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Qudra "Not So Easy" - Drive Report "Nothing tyrannizes the real Sufi's heart. What strikes the oyster shell not damage the pearl" - Rumi It was supposed NOT to be an easy drive, and easy it was NOT! The original plan to cover the same tracks driven on Absolute Newbie drives, at a faster and more challenging pace, worked well, until our "Sufis' hearts" were shaken by a roll-over. When that happened, we had been driving already for almost 2 and a half hours, with almost 1 hour to spare on the time it usually takes to complete the AN drive. Our pace had been brisk, averaging a little less then 28 Km/h, covering a distance of over 55Km. The trail had taken us from the Bab al Shams' entry through the low, long range dunes, heading north toward the date plantation and the big "farm" close to Qudra's Last Exit, then east and south across the tall linear dunes, and a technical area (with a "botanical" detour to inspect a copse of Ghaf trees visible on the horizon), and finally, through the area of tall dunes, with bushy slopes and mud-rock formations on their slip-face side, across the bike track, in the very diverse terrain reaching toward the Solar Parks' pylons. This is where a moment of distraction cost @luis mantecon dearly. Luckily, there were no damages to Luis, who recovered promptly from being shaken, and assisted valiantly in his Wrangler's recovery. The incident occurred on a relatively low dune to cross (don't they all happen in apparently easy terrain?), where, nonetheless, the previous drivers had left some heavy marks, hence making Luis use a bit too much speed in climbing the side slope (to overcome the rugged trail). Evidently, the line of approach to the ridge was a bit too low (probably due to the Wrangler being caught in some of the deep tracks), and the attempt to reach the ridge by counter-steering, led to the car turning progressively perpendicular to the crest, digging an even deeper trench on its left side while accelerating sideways, and eventually caused the 360 degrees roll of the Wrangler across the churned ridge. The car stopped its progress resting on the passenger's side, just across the crest itself, on the dune's low slip-face. Takeaway lessons here? Speed is often the enemy (controlling momentum being our ally), especially when combined with a less then optimal approach to the ridge (even though often forced by the conditions of the slope itself), and the instinctive reaction to steer up, to reach the ridge, even when we "know" that the car is too far from the crest itself. I am sure that this moment will be etched in all the drivers' mind, and will be an important lesson learned by all, to always choose the safest option. Fortunately, we can delve into this analysis, because Luis is 100% healthy, with car and driver having exited successfully after the accident. As required in these cases, the recovery was a team effort, with useful suggestions being given by many, a display of overall calm attitude by all, and great cooperation with the various phases of flipping the car on its 4 wheels, stripping it of all its damaged parts that would interfere with reaching the exit, and repairing the pop-out caused by the tilting of the car back on all fours. BTW, if someone has the video (even images of the roll) please share them in the gallery, so that may be a good source of discussion in terms of how to manage such extreme situations. With the images in mind of a very busy morning, my great thanks go to the entire convoy: @Hisham Masaad for his overtime at Center Forward (yes, the drive itself went smoothly, but we still had to deal with a few refusals and stucks) as well as at the winch and the jack, during the recovery; @Chinthaka Ruwan at Second Lead, who responded punctually to all my calls; @Chris Wing, as the more senior Fewbie driver, who swept the group with ease; to each and everyone in the convoy - @Alfred Alinazar (very impressive Fewbie baptism of fire), @Paolo Pellegrini (always getting better with your skills), @TT_Dubai and @Tareck (managing your two giant vehicles with constant improvement), @Ben84, @Sunil Mathew and @JeromeFJ (always in control) - who all drive impeccably, and pitched in enthusiastically with the recovery. A special thought goes to @luis mantecon, with the best wishes to have his car back soon, and to be able to get back in the saddle, across the desert, in no time. The usual stats for the drive (even though influenced by the incident) tell us that we drove for 3:23 hours, of which 2:36 moving, covering 60.8 Km (the last 3 on the exit track), at an average speed of 23 Km/h while moving (18 Km/h overall). Thanks to all for the experience, and hope to see you soon in the sand.

@Chris Wing @Ammar Naji @Pierre de Maigret @Arshad Roojee @Sunil Mathew @Nihal17 @Zed @Frederic Hello Everyone, I hope you are enjoying the weekend. Please find the convoy list below, we will be using Radio Channel Number 3 (44605625). Looking forward to see you all in few hours.

