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We had gone for recovering @Shaaz Sha's car from deep inside the desert in Sweihan yesterday. After the Newbie drive with @Kailas I got news that @Shaaz Sha car had to be abandoned inside the desert in Sweihan as its upper arm link broke during his drive with @Lorenzo Candelpergher. There was no way the car could be recovered by tugging it out as the wheel had come out. 1st the drive from Ajman to sweihan to join for my drive with Kailas. Then picking up Shaaz who was taken care of by Lorenzo and driving all the way back to Ajman to source the parts and a mechanic. Once parts and mechanic was sorted out taking all this back to Sweihan to locate the car inside the desert. All experienced personnel in Carnity was engaged in the winter drive opening session. As the mechanic cannot come with us today we had no choice but enter sweihan desert by ourselves in 2 cars and start to locate where the car was left and that too after 8.30pm as we reached the entry point around that time. We roamed around 2 hours inside the desert in pitch blackness and finally located the car by 11pm. Half an hour later the car was fixed and ready for action. 2 cars became a 3 car convoy and had to figure a way out to the exit in pitch blackness and surrounded by big dunes. Another 3 hours roaming inside like lost orphans until finally we reached tarmac around 1.30 am. Reinflated tires and drove back home to Ajman dead tired. Reached home around 3am. By the way @Shaaz Sha would have done the same for me if it was my car in that situation. He has done that before in Iftar bowl when my car had to be left there after my differential broke down. We exited the desert only at 2am after recovering my car and he had missed his next day drive same like I missed mine today. So no regrets. My thanks to all the marshals @Carnity who has trained us well to achieve this kind of feat in such a short time. Never expected we could enter and exit inside Sweihan like this in pitch darkness. Special thanks to @Rahimdad, @Frederic, @Gaurav, @Wrangeld, @Chaitanya D, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Jeepie, @Tbone, @Srikumar, @Vanessa8580, @Foxtrot Oscar, @Ale Vallecchi, @Luca Palanca Falsini, @Islam Soliman and all other marshals I have driven with. All the knowledge given to us during the drives were put to use for this recovery. After this I felt like I'm a superman. 😀 Not a story but real action.

@Shaaz Sha's car was recovered yesterday.

It was heartwarming to see so many people together, from different walks of life, all enjoying the serene desert and getting to know one another. More than any dunebashing session or sidesloping tactic, this is the true essence and reason I joined this club. I hope for many more of these evenings, spending time with friends, fellow desertnauts, and sand junkies 😀

How good was that? Thank you all for attending today, also appreciate all of you being ready on time, it does make a big difference. We had a mix of some more experienced newbies and fewbies, as well as some of you just on your second drives. Very impressive how you all commanded your vehicles through some very tricky parts. The objective was to push you and to show you how to conquer technical dunes, you all did it it with aplomb. It would be my pleasure to drive with any of you again. Specifically, we learnt how to use momentum to crawl through very soft sand, how different approach speeds will make all the difference when crossing what appear to be only small dunes, but they will still get the better of us. For some of you that will be the first time you will have seen a pop out being fixed, as we discussed in our debrief, this is something that happens to all of us and as you develop your skills you can learn how to minimise the number of occurrences. We also did some digging and rope recoveries as well as a couple of winches. The second was a very tricky recovery from a pocket with only two wheels on the ground. Your radio comms and convoy discipline were good, always remember to announce any stuck or reattempt, with your name and vehicle so we can make sure the rest of the convoy is aware of your manoeuvring. Thanks again everyone, it was a really enjoyable Saturday morning drive, we covered a good distance with a lot less issues than I expected, that is testament to you and your abilities, the more you do it the more you will learn. Look forward to doing it again soon, next time we will venture into some even tougher stuff........

