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Finally we reached not only to the Yellow Truck but we managed to cross the entire desert and reached to the other side thanks to excellent lead from @Gaurav support from @marks @varunmehndiratta and brilliant driving from the entire convoy also the vehicles. Without all these things together it is a nightmare to cross the unforgiving Liwa landscape. Thanks @Ranjan Das @Ashok chaturvedi @Lawrence_Chehimi @Rawad @Ilya @varunmehndiratta @marks @Gaurav Thanks everyone for the excellent drive and see you all soon on sand. Lot of pictures are in the gallery. Have a wonderful week.

I enjoy writing Drive reports or for that matter recount of any unique experience i go through - reliving the beautiful journey, reimagining some good some/scary moments through that adventure and just trying to freeze those moments in form of words. However yesterday's drive to Liwa been something unique. I don't think i am as a good a writer to be able to express what a wonderful experience it was. So i'll just say -- it was Liwa, there was @Gaurav , there was a convoy full of energy and skill full drivers and only chatter on radio was about how magneficient the setting is. Thanks @Gaurav for planning this retake drive, i am sure wasn't that easy after all we witnessed in last drive. Thanks all for making it an awesome experience. @Chinthaka Ruwan @Ranjan Das @Ashok chaturvedi @Lawrence_Chehimi @Rawad @marks @Ilya

Another great drive @Anish Sand @Kailasreally enjoyed the technical dunes and the deliberate stuck scenarios learnt a lot about me vehicle and maybe need to look at changing the steps lol great to meet a lot of new folks as well as those we have driven with before. Fantastic team work shoveling together as one. @Looper @Davie Chase @Marwan Haddad @Waqas Parvez @Fabien Monleau thanks for the support as always great to have you supporting@Alain Canivet-Abikhalil

@Shaaz Sha another great drive today, different from your normal high octane drives with far more technical areas and challenges. Well done @Zixuan Huang - CharlieCharlie as 2nd lead and a solid support from @Thomas Varghese Had a few refusals and some stucks in the soft sand but all were dealt with fairly easily and a pleasant morning had by all. A slight drama at re inflate with @Shaaz Shasmoking up his compressor cabling almost setting light to the wiring loom. I hope it's easily fixed Shaaz and no other damage caused.

Thanks for joining me this morning in the lovely dunes of Abu Dhabi. I was initially a bit disappointed with the amount of cross tracks the first half hour but as soon as we headed South it opened up and we had some good fun ! All of you did really well ! Thanks for the great second lead in John and the support from Mostafa ! @John Vanderbleek @Andrew McCarthy @Amro Aydin @Anna Dillon @Imran Kashif @Mohammed Yazir Thattarathil@takeshi sobue @Adnan Halepota@Melenany

Thank you @Kailas for the nice drive it was great driving behind you . @Jeepie it was really nice to meet you . Thanks to the convoy members for making this a fun ride. Looking forward to drive again together.. Cheers ...

Many thanks @Mehmet Volga for the drive today ! Despite the cross tracks and ditches, you managed to take us from one face to the other, from one bowl to the new one. Even if the pace was discontinued, we could really enjoy each of the play areas. Thank you also for the detailed drive report. Playing was really the word of the day, as it seems we have each of us enjoyed a lot taking the different challenges, pushing our cars higher on the slopes, and challenging each other in an always friendly way. @Zed, excellent 2nd lead, and always so enthusiastic @Karthikeyan Govindarajan, @Josh T., nice meeting you for the first time, @Pacific, for the first time in Sweihan, you pushed the Jeep to the top, @Hasan Wahlan, always a pleasure to drive with you. @Farouq Owdeh, the sound of your engine made me believe mine was off ! Excellent level for the group, good drive, good laughs, all what we need ! Thank you all. (See a few pics in the gallery, waiting for the videos ) @Srikumarsorry to hear your mishap, hopefully it can get fixed without too much troubles…

@Thomas Varghese some outstanding photos of my Jeep thanks.

