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Dear Desert Wanderers, In consideration of the enormous waitlist for this drive, @Anish S, who was going to be our Sweep, has kindly made himself available to lead a 2nd convoy, for which I thank him very much. Accordingly, I'm glad to inform that all waitlisted members are now admitted to the drive, which has now a 20 RSVP limit. See you on Tuesday!

@Ranjan Das, @topgear, @JeromeFJ, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Magellan, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Russ, @Antoz, @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @Lawrence_Chehimi, you are all confirmed for the drive. @Chris Wing your are the 5th waitlisted.

@Frederic thanks a lot for your brilliant preparation work! From my side, I just would like to add a few points. It would be very nice if everybody participating in the session try to set below settings at home, so we can save our time a little bit and have more time for our shooting. select RAW mode decrease brightness of the screen to minimum disable long exposure noise reduction disable high ISO noise reduction select manual focus mode turn on live-view zoom in the picture in the live view mode select manual shooting mode (M) disable auto ISO set ISO to 3200 set shutter speed to 15sec set aperture to minimum (f1.8 - F3.5) set manual white balance to 3200-3500K If you know how to set all of the above, great! If you don't know, it is advised to google it before hand so we do not spend time on checking every camera's settings on the field. If you still don't know how to set something, that's ok. We will find out! Thanks a lot and see you soon!

Richard has just offered to lead a second convoy, so you are all in and I will change the RSVP to 20

Waitlist me too! I think you guys should do 2 convoys @Lorenzo Candelpergher

@Niki, @Darren Brooke, @Kenneth Bollhardt, @Rawad Bahsas, your are shortlisted for the drive in this order.

Hi @Matt.T single drive restriction is off for this long weekend drives.

Copying the previous session post from @Mikhail Lukichev as introduction here: Hello everyone! Thanks for joining us! Since we are going to take some stars photos, we need to have some basic equipment with us. If you do not have something, probably, you will not be able to get desired result. However, equipment list is very basic: 1) tripod suitable for your camera. There is no need to have an expensive tripod, however, if your camera and lens is heavy, sturdy tripod would be handy 2) DSLR or mirrorless camera able to shoot in raw with exposure time up to 20 seconds. If you do not have one, you can try to shoot with a simple point and shoot camera or phone, but lack of settings could be an issue. If you have a camera but not sure if it is suitable or not, feel free to ask here! 3) wide angle lens. Actually, any kit lens should work fine. Do not bring your telephoto lens or a portrait lens this time, we will not use it. Again, if your are not sure what to bring with you, feel free to ask! 4) a bit of adhesive tape would be handy but not mandatory. 5) fully charged battery for your camera. 6) red light headlamp. Red light helps a lot operating your camera and not overstressing your eyes Preparation plan: We will meet up at the Etisalat Cellular tower, and deflate our tyres. From there we will take an easy track that leads to a nearby sabkha that has a well, surrounded by ghaf trees and palm trees. This is a very quiet and big area which will allow us to park the cars, and setup our tripods. We will be mostly using the Manual mode on the camera. We would advise to have a look at your camera's operating manual beforehand so you are comfortable how to switch over to Manual mode and find the settings that you will need to experiment with: 1) ISO setting. Will be around the 3200 range. 2) Shutter Speed. Will be around 20-30 seconds. 3) Aperture will need to be at its max. setting that your lens can take. (fully open). F/1.8 to F/4 (the lower the better). We will be practicing with various settings and helping you out to determine what works best as per your camera, lens, and personal preferences. The main aim is to learn from each other and enjoy the beautiful scenery and tranquility at night, hence we would ask all members to respect the silence and not to disturb others by driving around with the 4x4 during the session, using bright flashlights, or shouting. See you guys and and gals ! night-sky-cheat-sheet-new (2).pdf Photography for Beginners (3).pdf

Very well deserved @Miguel Codes!

Well done @Miguel Codes !

@Islam Soliman having read the first two para, I can see your creative hormone lingering to find every opportunity to spring back in action. 😂. well done to team for “jugaad” ( Indian term for temporary fixes-which sometime end up being permanent). Hope the beast will be back in action leading us on the “desert safari”! Thanks @Frederic for the valuable support and the tricks! Well driven @amir amiri @Arman @Thomas Varghese @Goutam… we had no stuck or refusals which aided the fast exit from the treacherous terrain! hope to see you all in sand very soon! Ramadan Kareem!