So far, I've been quite fortunate to do Fewbie drives with the majority of the marshals. All of this week, I've been looking forward to @Lorenzo Candelpergher and the reputation of his blitzy drives. While we didn't get the blitz, we got pristine sand with no tracks - except for camels & gazelles. And then we got a 2+ hours of twisting & turning. All that tight manoeuvring would have certainly given all of the LWBs today abs if they were hitting the gym Firstly, @Josh T., I hope you were able to get help on the road and were able to uncover what went wrong with that front-left tyre. Do keep us posted. You drove such a long way to be here with us - we'll welcome you back with a redemption soon Thank you @Gregory for playing an excellent SL as always. Having been on many drives with you - and your son - I am always confident that having you either in SL or CF brings a very sensible line to the convoy. @Sunil Mathew, having seen you across the forums for months now, I'm glad to finally see your bright yellow beacon keeping the end tight. Having your experience a couple of cars back was enough reassurance that I had support when I needed it. @Daniel Yang - you put those extra 25HP to excellent use today. While we didn't need a lot of throttle today, I could see you so effortlessly gliding up slopes. Always a pleasure to have another Y61 on the drive. @Mohammed Mansoor - two drives in two days! Both @Bernard Kalaaniand I heard your V8 roar, not to mention that you also steamrolled the vegetation and the any bumps that came with them. You also added some extra fun for us in the back by churning up more sand through those beastly wheels. And finally, Lorenzo, thank you for exposing us to this entirely new area. From the views to the twists, for all of our driving time, my attention was only in the drive. A second of diversion meant discovering a nasty step that had caught me unaware. And I guess that's where you took one for the convoy in what must have been a pretty nasty nose rub. I can't wait to be on another drive with you where we retain your blitzy reputation but even if we don't, I'll happily take doing crunches with my Y61 in your convoy. Safe travels tomorrow! And to the rest of the convoy, see you all out on the sands again soon

Thank you @Lorenzo Candelpergher for the wonderful drive. It was a challenging and eventful drive. Different terrain compared to my previous drives. Wish to go there again. @Shaaz Sha happy to hear that your X is fixed and recovered. Also a big thank to @Thomas Varghese. Excellent work. Some pictures are in gallery. See you all soon. Have a great week.

We located the car around 2.30 hours after entering the desert in Pitch dark. A mom camel and her 2 kids actually helped us. Once we saw the herd 3 times while following the map we understood then the car is nearby. Fixed the car and exited. The 3rd part of the drive was at night. The dunes looked very tall and menancing at night.

@Niki I had to go for recovering @Shaaz Sha's car from deep inside the desert in Sweihan yesterday. After the Newbie drive with @Kailas I got news that @Shaaz Sha car had to be abandoned inside the desert in Sweihan as its upper arm link broke during his drive with @Lorenzo Candelpergher. There was no way the car could be recovered by tugging it out as the wheel had come out. 1st the drive from Ajman to sweihan to join for my drive with Kailas. Then picking up Shaaz who was taken care of by Lorenzo and driving all the way back to Ajman to source the parts and a mechanic. Once parts and mechanic was sorted out taking all this back to Sweihan to locate the car inside the desert. All experienced personnel in Carnity was engaged in the winter drive opening session. As the mechanic cannot come with us today we had no choice but enter sweihan desert by ourselves in 2 cars and start to locate where the car was left and that too after 8.30pm as we reached the entry point around that time. We roamed around 2 hours inside the desert in pitch blackness and finally located the car by 11pm. Half an hour later the car was fixed and ready for action. 2 cars became a 3 car convoy and had to figure a way out to the exit in pitch blackness and surrounded by big dunes. Another 3 hours roaming inside like lost orphans until finally we reached tarmac around 1.30 am. Reinflated tires and drove back home to Ajman dead tired. Reached home around 3am. I didn't want to miss @Ale Vallecchi's drive and so put the alarm for 4.30 am but looks like I was sleeping dead tired after all this exhaustion. Now I realize it was a good thing I didn't wake up and drove to RAK to join the drive. I would have been a liability to the convoy. By the way @Shaaz Sha would have done the same for me if it was my car in that situation. He has done that before in Iftar bowl when my car had to be left there after my differential broke down. We exited the desert only at 2am after recovering my car and he had missed his next day drive same like I missed mine today. So no regrets. My thanks to all the marshals @Carnity who has trained us well to achieve this kind of feat in such a short time. Never expected we could enter and exit inside Sweihan like this in pitch darkness. Special thanks to @Rahimdad, @Frederic, @Gaurav, @Wrangeld, @Chaitanya D, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Jeepie, @Tbone, @Srikumar, @Vanessa8580, @Foxtrot Oscar, @Ale Vallecchi, @Luca Palanca Falsini, @Islam Soliman and all other marshals I have driven with. All the knowledge given to us during the drives were put to use for this recovery. After this I felt like I'm a superman. 😀

Congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor 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 Basic 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 Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

so happy to have met this beautiful group of carnity drivers. and big thanks to @Chaitanya Dand his brave and smart son for leading this super exciting sweihan drive. glad to know @Aisha Smade it safely ! see you on the sands again and have a wonderful week ahead 🤘

