Leaderboard

1st of all I thank God to have made me participate in this drive so that I could meet some men and a woman who has nerves of steel. People who had looked so ordinary turned out to be super heroes. Thanks @Shaaz Sha the lead, @Ashok chaturvedi the SL, @Vaibhav, @Waqas Parvez, @topgear, @Aisha S, @Pacific the CF, @Gilbert Khalil, @Davie Chase, @MMansoor who all showed up on time for the drive so that we could start our drive on time. The start of the drive I was feeling excited as I have never driven in this area and didn't see any cross tracks which showed its not a very frequented area by off roaders. The start was exciting with some low level side sloping, ridge riding, and cross overs at a medium pace right from the meeting point. The drive proceeded with minimal refusals and few stucks which gave the opportunity to take out the shovel and the rope. I appreciate @Aisha S & @Davie Chase for fully understanding the club's instruction of staying put wherever you are when the car in front is having trouble negotiating the terrain. They stopped and patiently waited for the car in front to get out of the situation even risking themselves stuck in that awkward position and meanwhile helping out the driver with shovel and clear instructions and also everybody else for keeping the radio channel free for the lead and support team to use. As our marshals have always instructed us this is perfectly ok and less stressful for the lead and support team rather than worsening the situation by crashing into each other. Well done. The drive proceeded excitingly for the convoy and soon found @Mehmet Volga's & @Kailas's convoy on the way. It was nice to exchange greetings and pleasantries with them and we moved on to other parts of the desert to explore. Soon I found myself in a very precarious situation stuck at almost 50 to 60 degree angle on the side of a small slip face. I had to call the support of @Shaaz Sha & @Pacific to rescue me from this tricky situation. Meanwhile friends like @Davie Chase, @MMansoor, @Gilbert Khalil & finally the 2nd lead @Ashok chaturvedi chipped in with their shovels and tried to dislodge my car from the sand wall build up. @Davie Chase gave me the gentlest of pulls to yank me out but didn't help much and we were worried the car may roll down the slip face. Good job buddy and I can sincerely recommend you to tug me out anytime as it was a very professional pull you executed. Don't bother about not being successful. The crucial point is your pull didn't cause a roll over. Anything hard would have definitely triggered a disaster. Finally @Shaaz Sha's experience as a lead paid off by shovelling more at the right places and after a bit of left right, blip blip accelerator the sand slowly released its grip on my car and it slowly slid down and we all sighed with relief and proceeded again in our drive. The 2nd part of this drive is when I saw @Ashok chaturvedi stopped in a position which resembled a crest and somebody I think it was @Waqas Parvez or @Vaibhav shouting frantically into the radio don't follow Shaaz to Ashok. As there was no reply from Shaaz I immediately rerouted from my position along with @MMansoor to reach where Shaaz was, to check out on him. I found Shaaz alright sitting inside his car but the windscreen broken and some minor scratches on its sides. Shaaz pushed open his door and calmly walked out. The rest of the convoy followed the path I took and joined us. The X surely had a roll over and had a double pop out on its left side. Shaaz explained what had taken place. As he was coming down straight from the top of the dune his front driver side wheel dug into the super soft sand as it was a slip face and resulted in a pop out throwing out the momentum of the car into a disarray. Even while the car was rolling down he had the presence of mind to switch off the engine, crouch into the seat protecting the head from banging on the roof. Well God was also on our side and he came out unhurt. This was the time I saw a perfectly behaved convoy. Nobody crowded over the car, nobody tried to be a vocal hero, everybody pitched in with their physical efforts to recover the car. @Ashok chaturvedi slowly winched out the car from its position to flat ground. Then we saw the lady @Aisha S in action. She coordinated the efforts to fix the jack under the car and saw to it that the pop outs were fixed soon after. @Aisha S proud to have driven with you and I promise will drive with you anytime. The 3rd part of the drive was when the X proved what a car it is. It showed us why its called the mighty X. It sure is the mighty X. Right after fixing the pop out and getting rid of the cracked windscreen @Shaaz Sha simply drove out from the desert in the X as if nothing happened. Everyone followed him in the convoy order. The X maybe injured but not out and certainly will not limp. Proud to own this breed of car. It saved the driver from any injuries and after some care could drive itself out from this to exit. I want to stress something which I learned from this incident. All the drivers and club members should be aware of the risks the trip leads take to keep us entertained in the drive. The importance of a good 2nd lead. The lead is driving and driving through unknown terrain where there are no roads or sign boards to warn them of the dangers below. Desert is a very dangerous place. Shouldn't drive without paying absolute attention. Some people say this Marshal is exciting that marshal is ok or another marshal is boring. There is nothing like that. They drive and take the lead so that we can learn to drive offroading in the most safest way. We should be respectful of the risks they take. They too have a family waiting for them to reach home just like all of us. Shaaz plus point is he takes us through unchartered areas of the desert where few people venture into. This makes his drives exciting but remember all fun has its risks too. He took the risk so that we can enjoy the offroading experience. The other important lesson I learned from this is never drive in the desert or anywhere without wearing the seat belt. 100% it was the seat belt which protected him from flying around in the car when the roll over happened. Other than this everything went smoothly at the police station for the police report. Once the car was inspected by police they released the car and its right now reached its garage for repairs on a recovery truck. Thanks everybody for joining the drive. It was my honor to have driven with such level headed drivers in a convoy. See you soon in the sands. Pictures will be posted in the gallery as soon I can transfer them from the camera to my computer.

