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TRIP REPORT Lost for words, can you believe it, the most talkative finds himself lost for words. I was amazed to see everyone on time even with the dense fog in places. I called @Tbone just before the briefing and knowing he would arrive in an hour, I put the centre forward position on grab for an hour. I'm glad @Roger K put his hand up for the position, just an hour right. So we started our drive riding the ridge and crossing over. A few refusals, but we'll handled as @Roger K and @Richard Franks helped from the centre forward and sweep position to keep everyone moving. As leads we need to be flexible and ready to change plans as required. But what is more important is patience which I must say was evident with today's amazing bunch. I had some issues with my car and I had full support of @Ranjan Pattanaik, @Roger K and @Lakshmi Narasimhan. We found the culprit to be a hose just below my power steering pump. We had to remove a few parts to reach it and tape it. By this time @Tbone had reached us and we decided to take my car to the road side and continue with @Tbone Xterra. Evident is in the details, @Tbone allowed me to continue in his Xterra, which kept us awake throughout the drive. @Roger K was now our full time centre forward and @Richard Franks was totalky competent in communication and keeping our convoy moving. We enjoyed playing in 3 of the best play areas and it was lovely to see everyone in such good form. We even crossed over and climbed Fossil Rocks just to come down the other end with @Roger K supporting me from the top to guide people down. So the majority decided they wanted to continue and I obliged. We were off through a challenging terrain yet one that would teach us the value of momentum. Climbing it with great team work and marching on we went step by step to reach the top of Faya. What started out with a solo of "This girl is on Faya" turned put to be a duet at the end. This sums up the events of the day, the team backs you up even if you're singing bad. So that's the end of the drive, no way, we don't quit that easy. So we came down from Faya and started climbing from the front face till @TT_Dubai Tim's Checkered Jeep felt a heat stroke when there was a clunk and the clutch went hard. After trying it for some time and unable to resolve the issue we decided to pull it out. Team work was again on display as @Roger K realized the challenge and led the rest of the team to the tarmac, while @Tbone helped us to pull the Jeep out. @Ranjan Pattanaik was up to my expectations as he pushed his Explorer through every challenge as my second lead. What made everything sweeter was he did it all without having a low gear. @Rizwan Waheed made his way on my drive to meet up with me after a long time. His confidence seems high and he is handling his Pajero very well. Although he told me he is finding his Pajero to be a little underpowered specially on high climbs, but I am impressed with how he has grown and how well he drives. @Daniel Fernandez thank you for the black tape while you were trying to help me out. It was fun having you on my drive and you're more than welcome on my drive anytime. The one of refusal is the best way to learn and we sure had fun learning together. @Lakshmi Narasimhan does not need any position to contribute. Love having you on my drives and love the way you handle most situations. Great contribution on this drive as well and nice to have you and your family out to enjoy. @Roger K starting with raising your hand to help out for an hour as Centre Forward and continuing the gig for the entire drive with a smile and a half. Really enjoyed your company and also the support offered throughout the drive. Great spirit, keep it up. @Rawad Bahsas was quietly and patiently enjoying his ride. Such a pleasure to watch that whale of a Y62 doing some low level flying on some mighty play area. Always a joy to have you around. @Tbone gives team work a whole new perspective. Offering me to continue the drive with his amazing Xterra. Besides offering his ride he also offered me great company. How can one individual be so talented in so many ways. Just have a chance to spend some time with @Tbone to be inspired.@Chinthaka Ruwan had an amazing Xterra which was lovely to watch and I had a brief pleasure to drive it. Need a few more drives to improve the throttle control, but seems got a good control on the steering inputs. @Pierre de Maigret came with some great feedback from Marshals he has driven with. His grey FJ reminded me of @Ale Vallecchi and @marks FJs. For a newbie he managed well throughout but with time the finesse will make a big difference. Looking forward to many more drives with you. @TT_Dubai did amazingly well. The Jeep just kept up with every challenge thrown at it. Thankfully the clutch issue came up right at the end and we were able to tug it to the roadside. Luckily having the RSA insurance the recovery tea. Was contacted and a promise of between 45 - 60 minutes to reach. Hope you got the people on time to recover your Jeep, I had to rush to my car and thankfully able to drive it back home with @Rizwan Waheed giving me an escort service all the way to Sharjah City. @Yawa was driving a yellow Jeep which was very familiar to me. Ofcourse @WaYan was one my previous drive with the same yellow Jeep. Today she was a passenger, and I had the pleasure to meet her husband. Great to see husband and wife partnership's, great to see him handling the ride well. Although at one point it seemed he was lost, but he got through with a little help. Working on the safe distance where you don't miss out the tracks of the vehicle in front is also important. @Richard Franks last but not far the least took on a brand new challenge today of being in sweep. How well he did in the sweep is evident by keeping the convoy moving and me informed regarding the movements of the convoy. @Yawa losing track at one point was helped by @Richard Franks to help him join the convoy again. if our drive was structured today, he was one of the foundation which made our convoy strong. In the end I would like to thank each and everyone of you today for showing true Carnity spirit and strength. Whether it was taking up responsible positions to enhance everyone's driving experience. The patience shown during the troubled times. The effort to help and guide each other as a true team. Really heart warming. Looking forward to many more drives cultivating these traits in more and more community members. My salute to all the heroes today.

