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Truth be told, last night when the convoy order was uploaded, I was both excited and nervous to see myself in the CF position. Having seen so many other amazing CFs in this club with much more seniority and experience than me, it was a tremendous opportunity and responsibility. Of course, with such amazing drivers around, I also had little to do because there was so much wisdom available from all quarters. For trusting me with this role, and then coaching me, guiding me, and helping me learn so much more, thank you so much @Shaaz Sha. I'm deeply grateful for the experience and the confidence. Add to this, two strong, sharp, precise and insightful voices in the form of @Ashok chaturvedi and @Thomas Varghese, and it was more a case of following a crisp masterclass than using much of my own faculty. Thank you both for your guidance, insights and encouraging words today. It is truly an honour to drive with you. @Stav - for your first FB+ drive in this area with the pace that Shaaz throws at you, you did really well. The refusals were mostly due to letting off the throttle before the crests. In soft sand areas such as these, it's always a tough balance to strike. You'll find your sweet spot in no time. Thanks to you, I got the chance to break out my brand new recovery rope & shackles @Waqas Parvez - you make that Prado look so good - great drive! @Vaibhav - following you, you made it look so easy and you were setting an excellent pace, so much so that at times, I had to force myself to increase the gap even if I was enjoying being the wagon on your train so much. @Rsjiv Samuel - I had the opportunity to view your lines in my rear-view and they were sublime. You kept excellent distance, used it really well to build momentum and rerouted when you saw me bouncing on the bumps. All in all, you set a great line for the rear end of the convoy. @imranaasghar81 - Shaaz really loves you (and us). We literally started our drive with a high dune . We're using you to send in drive route suggestions in the future. @MMansoor - didn't catch much of your drive but you looked so relaxed, I'm certain it was fun in your order and any sand that Waqas and I hadn't churned up, you definitely would have @Junaid120120 - Great job for keeping your cool through the entire ordeal, and for giving me the opportunity to try my first offroad tow-tug. I hope you got your recovery sorted. And that the issue is fixed soon. See you all out on the sands again soon 🐵

@Shaaz ShaAmazing drive. Loved every single bit of it. everyone drove very well with very few refusal and good self recovery. @Ashok chaturvedivery good job with 2nd lead and informing the behind car of the terrain. @munkybizness excellent job with being the CF and guiding all the one with refusals @Thomas Vargheseless Action for you as a sweep as everyone drove well but you being in the convey is always fun. looking forward to the pictures

Hi @Shaaz Sha and fellow desert offroaders, I have a suggestion to make regarding the name of this drive. It should have been Dune, Dunes & More Dunes. OMG what a drive. Right from the beginning to end it was only one dune after another. After climbing some dunes and then encountering more which looked so impressive as super bowl, iftar bowl, pink rock or big red I started to awe about the dunes in that particular area. Wherever you look there are more dunes beckoning us to climb them and @Shaaz Sha gave us our fill of dune bashing today. The best part is no one in the convoy shied away from the challenge and infact seemed to enjoy them and thirst for more as if its dunes for breakfast. I even liked the part when the lead @Shaaz Sha stopped his car and let us play the climbs under his watchful eyes. Man we had our fill of dune bashing today. After deflation and putting up our flags to start the drive @Ashok chaturvedi sir just eyed the dune next to us and jokingly commented let us start by climbing this mean looking dune. Shaaz who always prepares the recipe for his drive slowly and gives us the time for warm up just started the drive by climbing the mean looking dune next to us like he put all the chilli, onions, mustard and the remaining spices into the hot oil in one shot and just wroomed into the dune with Ashok trailing him as a good 2nd lead. None in the convoy hesitated and followed the lead and the 2nd lead without batting an eye lid. The tone of the drive was set from that time. Don't know how Shaaz got this amazing route. 1 dune, 2 dune, 3 dune, dunes after dunes followed. The convoy responded better than a Fewbie Plus level and elevated themselves to an IM level or sometimes even into an Extreme level when it came to climbing those dunes. @Stav,@Waqas Parvez, @Vaibhav, @Rsjiv Samuel, @MMansoor, @imranaasghar81, @Junaid120120 all drove extremely well considering the terrain with minimal refusals or stucks. Thank you Mayank @munkybizness for displaying your prowess in tugging out @Stav from the crested situation - I believe it was the only time the rope was needed. He displayed his worthiness as a true CF by ready with clear instructions when someone had a refusal which was rare today. I believe he will soon apply for his role as a support team member and will be a good team player. What should I comment for our 2nd lead @Ashok chaturvedi. I will not as he is a very senior member in @Carnity and executed the responsibility perfectly as per the wishes of the lead. In short we had enormous fun in the morning. Will join more of Shaaz drives in the future.