Leaving a broken down car behind is never a nice feeling. Having said that, rather than speaking of the remedy, let's mention the precautionary actions that one can take to avoid a broken down car: 1. Ensure your car is a 100% each time you hit the sand. If in doubt, it's better not to sign up for a drive 2. Regularly maintain your car, and I am not referring to the normal fluid changes. If you have had a nose dive / hard impact on a drive, after the drive you need to jack up the car and ensure that everything is fine. You might notice a cracked bushing or broken link rod, etc. 3. Be focussed while driving. A slight distraction, and you might fly of a dune causing a severe damage 4. Get a good mechanic as your friend who would periodically help inspect the entire vehicle. Alternatively, do it yourself. If you follow the above, you will eliminate most of the major causes of breakdowns. Getting a broken down car out of the desert purely depends on how far it is from the road. If it's behind some big dunes, then there is no option but to call professional recovery or get a mechanic. All the Marshal and Leads at Carnity are driving stock cars that are not designed to tug out a dead vehicle from deep within the desert. In such cases, it's better to call for professional recovery or get a mechanic into the desert.

If the issue can be fixed you can always take your mechanic with the required parts and tools and get your car fixed at the spot. Otherwise there are companies who does off road recovery, which is expensive.

@Yasin @Omar ElGamal @qaiser ijaz @Harkaran Birdi @Sandra Mrad @Umar Yaqoob @nr51mes @Mark Shepherd @JAISROCK @Brette I will be posting the pictures in the gallery later. can't get them resized at the moment

Congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor well done

Thank you @Carnity family for this super lovely day 🙏

You were excellent as second lead, especially maneuvering wonderfully on top a big dune in a soft pocket. Well done buddy

congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor, see you in sweihan for the new challenges at FB

Congrats fellow Y62 offroader @Mohammed Mansoor! Now you can join the Sweihan drives 😁

Congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor! 👏🏼

Hi @Carnity team over last few drives, we have had some cases where we had to leave a vehicle in desert to be recovered later as things couldn't have been fixed without an expert mechanic etc. @Amir Amiri broke his ride's diff and recently understand @Shaz Shah had some issue as well. Would be good to know whats the safe and right way of executing these recoveries. In case of Jeep trading enterprise offer recovery anywhere within Dubai and Sharjah, however, understand that Abu Dhabi is not covered and with things becoming easier, many of us are going for AD trip. I am not sure if insurance (i have AXA comprehensive) covers such recoveries and surely not all of us have identified mechanics to help us out in such cases. Marshalls surely help a lot, i know @Islam Soliman helped @Amir Amirirecover. However would be good to know if there are some predefined things we can do to be prepared for such instances. Look forward.for advice from team @Carnity as well as those who experienced such incidents. I am sure not all of us are comfortable heading to middle of desert without any support or leaving the vehicle over night in middle of desert. Thanks @Gaurav @Frederic @Srikumar

👋👋👋AMAZING DRIVE Richard @Wrangeld& Alex@Alex Raptor. Your tag team brings out the best from all of us. You never let anyone behind. I appreciate you talked through what happens on every obstacle and gave advice how to overcome them. I learned a lot! Really! 🙏🙏🙏 And most importantly, I gained a lot of confidence on my rig, never thought I could do it. Hopefully to get more of this technical drive. Until next time🤞🤞🤞

Thank you so much @Brette& @Jeepie-Majan

Congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor on your fast promotion. Well done with your Y62 and very pleased to have led your 1st FB drive this morning

@Wrangeld @Alex Raptor thank you for today’s lead and support. Loved every bit of it. Though I have done 11 drives previously this was challenging with virgin dunes and soft sand. hoping to see more of this technical drives

Hi @Wrangeld, @Alex Raptor, Hi wolfpack, thank you so much for todays experience. I'm sitting on my sofa with a cold beer and just thought how amazing the drive was today! I learned a lot and gained a lot of confidence driving through soft sand and narrow dunes. I really enjoyed the pace today, in my opinion the quality of carnity newbies is outstanding which is a big thank you to all the marshals who even get out of bed when they had a desert barbecue the night before! I'm really looking forward to all the drives which are about to come! Have a great weekend - looking forward to meet all of you in the sand again!