Post Drive Report Our first night drive of the season, and a great drive it was. We briefed and explained the techniques and additional safety considerations for night driving and got under way. We drove off into the dark and straight into our frist patch of construction sand which led to our first recovery (a winch from @Alexander Alcala for @Arman That sorted, with @Watteau in second lead [doing a Sterling job throughout] the real adventure began. It started quite tentatively as getting used to the way the light plays on the sand and lights up a few meters here and a few meters there invited caution. Intentionally, I started the route in an area that I had driven in the morning with the Absolute Newbie convoy. Knowing that in general we would not find any rocks or fences meant that the worse that could happen is getting stuck in some soft sand ... which is exactly the problem that presented itself quickly and continuously through the drive. In the day time it's a lot easier to read the sand and see if the sand is ridiculously soft. I guess as I practice more in night drives I will get more expert at seeing the patches of soft sand in the night in the same way as in the daytime. This meant that there were a few more reroutes than normal and a chance for me to use all of my self recovery skills to the full! Implementing the buddy system of fewbie/intermediate through the convoy worked well. The team work was great and as a lead it was excellent to get feedback from more experienced drivers about the less experienced so that we could offer real time feedback to help everyone through the drive. @Gaurav Soni @Thomas Varghese @Shehab Alawadhi @Ahab Shamaa, @Ehab @Pacific @Sinol and @armaan all benefitted from your line through the sand. Our biggest general problem through the night? Crests. There were quote a few stucks where drivers misjudged the momentum needed to get over a crest or make a it through a crisscross. This is a quite understandable because depth and distance perspective changes in the night and whereas in the day it's possible to see the height of the dune and have an idea of the descent, in the dark ... I was also a bit surprised about the softness of the sand. My expectation was that as the sand cooled it would be less soft than during the day. Perhaps it's just where I drove, but it felt to me that the sand was softer in the dark - I am sure it is not, but all your senses are heightened in the night so the feeling was a bit different. As expected we saw quite a lot of wildlife, Gazelle and Oryx feeding quietly suddenly disorientated and unsure what to do faced with bright lights and noise coming in their direction. Sorry if you did not see them by the time the convoy came through, but I promise, they were there. Unique moments? I loved seeing the whole convoy riding a long the top of the long range dunes seeing the long line of lights lighting up the dunes was quite mesmerizing. Watching the same lights snake their way down some stepped dunes and finally the way that the technical section was handled with (almost) everyone getting through without incident. The swooping virgin sand Sweihan style dunes we found were quite puke inducing from the driving seat, never mind a passenger seat. The roller coaster section was amazing as we literally swooped through one dune and onto the next. And then there was Arman's spearhead in the tire. Take a look about to see what he managed to impale into his tyre in the post above. We did out best to repair this which let Arman continue thanks largely to the foresight of @Jeepie in equipping us both with a repair kit. [We did not check before we left, but frankly there is a rule that says don't drive without a spare tire in good condition on your vehicle] which was a chance for @watteau to bring out the big guns in the 'jack' stakes. Frankly I think that this Jack could lift the Burj Khalifa a few feet off the ground. As the temporary repair failed we had to make a direct run for the exit point. My Marshal colleagues reading this will all understand what I say if I refer to the exit following @Pancho rules, but even so we have to reinflate a few times to get to the exit. Those who needed to leave quickly left and with massive thanks to @Thomas Varghese a recovery was arranged that got Arman home. Conclusions: At the end of 4 hours, the confidence of everyone was much higher and we were moving at a great pace and I had normalized to reading the sand, as had all the drivers. I imagine that at the back of the convoy it was fast paced and challenging due to the softness of the sand and that it was churned. Night driving is different, scary at times, massively adrenalin pumping and I cannot wait for the next lead. Oh, and if by some chance you know that poor camping trip that was convinced they had found themselves that amazing secluded camping spot to which no one would arrive where we drove through their living room. Sorry! See you soon in the sand.