Thank You @Kailas @varunmehndiratta @Yousef Alimadadi @Abdul Rahman AK for all your support during the full drive, it was very nice route start with some small dunes as to let all of us warn-up and then it became extremely impressive with big dunes and good challenging soft sand. As a part of fun with learning and to face challenge in sand everyone in Convoy did excellent and very well faced all the challenges. Super team work during refusal/stuck & pop-out. Appreciate the way @Yousef Alimadadi saved a car collision in front of him putting himself in stuck position, good lesson for all of us to be more active/vocal on radio. (Well control on his car) And “yes” how can we forget our special break time given by our marshal keeping all safety parameters and following Covid-19 rules we got time to explore desert in night. It was awesome as even our cars got rest Thank you everyone for all your effort, support, and help to make this possible. InshaAllah see you after Eid.......... ************** EID MUBARAK **************

My observation : obviously it’s slip side meaning to attack it proper speed needed first like FJC earlier . Second once fish tail happens immediately steer toward the fish tail with maintains RPM ( speed ) or even slightly bit higher Rev to compensate for the sand wall which at lower speed collected faster and acted as a fulcrum over which the LC momentum continued and resulted in flip . @Lakshmi Narasimhanthank you for this unusual comparative clip to see what was wrong 👍

@Chaitanya D @Malachy McGrogan @Kenneth Bollhardt @Larry Cadden @Probir Mukherjee @Richard Franks @Pacific @luis mantecon @Lakshmi Narasimhan @bony raphi Murquab Drive Report Thank you everyone for joining the drive and for making it to the meeting point nice and early. Yesterday’s drive was a mixture of technical area as we started in Murquab and slowly made our way to some great play areas where we enjoyed some sideys and thereafter we reached the longer range dunes where we also practiced some ridge riding and criss crossing. First and foremost i would like to extend my huge thanks to our Marshal Doctor Chaitanya @Chaitanya D for his invaluable support and amazing assistance and guidance that he provided during the drive and throughout my off-roading journey. It is always a great privilege to be driving with you. Also special thanks goes to Lakshmi @Lakshmi Narasimhan as he was a great second lead. Thank you for listening carefully to the instructions and rerouting slightly wherever needed as prompted to you. You are just taking your amazing pajero to new heights. Thanks to our flawless sweep Malachy @Malachy McGrogan for keeping an eye on the convoy and also assisting with refusals. Very well managed and done . The rest of the team, you guys rocked. Thank you guys for making it an amazing drive. Also please take the feedback given through out the drive in a positive way so that we can keep improving and learning. Again as a gentle reminder, do not fight gravity and always steer down. Fishtailing and fighting gravity is very dangerous which is the reason we keep putting lots of emphasis on and our safety is always prime. Please have a look at the video in the link shared below which is not to scare you but to take the sport seriously. https://carnity.com/uploads/monthly_2021_05/IMG_6473.MP4.9ab5457dc4889e30599efd476352e992.MP4 Last but not the least, talking about safety, it is always good to double check if you have all the required off-road gears and that your car is also ready for off roading before you arrive for the drive. Thanks again to all of you and see you soon in the sand.

Momentum was too slow to go that high unlike FJC speed of attack (more linear). Fought gravity without momentum (BIG NO). Left gas just before the flip. Inexperience hand to not to control fishtailing in time. He kept steering full right without having enough momentum when caught up in deep soft sand patch (0:35). Even FJC before had close call, but controlled well by marginally fighting the gravity and then steering it down just in time. Attacking soft sand slip face for the second car has to be done with greater momentum as sand is already broken now. Such super soft sand sideys should be avoided for the second or third car or announce the caution so that second or third car is aware of such higher risk and factor greater use to momentum and/or exit in time. LC is far heavier and underpower than FJC to try similar sidey without factoring the car limitation. Guess: FJC has better off-road AT tires to control the fishtail precisely and LC seems on HT (road) tire.

Congratulations @Miguel Codes for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. Fewbie: Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Advance side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives And Fewbie Plus, after 5 drives at Fewbie level only Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

@Mikhail Lukichev you just read my mind. I rem being a crying baby last time, I was telling myself to prep and refresh some camera basics before hand to not to waste your time. Above list will def help and its time to dig deep on nikon manual. Thanks for the precise list, very helpful.