Hi . It was a nice and chilling day today and thanks to every one for being on time. We started on time and it was lovely terrain..a blend of all the challenges . We had lots of criss crosses and many interesting ridge rides and side slops. The sand was super soft at many places and our convoy was ready for every thing that came our way. You guys were amazing today and it was not an easy task..... you deserve a round applause ..👏.👏 We had a few refusals and stucks but never had any serious issues to interrupt our flow, It was a pleasure driving with all of you. Thanks to @Matt.T for perfectly executed CF role and thanks to @Thomas Varghese for sweeping us safely and for the wonderful pics. Thank you @Zixuan Huang - Charlie for the perfect 2nd lead. @Gregoryyou were amazing today buddy. You really didn't have any sort of trouble in making it through those soft technical patches. @MMansoor , @JamesThorn and @Daniel YangYou people did really good today and it was not easy to maneuver your beasts in such a terrain..But you guys did well .keep it up. @Chris WingYou were outstanding buddy.. Keep it up. Thank you guys once again and hope to see you soon . some pics in the gallery

Thanks for a great drive @Kailas, and great to see you again @Jeepie and @Simon Dawood! I’ve put some pictures in the gallery, but mostly of the rear of the pack. @Karthik Raptor My V6 Raptor is never gonna sound as good as yours! What a monster! Great to meet you all. Cheers!

Thank you @Shaaz Sha for the most technical drive I have participated recent times. Surprisingly all the drivers coped up with the terrain very fast. Kudos to everybody showing up on time on Saturday morning. Thank you @Zixuan Huang - Charlie for being the 2nd lead and @Matt.T for being the CF and support for todays convoy. See you all soon in the sands for another drive. Pictures posted in gallery.

Really enjoyed this morning, a lovely drive that set up a lot of confidence, love how you had faith in us along the way - felt more like a day out than just a drive 😁

Merci beaucoup @Frederic. Very nice work in leading us to those great areas to the south. That was great fun. Hope you have a great Xmas and hope to join you again in the new year. Ah. Upside down photo added for the benefit of the Australian in the group😂

Absolute cracking drive today! Enjoyed mixing it up at the back in the raptor and landcruiser tracks! Possibly my most enjoyable drive to date! Thanks @Vanessa8580 !

@Hisham Masaadi have arrived thinking the time is 2pm and not 1:30! 🤦🏻‍♂️ Is there anyway to catch up with you?

@Kailas it was a different learning experience going through to the technical ridges and understanding to control your pace, enjoyed the pace drive (fast and furious) and shovelling was fun, burned a few calories @Davie Chase i owe you two drinks😃 @Looper great second lead and @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil for the support ,rest of the crew was fantastic @Marwan Haddad @Fabien Monleau @Vaibhav

Post Drive Report: Absolutely Fantastic That was a great drive by everyone. For your first time out in the desert, literally for some of you what you did cannot be under-estimated. @haridas kt you'll get used to the different feeling of being in sand and start to really control the car, instead of it controlling you (like it did a few times today) @Andrew McCarthy having done a masterclass helps a lot before venturing into a convoy drive and we saw today that what you learned first time round was put well into practice. You need to sort out the bumper - it's not sensible to remove it each time. Thanks for acting as second lead. Great job. @Asad only a few moments when the courage to use the accelerator let you down today. Some nice self recoveries. @Ashhad Siddiqui I am glad you felt you learned something today. We all learn, every time we go out into the desert. I think a few more convoy drives at newbie will be worthwhile for you for the future. Thanks for taking on the additional role in the middle of the convoy. @Zeeshan Patel the Patrol has a lot of power that needs to be tamed. Once you get the feel confident with your car, the rest becomes a lot easier. For a first time out, fantastic. @Dr Tanveer Ahmed so, you flummoxed me with how to get into your battery terminals, but apart from that, a great day out as far as I see. You controlled the car beautifully. @Siddharth gupta It's a beast and you handled it very well. As expected, you got crested, but after that you started to understand how your car works on the sand and did amazingly well. @Alex Raptor thanks for the incredible support on this drive from start to finish. Normally we have an experienced CF and sweep in a drive like this - you managed both roles perfectly. See you soon in the sand. Hi Jessica, There is an Absolute Newbie drive every Friday. I've removed your RSVP from this one so that you can join which wvr you want in the future. Have a great day.

For the trenches crossing the dunes, and the cables and sensors, you can have a look at this previous post. it does not make them better, but at least we understand the purpose !

@Kailas, @Jeepie and all the convoy members, thanks for the lovely drive today. Look forward to the next one!

Dear @Mohamad Anwer @Danish Mohammad @Belal Aldaour @kiranshinde @AlexM @Reggie Landicho @Shaaz Sha @KAMALIO @salah2u @siddharth maheshwari @Pacific Look forward to meet you tomorrow, discovering Area 53. Convoy list and Radio channel is as below. Pleased to have @Shaaz Sha supporting and looking after us tomorrow.