@Ranjan Pattanaik @Rizwan Waheed@Daniel Fernandez@Lakshmi Narasimhan@Roger K@Rawad Bahsas@Tbone@Chinthaka Ruwan@Pierre de Maigret@Yawa@Richard Franks @Rahimdad Pictures are up on the Gallery - hope I got everyone 😃

Thank you @Rahimdad for a great morning drive! Really pleased to hear your Pathfinder made it back home and hope it is an easy fix on the power steering. It was nice to tick off Fossil Rock and Faya off the list once we got going again. It is one big playground! The whole morning was smooth for me and while the clutch issue ultimately stopped play, I feel lucky it happened towards the end of extra time. 😀 I have been having issues with my clutch for a while. The workshop previously checked it when it was in for a full service as I mentioned it was clicking thought out the travel range and said it had another 20k of life left so not recommended to change now. It looks like I have no choice now! Thank you so much to you for checking on the car and @Tbonethe tow out to the road. I was surprised that the road was so close to where we decended Faya. Thank you also to @Roger K and @Yawafor coming back to check in while waiting for the recovery truck. Very pleased to report the flatbed truck arrived in a prompt 35 minutes (was dispatched from Sharjah Industrial area) and could locate me easily as adjacent to the quad bike rental shop. Very nice guy called Ali loaded it up in a few minutes and we had a very smooth journey to the Al Quoz workshop chatting all the way on his war stories during his previous decade in Dubai as a Dubai taxi driver! The workshop was closed for Friday so I was planning to come back on Saturday morning to hand over the keys. As we were unloading the Jeep, the workshop manager and his wife coincidentally was coming back from their own desert academy drive and quickly checked the car and took the keys in with the promise of a report today. So let's see! I have some pictures which I will upload to the gallery once the Folder for yesterday's drive is created. It was lovely to see everyone again and to meet new enthusiasts. 😊

@Lakshmi Narasimhan I managed to crop that moment out of my front camera recordings yet its a bit blurry because i was a bit far @Rahimdad was showered at first, then he singlehandedly pushed @Ranjan Pattanaikout of his stuck So lucky to be driving with superman

@Wrangeld i have great news! I awake safely in my bed this morning, thanks to @Thomas Varghese for his help with the tow truck as well as negotiations Thanks @Jeepie for your generous sacrifice, i'll be sure to pay it both forwards and back. And @Watteau for your excellent choice in jacks. @Alexander Alcala thanks for helping save time filling the tyre constantly lots of people to thank here damn! As for the drive, it was a great experience to drive at night, got to see some interesting track and even got to pick up quite a bit of speed here and there, plus many lessons learned. Attached you will find the weapon that attacked my poor baby, got me descriptively shouting "my tyre's been stabbed!!" to everyone's confusion. Special thanks to @Shehab Alawadhi's terrible puns, btw that counter carries to the end of the year.....you have one bad tyre pun left so use it wisely.

@Ale Vallecchi another special drive and my first long range patrol/adventure complete! Please continue to find these routes and drives as I am hooked on these exploration/long range drives and massive thanks for planning such a great trip! I really appreciated the tutor system! My only issues came with refusals and a crest because I followed to close (lost concentration/patience) or didn’t follow the tracks of my tutor! @Archibald Jurdi you didn’t likely realize but you helped me a lot by showing me tracks/momentum to build! Thank you. @Gaurav Soni I was grateful for your support right behind during the stucks, I was being hugged by experience this whole ride sandwiched between you two! Huge appreciation to @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ and his awesome son for helping me shovel and rope off that crest near the end! Also I appreciate you encouraging me to go more bold with deflation ... really appreciate all the tips you share and you motivating your son to climb the dunes by foot to dig me out were hilarious (telling him to go into 4L when he tired) @Abu Muhammad I only wish I got to see you drive your beauty ... am in awe of how you got through the route from right at the back with the stunning truck/yacht of yours! Kudos! @Mario Cornejo wow ... super second lead and a role model driver as a fellow green intermediate drive! @Ale Vallecchi again thankyou for an awesome trip and keep these coming pls 🙏🏽 Have added a few pics to the gallery ... I tried to create a 1990’s style car advert as the sunrise created an incredible colour palette! Enjoy the rest of the weekend and see you all soon.

Though its bit late post, as i was unable to reply to any topic. Now i have signed out & logged in again to join the club then saw the reply box luckily. It was really fantastic drive and got to learn many things. The best lession was like how to survive in desert with limited equipped. Its possible bcoz of you @Rahimdad and off course can't forget the teamwork by all partners. First of all i was surprised to see my name as SL also got little nervous as i have Ford Explorer which having only terrain management system without any Low Gear, but somehow managed bcoz all of your cooperation. Many thanks to @Rahimdadto believe me to keep behind him. How can i forget our superman @Tbone who entered in middle of desert to continue our journey to the end, claps. Even though we had few hurdles still all members were cheering up and enjoying their drive. Also @Rahimdad's entertainment and courage which keep all members active at all time. Special thanks to @Roger K who managed CF very well and @Richard Franks at sweep. Would love to be in the group and wish to have more drive with you all. @Rawad Bahsasthanks for the video clip which @Rahimdad showered in sand while pushing my car ( can't stop laughing by watching it) and thanks @Lakshmi Narasimhan who reminded to post this. Thanks everyone for courage and support. I hope @TT_Dubai must have fixed his car and ready for next drive. See you all soon.

What an epic adventure!!!! Great banter, great driving, amazing landscape and expertly handled. The chuckle brothers @Arman and @Shehab Alawadhi were on top form, I'm sure you two should have a YouTube channel or something. The rumours of an alien invasion in Al Qudra have been quashed by two campers who have confirmed that the unearthly glow and low rumble was in fact a group of mad off-roaders. Great thanks to @Wrangeld, @Jeepie and @Alexander Alcala for their expertise, tutelage and dedication to the cause. Cannot wait for the next one, hope to see you all soon, have a great week.

Dear Desert Wanderers, It hurts a bit to be grounded in Europe for what was meant to be my own drive.. But I'll be in spirit with you. I'm sure @Ale Vallecchi will make it an excellent and entertaing drive today, toghether with @Yousef Alimadadi! Have fun, be safe and learn a bit more at every turn! Ciao!

They must have thought a raiding party has come to pick their stocks and must have got the shock of their life seeing all the big trucks zooming past them out of the darkness and vanishing into the night. For sure the company who organized this camp will have a tough time explaining what really happened and the secluded spot they offered was discovered by a convoy from @Carnity and it was not secluded after all. Imagine the plight of the campers who wished to have a quiet night suddenly startled by the grunts of the big trucks with big flashy lights on top illuminating them. I hope all the campers are ok after the onslaught. Thank you @Wrangeld for initiating this fun drive at night. I enjoyed every bit of it. Will surely join another night drive when it comes up.

Gaia Track based on the trip, for those who want to repeat it again 😁 >> https://www.gaiagps.com/public/SuCAtpndeXdYeTAShzkicOul

Thank you @Emmanuelfor organizing wolderful drive. It was fast all the way till the end and i really enjoyed everybit of it. Thank you @Tero Vallas for all you precaution as second lead. @Shaaz Sha you handled that xterra very well. And thank you for following me even after the drive 😜 @Jorge Stepniak Felippe @Christian Andras hope you guys enjoyed as much as we did in the front.

Thank you @Wrangeld for this INTENTIONAL night drive I really enjoyed just going nose first into the abyss 😂 Thanks @Watteau for lighting the front of the convoy up. I think the international space station was watching us traverse the desert. Thank you @Alexander Alcala and @Jeepie for not leaving anyone behind. @Ahab Shamaa thx for winching me out 😂 always fun to be gently pulled and my passengers got to experience what a crest feels like (see it was totally intentional 😂) Thanks everyone else for being good fun! @Arman I have so many puns I’d like to add but I think they’d lose their meaning on a post so I’m going to save it for when I see you next so I can physically see you face palm 😉 Attached is yesterday’s track. I may have forgotten to stop the recording when I hit qudra road 😂

@Chaitanya D details of drive are not clear can you pls check

Thank you @Luca Palanca Falsinifor yet another wonderful drive today, loved all the challenges you gave us today. Thank you @Thomas Varghese for being our 2nd lead today, Thank you @Shehab Alawadhi for your efforts and support today being at CF position, Thank you @Jeandre Bezuidenhout for ensuring the convoy stays together 👍 Really enjoyed everyones company today, Thank you and see you all soon in the sand InshaAllah 😊

Great lead by Dr @Chaitanya D, all those weekend drives for the past year really shaped your experience & leadership 👍🏻 Paired with awesome assist by @Craig Finlayson, we were definitely in safe hands today 💪🏻 Everyone did well in self-recovery too, I greatly enjoyed today's drive 😊

All - it was a pleasure driving with the Abu Dhabi guys today! Everyone drove great - everyone’s car was well equipped and handled the sand amazing. No drive is complete without some stucks and refusals! It defines a drive and it’s how we learn. @Karthikeyan Govindarajanyou pulled yourself out of some great situations and self recovered really well. I think you were just playing with me when you crested it twice on the same ridge. @Hasan Wahlanyou’ve got some rig and you drove it great today! It was a pleasure watching that beast pass thru the dunes with out much hindrance. @Mus_hus78as said earlier, I’ve seen a lot of Pajero’s struggle in hot sand, but yours never showed any signs of giving up! In fact I’m sure it’s prob a Jeep in disguise! @Mikhail Lukichevsuperb second lead today - especially in Sweihan which is never an easy trail. I’m still convinced you crested it on the last dune just for a photo opp! You looked so pleased with yourself for It too. @Farouq Owdeh- it means something when your name is rarely mentioned across the radios - top driving, and I love the mods on the Cherokee! @Warren Flayapart from a couple of refusals (which are part of the fun to be honest) you navigated that short wheel base round the sand great - must’ve been the gloves! @Zed- it was a pleasure to meet you today. Similar to Farouq, you chucked it around the dunes without any issues. and last but no means least - @Chaitanya- we’ve driven a few times and I remember being on your first lead drive. You’re a joy to drive with and always a safe pair of hands leading the team! Good to meet Chaitanya junior too - you can tell he’s just itching to get behind the wheel! it’s been a great day and thanks to everyone! I’ve been up since 4.30am, it’s now my bed time! Have a good weekend and hope to see you again soon! Craig

Few of us got opportunity to see @Rahimdadpushing @Ranjan Pattanaik car out of the sand, sand erupted and pushed our superman 2 feet behind, is that not enough for him to rise again strong and push the car out and pose the muscle power of super man!!!! Unfortunately no videos or pics taken!!!! Hope your car is fixed and see you soon in the sands

Almost like an alien close encounter or a military operation, hahahahaha.

Hi all ! It was really thick fog in early morning, one couldn’t see longer than 10 meters ! After small waiting we started the journey anyway and soon discovered visibility to improve. This was my first extreme drive and yes... we were speeding through amazing areas and dunes. @Emmanuel, thank you for confident leading, you are a pro. I am amazed how well you are navigating in the front and same time finding suitable drivable routing. Especially with pace we used, you really need to do split of a second decisions and observe same time what we are messing up behind 😁. I wish I could do same. Simply hats off ! @Christian Andras you did great sweeping and assist of recoveries. I was glad to hear your pilot background also. Perhaps we may have a flight sometime.. @Shaaz Sha, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe and @Rizwanm2, it was pleasure to drive with you guys !! Few shots in gallery... See you soon on sand !

Thank you very much for a great morning !! Thanks @Brettefor discovering us a new area and for leading a balanced, safe and fun drive. Thanks a lot to @Srikumartoo for being always there supporting all of us and giving me tips on how to get the best from my manual beast talking on the walkie at the same time 😉 And congrats to all drivers, good job guys !! 👍 see you in the dunes !

Hello everyone , thanks for this great off road DRIVE .......😍 special thanks to @Chaitanya Dfor taking us trough sweihan dunes(little liwa ) . Appreciate all the hard work done by @Craig Finlayson which I believe is most challenging to push all of us through those churned up terrains 🎯.... I think this drive was quite fast moving as compared to other sweihan drives I have been which was great 👍🏼. Hope we all can join back for another ride soon 😇

I'm old school, poor and love to experiment. LED's are not my cup of tea. I like the old halogens. Round headlights with a high wattage halogen bulb. I have bought 4 of these 9 inch headlights with 100/90 watt halogen bulbs. If the experiment works out well viola I would have created a solution for the lights during night drives. If not Kalliwalli as these lights doesn't cost a fortune (everyone will be shocked to know the price). I hope these lights will pierce the darkness upto 750 meters and if so I will start sourcing them and selling them 🤣. Hopefully my alternator can take that much amperage. If not change the alternator to a high amp one which is available upto 250 amps for the XTERRA. I have seen these lights in action in my younger days and have used it in my bikes and car and they were like a sun in the darkness.