Fantastic drive. All what we can call our drive yesterday. Seeing every one making it exactly on time or even earlier, shows how thirsty are these guys for driving and enjoying the desert, deflating all stress of a working week, which I hope mission achieved. As soon as we had all ready, started moving warming up, and slowly pushing the level, and found all are coping, and like asking….. can we have more?? From my side as lead (and I am sure all leads), usually after sometime, I try to match and meet the lower level of drivers. But you guys, were all way up and no low level. The fun in this area, and since no much climbing challenges, is attacking smooth dunes with some speed. This will compensate other challenges which we find in other areas. The fun and challenge is to keep the pace, paying attention, keep having momentum and keep moving. @Joji varghese you were amazing SL. @Junaid120120 you was with me last week and this week, and for sure big improvement. @topgear you didn’t need more drives to improve, one drive itself was enough for you to know your strength and capabilities of your car. Sure, will be always a room for improvements. @Rsjiv Samuel @Davie Chase @Sunil Mathew @Chris Wing and @Daniel Yang glad to see you again, I have no comments, all were masters. @Looper thank you for your support. @Thomas Varghese glad to see you again after long time, thank you for watching our back, for all the nice photos. Thank you for the coffee @Rsjiv Samuel For the records, below is drive summary and what have you done in the desert 😁 See you all again in sand, and which you nice week end, and week ahead. Take care Hisham

Wow what a lovely Saturday morning drive. 2 pop-outs, 4-5 tugs, multiple refusals, some very good self recoveries and traversing through a beautiful terrain we reached the finish line with smiles on our face and feeling of an awesome fun learning experience. Simply a perfect FB drive that challanged us all and in the process made us all a better offroaders. Chasing the sun we drove around 31Km, smoothly climbing up the Pink rock and finding our way through nice churned up sand at an average moving speed of 13.5Km/hr (felt faster than stats show, perhaps that's just the terrain) Thanks @Gaurav for the experience. @Simon Dawood other than that last min pop out was a perfect SL drive for you. You aligned to Gaurav instructions well and sailed through the terrain. @Quresh Pajero a pop out early in the drive add ups a little bit more to the challange and it was a good day at work for you, i am sure you will relish the experience, as you sail through in your future drives 🙂 You have a good control on vehicle, just a bit gas shy.. ..i could almost predict your stucks/refusals moments before they happened (guess found something similar to what i went through) .. Pajero has lot more to offer, it just needs to be explored. 👍👍 @Shahid Mehmood an awesome drive for you today. Having driven with you a week back, i just felt like it was some different driver behind the wheels ...it's really beautiful how our experiences through every drive adds to confidence and control. Very well done. @Jose Thomas nicely done .just a little bit more push, a bit more gas and most importantly .. when in doubt just steer down. @Jona was lovely seeing your FJ sail through the terrain.. it was an impeccable day at work for you - no extra churn of sand, no extra rpms..was just perfect. Looking forward to drive with you soon. @Tareq Al Turq with an expert co-pilot no terrain can challenge your Prado (of course I am not even going to think about the challenges you faced 😂😂) @Karthik Raptor the vroom vroom of Gaurav while your climb up the Pink rock said it all... Nice work. @KKIRAN another beautiful day on sand for you. Nicely done @Rob S as always was nice catching up with you . thanks for keeping all safe and togather. 👍 Thanks all for the lovely drive, your company made the pleasant morning even better.

