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DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Today's drive in Sweihan was for sure one of those I will remember for long time, as it was one of the most problematic drives I've ever had. It all started in a perfect way: a nice, fresh breeze welcomed us in the twilight before sunrise, at the meeting point. We acted a bit later than planned, anyway by 6am we were on the move. The start was nice and easy, a warm up in preparation of the big bowls to come. We made our way through the bushy dunes and, as we headed west, we found our way through the multiple fences partially buried in the area. When we reached the first bowl, the theme of the day was clear and exciting for all drivers. Certainly the first bowl wasn't the easiest one, but it was the perfect heads up for everyone to realize the beauty and the dangers of these mighty bowls, which deserve to be taken absolutely seriously, with full focus and without any compromise for safety at all times. If @JeromeFJ was not fully awake before this bowl, he was certainly afterwards, as his first attempt was as spectacular as scary for us watching his fishtailing on the way down.. A good lesson for the rest of the drivers and for Jerome himself, who then drove brilliantly for the whole drive. The first 2.5h of our "bowling expedition" went very well as we steadily proceeded west, making our way from one big bowl to the next one. @Xavier Treasurer was having some issues at the back with the poor traction of his H/T tires, which caused him several refusals, especially in the super soft and churned up sand that the guys at the back had of face. After moving to 3rd position in the convoy, Xavier did much better. The plan for the day was to hit 8 bowls heading west and, depending on the pace and the time, to hit some of them again on the way back. A great plan, in theory, which turned out in quite a different drive in practice.. Here's the overview (the green waipoints are the bowls I was targeting): In the end we hit 7 out of 8 bowls, which isn't too bad, considering the total mayhem we had to go through due to my car's annoying troubles. It all started with an innocent ABS malfunction error on my dashboard... Then came a TCS error, then an ESC error. Nothing to worry about, in theory, as all this stuff in the desert is useless and for sure it was some sand bothering some sensors.. But then, towards the end of the drive, it felt like I had forgotten how to drive the car.. Every climb was a struggle.. What the hell was going on? It was then that @Mus_hus78, a brilliant 2nd lead today, noticed that while climbing my rear wheels were spinning but not the front ones.. Apparently my 4H was occasionally disengaging and leaving me with an endlessly fishtailing 2H drive! After some attempts turning off and on again the ignition, it was decided to disconnect the battery to see whether we could force a reset of the electronics of the car, but nothing changed, so we decided to continue a little more and see if things would get better or else to exit earlier. Despite the challenge of driving more often in 2H than 4H, our "Bowling plan" continued and in the end we certainly enjoyed a couple of really nice rounds: Everyone did extremely well around these big bowls: @Mus_hus78 proudly led his Pajero in and out every bowl in style, once again squeezing everything the car could give. @Farouq Owdeh looked like he was driving in his backyard as he new every bowl in details. Every bowl came nice and easy for him. @Ruan van den Heever and his passenger certainly had a good chance to enjoy the "naked" version of the JL, but I feel it may have been still a bit too hot towards the end. @Xavier Treasurer found his balance in 3rd position, with an excellent 2nd part of the drive. @JeromeFJ was the fastest guy in the group today. Once he got acquainted with the size of the dunes, a novelty for him, he was always one of the highest reaching guys. @M.Seidam at the back was cool as a cucumber, enjoying the ride and always with a vigilant eye on the (few) refusals at the back. @Rizwanm2 was experimenting these giant bowls for the 1st time as well, I believe. I'm sure it was great fun. He tried to steal the stage with a stuck at the last bowl requiring a tug by @M.Seidam, but today the stage at the end of the drive was all mine.. 😭😭😭 Due to my intermittent 4H/2H traction (or plainly because of my own mistakes) in the last 20 mins I got stuck once (thanks @Mus_hus78 for tugging me out), had 3 or 4 refusals and eventually had a pop-out, which we struggled fixing at the bottom of the last bowl, after we had already decided to exit earlier due to my car and my son's conditions. Right after the popout, however, I found out my car was not only in 2H, but also stuck in 2nd gear.. 😱😱😱. No shifting at all... Therefore not enough speed to build momentum around the bowl nor enough traction by downshifting to climb up straight and get out of it... In my attempts to climb up of the bowl without shifting gear I eventually collected the 2nd pop-out of the day. This was a nasty one, as the TPM sensor damaged the bead of the tire so much that it would leak air and the pop-out could not be fixed, which meant the spare wheel had to be put in place.. A great team effort made the fix much easier, while @Farouq Owdeh tried via OBD a software reset of the car's electronics, which gave me back at least the gear shifting, but not the 4H. It was enough anyway to circle around the bowl and find a reasonable criss-crossing point, allowing then a quick exit on the south side dirt track along the fence and then back to the tarmac on E16. A massive THANKS to everyone for the great help and the even greater patience during today's drive, in which we experimented all sorts of issues including, cherry on the pie, my son having the smart idea to have his breakfast in the midst of the drive, which his stomach didn't appreciate at all... 🤮🤮 Kudos to everyone for going through these mighty bowls safely, with great discipline and without any major problems. My special gratitude goes to @Rizwanm2 and @M.Seidam for their great support today, even though, I must say, everyone was helpful at all times, with the best @Carnity team spirit I could ever desire. Overall we drove 57.4km in 4h 16', of which 2h 23' moving time, at an average moving speed of 21.7km/h, for a total ascent of +1406/-1435m. See the details below: Next drive in these bowls will be hopefully smoother. Despite the difficulties I personally had fun, I hope it was the same for you. See you soon in the sand again!

I had missed churning sands a lot so was impatient to get in play after my two months long summer vacation. The plan was going through the unavoidable technical part as quick as possible to reach up the play area and enjoy the full speed there. Lisaili desert immediately reminded me how are the rules: don't mess with technical dunes I opened the season by getting stuck myself at the very beginning then the convoy followed the leader I couldn't count how many refusals and stucks we had yesterday. Normally there is no way to finish the track in time with such number of stucks but there was something extraordinary with the convoy yesterday: an unbelievably ambitious team attacking on troubles with an amazing coordination and teamwork! A unique selection of club members worked like fighter ants to sort out multiple and simultaneous stucks, dividing into teams shoveling and tugging all around without waiting for a call. Perfect example for a part of the Carnity team! I will never forget this convoy! Our driving pace was slow at the beginning due to stucks and refusals but our speed was amazingly high during recovering them out! In this way we were able to reach to Margham and surf on the dunes for the last hour of the drive. Our magical first timers; @Pierre de Maigret did his first second leading, perfectly responded to my last minute warnings and saved the convoy from falling bottomless bowls. @Ben84 did his first sweeping, keeping our eyes at the back of the convoy for the full time and helped rescuing each trouble with his shovel and rope. You both will find handling SL/SW a piece of cake in your upcoming drives after yesterday's experience I believe No word to tell how @Veedooshee was so i will not try much. She simply saved our drive! Her flying pajero was everywhere needed, advising, coordinating, shoveling, tugging and joking! Now I have to support at least 10 drives of @Anish S to compensate her yesterday's support 😏 Each driver in the convoy was excellent, having strong rhinos under their feet. Hats out to all from experienced drivers @Warren Flay @Kenneth Bollhardt @JamesThorn @Marwan Haddad @Daniel Yang to the fresh fewbies @Naim Aoun @Ahmed Wagdy. Outstanding performance in dealing both small technical dunes and high-speed ridge-riding / crisscrossing 💪 You are now much higher on the off-road ladder going to upper Carnity levels. Thank you all for your support, friendship, fun and performance. Let's meet in the next!

DRIVE REPORT Gone are the days of roaring up onto Fossil Rock. And I may speak against my own adventure spirit, but I believe fencing off this beautiful area and conserving it for future generations is a good thing. As you have seen in Faya this morning, the amount of rubbish left behind is an absolute shame and makes me truly reconsider my faith in mankind Having said that, we had a blast this morning and went from Mahafiz to Faya, did climbs and loops, and then circled back and exited near Mahafiz mosque. At a brisk pace, where everyone did amazing and the Newbies amongst the convoy have proven their worth totally ! Fantastic done @kiranshinde @Mohamad Anwer @GratefulKRD(Kamal) and @Daniel Rodas There were lots of cross tracks unfortunately and it felt a bit like arriving at some wedding when only the leftovers are available. Luckily the track from Faya back to Mahafiz was quite clean which allowed us to tickle up the pace a notch. With a great second lead @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, excellent center player @varunmehndiratta and the Egyptian kings at the back @Melenany and @Hisham Masaad help was always nearby when needed and the camaraderie was the cherry on the cake. Lately there has been talk about these DOGE bitcoins. Apparently they will go to the moon. I am not sure about that when I look at my investment portfolio, but after seen the 2dr SuperCharged Landcruiser or @Mohamad Anwer I should have put my bets on his car What a beast and how well you controlled it ! See you guys soon in the sand again !

Beautiful drive @Ale Vallecchi the opening with the sunrise was stunning ! It was just the hors d'oeuvre of the rest of the drive... I did loose a bumper 😅 but I had it coming. Thank you @Gaurav Soni and @Rob H for the support and help on the bumper. @Amir Amiri hope it will all be sorted out. Good to see you all and see you soon.

Thank you all for joining the drive yesterday. It was a fantastic team effort. The terrain was challenging and a bit technical at times, but we had no issues at all. For the 1st FB+ @Naveen Raj did really well. Some minor refusals which were brilliantly self recovered. @Archibald Jurdihad installed new HT tires, which were not adapting well with the sand. The new tires gave few refusals and a pocket stuck situation which was flawlessly tugged by@JeromeFJ @Chris Wing had a refusal at a very soft patch, with continues steering left &right, he was able to inch out and beautifully self recovered. @JeromeFJ @Rawad @Pacific drove so well that I hardly heard any radio messages from them.👍 It was a great team effort form everyone, but special thanks to @Dodi Syahdar for assisting when ever someone had to self recover👏 Stats: Overall we covered around 55kms. I would say it was a short drive considering that we finished our drive by 9:30 am. Good avg speed for a FB + drive. See you all soon!

@Ale Vallecchi great drive today, 100km despite a rear coil spring replacement, and a pop out shows some good driving by all with @Gaurav Soni Centre forward and @Rob HSweep doing good work on the repairs.

Hi Friends My first time in Sweihan and second time in AD Drive . What a beautiful and amazing drive that was . Full of thrill and action . More than that the team spirit embraced by all of the drivers . Good driving and adherence to convoy and COVID discipline and precautions always. Couple refusals , two pop outs and two tugs along bowling as much as we could have to the content of our hearts . well done every one for this amazing day and It was pleasure driving with all of you 🙏👍 thank you @Mus_hus78 for being a perfect second lead @Rizwanm2 for anchoring our convey flawlessly. last but not least many thanks to our lead @Lorenzo Candelpergher for making our day so excited despite what ever came in the way . Regards to your little copilot , mine was asleep home 😄 wish you great week ahead , till next time

Thanks again @Janarthan for leading such a thrilling drive, your choice of tracks and the overall itinerary kept me entertained throughout the drive, esp the Hill climbs, love those. @Niki Always a pleasure to have you as a part of the convoy. Your way of delivering instructions calmly and handling the sticky situations never fails to impress me. Thanks for helping the Convoy stay on its feet. @Foxtrot Oscar Was amazing to catch up with you after such a while. Having you in the convoy always makes the drive much more entertaining and fun, looking forward towards a drive with you 😁 Statistic Summary:

Thank you @Wrangeld that was a very nice drive. Very eventful from the start... proof that anything can happen in the desert. The terrain of Lehbab is beautiful and challenging, and the convoy did pretty well all along. Great support from @Alex Raptor and @Jeepie as always ! Sometimes people ask me why I still go to Fewbie drives... Going to Fewbie drives is a reminder of the importance of being prepared and concentrated. It is also a reminder of the steps that you need to cross and the learnings you had all the way. Gravity and momentum, reading the dunes and the sand, knowing your car, testing your capabilities... Going to Fewbie drives is also a reminder that in the desert you need to be humble and patient. Everybody gets stuck, no matter your level. But with the advice of the Carnity crew you learn to handle all different situations. It is also the chance to meet new people, and lend a hand whenever it is needed, because that is the spirit of this community. Well done evreyone, have a good week and hope to see you all very soon in the sand !

Dear Desert Wanderers, Some videos of today's 1st big bowl: This is @Ruan van den Heever: This is @Xavier Treasurer: This is @M.Seidam: This is @JeromeFJ: What a great bowl it was!

Superb drive report @Lorenzo Candelpergher made me relive the day once more and definitely it’s one of a drive to remember for a long time . Thanks again to you and to every one who participated today in this thrill 🙏

Thanks @Frederic for the beautiful drive through this awesome terrain.My first drive with you and what a fun drive it was. After 3 back to back drives in Qudra's white sand the red sand was a comforting sight. In long time was on a drive that ended earlier than planned and radio was rarely used - truly a testament to how well the convoy handled the challanges. Thanks all for the lovely drive, hope to see you all soon.

Few sidys from today’ drive

Dear @Lorenzo Candelpergher, amazing drive this morning, for sure one to remember. Discovering the magnitude of the bowls, the dimensions of the dunes, the depth of the descends and the unbelievable heights to climb was amazing. Thank you for the lead, and the detailed report. As you mentioned, I had my wake-up call in the first bowl, and then was fully awake to enjoy every piece of it ! What a thrill 😀😀 ! Thanks to everyone in the convoy, it was nice to see new faces and the mutual support and team spirit was excellent, along with the skills and determination required today. Recoveries and problem solving are part of leaning. You had more than your part today, hopefully the drives will be smooth. Thank you @M.Seidam for the sweep, and the company at the back of the convoy, @Rizwanm2 for the support. Definitely waiting for the next Abu Dhabi drives !

Thank you very much @Mehmet Volgafor the drive of yesterday. A first time for me as SL and I enjoyed it tremendously. Amazing, I got crested once which hasn’t happened for a very long time… These little dunes of soft sand definitely had their challenges and it was an intense work of shoveling 😄. @Veedoosheeyou were amazing, always present and monitoring an incredible number ofrecoveries. @Anish Syou are a great photographer and thank you for the great memories we can take with us.

Post Drive Report A delayed and then delayed a bit more start meant we suffered from even softer sand than usual in an area reknowned for soft sand. This was not an easy newbie drive, but then I preadvised that it would be a challenge - and it was. This was a technical drive. The dunes are not large, but do require finesse and care. The technical dunes are not that short or challenging, but they are very very soft. There are not a lot of play areas, requiring everyone to remain at the top of their game throughout the drive. In my view we did not have a high number of refusals or stucks taking the terrain into account, the length of the convoy and the fact that concentration was already impacted by the delayed (twice) start. The newer the newbie today, the more impressive your performance - truly. We did not have any criss crossing, or ridge riding, or any real slide sloping. What we had was large sections of the drive where everyone had to focus on following a complicated route, cross a lot of dunes straight over and rise to the challenge of driving along the top of the dunes. @Alex Raptor you pretty much saved the day. Popouts handled in record time, and epic winch manouvre, sorting out all the refusals along the way. Your baptism of fire on your deserved promotion. @Jeepie wonderful to have you back in the sand, calmly sorting out everyone at the back of the convoy. @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil perfect 2nd lead. Avoided all the pit and pratfalls that I might have made. @Ramandbx sorry you got locked out buddy. @Senthil Kumar hope the grinding noise gets sorted. Some absolute massive additional kudos points to mention: Perfect convoy discipline and great radio usage today. Thanks everyone. It makes it so much easier when everyone complies. Good team work. Thanks for supporting where needed. There is a fewbie drive in this area tomorrow. That says all the newbies need to know about the standard today. We don't normally take newbies here. See you soon in the sand.

Thank you @Ale VallecchiI thoroughly enjoyed my first intermediate drive and that too a 100km one! Thank you also for the memorabilia sticker! I could definitely feel the difference of pace during the drive and it helped in maintaining concentration. Thank you to @Ranjan Das @Gaurav Soniand @Rob Has well!

I don't do anything on the fly, except occasionally marking dangerous or remarkable spots by adding a waypoint in the current location and then editing it after the drive. In any case, while I drive I just drive: if I need to touch the screen for anything else than zooming in/out or recentering the map, I stop, do what I need to do and move again. I learned the hard way with my Patrol that when you are in movement you need to look at where you are going and keep your hands on the steering wheel with no exceptions. What you see in the snapshots are all waypoints that had been created before the drive to help my navigation, ie to have clear target points to aim at while driving. I just dropped the car at Jeep to have it checked and understand what REALLY happened. Right now, I don't know what happened.. I just know I had ABS, ESC and TCS warning lights on and no other error messages, but had, discontinously, only rear traction despite being in 4H Part-time (which is, despite the wording, a permanent 4x4 mode) and, at a certain point, the gearbox locked in 2nd gear, with no up/down-shifting possible. After a battery reset nothing changed, whereas after a forced reset via OBDII the warning lights disappeared and the shifting was again possible. I still felt I had no front traction as I struggled a lot to climb out of the last bowl, but nobody could visually confirm I was on 2H. I'll keep you posted about the feedback from Jeep.

How do you put waypoints markers and all these trackings while on the fly? Hope nothing major with car? All the best with that .. Do share what had happened, we jeepers are looking forward to know what could go wrong - it's the Jeep thing..🙂

Thanks everyone for the patience and the support. I’ll fix my tires- this one felt more like an ice skating session 😂

Thanks @Fredericand team for an amazing drive today! It was fast and fun. See you on the dunes soon. Cheers!

First and Foremost I would like to thank @@Janarthan for taking us to a fantastic place, @Foxtrot Oscar for her heartily laugh in any situation and @Nikifor generously spraying my transmission radiator when my tenperature was high. This was my first newbie drive and what a blast. I loved the more sustained pace and the extra challenge, which I am happy the car was able to handle. As for the driver I learned 1. You MUST be concentrated at all time. The 3 refusal I had came 2 in a moment when I was chatting with my wife. The third one shortly after we all congratulated ourselves for the ride before climbing the last hill. Lesson learn no more. 2. Keep your distance. While I believe I did well there I had one refusal when the car in front of me had a bit of difficulties ridging and I did not notice (distraction) so I had to stop in a spot where I could not go forward anymore. 3. I still need to tune in the momentum and acceleration when coming off ridges on the soft side. I had it right most of the time. I noticed that it is better when, instead of lifting completely the gas when momentum is sufficient you keep some throttle. This requires less initial momentum and to fine tune your feet. I have it in my brain now, I assume practice will melas me improve this sensitivity. 4. My transmission temperature acted up. Thanks all for the patience. This is the first time it happens. I am gonna have my car checked. 5. Climbing. I might be light, but my gear acts up when climbing in a way I have not figure out yet so I often change gear when I do not want to whether in full auto or tiptronic. I guess I will need to climb more. What I am happy to see, and my wife too, is that I never fought gravity and I manage to steer down before I feel the momentum is gone allowing me to safely point my front wheel down before is too late. 6. I am particularly happy with my instinct in one refusal where I could not ridge, right so I went left following gravity instead of fighting it. In all I self recovered in alll occasion. I am happy about the small MOD I made. I can see the lift and the tire make a difference in the newbie drives. One last word about tire pressure. I start my drives at 11, I finish above 12. Should I start at 10 (without having a pop up) as I decently noticed I tend to have more refusal toward the last third of the drives. Thanks all for the great drive and the patience with my transmission A special mention to our second lead, ready to climb mountains to land an Hand! @TT_Dubai P.S. I can freely share all the full res picture is anyone is interested.

Thanks a lot @Kailas for this beautiful drive this morning ! A flawless itinerary with big rollercoasters, ridge riding and crossing thanks to all the team, everyone driving very well and assisting during the few stuck. A great morning

Thanks @Mehmet Volga, @Veedooshee and @Ben84 for this great ride and the support, it was really enjoyably given it is my second fewbie ride.

Hello Dr. We miss you !!

Congratulations @Gaurav Soni 👌

Well earned promotion @Gaurav Soni

Congratulations @Gaurav Soni!

Great news, well done @Alex Raptor I’ll bring the cakes 😉

Vow @Gaurav Soni. Super impressed with your comeback ,hearty congratulations. Now you have to live up to the expectations that comes with your name , at this level and ahead.

Congrats @GauravSoni....see you soon in your new robes!!! and looking forward to some support too 😉👍

Congrats @GauravSoni