrot Oscar 😂 I’m looking forward to the drive tomorrow 😀

Dear @Kailas, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Arun Mathew and @Javier Lucero, once again wanted to extend my appreciation for a great drive and superb teamwork exhibited by all. @Kailas kudos to you for structuring the drive the way you did, enjoyed the ridge driving although it did take me a couple of attempts to get to a satisfactory level, ridge criss-crossing was great and it did put my fewbie skills to test!😅. Having several play areas spots along the drive was a great flavor to the entire journey! So well done you!

Update: 2016 Pajero SWB, front bashplate fitted. Second drive with Carnity March 26. 24 degrees at start and up to 40 degrees celsius by end of drive, no stucks or refusals, used Tiptronic shift exclusively (2nd and 3rd gears only) No overheating at all.

Dear all, thanks a lot for a wonderful drive! @Chaitanya D appreciate your guidance, care and tips! Especially liked your timely feedback, it made some things waaay more clear for me! @Foxtrot Oscar thanks for inflating my tire so quickly! It would take considerably more time for me to do it myself. Hope to see you all next time soon!

Yes we had two stuck - perfect center crests , managed with shoveling. These are the situations which make you a better driver as you learn everytime with a stuck. More stucks = more learning. We did challenge ourselves enough today with varied terrains but all drove really well for a fewbie drive with minimal refusals and stuck.

Indeed a fantastic evening and great start to the weekend. @Chaitanya D Doc my second drive with you and enjoyed every bit of it, night driving was a good learning (my first drive after sunset) as you mentioned it’s at a different pace but needs more than 100% attention as it’s easy to lose track and end up in an unwanted situation. @Foxtrot Oscar Angela thanks for all the support and hope to drive one under your leadership soon. thanks to everyone in the convoy for a smooth drive (if I remember correctly we only had to get shovels out twice, no ropes at all), we should all be proud of our achievement and thanks again to Marshal and Sweep for leading and mentoring us today.

Hello guys, as our lead @Chaitanya D quated it was a good start to a weekend for me. Had to leave minutes before our finishing time coz my son slept in the car it was difficult for me manage him while driving. Thank you @Chaitanya Dfor a wonderful night off-road class..👏👏👏 and @N@ved for the second lead and @Foxtrot Oscarfor the sweep.the whole convey was wonderful and see you soon in the sands.

This was a ride exactly as advertised! The landscape, vegetation, wildlife, farms, tracks and wavy dunes requires absolute control and concentration! What a super drive... I would encourage every fewbie to experience this as it’s a 3 hour master class on momentum! I left the drive grateful to @Ale Vallecchi for such a great experience/education and to @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Nabil Bishara for all the support and getting the full convoy through safely on what must have been such a difficult set of tracks to follow as you got further back! Kudos to all In the convoy especially the 2nd half (I didn’t envy your challenge) ... shovels out only twice and no ropes needed! 🙌🏽

It's an awesome pic...car is actually Granite Crystal as FCA calls it.😀😀.close to Grey/Black. In any case I am part color blind...was my daughter who told me it looks blue..😀😀

Please call me on 0506442921.. I can join in an hour notice..

I haven’t been on a fewbie plus drive in a while. Can’t wait for tomorrow 🤘💪

It was an amazing drive today which thoroughly enjoyed! Many thanks for the experience @Kailas & @Yousef Alimadadi

@Kailas & @Yousef Alimadadi thank you very much for today's drive.. had lot of fun & my machine took up the challenge . First time to do a CF which was cool as well as first refusal pull out (thanks for the directions @Kailas, i will need to buy the rope though) Hope to see you soon... Till then be safe & happy riding !!!

@Foxtrot Oscar enjoying going through this thread, i am impressed how you're keeping up with the speed and frequency of people dropping out and changing their mind 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Hi Angela can u wait 4 me guys? Please I am driving I need 15 min on google 🙏🙏

Trip report Writing this after being energized by a fab start to the weekend as planned with some thrill of a night drive. We drove from Love lakes to Murqab practicing technical dunes, some nice steep sideys, ridge rides and criss crossings. It was a nice mix of experienced IM drivers at the back and some extremely eager fewbie at the front who learnt and improvised as we drove along. @N@ved was excellent as 2nd lead. Very responsive and did some minor rerouting to perfection. Thank you so much. @Ranjan Das did well and got better as we drove more towards Murqab. Some fishtailing and momentum issues, but I suppose you will only get better as you did towards the end. @Mikhail Lukichev was driving very well in 4th position. Quickly learning the minor adjustments needed , it was great to see that you felt the tire deflated while driving which was fantastic as you could avoid a pop out (which would most likely happen on a deflated tire) with your presence of mind. @Anvar Sadath Bekal was a bit late addition to the drive, but I suppose enjoyed the drive as much as we all did. Well done @Ashok chaturvedi had no issues managing his new desert toy. Great to see your enthusiasm and how you have been driving well off late. @Shaaz Sha hardly heard on the radio. I wonder now you have got hold of managing the X after shifting from an amazing wrangler. @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ with his son as copassenger managed very wel. Great to have this duo , something similar to mine except that my son sits in the back seat.🤣 @GauravSoni did well in the back. Hope your car issues have been sorted well and you did not have any problems on today's drive. Well done @Foxtrot Oscar was the sweeping Angel today, reassurance for everyone that no one will be left behind. Thank you for your support Angela. Some pictures uploaded on the gallery. Please share your feedback and suggestions. You all did great today and it was indeed a good start to a weekend. See you all soon, Good night !

Pos # Pos # Attendees Level Car 1 Lead Mehmet Volga Advance Mitsubishi Pajero LWB 2 SL Jeepie Expert Jeep Wrangler 3 Larry Cadden Fewbie 2015 Jeep Wrangler 2 door black 4 Lawrence_Chehimi Fewbie 2019 Nissan Patro - Y62 Platinum City - White 5 Arshad Roojee Fewbie Jeep Wrangler SWB 6 Stavros papachristos Fewbie 2017 Jeep wrangler sport 7 Serafino Fewbie Jeep Wrangler LWB 8 CF Danish Mohammed Fewbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB 9 Pacific Fewbie Jeep Wrangler SWB 10 RajeshKumar Rathod Fewbie Nissan Xterra 11 TopGear Fewbie Toyota FJ Cruiser 12 Ali Abas Fewbie Toyota Land Cruiser White 13 Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader Fewbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB 14 Antoz Fewbie Toyota Prado 2015 15 SW Wrangeld Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero SWB @Mehmet Volga @Larry Cadden @Lawrence_Chehimi @Arshad Roojee @stavros papachristos @Serafino @Danish Mohammad @Pacific @rajeshkumar rathod @topgear @Ali Abas @Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader @Antoz @Wrangeld Decided to extend the convoy a little to accommodate everyone on the waitlist since we have some extra support as well. Mehmet will be leading (part of) the drive as part of his training to become a leader with Carnity We will be using channel 1 Hope to see you all tomorrow