Thanks Jana @Janarthan for the excellent and thrilling drive; great selection of route which offered everything we look for. Thanks Richard @Wrangeld and Abdul @Abdul Rahman AK for the support and of course our second lead @Lakshmi Narasimhan. @Humayun Ghias, @Rawad, @Darren Brooke, @JeromeFJ, @Russ, @Werno It was great driving with you today. @Danish Mohammad, missed you man. Does take a lot to get up for the summer morning drives but for the sheer love of it, I always set two alarms 5 minutes apart, just in case 😉 See you all soon

You know, it is surprising how effective was the response of the traction every single time I went to the throttle to overcome the spots having soft sand and also to climb those small dunes. The Subaru AWD system is the best. It would be amazing if this car had 4low gear and some kind of rear diff lock as well. But this is not the meaning of this car. However, for a newbie light fun drive, the car is appropriate. I have not had any refusal, however my hands were shaking every time I had to go drive down those dunes. It fells like you are going to free fall from the edge of the dune. For the record, i have killed some desert plants LOL. The victims where there in my bumper LOL Looking forward for the next newbie drives

Just make sure your stockings don’t come falling off and ending up in the face of the one sweeping the convoy !

Many thanks @Janarthan for the drive this morning. This smooth and continuous crossing of bowls and ridges was perfectly lead ! With a beautiful sunrise, and views from the higher dunes, it was the perfect morning drive ! Thanks to all for joining and supporting when needed !

Thanks @Janarthan for a great lead this morning, it is always a pleasure to drive in this area! Everyone did really well today and thanks to those who supported. See you all soon.

Hi guys a quick video from yesterday. Spectacular sunrise enjoyed by all. 40 seconds in I get stuck on a choppy ridge. From reviewing this seems to be a textbook stuck - not enough momentum and needed to exit sooner. Thank you for the digs from team @Hisham Masaad and @JeromeFJ and freed up to continue the morning. We had plenty of opportunities to practice ridge riding so thanks to @Ale Vallecchi for guidance and lead. As others noted we had an issue towards the end of the drive 😢 and it goes without saying that everyone on the drive wishes @luis mantecon Wrangler a speedy recovery. Hope to see you all soon.

Thanks @Janarthan, @Wrangeld, @Lakshmi Narasimhanand @Abdul Rahman AKfor the drive today. I got the first refusal today early in the drive as I was not fully paying attention. Will make a note of having my A-game the moment we're on the sand. Having had a pop out in my last drive, I kept the pressure slightly higher but could feel a vast difference in terms if grip. Will keep it lower next time. No worries @Danish Mohammad, can happen to any one of us! Good to see everyone on the drive today. Till next time!

Good evening, First of all, thank you all for showing up for the drive on time. The plan was to attempt some extreme criss-crossing in the south solar park area and head to little Sweihan area. This took most of our drive time as we had many refusals and stucks. Then as we entered little sweihan and we faced a pop out on @Ashok chaturvedi's FJ. This pop out fix took a lot of our time as the vehicle was in a pocket. Once we fixed the pop out and found a couple of bowls, @Thomas Varghese' Xterra started over heating and was not in a position to continue driving. After giving enough time for Xterra to cool down, we brought it back to nearest Sabkha ,exited @Thomas Varghese and ended the drive. Unfortunately we were not able complete the little sweihan section as time was already past 9:30 AM. I could find that many had issues while criss- crossing, I understand that this was challenging as we were trying to criss cross sharp ridges mostly at the tallest section. @marks- Excellent SL & thank you for your support, especially during stucks and pop -out fix. @Gok Krish, @Lawrence_Chehimi & @Goutam, I don't recollect you guys having any issue. Well done guys. @Archibald Jurdi-It was my first time driving with you. You managed your TJ very well. Few refusals, but you managed to quickly self recover. @Ashok chaturvedi- You drove well. In terms of pace, you were a bit slow. Had to slow down or pause at times for the yellow FJ to catch up. @Thomas Varghese had refusals and stucks. Self-recovery attempts were was not successful at times, later on we were able to learn that couple of tyres were running at 17 psi. This was something you should have checked out early when initial self recovery attempts were digging your wheels. @varunmehndiratta also had refusals and stucks. You are still having issues when crossing the dune straight. I have seen you getting crested several times in my past drives. Your should not take your foot from accelerator until your engine has crossed the ridge. @Dodi Syahdar thanks for sweeping and helping with recoveries. One crested situation when criss crossing, which with some shoveling's was able to self recover. Thanks @Thomas Varghese for the pictures. Stay tuned, I will be posting a drive through the same area some other time. Cheers!