Faqa's Foggy Flavours... It was a wonderful morning, seeing everyone arriving on time and putting up the flags while the sun was rising. It was still a bit foggy but as soon as we started driving the veil started to lift and before us we could see the mighty dunes appear :) The plan was to "brush" alongside Faqa and not venture in too deep, as we had a long track ahead of us if we wanted to exit on the Bab Al Shams area. Due to the construction at Solar Park i rather keep away from there for the time being. A few minutes into the drive we had a pop-out, and this was also a reminder to all of us that the sand was still compact in most areas and that we needed to steer gently and avoid sharp turns. This was easily fixed and we resumed the drive quickly. We came across technical sections, big long range dunes, and practiced some sidesloping and the occasional ridge-ride practice. Everyone did so amazingly well ! The Patrol guys @Kishore Venkat @Yesu Yarlagadda @Eli Zandro Hamoy were gliding over the terrain effortlessly, just like the Xterra friends @Mohammed Sirajuddin and @Zulfikhar Naiyar. Overall we had very little refusals or stucks, so @Srikumar could turn up the radio and enjoy the scenery in the back ! @Rajeevan Vickneswaran was an excellent support in the middle of the convoy, it's good seeing you back in the sand buddy ! @Federico De Chirico was my second lead, and did that brilliantly. His buddy @Federico Galbieri was doing a shakedown of his brand new FJ Extreme. Congrats buddy it's a fantastic offroad vehicle and from now on there will be no limits to what the car can do under your guidance. @Amr Aydin, hailing from Abu Dhabi, you drove superb. Great to see you with us in Dubai ! @Emanuel with the silver arrow Pajero, you drove amazing as well. Must be the experiences from driving in Canadian snow while steering clear of any deer 😁 @Eduardo sos the FJ is a fantastic offroader and its good to see you're finding your way in it drive after drive. Well done ! @Gerrit Bus made the drive "instagrammable". Thanks for joining us with the great looking Gladiator !! @Alfred Alinazar you had the honor of driving in front of Sri, i hope you were able to keep him from playing around too much at the back. 😁Well done !! @Nadeem Ansari if you join Carnity Offroad Club for the first time, you will need to sign up for an Absolute Newbie drive first. We have those every weekend in Al Qudra area. After completing that drive, you will be a Newbie level offroader and can start signing up for Newbie level drives. Take some time to read your introduction email with the various articles. Don't be afraid to post your questions on the forum if you have any. See you all in the sand soon again !

@munkybiznessyou did a excellent job.

\ Hi @Shaaz Sha , @Ashok chaturvedi @Stav,@Waqas Parvez, @Vaibhav, @MMansoor, @imranaasghar81, @munkybizness@Junaid120120 @Thomas Varghese convey did amazing well, in one driver i have never experienced dunes, dunes and dunes, which is endless. @Shaaz Shathe route you have selected was amazing. At beginning without any warmup, you have started with a dune and till end it was mind blowing drive with same pace. each dunes is different face. looking for drives with you all in coming days.

Drive Report What a beautiful morning chilly and awakening especially when you are driving in a short convoy ( 5 cars ) with amazing fine people like you guys. after rearranging the convoy and the brief we immediately moved meeting the dunes in a moderately technical area till we encountered our only true stuck situation when @Alphin Aloor got his Xterra bogged in a super soft sand sideways with an angle of more than a bit of 45 degree to the imaginary horizontal or how it looked to us . ( please if any one has more pictures you can download it to Gallery please ) . every one maintained coolness helping in handing the situation especially Alphin who remained calm. after assessing the situation i took the decision to anchor the car from its rare and front tow points thanks to @Looperand @Davie Chase using a winch and rope respectively. clearing the wall of sand and with impeccable coordination the nose of the car came down and eventually out. we continued till we reached little sweihan and that was epic every one enjoyed to the content of their heart , i did , sliding sloping looping crossing in a faster pace and yet safe. leaving this area to the next part of the loop along the long range dunes and then back across a patch of technical and sabkha to the dirt track tward solar park scipping the track fro its 1/3 of its end to complete the loop through the technical part where we have started. @Davie Chase flawless driving , vigilant and attentive and on several occasions before i speak on the radio you were a step ahead rerouting and correcting what is needed . your second lead was to perfection my friend pleasure having you in any drive. @Alphin Aloor you drove very good today , your stuck gave us all today a chance to think of some difficult recovery situation solution and you were impressive in your calmness and handling your car upon instructions. @Daniel Rodas i could hear the roar of your pagero as its telling i want more 😄 , you were brilliant my friend . @Looper our new support member and sweep today , definitely some loops were needed thank you for being in the back watching us like a hawk. thank all again for this beautiful day out , stay tuned for the the next loop soon ( the loop II ) cheers

@M.Seidam thank you for another great expedition into the sand, as always you bring different dimensions to the drives that make it very enjoyable and challenging, thank you for have faith in me to be SL it was a great experience. The patience and depth of knowledge during the recovery was superb. Another great learning experience @Daniel Rodas always a pleasure to listen to your car behind me, it is for sure a great sounding pajero. As always enjoyed your company and a pleasure to drive with you @Alphin Aloor hope you heart rate has dropped back down to normal lol. Pleasure to drive with you and watch you in the rear view. @Looper great job sweeping and being patient with the other Loopers in the group, I believe we all took turns in that regard. Pleasure driving with you once again small group by man it was fun see you all next week @M.Seidam @Daniel Rodas @Alphin Aloor and @Looperforgot to mention I added a couple of pictures to the gallery

@Frederic & fellow drivers. Thanks for an enjoyable morning drive. Below a link to some photos and videos of our drive. Al Faqa 29-01-2022

What’s brilliant morning of driving! Thanks @Hisham Masaad@Rob S @Gertjan and @Mohamad Anwer Think I need my Raptor to be louder tho! Mine sounds like a hairdryer in comparison to @Karthik Raptor 😅😅 Hope to see you all again soo! Cheers.

Drive Report There’s a reason I give up my free time and volunteer to take a crowd of people I don’t know from Adam out into the desert . Today’s drive was that reason! Give yourselves a massive pat on the back because by goodness did you earn your desert stripes today with a side sloping fiesta in Mahafiz! 👏 We started off gradually and slowly but surely, every single driver, upped their game, time and time again until you were pulling the most audacious side slopes, I think we saw one fishtail the whole day!!! What was the most pleasing aspect for me personally is that you all self recovered brilliantly, and steered down when you had to! @Laura Conesa you started off a bit tentatively, as to be expected on a first Newbie drive, but I think the self recovery really helped your confidence and you didn't look back, Great job. @Murad Hamedgreat drive today, flawless, took everything in your stride and handled your car well, Clearly nor your first time in the sand my friend, Nice driving. @karim hamandiAnother who had a flawless drive, you were getting used to your car's power too. Really nice driving. @Yerem DavtyanI'm glad you managed to join us, it was great to see you handle the 96 Tahoe out there, Well done. @Han Very nice driving my friend, one slightly sticky moment but you responded and self recovered well. Well done! @Sree - FortunerExcellent drive Sree, another who had a flawless drive and self recovered. @Mo.A pleasure driving with you, you;;re really handling the jeep well and with finesse too. Well done @Andrew McCarthyYou don't half put that Pajero through its paces mate. Great driving! Oh and your first tug in the desert too. Lucky you @SivakumarSiva, you are my star of the day, What an absolute pleasure it was to watch you grow in confidence as the drive progressed. Your self-recovery on the side slope was excellent, and you didn't need to do it again because the fear was gone and you knew the momentum would carry you. Honestly, what a champion! Love it! @Siddharth guptaMy quiet champion! Sitting there at the back, floating that leviathan of yours around those dunes without breaking a sweat and on your second drive!! What a drive my friend, well done! A massive thank you to my excellent support today, @Archibald Jurdi, great to see you mate after such a long time and thanks for the excellent 2nd lead. @Alex Raptorwho was sweeping at the back, offering advice and pulling it out as he loves to do in the desert , My De Facto Centre forward @Danish Mohammad, an absolute pleasure to drive with you again, and a wonderful job done in support, thank you, and @Janarthanmy fellow xman ! Great to have you as the flying sweep! Finally thank you to all of you for being such an utterly fantastic convoy, for listening to my instructions, following them and indulging me in one of my favourite things. Until our next adventure 😎

I would have gladly taken a 5/10 on that. You’re much too kind. The real reason for me doing any of it right really goes to @Ashok chaturvedi keeping a keen eye on Junaid’s steering and for you shepherding from the ridges. Will definitely learn to improve my control and care in future 🙏🏽

@Shaaz ShaWhat an incredible drive that left me dumbfounded, We didn't need a warm-up; the big dunes started one after the other and never stopped; the drive was perfectly balanced with high-speed dunes and technical driving; always felt confident following your lead and trusting your track; would love to drive with you again. @Thomas Varghese The should be named as Shaaz Bowl , thank you for sweeping @munkybizness Perfect example of an CF and thank you for the recover. @Ashok chaturvedi Thank for you guidance, having you among the convey gives a lot of confidence Rest of the crew drove beautifully looking forward for more drives, I've uploaded a few photos to the gallery.

Kinetic rope is solely for recovery while towing rope ( no kinetic ) been used for towing

Good evening all, It was good to see that everyone made it on time yesterday. Many thanks to @Looper for the support. We entered through the technical side of Margham, the first hour was driving through packed technical dunes. In spite of having a long convoy, we did not have much issues in that area. Then we moved to the high dunes from where we could see the Sharjah dunes. Then we headed to Skydive via technical dunes. To make things interesting, we hadsome refusals, stucks and a pop out. Overall we drove around 42km; which was really good especially through the technical dunes. Good Job everyone👍 DriveStats:

While coming for the drive I was mentioning to my Son features of an enjoyable drive. It will start with a small technical area for the warm up, then it is followed by a long range dunes or tall dunes or bowls and finally finished off with another round of technical area to calm down all the adrenaline. Today was one of those drives thay qualify for the hall of fame list. In fact it was better, since we enjoyed both long range dunes as well as the tall dunes of Little Sweihan. @M.Seidam you had a meticulous plan for today and it was great fun driving under your lead. @Davie Chase, you drove like a pro and did an excellent job in the second lead. Always maintaining enough space to reroute the convoy whenever needed. @Alphin Aloor It was a 2nd 5member convoy drive with you after one at Al Faya many months ago with @Pancho as lead. You had to stop your car at an steep angle, and perhaps could have recovered without any anchoring, but abundance of caution never hurt anyone. Thanks again @M.Seidam for your expert guidance on this recovery. Off-road driving like parachute jumping, with practice and safe driving nothing goes wrong and it’s an adrenaline shot, and great fun, even those precarious looking rescues. @Daniel Rodas you win the “Looper” of the day prize. Driving on soft churned up trail, one tends to slip off the trail. I had plenty of them before and with practice you will too master your car. But you drove quite well and ready for the next level. Today was my first drive I joined after I was nominated to join the Support Team, and it is great honour for me and had a blast driving at the rear of the convoy. See you all soon.

Dear friends, Our little convoy was larger than life this morning. @M.Seidamyour route and leadership were flawless, playing safe specially in tricky scenarios. @Davie Chasealways a pleasure to chase your red Rubicon, what a great sight. @Alphin AloorI don't recall if we ever drove together, but surelly it's the first time I see so close this show of skills, well done buddy! @LooperI guess I mastered the looping skills this morning, I even got a "Looper" sticker in my car now, thanks buddy! I can't wait for the next weekend, see you on the sand. Cheers!

One of the best drives I have had so far with Carnity!! Thank you @Hisham Masaadfor guiding us through the terrain with always a smile on your face, upping the level each time 😅. Loved the spirit of the whole convoy, thanks to @Rob S, @Mohamad Anwer and @Gertjan(also for the amazing pro shots 😎). Can't wait to get back in the sand again!!

Enjoy guys..i am sure you are gonna love it. 👍

@Shaaz Shathanks for the amazing driving experience today! It was my first fewbie+ drive and when i saw how aggressive we start the day got quite nervous as i wasnt sure if i could keep up with the rest of the team but seeing you guys being so confident and excited i relaxed and i really enjoyed the high dunes, especially after adjusting my tyre pressure…what a rookie mistake! @munkybiznessthank you very much for your help recovering from my refusals! @Ashok chaturvediexcellent 2nd lead that filled me confidence not to hesitate at any time, thanks Hope to see you most of you guys next week!

Team a fantastic fantastic drive today. From the dunes to the skill shown by all. Loved it and can't wait to drive with you all again soon. Junaid I hope your car is going to be ok. @Ashok chaturvedi can you show me a link to get the blocks you have. I have the end bits that grip but can't find the initial blocks as per the pic below

What a day it was... I had maximum fun with very exiting team. Thanks guys for fun filled drive. Couple of dashcam videos from me Hope others have more videos and pics. Please post it to see and remember it for ever. @Gaurav, @Ilya @Christian Andras @Ahab Shamaa @Mario Cornejo @varunmehndiratta

@munkybizness yes you are right. The best role you played today as CF was the tugging of @Junaid120120's dead weight car after the radiator leak. I won't say it was 100% perfect but on a scale of 1 to 10 I will give you a score of 8. Pretty good for someone who is doing it for the 1st time. I noticed you didn't struggle much when climbing up with a dead weight tied to your car, not because you had a powerful car but because your throttle control was correct. Why I didn't give you 10 out of 10 is because when you slowed down the rope behind you became too slack and I was afraid it would entangle with Junaid's car tire. By the grace of God it happened only once. Yes Junaid should have applied brakes to slow down when you slowed down but when you are towing someone who is already stressed by the mechanical failure of a brand new car the towing driver shouldn't slow down. I know in time you will master this art too

It was indeed an awesome drive. Thank you @Asif Hussain and all the team mates. Photos are in the gallery

Just a thought do you think a traditional flat tow rope instead of the kinetic rope would of been better to tow with ?

An eventful drive yesterday with @Islam Soliman yesterday. As we agreed, the theme of the day was everything to do with "tyres." Whether @Sunil Mathew's puncture at the start, my "almost pop-out" or @JamesThorn's two rear-tyre deflations towards the exit, we had our fair share to deal with. Let's not forget a couple of stucks, including @Naveen Raj's epic one providing great camera opportunities! As usual, handled well by all involved as a team - thanks to @Islam Soliman, @marks and @Sunil Mathew for the guidance and assistance. By the way, fixed my tyre on the way home at the same garage. No damage evident after taking everything apart, just gave the rim and tyre a good clean. I hope that's the end of it. Some photos in the gallery. Have a good week everyone...

Thank you @Frederic for such a good planned and diverse drive and @Srikumar for make us feel safe seeing him roaming around making sure all in order and all the team for such a lovely company during the drive especially @Rajeevan Vickneswaran for the added support and @Emanuel for being a good & safe driver behind. See you all soon

Hey guys, Looks like you had an amazing drive. @Brette @JeromeFJ I mistakenly assumed the trailer hitch was also the tow hitch. My bad. Shall get it sorted asap and join next week's drive

Thanks @Frederic for taking the time to write up an excellent summary of our drive. Well done. Yes, driving in the sand has similarities with driving in Canadian winters. Though, because I was way back on this drive some of the driving yesterday was more like driving in slushy snow after all the other cars churned up the sand in certain spots. Which made for more good practice.

Another wonderful drive @Hisham Masaad! Thank you! Thanks as well @Rob S, @Gertjan & @Mohamad Anwer for very good support. And to the rest of the team, it was nice meeting you all. Until next time.

What a lovely day… Lovely drive. Started with a nice weather, foggy but nice. We had to wait for sometime, since was too foggy and unsafe to enter the desert. Then started slowly, discovering how it will go, and started warming up, when we found it is getting clear and good. Mahafiz is good with it different sizes bowls, and we started tracing them one by one, small and big. Every one did amazing job, and mastering different terrains. after clearing mahafiz dunes, or almost, and found all are perfectly preforming, we started moving to Faya, the famous place with high dunes. As soon as we started, few refusals faced, easily handled with any requirement for tools. Everyone was good, adhering to the instructions, and moving forward. Reached top of Faya from side, and climbed from the other side. All again made it easily to the top, with some adjustment of : 1- proper gear used to climb 2- Tyre pressure checking and adjustment 3- weight of passengers evaluation, study and distribution. Glad it was study of passengers as entity, without going into details of what are they dressed 😅. Hope your passengers @Vinod Damodaran did not feel bad making so much jokes 4- requirement for moving car …. Release of hand brake 🤣🤣🤣. We should add this point to the briefing!!! @Patrick van der Loo you were amazing in your first fb drive, keep it up buddy @Jose Thomas @Vinod Damodaran @Waqar Sarwar @Karthik Raptor @Mark D @Belal Aldaour @Reggie Landicho thank you for joining and make it nice drive @Rob S thank you for being a SL, someone can depend on @Gertjan and @Mohamad Anwer thank you for being CF and SW. Look forward to see you soon guys in sand, nice weekend and coming week ahead. take care Hisham

While offroading, we cross dunes by using different methods, based on how the dune is formed and what the drive level is. Once you have spent some time in the desert, you will slowly start to pay more attention to the dune formations and how we cross them. Once you reach Intermediate and Advance level, you'll need to start learning how to read these dunes in order to navigate and create your planned routes in the desert. As a rule of thumb, the prevailing wind in UAE is blowing from a North-Western direction to South-East direction from 10AM onwards. At night and in early morning it will be reversed and blow from the South-East to North-West. This is something you should remember and you will notice when you zoom into certain areas with your navigation app (Google Maps, Gaia, MotionX, Mytrails,...) you will notice that the wind from that side has caused the dunes to take on their shape. This is a general rule and will not always apply, as you will see that in certain areas where wind is coming from different directions, you will see for example "star" dunes appearing. There are different types of dunes which are separately described below. As you can see in below picture, a dune is formed when the prevailing wind blows on a mound of sand, where the grain will move into the wind direction and create a ridge. The sand which falls on the other side of the ridge, creates a slipface, and this sand is not compacted by the wind. This is the main reason why we generally drive on the prevailing wind side or the convex side of the dunes on the Newbie level. "A dune is a curiously dynamic creature," wrote Farouk El-Baz in National Geographic. “Once formed, a dune can grow. It can change shape and move with the wind. It can even breed new dunes. Some of these offspring may be carried on the back of the mother dune. Others are born and race downwind, outpacing their parents. [Source: Farouk El-Baz, National Geographic, February 1982] The shape of dunes is affected by things like the strength, direction and consistency of the winds; the consistency and amount of sand; the hardness of the terrain and the amount of vegetation. Below we will describe the most common dunes found in the UAE. Different Dunes Crescent or Barchan Dune This is the most common dune. It forms the shape of a crescent moon when the wind blows from one direction. We generally use the words concave and convex to describe both sides of the dune: * Concave is a shape that curves inwards. * Convex is a shape that curves outwards. Crescent-shaped mounds generally are wider than long. On the concave side you will have the slipface. These dunes form under winds that blow from one direction, and they also are known as barchans. Parabolic Dune A parabolic dune is similar in shape to a barchan, but it is just the opposite. The tips of this dune point into the wind, and its main body migrates with the wind, forming a depression between the tips. Because of this formation, parabolic dunes are also known as blowout dunes. These dunes often occur when vegetation stabilizes sediments and a U-shaped blowout forms between clumps of plants. Example of Parabolic dunes near Faya: https://goo.gl/maps/ob8xu3y8VJJvF6hk8 Longitudinal or "Seif" Dunes They are also often referred to to as "sand ridges" or "seifs". Their length can range from a few meters to many kilometers and their height from a couple meters high to a couple hundred meters high. Wind pushes the sand and forms ridges parallel to the prevailing wind direction with slip faces either side of the crest. Linear dunes are straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide. They may be more than 160 kilometers long. Linear dunes may occur as isolated ridges, but they generally form sets of parallel ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes. Many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement. Barchanoid Dunes These ridges are similar to Barchan dunes. They are connected in long crescentic waves as the sand supply is much greater than that which forms a Barchan Dune. Star Dunes These dunes are formed when there are several prevailing wind directions - there is a complex wind regime. Typically there are three or more slip faces, whilst the dunes do not migrate they grow in height. Star dunes are radially-symmetrical, spyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They are created when the winds blow equally from every direction, causing the sand dune to grow many extensions and resemble a star. They are rare and are fairly stable and remain in the same place. Some are landmarks with names. Example of a Star dune: https://goo.gl/maps/jRnYghQc8ACzVz6T7 With this knowledge, the next time you step into the desert, you can start looking at the different dune formations, and this will give you lots of knowledge that you'll be able to apply in the future when leading and navigating off-road drives.

@Yesu Yarlagadda I use an Insta360 One x2 camera on a selfie stick. It's a 360 degree camera which makes shots look like they were taken by a drone.

Video of Gladiator POV Gladiator POV

Pics are already in the gallery

Yes..a tyre themed drive as @Gregory has put it .. thanks to @Pacific and @marks effort, an unexpected puncture on one of my tyres, was sorted pretty fast Thanks to the whole convoy who waited ... it must have been a real test of patience as this happened before we even started 🙂🙂 @Islam Soliman - thanks to your beautiful selection of terrain and tracks, i believe all of us enjoyed and had fun to the maximum extent , for the time we were moving Some small tugs here and there and a little bit of shovelling, made the drive complete 🙂 Lessons learnt - carry a puncture kit and soap solution (@Pacific and @Davie Chase saved the day by lending theirs) , however improbable you think a puncture would be in the desert full of soft sand!! Until we meet next time!!!

Thanks @Frederic for the nice drive, it was so good to be back in action!!! Looking forward to many other drives soon!!!

I think 90% of pick-up owners have really no utility for pickup beds here.

I test drove the Hilux Adventure trim with the 4.0L engine (which is shared by a few other Yotas - including the FJC) and I thoroughly enjoyed it but when I stacked it against the Patrol LWB SS that I ended up getting, here was my rationale: Pros for the Hilux: 1. Lighter than the Y61 SS LWB 2. The interior is updated and modern 3. More fuel efficient 4. ~20% lower cost Cons for the Hilux: 1. Rear suspension is leaf springs. I prefer coil-overs. 2. Significantly wider turning angles, while the Patrol is already tough to turn 3. Longer wheelbase & length (~ 9.6 inches) which will impact the breakover angles 4. I have no utility for pickup beds and prefer a closed cabin SUV

Put simply, an amazing drive! Thanks @Hisham Masaad it was a pleasure to be SL and follow (mostly) your tracks! a real great group of people in the convoy too, thanks everyone for an amazing morning!

Just before all the fun really got started

amazing drive again @Frederic.. dunes were awesome.. thanks @Srikumarfor your support.. the group today was amazing too.. c u all again soon

Ah, Nissan with its Electronic Throttle Body that has Limp Mode Lever (figure 1). @Zixuan Huang - Charlie & @Foxtrot Oscar there's a Nissan bulletin on how to Clear Check Engine Light / Reset ECU without OBD2 scanner (figure 2) Figure 1: ETC with Limp Lever So based on this, if you keep on getting Limp Mode, first clean the MAF (Mass AirFlow Sensor), if still persists then might want to replace the APPS (Accel Pedal Position Sensor - cheaper) and the Electronic Throttle Body (combination of Throttle Position Sensor + Control Motor in diagram) - more expensive unless aftermarket or original-reconditioned. Figure 2: Nissan Reset ECU "Pedal-Dance" Textual Description of Figure 2: 1. Confirm that accelerator pedal is fully released, turn ignition switch “ON” (without starting vehicle) and wait 3 seconds. 2. Repeat the following steps (2a and 2b) procedures quickly five times within 5 seconds. 2-a. Fully depress the accelerator pedal (HARD). 2-b. Fully release the accelerator pedal. 3. Wait 7 seconds, fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for approximately 10 seconds until SERVICE ENGINE SOON starts blinking. 4. Fully release the accelerator pedal (while SERVICE ENGINE SOON is still blinking). 5. Wait about 10 seconds. 6. Fully depress the accelerator pedal and keep it for more than 10 seconds. 7. Fully release the accelerator pedal (The SERVICE ENGINE SOON light will continue to blink). 8. Turn ignition switch to “OFF” position and now you can start the vehicle. The SERVICE ENGINE SOON light should be gone. If the SERVICE ENGINE SOON light continues to remain ON, repeat the above steps. Timing is EXTREMELY critical to resetting the ECU. Idle Air Volume Re-Learning "Pedal-Dance" After clearing the Check Engine Light, follow this PDF (Charlie already shared the video, but I thought keeping this PDF is handy when there's no Internet) : 👇 Nissan Engine Idle Re-Learn Procedure.pdf

Thanks @Foxtrot Oscar and supporting team for the drive today. It was amazing. I gained a lot of confidence. And thanks to @Danish Mohammad for lending me the flag👍. Looking forward to next drive.

thanks Islam and support team for this lovely morning drive. lots of fun and tech learnings, and pleasure meeting new faces. PS: this green beetle was our sweeper today

Apologies, I won't be able to make it. @Foxtrot Oscar

@Naveen Raj @Josh T. @ShereenMK @Karthikeyan Govindarajan @Santoso Marjuki @Zed @Mus_hus78 thank you all for joining the drive. We will be using channel1 Convoy Numbering Asif Hussain ShereenMK Santoso Marjuki Naveen Raj Zed Karthikeyan Govindarajan Mus_hus78 Josh T. See you all tomorrow

Thanks @Thomas Varghese for this post, I would be going home in a recovery truck yesterday if I didnt remember to read this post and do the relearning. the throttle body control relearning can be done manually, I did last night and the limp mode was gone immediately, also this procedure corrects the idle RPM if you removed or cleaned throttle control body/MAF. Here is the video. I still doubt the issue is throttle control body motor overheat, as my limp mode activated not during the drive, but after inflation and hitting the road. Ambient temperature was 11C, and the bonnet was open, the motor should have enough time to cool down. But constant acceleration and deacceleration yes, it was a really fun IM Yalla drive with Angela. I suppose there are 2 types of limp mode, a major one and a minor one. I have had both: The minor one should be gone by turning off and on the engine. If the limp mode presists it's the major one, you will have to let the throttle control body rest, and do the relearning. The minor one happened to me onroad few times, because I was running behind clock and I used pedal commander, I definitely did constant acceleration and deacceleration, and pedal commander enlarged the signal to throttle control body. @Foxtrot Oscar I think you had the minor one yesterday, if thats the case you probably wouldnt get any error code from OBD. BTW Zed's OBD reader didnt work on my Nissan as well =-=

I've pulled the plug on Prado. And now I'm on the hunt for skid plates and bumper adjustment (trim or replacement) Hope to fix those before I break spoilers off on the drive 🤔 Thanks everyone for help and support. I hope to see you on the drive soon. This is an awesome community!