Thanks@Kailasfor the amazing drive, the track was excellent. Thank you @Yousef Alimadadi for your support, i enjoyed listening to your engine and sorry about the light😊 @varunmehndiratta @Danish Mohammad @JeromeFJ @Stav @Abdul Rahman AK Enjoy watching

Congratulations @Miguel Codes

Congrats @Miguel Codes

YEEEAHHHHHHHH...you guys made my day; Ole ole y ole...

Congratulations @Russ!

Congrats @Russ !

@Watteau @Lakshmi Narasimhan @Ranjan Das @Lorenzo Candelpergher @Gok Krish Everyone, especially the ones I tagged should go check the gallery. Some ultra high quality photos on there!

RSA, AXA, Oman and Tokio are comparitively good insurance provider who cover offroad accidents incl. roll over deep inside the desert. But still before buying you should read that clearly in your policy. 500 meter ref, is not an actual offroad cover.

Drive Debrief: Was Madam Om Aldwuais there today protecting her dunes?! The day started with Angela’s Xterra not feeling well and refusing to go to the desert! We agreed that I will take the lead supported by @Frederic who accepted the last minute request for support.. thanks buddy. Given it’s a short convoy with all experienced IM drivers we thought it would be an easy one.. we thought wrong! Madam Om Aldwuais had another opinion ! The minute we touched the sand at the deflation point we felt her presence through strong angry winds blowing the sand into our faces. We started making our way deeper into the mighty dunes and for sure they looked different ! With almost no scars or visible tracks and 👻 👻 👻 dancing on top of the dunes by her blowing winds. Obviously she didn’t like us touching her dunes to protect them started to give us all the signs to retreat which we obviously ignored.. some refusals here and there as we climbed higher and enjoyed some 90 mins scaring newly born dunes and bowls with very soft untouched sand. The higher we climb the angrier she got and louder she screamed until she shot a deadly arrow hitting the heart of the black beast. All of a sudden while I was riding the beast up one of her large bowls the beast cried in pain and her temperature suddenly shot to the roof.. I had to put her to rest and uncover the hood to find her bleeding 🩸🩸🩸🩸massively as the arrow hit a primary vein 😢😢 The team got together and everyone pulled up their sleeves and started first aid to try to keep the beast alive..with great skillful workmanship and few basic tools we managed to stop the bleeding and the beast was again roaring to tell Om Aldwuais: it takes more than an arrow to kill the Black Beast💪💪 We safely made our way to the tarmac and with some extra fluids back home. Thanks @Arman @Goutam @Thomas Varghese @Gaurav Soni @amir amiri @Frederic for being there and for the great support to recover the beast and get her safely tarmac.. special thanks to @Fredericfor insisting to drive behind me till we got home 🙏. & my apologize we had to abruptly exit, time will come to make it up and concur Al Madam’s dunes together. Tomorrow I am taking the beast to be treated; hopefully Om Aldwuais’s arrow is not poisoned and the damage is limited to the broken nozzle.

Trip Report. With summer setting in and drives starting earlier now, it was nice to see everyone at the meeting point on time and almost done with deflating too. The Khatam entry towards fossil rock is a bit tricky for newbies with really soft patches scattered around but I was pleasantly surprised that the entire convoy coped really well with absolutely no stucks and just a few refusals. Going past fossil rock towards camel rock, we entered quite a sticky area which was a bit technical and to make matters worse, the area was covered in shrubs but again the entire convoy navigated through it very well and thanks to @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil being a perfect second lead and maintaining the required distance, he was able to reroute a few times to avoid a few deep pockets. Just before we got onto the track towards Faya, unfortunately @Fiel Francis Telan mistook took a wrong turn and had a bit of a nose dive that damaged his front bumper and alignment on the fender. Hope you get that sorted out soon buddy. Just past camel rock before we took the track to Faya, we had to stop as @Fabien Monleau and @Marky Bhad a refusal and while waiting I noticed a smaller dune with a climb similar to front of pink rock but not as high and thought it would be nice for everyone to give it a shot. While the rest of the convoy waited, I went up to check if it had a decent exit as there were rocks on the other side and not enough place to just do a loop. By the time I checked, @Tbone and @Mukundan Nair sorted out the refusals at the end of the convoy and then everyone attempted the climb one at a time. This is where we had quite a few refusals but it was also a learning as most of the refusals were due to the vehicles upshifting and loosing momentum at the wrong time. A re-attempt in 1st or 2nd gear did the trick for everyone. From here on, it was a pretty smooth drive all the way to Faya. Since Faya is always covered in cross tracks, we went towards the side which had absolutely no tracks on it and made a few attempts at small sideys before attempting to climb up the Faya cheat route and then heading out. Thanks to @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil @Tbone and @Mukundan Nair for being the perfect support team. @samamara @Naim Aoun @Fiel Francis Telan @bunty_and_pops @Marky B @Fabien Monleau @Pierre de Maigret all of you managed really well and I look forward to driving with you'll again.