@Yasin @Omar ElGamal @qaiser ijaz @Harkaran Birdi @Sandra Mrad @Umar Yaqoob @nr51mes @Mark Shepherd @JAISROCK Thank you for joining Friday Absolute Newbie drive, it was a absolute pleasure to drive with you all. Being absolute newbie's you all did great and learned really well. @Yasin I am sorry you had to be exited early due to the overheating issues right as we started and once you have that sorted out, please join an Absolute newbie drive again. For the rest of you, some had a few stuck's and refusals but don't let it get to you. It is all part of the game and you learn from it. A special shout out to Marjan @Jeepie for the amazing support and making sure everyone made it through. Hope to see you all on the sand again soon. Moving forward you all will be joining the Newbie drives and not an Absolute Newbie drive anymore. Drives are announced every Sunday at 11 am, and they go live on Sunday at 7:00 pm. Due to the high demand, these drives get full in about 10 minutes, so please be online at 7 pm to book your spot. If you miss a spot, put your name on the waitlist asap. Generally, by Thursday with dropouts everyone does get a spot if they have waitlisted. For the next drives, please bring along a deflator, pressure gauge, flag, compressor and radio as a minimum. Learn to deflate your tires and checking them precisely Learn to fix a flag on your car Learn to program and fully charge your radio Also like I mentioned during the debriefing, join the Carnity Whatsapp Drive Notification to get the latest updates on the drives, so that you can RSVP on time for the next weekend's drive. Please have a look at below topic which describes the tools needed for every level. There is a separate tutorial inside which explains which radio we recommend and how to program them: (Please do not buy the Baofeng 888S spare radio we gave you, as these cannot be programmed without a special cable and software). Please have a look at below grading structure that explains various off-road levels: See you guys and gals soon on the sand again. Take care.

Congratulations @Mohammed Mansoor

Dear Desert Wanderers, Last minute convoy order for tomorrow: 1. Lorenzo Candelpergher 2. Sunil Mathew @Sunil Mathew 3. Mohammed Mansoor @Mohammed Mansoor 4. Josh T. @Josh T. 6 Bernard Kalaani @Bernard Kalaani 7. Munkybizness @munkybizness 8 Daniel Yang @Daniel Yang 9. Gregory @Gregory 10. Jodha singh shekhawat @jodha singh shekhawat The meeting point as per a drive post, ie the roundabout at the intersection of Al Bataeh Road with E102 Sharjah-Kalba Road - https://goo.gl/maps/jqJgB18J8xkuQg9t9 We will be using channel 4 Pls make sure you are ready (deflated, flagged) by 6:00am sharp, so try to reach at least by 5:45am.

First desert drive with family was fun. Looking to join many more. Missed meeting Gaurav and all Marshals. Had to leave early due to SAT being a working day. Thanks to the White Xterra (Asif Hussain i believe) I did not realize that u were waiting until we inflated and hit tarmac.

@Aisha Sglad u made it back safe and fast.. The way i see it we all had a short master class on dealing with pop outs… part n parcel of taming the dunes... @Chaitanya Dthanks for leading and coaching as through some of the essentials: safety, pop out fix process and most importantly dealing with ambiguity… also we had the best drive of the terrain and conditions had to offer.. @Josh T. U r simply amazing mate…. The support and energy u bring in to the drive… highly appreciate and enjoyed the team work and synergy with everyone… See u all in the next drive…

@Aisha SGlad everything worked out well on the tire repair. I have the whole incident on video….including the fewbie pit crew repair team working on your jeep. Start to finish 48 minutes. See you next time!

Thank you for the drive this morning @Lorenzo Candelpergher! A beautiful itinerary with huge possibilities, and almost no tracks at all. The only convoys in sight were camels ! It is a gem! Definitely worth returning and exploring further. The landscape was superb and we could enjoy even if the pace of the drive was requiring a continuous concentration . thank you all for the support and company, @Shaaz Sha, I hope you can recover you car without too much troubles.

Well done @Sara EL FANIDI

Congratulations @Sara EL FANIDI

Congratulations @Sara EL FANIDI

Congratulations @Sara EL FANIDI! 👏🏼

Well done @Sara EL FANIDI!!! Enjoy the new level!!!

Congrats Sara !

@Gaurav and @Carnity team thank you all for your excellent guidance and support in developing my off road driving skills. I am looking forward to grow further with Carnity with brilliant Marshall's and supportung team filled with fun adventures and eye catching beautiful locations. Cheerz

@Mohammed MansoorCongratulations!

@AlexMCongratulations!

Congratulations @salah2u well done

You can if you confirm by 6 am tomorrow

Congrats Johannes !

Congratulations @salah2u 👏🏼