Thank you @Islam Solimanand everybody for the drive. I had quiet a challenging day today. The problem is my beast is not like any other light 4x4 trust me when controlling 3+tone specially when its stuck in the sand it’s a big challenge to get it out, The 35” tires when buried refuses to turn left or right, sometimes I feel as am controlling or maneuvering a ship in the desert despite how easy it might seen from outside lol 😂 but with all these in return what more can you ask than discovering an “anchor man” in the middle of desert when your beast is letting you down.....Yes spacial Thanks to @Shehab Alawadhi”The Anchor Man”. Also Thank you @Hisham Masaadand his sons for great Support. See you soon in the desert guys.

I suggest you to use original filter of your car instead of this aftermarket one. These are more prone to suck sand in to the Engine.

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi, for the drive lead with lot of learning opportunities especially w.r.t ridge riding approaches, exit , speed etc. Key takeaways for me as learning : 1. Choose the best approach angle to get on a ridge , this may not be the track taken by the previous car, due to various reasons - weight, wheelbase etc. 2. Once you are close to the crest, never steer up a ridge sharply, when both set of your wheels are on same side of the ridge. Try to ride "square on the ridge" as @Ale Vallecchiputs it, at least for some distance, before exiting. 3. You dont need to be too fast on a ridge - need to be just fast enough to crawl and probably a bit more , for a smooth exit and also to avoid banging the cars belly on broken ridges/ridges with ripples on the crest. These are better said than done, and i need to get this perfect with more practice. Off course, yesterdays ride had its share of bad luck with one of the ridges proving unlucky for @luis mantecon, and we are happy that you are safe , and at the same time wish that you sort out the car to get it back on its legs, and to see you back in the desert with extra enthusiasm!! @Hisham Masaad , Carnity's Mr.Q as @PaoloMaraziti named him 🙂, demonstrated his brilliance yet again with strong support with the recovery, advices for refusals and what not. Seeing Hisham with his fully gadgetized FJ, in the convoy gives a sense of confidence nowadays!! Kudos to all fellow drivers, i bet at least some of us are "shaken" but not stirred 🙂.... lets take this as a learning experience and let the lessons learnt be engraved or etched firmly in our brains to help our future, split second decisions in the desert!! Looking forward and coming back for more!!

Hello @Danish Mohammad, sorry to hear that you missed your drive this morning. The RSVP is closed already and the convoy list is posted. However, i am making an exception for you taking in to consideration of your situation and I will add you to the drive. Please confirm the same.

Hi @Janarthan Good Morning... I m very sorry for this morning to arrive at meeting point by 5:20 am (got late by 20 minutes which is really too much, where every minute has a value) This is my first incident that happen due to my own mistake, mobile alarm was on its perfect time 4:00 am but after closing it I felt a sleep and in result I missed todays drive for which I was waiting full week 😭😭 I regret for this last moment out and apologize for disturbing every member in this Convoy @Wrangeld @Abdul Rahman AK @Lakshmi Narasimhan @Humayun Ghias @Rawad @Darren Brooke @Russ @JeromeFJ @Ranjan Das @Werno Everyone stay safe, see you in next time. Regards...

One sentence for this drive “ DRIVE OF THE MONTH “ …..

Drive Report My oh my , newbies you really earned your stripes today. What a fantastic convoy! The drive did what it said on the tin, we tackled side slopes, we went down really steep dunes, we climbed Fossil Rock and we even went down the rock's mega steep descent, all without a hint drama! @SUNIL KUMAR you started off tentatively but had built your confidence by the end of the drive and handled the final 3 challenges incredibly well. Well done for persevering and thanks to @Melenanyfor his words of encouragement. Keep it up. @arjumandWow, a flawless drive from you. You handled all the challenges really well. Smashed it! Bravo @Super Safari GirlYou continue to develop your offroad skills and the finesse with which you handle that powerful car is very telling of your skills as a driver. Even a small refusal had you self recover (with guidance) which adds to your offroad driving skills bank. Smashed it girl! Well done @Farook Veettil Oh my days , what a difference from last week. I am absolutely loving being part of your off road driving journey. Still a little gas shy at times on some challenges, but you got yourself out of trouble impeccably. I love to see it! Great job today @Naim AounPower, finesse, flawless. Impeccable drive. Bravo @Faraz MohammadWell look at you go! Loving watching you progress and seeing you get a real feel for your car and how it can handle challenges in the sand. Smashed it! @IshraqueFlawless! When the challenge asked for power you gave the right amount , applied a touch of finesse and drove your car very very well. Bravo. @Zixuan Huang - CharlieAn easy day at the office for you Charlie, well done. Many many thanks to my support team today @Kailas who was on hand to handle the couple of small refusals we had, A quiet day was needed after your early morning Abu Dhabi drive, Thank you for making the huge effort to support the drive and I'm pleased the convoy performed so well so that you had a quiet time of it. @Melenanywho swept everything at the back, kept me informed re the convoy and offered words of encouragement to drivers. Special mention to @rajeshkumar rathodwho was my second lead. I know it was your first time in this role and you did a great job, changing the track when I asked and keeping a good distance to allow me to make changes when I needed to. Fantastic job , well done. Oh and you had a great drive too haha. Finally a massive thank you to the convoy for listening to and following instructions, for driving so well and for allowing me to take you out of your comfort zone! Chilling but thrilling, that's how I like a Newbie drive Fossil Rock? ✔️ Until our next adventure 😎

Trip Report An evening well spent with some wonderful drivers in a route that was challenging, but then that has to be expected in Sweihan, when day time temperatures reach close to 50 deg. C causing patches of super soft sand. After a quick briefing, we entered the dunes and the entire convoy responded brilliantly with a fast paced action packed drive which involved side slopping, crisscrossing and ridge riding. At one point, someone asked on the Radio that this felt like an Intermediate drive and that was a testament of the quality of drivers and the faith they put on each other. The most important thing about doing fast paced Night drives is to trust the cars in front that if they can do it, so can we. And this can be done only by maintaining the right distance from the car in front. And just as we got ourselves into the massive dunes and bowls, Sweihan once again reminded all of us that this is a serious terrain as patches of powder soft sand resulted in few refusals, stucks and a Check Engine Light. But all of this also brings out camaraderie amongst the drive particpants in the form of good humor and stories while enjoying the cool weather of the night. Excellent driving by all the drive members @Hasan Wahlan @Zed @Karthikeyan Govindarajan @Lakshmi Narasimhan @Xavier Treasurer @Mus_hus78 @Ruan van den Heever @Farouq Owdeh. We had very good support from @GauravSoni in the middle helping out with the refusals till he had the CEL. And of course a big shout out to @Lorenzo Candelpergher for holding the entire convoy together at the back, shoveling, tugging and rerouting as needed. Look forward to catching up with you all very soon for another night drive

@Gaurav thanks for adding me to the newbie drive even though it was a back to back one for me. I had chance to take good rest in between at the meeting point and most importantly I never felt tired or fatigue even for a second during the drive and post drive recovery. I was not completely satisfied with one aspect in todays drive!!! Kathim terrain offered very nice dunes and I was tempted to take the ridges after seeing them so sharp and virgin, hope I will be taken for riding on those ridges asap!!!! Abudhabi terrains are truly beautiful and today was no exception as you can see in the few snaps posted. Your clear briefing, appearing in no time for all the support needs and rolling the sleeves to get into action and explaining what went wrong and what should have been done are true blessing to newbies. If social gathering was allowed I wonder how much more learning is on the store for every one in the convoy. @Zed you were amazing in the sweep. Keep enjoying these opportunities!!! As @Wrangeldand @Chaitanya D insist I truly realized the amount of learning on much lower level drives and specifically with relatively fresh newbie drivers and the immense joy in sharing/passing the knowledge gained till date. Thanks to them and all my leads/seniors for channelizing my focus in the right direction. I could see the newbies and relate how I was less experienced at that stage when compared to todays newbies. They all really performed very well, I am very much happy for them. Thanks to carnity for making even me as an off-roader to this extent, if not the best at my level. Thanks @Gauravfor trusting me for CF position even on a newbie drive and grooming under your watchful eye and with full safety. Looking forward to much more learning and fun.

Thanks @Lawrence_Chehimi @Shehab Alawadhi @Watteau @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Arman @Mario Cornejo @Amir Amiri @Dodi Syahdar @Abu Muhammad @Hisham Masaad for joining the drive and the great spirit and teamwork. Despite that the mission was not accomplished, we only achieved 60%, but it's a passing score so I accept it for the first attempt. It doesn't mean we will settle with this score, so expect a round 2 to be announced soon and will be looking forward for all of you to join to hit the mark together. Overall convoy performed well with some stocks and refusals here and there, all well handled by the great teamwork. I know @Hisham Masaad, @Abu Muhammad, @Lawrence_Chehimi, and the "Anchor Man" @Shehab Alawadhi had lots of funs at the back while @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Arman @Mario Cornejo and myself were chilling in the front.. @Watteau @Amir Amiri @Dodi Syahdar I am sure we met at the inflation and deflation point, but I am not sure you were on the drive between both points! no proof you made the full drive other than the loverly sounds of your beasts all the way. I hope you all enjoyed this first round and looking forward for more to come, special thanks to @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ for excellent 2nd lead and @Hisham Masaad for the great support as always.

My advise, don't use stocking cover please. These YT hacks and stunts are most dangerous stuff you will ever do. It starts with 1 fake claim of X additional HP with free flow filter and to achieve that "unknown" "unsaid" "non-tested" fictional gain owner tend to do 100 wrong moves. Totally agree with @sertac to switch to original stock dry paper filter, and clean after 4-5 drives easy (as u asked above), as factory filter box has enough space underneath to hold 100 - 200 grams of sand, even half a kg (I guess). Many have busted their engine (incl. me) for these fictitious gains, that will only come when you also put chip + 100 other mods + 200 star aligned in one line.

i uploaded few pics as well. thank you all for this beautiful morning. @Vanessa8580 @Jeepie and the support team, you are the best 😊

This is one of many best links in Carnity . I thought of re pasting it here . Few questions in the drive regarding this matter is will depicted here. curtesy crew @Frederic

Thanks @Foxtrot Oscar for the wonder guidance it was smooth drive for all except some hicks ups from my side but very well boosted by @Melenany to go for the challenges and very well supported by @Kailas during tough time to recover. Very well planned trip , thanks to all.

Thank you @Srikumar for giving us a preview of Fewbie++ and what face-paced driving in a convoy feels like 😁 Thanks to @Lorenzo Candelpergher too for teaching us shovel techniques to get out of sticky situations 👍🏻 Bro @GauravSoni, was your air filter box full of sand like in this video? >> If so, the sensor maybe did get damaged and needs replacement... Hope you manage to fix it before the next weekend drive 👌🏻

Thank you @Foxtrot Oscarfor the drive today, I miss the slopes so much! trust me I have not done this much of side sloping since the last drive with you. I think everyone drove very well today, only very few refusals/stucks, and they were all self recovered under the instruction from senior members, and the drive was really chilling, thank you @Kailas @Melenany BTW I have take 100+ of pictures and videos that my phone got overheated (not my car🙃), will do the upload tomorrow to the gallery

Beautiful picture, @JeromeFJ

What a Lovely day , cool early morning breeze and shy sun 🌞 to start the trip with passionate fellows like you guys . thank you @Jeepie for the wonderful trip you lead us today and really it was a bit of mix of every thing . @Abdul Rafay-S amazing SL , pleasure seeing you and your co pilot , father and son the best Du in the Carnity tribe . @Ranjan Das perfect sweep and thanks for the help in the shovel and pop out and watching our back . Flawless. 👍 @Yawa, @Anoop Nair, @Gregory , @Matt.T, @Will Seivewright and @Russ thank you for the accompany all did more than great. precise on time , attention to instructions , adherence to COVID 19 precautions , convoy rules keeping , experience building , joy driving and on top safety awareness . All and more has been seen today . Well done all cheers 🙏 pictures in galaxy and relive hope you liked it ( I forgot to end it till I reached home 🤣 ) Mohamed

That was my first fewbie drive. Learned a lot of things today. The track was wonderful. Thanks @Ale Vallecchi, for the wonderful lesson today. Also thanks to @Hisham Masaad and @Chris Wing for guarding and supporting the convoy today. @luis mantecon, hope your jeep is getting well soon. All, See you later on next drives.

Thank you for informing @Matt.T @luis mantecon, take care and see you in some other drive.

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi and @Hisham Masaad for the drive today. Tensed situation handle really well. @luis mantecon Hope you are doing well and I'm sure we'll see you on a drive in no time!

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for the drive this morning. It was a good idea to return to this Al Qudra area, and to enjoy the sunrise and the wildlife. The roller coasting dunes were still there, and the crests have shown that they are never easy to handle. Thanks @Hisham Masaad, @Chris Wing and all for the support, @luis mantecon hope to see you back on the sand very soon.

The outsider 😁

Finally here I am with my bit on this drive. Usually I share my thoughts within couple of hours of drive. However with this review i typed and deleted multiple times - with mixed thoughts. Not mixed about how I felt about the drive yesterday but how it will be taken by my colleagues on the drive. So before I give my brief about the drive, a humble request to all - plz take it in positive note, we are all learners here and only a feedback (introspective or from others eyes) can help us improve. And what i share below applies to me as well - it's a team sport and team as One should take this feedback. @Kailas - Thanks for the lovely drive. Terrain was just awesome, challanges you took us through were amazing with some nice ridges, super avenues to practice criss cross and ofcourse your plan to experience those lovely Little Sweihan bowls (which eventually we missed to explore). It was just the perfect setting for what we (I am sure all will agree) were hoping for as we RSVPed this drive. However sadly enough repeatedly every few minutes the convoy let you and terrain down. We all can have stucks, refusals, crests etc. I had my share of them - cresting on a dune and landing in a tricky pocket at the fag end, @Dodi Syahdar had a crest and even for that matter @Kailas had a stuck. However, the fact that through the drive there was not a continuous period of 10-15 min where convoy moved smoothly is not reflective of what we expect in an intermediate drive, specially when though challanging, terrain was well within the zone that we expect Intermediate or even Fewbies plus drivers to be able to manage. Without adding sweeteners, i surely believe performance of convoy was below par. Some basics of self recoveries were not executed well and convoy was just not able to push through the soft sand, with some drivers having repeated stucks and refusals, every few minutes. I understand some of us were coming back after a break - then perhaps better to get over the rustiness by going through some Fewbie or F+ drives. Overall despite the awesome terrain i would rate whole drive experience as Fewbie (maybe a plus) drive from drivers perspective, yes from recoveries we executed, it was a good drive to learn some tricky things @marksidea of using rope to pull the tyre during @Ashok chaturvedi Pop-out was very innovative yet simple and @Dodi Syahdar with his Raptor is all one need when in tricky position. @Lawrence_Chehimi thanks to your support wouldn't have been able to protect my Jeep's air dam without your support. And @Goutam dude your collection of tools is just super. Again all, i have driven with most of you on many drives. We can all have a bad day at work, important is to learn from each day and move on. Thanks

Hi @Anish S if any possibility to get slot in this event, please add me 0n WL as I missed my this weekend confirm drive. This request is for drive-1. Thanks & regards...

Amazing! First time I see a Subaru on the desert, plus with those rims. I think you also didn't have any refusals, so kudos for great driving 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 *although i would still worry bringing this to Sweihan 😅

See you all tomorrow!!!

Enjoyed our drive this morning with a smaller than usual convoy. Thanks @Jeepie @M.Seidam and @Ranjan Das for the support. Appreciate the forum advice on tyre pressure for my new Geolanders - today 12psi was good for me, next drive I'll try 11 or so. Will also post some pics to galley. Have a good weekend everyone 👍👊👍👊🤚

The waitlist is as follows: 1. @Sunil Mathew (2nd Drive) 2. @luis mantecon (2nd Drive) 3. @Zed (2nd Drive)