Thanks all for your help and patience. Tyres all sorted for the next drive. Apologies again to have delayed the drive. Take care and see you all soon 🙂

Dropped pin https://goo.gl/maps/evTYSczdWxRgfTe9A

Hi @Fabiano Morais the RSVP is full at the moment but I will put in the waitlist in case someone signs out.

Can u add me to the waitlist to the drive

Please put me on wait list .Thanks

hi @Vanessa8580 can you please add me to drive for support role! looking forward for first drive with your lead!

can you add me to the waitlist thanks

@Lorenzo Candelpergher pls do add me to the waitlist thanks

@Chaitanya D you are the next in the waitlist since Samamara and Srikumar have removed their waitlist entries. Are you in ?

Sorry @JeromeFJ yes you were also on the list. So far no one dropped out so it looks like we’re gonna need to organize another one soon 😅

Congratulations @Russ

Sorry i wasnt able to slip you in @samamara. Rest assured we will have more of these trips and i am looking forward to meeting you and picking your photography brain

Hi @Lawrence_Chehimi I just checked with RSA insurance for the same, the policy should mention "Off Road Cover = YES" and the photo shows what's covered in the off road, but this is an addition to the regular policy, you need to ask for it. Also in case your renewal is not anytime soon, you should be able to upgrade the policy coverage at an additional fee of course

Thanks a lot @Islam Soliman, it was to be a wonderful fun drive, until the unfortunate incident with your car.

Thank you @Anish S for a great drive and to @Lakshmi Narasimhan @Chaitanya D and @Malachy McGrogan for all your help and assistance.

Great drive and leadership. Looking fwd for a repeat ride ASAP.

All Carnity trip leads and support are fully trained to respond to such emergencies. Securing the passenger first, then car recovery along with GPS location, pics and videos for the cops and insurance. Mostly cops check the images and video, but sometime they do visit the area of accident. Once cops report is done, rest is "should be" easy and straight forward with "good" insurance company.

Thank you @Gauravfor the valuable input Am wondering if there is an earlier post in Carnity that explains what to do in terms of calling the police, recovering the car, handling insurance, etc Thx

It was an excellent drive, Thanks to @Kailas and yes the halftime interval you provide in your drives are really nice as it gives us the opportunity to regain our concentration and energy to enjoy the 2nd half. Brilliant 2nd lead @varunmehndirattaand Excellent CF @Yousef Alimadadi. Everyone in the convoy did amazingly well @Danish Mohammad, @JeromeFJ, @Stav and @Ehab 👏 See you all soon in the sand!

@varunmehndiratta @Danish Mohammad @JeromeFJ @Ehab @Stav @Yousef Alimadadi @Abdul Rahman AK We had an amazing convoy, that allowed us to tick every every thing as per the action plan. Initially, we set out to Lisaili, we were able to find plenty of dunes for ridge riding. Rigde riding at night was a different experience. We were also able to find some mighty dunes for sides. Then we head out to Solar park. We were faced with several big dunes, which we had to criss-cross. Eventually, we were able to find a nice track and drive at high pace. We had some refusals, Crested and stuck situation needing recovery and a pop out at the last minute, which was quickly sorted out to add to the fun. I am grateful to have had @Yousef Alimadadi as support, who handled the recoveries and saved the day from a collision with his split-second maneuvering skills. Thank you Yousef. @varunmehndiratta & @Abdul Rahman AK did a brilliant job at SL and SW position. It was a great team effort and good radio communication everyone ( @Danish Mohammad & @JeromeFJ's coordination was the best) Looking at the stats: