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Dear Desertnauts. Here are the last minute's info and recommendations for tomorrow's drive. First, about the meeting point, it can be reached, as indicated by Google Maps, by driving from Qudra's Last Exit toward the Bab al Shams Resort, and entering the drive's area after circling the third roundabout (you'll see an ambulance stand and a mosque): cross the first opening in the guard-rail, the bike track (watch out for bikers, and for the road works), and drive though the gate until you should see my car waiting for the convoy on top of a very small hill. Please arrive at 6:00 AM sharp (or earlier). As soon as you arrive you can start deflating, and tune into Carnity Channel #3 (446.056). We will leave as soon as possible, but while the convoy is deflating you'll likely be able to start warming up to the photo hunt theme, by shooting the sunrise, on the left of the sand track, due to happen at 5:45am (hence, perhaps, you'd better reach the meeting point earlier). As mentioned in the drive's presentation, we'll be able to take pictures of the most scenic sights, ONLY 1) from inside the car, or 2) just standing next to your car (not in groups), and 3) taking portraits one at the time, while the rest will be waiting their turn, in the same order as the convoy's. The convoy will line up as follows: @Foxtrot Oscar (Angela) in SL @samamara in place #3 @aaron kamall at #4 @Anoop Nair #5 @Sunil Mathew in the #6 spot @tarek at #7 @Niki will anchor the convoy (Center Forward) @Lucas Neo in #9 place @TT_Dubai with jersey #10 @Russ in the #11 spot, and @Desert Dweller (Jamy) closing the convoy at Sweep. Get ready for the drive with a restorative rest, and to enjoy a picturesque drive. See you tomorrow.

RSVP is now closed I welcome @Gok Krish, @Pacific, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Javier Lucero, @Vineeth John Joseph, @Ranjan Das, @Anand Nataraj, @Jeandre Bezuidenhout, @Batuhan Kulac, @Nabil Bishara and @Janarthan to this drive. We will be using the Carnity Channel 2. The convoy order is as in below We will start sharp at 5 AM. See you tomorrow.

Good evening, @Rizwan Waheed @Alphin Aloor @PaoloMaraziti @JeromeFJ @Lakshmi Narasimhan @Frederic @Gok Krish @Danish Mohammad @Abdul Rahman AK Here's the convoy list for our night drive tomorrow. We will be using channel 2. See you all soon.

Good morning Everyone Hopefully you're looking forward to tomorrow's drive as myself too 😊 If possible arrive earlier than 6am so we would be ready to leave as soon as possible We will be using Channel 1 Please have all the necessary gear for the level of drive And my proposed convoy is the following 1 @Tamas Hoffmann 2 2nd lead@JeromeFJ 3 @Nathan Evans 4 @Sinol 5 @luis mantecon 6 @Chris Wing 7 CF @Brette 8 @danebowers 9 @Thomas Fumarola 10 @Humayun Ghias 11 @Rawad Bahsas 12 Sweep @Hisham Masaad @Brettewill be my Marshal support for my drive and along with @Hisham Masaadwill assist in case there are any recoveries @JeromeFJwill be assisting as 2nd lead I ask Everyone to please follow all covid guidelines I am looking forward to see you all soon tomorrow morning on the sand 😊

Have fun friends!!!!

Boy, we've been popular in recent hours. Here's our new convoy. This should be a fun drive, and with so much experience on show, I have high expectations.

RSVP IS NOW CLOSED Please find your convoy positions above. We will be using CHANNEL 2: 446.03125 Mhz The Faqa terrain is beautiful, but can be very challenging at the same time. We will be crossing through some very complicated technical terrain, so adequate distance inbetween the cars will be necessary. Seniors on the drive are @Shaaz Shaand @Kailas who will be helping you out in case we have stucks and refusals, which i hope we will have a few and practice self recovery skills Please arrive before 6AM so you have ample time to put up your flag and deflate. Mandatory tools will be your pressure gauge, programmed radio, shovel, and a flag. Be aware that you will not be accepted on the drive without these items. Keep your distance during deflation, and abide by the COVID rules we have outlined in the topic. Let's keep it safe for everyone please. I am looking forward to this drive as this is my favorite area and i am sure we'll have lots of fun ! See you tomorrow morning !

Yes Gaurav, despite the late RSVP you are welcome to join.

Even better. Apologies for not seeing this. We do not work off a central database, so sometimes these errors slip in.

Desertnighters, It's tonight - wow, hasn't that caught up with us quickly? Below is the proposed convoy numbering (if everyone turns up). @bony raphi @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Fabiano Morais @M.Seidam @Ehab @Shaaz Sha @Nithin Vaidir @Thomas Varghese @Islam Soliman On arrival, please deflate, flag up and we will do our briefing in the vehicles so as not to disturb the residents too much or any prayers still going on at the mosque. As you see, we have the wonderful privilege of there being truly experienced drivers ahead of the less experienced. Tonight, Mohamed Seidam will officially be taking on Centre Forward responsibilities under supervision of myself and Islam. We will give everyone time to recover from refusals if their car stops moving where it should not, and guidance will be offered to help drivers to 'unstuck' their car themselves. If a driver is actually stuck - we will not have 8 captains on the drive. Please, it's over to Mohamed, Islam and myself to deal with the stucks. Night driving requires precision. It also requires the convoy to keep in close contact with each other so no-one gets lost, so the intermediates here, please treat the Newbies and Fewbies like your students. Help them by lighting the way, or showing them the route and supporting them through the night. COVID does not stop at night, so normal COVID rules will apply. Looking forward to seeing everyone later and a fun drive tonight. See you soon in the sand.

@Niki - You are AWESOME! Now I can sleep restfully! See you all in the morning

@samamara bring the radio charged … I have a spare unit with all the frequencies programmed so if we cannot make it work I am more than happy to loan you it (we can just switch batteries if mine is not carrying enough charge). I will sanitize it before passing your way so we are covid compliant. see you in the morning.

Dear Friends SP kALATH @SP kALATH Alfred Alinazar @Alfred Alinazar Juan Carlos Elizalde Reyes @Juan Carlos Elizalde Reyes Gaurav @Gaurav Jeepie @Jeepie Please note the positions for tomorrows drive 1. Chaitanya Black Xterra 2. 2nd lead @Gaurav Silver Pajero 3. @Juan Carlos Elizalde Reyes Jeep Liberty 4. @Alfred Alinazar Pajero 5. @SP kALATH Prado 6. @Jeepie Green TJ Wrangler Sweep Thank you for agreeing on the COVID precautions. Please bring along the off road gears you have if any like - Shovel, Radio, Off road Flag, Deflator and Compressor. Myself , @Gaurav and @Jeepie are the seniors on this drive to take care if there are any issues. Since we have 3 cars only it is almost a one on one session for you all lucky ones😊. We will be checking the tow points and some other basic stuff on your cars before hitting the sands. Ensure you come to the start point with a Fuel tank as full as possible. The nearest Gas station is at Al Qudra parking .Please follow the directions as mentioned in this thread to come to the meeting point. Kindly note that there is sand before and after the perpendicular dirt track from the tarmac at the meeting point shared. Drive along this dirt track to come to the meeting point. I will be parking my car ( Black Xterra) with hazard lights on along the tarmac for your reference, please drive ahead and take a right in front of my car. I will be briefing you all on the basics of desert driving, and then we will assist you all in a COVID safe manner for deflation. We will be using Carnity Channel 1 for Radio Communications (446.006.25). See you tomorrow sharp 6 am

@Lakshmi Narasimhan @PaoloMaraziti @William Fernandes @Adhir Saxena @Nivin @sertac Here is the convoy order for tomorrow's drive; Pos Driver Car Level L Mehmet & Nivin Pajero & XT ADV SL Sertac XT EXP 3 Paolo Maraziti FJ FWB 4 Adhir Saxena Pajero FWB 5 Lakshmi Narasimhan Pajero FWB 6 William Fernandez FJ FWB 7 Mehmet & Nivin Pajero & XT ADV @Nivin will take partial leading of the drive as per his LL program. We are planning to visit some playable zones (number depends on the convoy speed) and mid-level technical parts in between them. We will be on radio channel #4 There will be another Carnity convoy for a morning newbie drive close to our meeting point. Do not confuse with it, just pass through them and continue for approx 1 km to our meet point. We will directly enter the desert from there after deflating. See you in the morning!

Murqaab to Solar Park (and beyond): Long Range Patrols - Drive Report "Respond to every call that excites your spirit" - Rumi A small and experienced group of drivers met between the green Margham farms and the red sand plateau that separates this village from Nazwa. The goal of the day was to climb the bowls of this plateau, and use it as a launching pad to zoom across the technical dunes just to its west/south-west, reaching the Dubai-Al Ain Road, cross it, then entering the long range, white sand, Lisaili dunes, to exit at Solar Park. As it often happens with small groups, the going was fast, unimpeded by stucks (a few refusals were sorted out very quickly), which allowed to cover the various stages of the drive in the bat of an eye. It took 1:30 hr to reach the tarmac at Lisaili (which for a normal FB drive, in a 12 car convoy, would take up to 3 hours), and another fast 1:30 hr to drive from Lisaili's camel-drome to the 3 Trees, near Solar Park's road. Given there was still 40 minutes left of daylight, as recommended by the poet Rumi, we did "respond to the call that exited our spirit", and extended the drive in the general direction of Bab al Shams' exit. Half an hour later (31 minutes to be precise) we recorded the first stuck, on a perfect crest, overlooking the sun setting on the horizon just beyond our exit track. Also thanks to the short length of the convoy, we managed to experiment with shifting all drivers in all positions. We started with @GauravSoni in SL and @Shehab Alawadhi in SW, then moved Shehab to SL, to test and train his finesse driving on the technical dunes between Margham and Lisaili, and let Gaurav Soni take the sweep's place, moved on to have @Thomas Varghese in SL and @Arda Yagcioglu at sweep, and finished with Arda in SL and Thomas sweeping the convoy. I hope this gave all drivers the opportunity to share the responsibilities of the key positions of any convoy, and make hood use of this experience in the future. In the end, the drive managed to get included in the Long Range Patrol's series of drives, with a length of 102.2 Km, covered in 3:55 hours, of which only 38 minutes not moving, for a final average speed of 26Km/h (and 30Km/h while moving). Thanks to the members for joining, and hope to see you (and more) for the next edition of Long Range Patrols. Enjoy the weekend.

Hi Richard @Wrangeld have I missed which radio channel are we rolling on ? 😉

noted. I shall, therefore, have even higher expectations.

We have 2 jeep, 2 land cruiser and 2 pajero..... seems like even covoy .....

1 more friend to play with in the sands

Yes, like a light saber hahahaha

There are very similar LED strobo-lights meant for use with quadcopter drones and therefore very resistant to impacts, water resistant and with fitting mechanisms that would allow to fix them on a small diameter pole like the flag's one. There are, as for the bycicle ones, some versions which come with rechargeable battery. It's basically the same exact concept of bicycle ones, only that they are smaller and more powerful as they are designed to be utilized at great distance and some versions also in full daylight. @Foxtrot Oscarvery cool! So you have the whole pole lit?

I bought this, added extra wiring that runs along the inside of the boot/trunk and attached a car cigarette lighter charger (I have one in the rear) I then attached it to my flag pole using cable ties.(It runs the length of the flag pole) Seems quite secure but I'll soon find out haha All in all it cost me 30AED (via Dragon Mart) N.B It is quite heavy but then I have a heavy AOR Flag and a solid mount so....

thank you @Shaaz Sha for the report and for sharing your pictures! Hope to see you soon again!

Hi @Zed I am happy to see that you learned the most important thing, If you feel that the car is not making it, simply skip! You'll learn, and you will have a lot of drives so if is not today, it will be tomorrow for sure don't worry about that. Hope to see you soon and see how are you getting better each new drive! Pop outs and stuck are an important part of the game. It's not a waste of time is a moment to learn how to manage such situations happy to see that you learned that already. See you soon on the sand again!

Indeed!

Thanks from me too @Luca Palanca Falsini this is my 2nd drive with you - my 1st fewbie & this 5th fewbie ones. I really appreciate that you push us to do new things with an eye out for safety & learning of course - crests, pop-outs all valuable learnings on how they happen & how to fix! Thanks too to @Gaurav Soni for loaning me a flag 2nd time it fell, @Shaaz Sha & @Dodi Syahdar for their guiding roles in the drive. Wonderful to meet/ride with everyone else. See you next time!

@luis manteconI added you to the drive @Hennie Schoemanthank you so much for letting me know although I was looking forward to have you on the drive 😊

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST 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. DRIVE DESCRIPTION: Newbie Level Drive with emphasis on learning to cross dunes in more technical terrain. Drive Details Level: Newbie and Above When: 30 April 2021 Meeting time: 6:00 AM SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/q8noXv4JQnXfaTQx6 Offroad Tools: Shovel, Programmed radio, Pressure Gauge/ Tyre Deflator, Offroad Flag What else to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 10:00AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE UNLESS YOU HAVE A COMPRESSOR. ANYONE ARRIVING AT THE DRIVE WITHOUT A COMPRESSOR, FLAG, PROPER SHOVEL AND DEFLATION KIT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. ALL TOW POINTS WILL BE CHECKED BEFORE DEPARTURE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. 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. IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER You will not be accepted on the drive without your offroad tools as listed above. Your radio is essential, make sure it is programmed beforehand. Follow the COVID rules as described, any violations will result in a ban from the club. We do not accept latecomers to the drive. PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR

Thanks @Mehmet Volga looking forward to my first fewbie drive

Thanks @Mehmet Volga see you tomorrow 👍🏼

Congratulations @Warren Flay

Perfect absolute newbie drive turned out to be a master class, great opportunity for you guys to have a start with such drive. All the best friends and welcome you to carnity!!!!!

@Warren FlayCongratulations!

Iam happy you're joining me and the others tomorrow Looking forward to have you as a support 😁

@wrangled will try to keep up to the expectations.

Just for clarifying @Wrangeld am a fewbie too. 😊

Jealous - that is all I will say......

We have a small and tight convoy for this evening. The convoy numbering will be as follows: 1. Srikumar - Cherokee XJ 2. Mustafa - Pajero 3. Karthik - LC 200 4. Hasan Wahlan - LC 100 5. Farouq - JGC 6. Vanessa - Pajero See you at the meeting point at 10:00 PM. We will be using Carnity Channel 3.

Thank you @Tamas Hoffmann for the update and for arranging the drive tomorrow. Enjoyed to be with you last time and sure will be the same tomorrow 😀. Look forward.

@Wrangeld hi Richard! Would it be possible for me to join this drive today? Just wanted to confirm before I rsvp as I see the slot is still open!

Its a long convoy, loads of fun in store!!! Have a nice time!!!!!

Congrats @Warren Flay!

Congrats @Joe Biju Joseph!

@Lucas Neo @TT_Dubai just picked up from this thread that you're from Singapore. I'm Singaporean too, so hello to you & hopefully we'll see each other in the sands one day!

Congrats @Warren Flay!!

Congrats @Joe Biju Joseph!!

@Hennie Schoemanand @Tamas Hoffmann Thank you very much !! I already left the other drive👍

PS: I've left the drive. Hurry and claim the spot! Nice thing would be to make sure there is someone to fill your spot on the other drive 👍🏻 enjoy the drive!

Hi @luis mantecon I actually have another appointment on Friday and was waiting for someone on the wait list! It's OK for me if you take my spot. As long as we have the blessing of @Tamas Hoffmann as lead. I will remove myself from the list and give you the opportunity to join.