After meeting right on time with 15 cars together, we smoothly started our drives in two convoys keeping different tracks. I had driven in this area some time ago, a fewbie plus again, and it was clear from everything but just sand and wonderful dunes & bowls to play. Now, like the part at northern Sweihan, it is full of those bulldozer tracks, solar panels, cables, plugs and poles... We couldn't keep enough pace for a Fwb+ due to numerous cross tracks killing more than half of all playable dunes so caused 30 min overtime at the end. We had to keep it slow because it was risky to attempt on the dunes as many of them were suddenly broken with those tracks. It was really sad to see the dunes which I have previously ride on were completely non-approachable... Anyhow, we managed to exploit some dunes and bowls in between them and had our play time enough to make us laugh. It seems we will have to wait some months to visit that area again, as @Warren Flay pointed, until the Mother Nature has recovered her wounds by blowing winds. Sorry to hear @Srikumar had a broken suspension and the second convoy had to exit early, but no worries, you didn't miss too much... Drive report for convoy 1: The performance of the first convoy was outstanding, excellent long hill climbs, wider sideys and criss-crossings worth to record. Adrenalin pumped for @Zed today; flying over the bump and "teleporting" from the top of the dune... breathtaking experience buddy! Thank you for your excellent 2nd lead as well! @Pacific had his standard mood in being extremely boring with effortless reaching up to the tops, except the last bowl close to be crested (that was my Pajero's turn to smile in watching 😉) . Center support fulfilled bro 💪 @JeromeFJ, thank you for your great support today my friend. Especially the last bowl couldn't be beaten without your perfect guiding. You lifted each car one by one and set the convoy back! @Karthikeyan Govindarajan, couldn't count how many "minus" points you got today, all to be considered in your next promotion 😁. Good to see you in plus buddy, keep it up! (but do not think I missed that fishtailing 😉) Other boring guys; @Josh T. ; really enjoyed watching your amazing control on that heavy truck! Huge progress you have made in very near past bro. Well done! @Hasan Wahlan ; flawless ride buddy! let's have more on a clearer route next time @Farouq Owdeh ; didn't know you are in competition with @Pacific as I got bored in waiting you to fail... Let's try something "technical" next time 😉 Keep it up friend 💪 Lessons learnt for today; I think we need to mention some events of today; @Zed unwanted dune crossing close to roll over; as I explained on the radio, you all need to consider "centrifugal force" impact while climbing and looping on bowls/dunes. When you follow a looping track in a circle, additional force pushes you out, meaning that the momentum is bigger than the one in straight climbs. This may pull you on a higher track, and even over the top if there is no path to move up there. So keep this in your mind on the "rounded tracks" and lower your speed accordingly. @Karthikeyan Govindarajan's fishtailing and @Farouq Owdeh's over speed during their return from climbing... The risk with fishtailing is again to roll over, in Karthik's case, he was a bit late to slow down + changed his track with making a sharp turn instead of keeping straight. Farouq's was a straight down coming, but again a bit fast bringing damage risk by hitting his bumper at the bottom. The main reason in such is that speedy climbs reaching at tops creates some satisfaction on the drivers' mood and this may lead disruption of your attention while returning back. To avoid all above, it is always safer to make your first attempt on an easy and slower way in order to check the conditions, understand the track, see the bumps and other obstacles and then make your second attempt with a speed adjusted accordingly... Thank you all for another lovely day. I love driving with you. See you next time on the sand!

Gaia GPS

@Matt.T it was my pleasure photographing your Jeep as I found it parked at the most suitable places to capture it to the camera. Moreover I remembered I had a polarizing filter with which I could play with reflective light and used it after a long time since I bought it.

Thank you @Hisham Masaad for a super charged drive. It was a pleasure to be a part of the convoy and enjoyed the drive.. Thanks to @danish for the second lead and @Pacific and @Mohamad Anwerfor the support and sweep. Some pics in the gallery.😃

Thanks @Alex Raptor and @Wrangeldfor the fantastic drive. 4x4 infants are now toddlers looking forward to be part of the next drive with both of you inshallah

Well done @Russ look forward to joining one of your drives soon! Congratulations

Many thanks @Wrangeld and to @Alex Raptor and indeed everyone else for a morning of great fun. Yes, the masterclass helped me enormously - I can’t recommend it enough to get a quick confident start to doing this (he says with all of 2 drives’ experience). Agreed on the ‘sand scoop’ - at the end of an enjoyable newbie drive today it took a while to get it back on because the exposed metal had been bent a bit. Thanks to another member I now have the number of a mechanic in Abu Dhabi and will try to sort it in the New Year.

Thank you all for the amazing drive this morning, it's one of the well planned terrains with a mix of side sloping, straight climbing, and one of the toughest technical drives I have done so far 😎. Enjoyed thoroughly being a sweep for the first time. We finished on time clocking more than 45kms, and just when I thought I could go home early and have a nap before the fishing trip in the afternoon, something really weird happened. I have heard people getting themselves locked out of their homes with the keys inside, but we managed to get locked out of the car, when inflating the tyres. I just finished inflating one of the tyres and wanted to get my vape from the car and realised none of the doors will open, with all windows up and the car's engine still running 😱. Not sure how we ended up in that situation and the only way I can recreate it, is by pressing down the lock button (pic below) before shutting the door from outside. So either the lock button was pressed down accidentally or something to do with the electronics. I will get the door keypad lock sorted ASAP as a backup, should the same situation happen again. A big thank you to @Dodi Syahdar for driving me home and back with the spare key, and also to @Vanessa8580, @Rob Soughton, @Joseph Raju for patiently waiting until I got back with the key. Sorry to have wasted your time, and I really appreciate the support. Until I see you in one of the next drives, have fun. Happy driving!

What will happen if they find oil or gas there?

Just hope to reach on time

Thank you @Mehmet Volga for leading today's drive and bringing us all safely to the starting point 👍🏻 Well-noted on the advice captain, I had a look at the video and realized my mistake was because I didn't want to crash into the 2 trees, I overspeeded and missed turning down (from where i was sitting it looked like there is still more sand in front, didn't know it belonged to the other side 😂). Alhamdulillah we are all safe 🙏🏻 Great support from @JeromeFJ he was shepherding those "lost sheeps" back into the main track. @Pacific great to have another Banter Buddy in the convoy, you lifted up the spirits from the Middle of the Convoy, supporting very well everytime an unnamed driver blame the 2nd lead for churning out the sand 😅 Thank you Sweihan Boys @Hasan Wahlan @Farouq Owdeh @Josh T. @Karthikeyan Govindarajan for driving today, great camaraderie & reunion after some time 👍🏻

Convoy 2 Trip Report Firstly, I want to thank the patience of the entire convoy for exiting out twice well ahead of time. To say that the drive was difficult would be an understatement. The entire area of Sweihan has still not recovered from the bulldozers that have ravaged this beautiful terrain 2 months ago. In fact it seemed like fresh tracks were made with no virgin dunes available. All of this contributed to a sick passenger. It's good to know @munkybizness that he is feeling better. For a brief moment after we exited the first time, we had some small stretch of virgin dunes were we could do a bit of side slopping and criss crossing. But that's when I heard a loud sound from my rear axle after a crisscross to only realise that my both side rear leaf suspensions were toast and the shocks just holding up the car. With no possibility of continuing the drive we quickly exited out. Sorry guys, as this was not what I had in mind when we started this morning. To add to an even more frustrating day, the recovery took the dirt track instead of the tarmac to reach my car, resulting in him getting stuck in the sand. Such days makes one realize that in offroading, you are venturing into the unknown and there are always the possibility of things not going as per plan. But it's important to keep a calm mind and with an excellent team things can get resolved. I look forward to driving with this group another time in a better terrain. Till then take care.

About the XJ, me too i wanted one, had a look at more than 15 cars all over the UAE, but could not find a clean and well maintained one. They were all pretty run down. If you you are lucky and find a good one i think its a great car. not a lot of electronics to fail, easy to repair, plus they are cheap so even if you have to repair something you have budget left for that. (I am talking from my experience as I always drove pretty old cars. Cant talk about the XJs offroad capabilities as i never had one and also newbie in that field)

Thanks @Siddharth gupta we look forward to seeing you tomorrow morning. We are now closing this drive. Here is the proposed convoy numbering for the drive. Looking forward to seeing everyone at 7am tomorrow. Sleep well....

on stock wheels, I run 10 psi lowest. After installing Bead Grip wheels I got overconfident and went 8 psi for 2 weeks. But then overconfidence is not always a good thing, so I strike the middle-ground and set it to 9 psi 😁

A short video showing the purpose of these trenches, sensors and cables that are so annoying for our drives in the Al Faqa and Sweihan areas. They are related seismic exploration for oil and gas exploration.

https://www.omv.com/en/blog/our-seismologists-take-a-look-below-the-dunes

In homage to the Carnity Desert Champions Trophy:

The National Drilling company and the CICPA will move in with their rigs and their pipelines and their barbed wire and guns and we will never see Sweihan again.