It was a very challenging terrain for me today. A couple of stucks that required tugging and countless refusals. It got slightly better as we progressed. Unfortunately, it got to an abrupt end. Most importantly, @Shaaz Sha is okay. And your X will be fixed up soonest. The X is a true testimony of a very well made vehicle. @Ashok chaturvediit is comforting to have you in the drives. Your calm and assuring. Any situations will be smoothen out. @Pacific@Thomas Varghese great support from you guys esp with my stuck @Aisha S you also deserve a notable mention for your significant contribution to resolve the situation @Davie Chase your past mechanical experience was really helpful and appreciated. great team work and patience from the rest of the convoy @Vaibhav @Waqas Parvez@Gilbert Khalil @MMansoor

Many congrats on your 100th lead @Ale Vallecchi! You’ve consistently led in all sorts of terrains and always came out with a convoy full of smiles. Keep it up !!

@Shaaz ShaThanks for an amazing drive today; it was full of fun and technical dunes; it was sad that it came to an end due to the unfortunate event; however, the most important take away was your safety, and thank God you are safe; I was amazed to see how composed and calm you were in such a difficult situation @Ashok chaturvedi @Thomas Varghese @Pacific Thank you for keep us calm and showing how to handle such difficult situation @Vaibhav @Davie Chase @MMansoor @Gilbert Khalil @Aisha S rest of the crew was fantastic, demonstrating great teamwork and showing what it means to be driving with @Carnity which is more like family.

Wht we see today is the true and most needed thing in desert and life....resilience. The X made of great strength steel and the man driving it is man got nerves of steel. @Shaaz Sha. Both recovered in just in moments. All were driving great, refusal are part of it and we get better through the course of time. It was great to be you with guys. Good to see energetic @Aisha S. All others were familiar faces @Waqas Parvez @Gilbert Khalil @Davie Chase @topgear(and his cute and curious Hang) and @MMansoor. Thanks @Ashok chaturvedi and @Thomas Varghese.

@Shaaz Shathank you for the drive. It’s always fun to drive with you. And definitely looking forward to your next drive soon. Today we saw @Carnity family working and coordinating together. That’s one reason why it makes me go for a drive every week. Excellent job as usual from 2nd lead @Ashok chaturvedisweep @Thomas Varghese And CF @Pacific @Waqas Parvez @topgear @Aisha S @Gilbert Khalil @MMansoor @Davie Chase pleasure driving with you guys. See you soon on sand.

It was my first visit to the Big Red. The name in itself intimidated me. After this drive, I felt that I should have visited sooner. This area delivered in spades in terms of driving pleasure and challenges. I am also humbled with the tall dune that I was not able to climb. Perhaps next time. Thanks to @Hisham Masaadfor taking us here and giving us all the confidence and assurance. Thanks to the great advice and support from @Looper and @Thomas Varghese Besides Hisham, the rest of the FJers were also fantastic. You guys kept me humble and reminded me that its me who need to improve, the FJ is fine as-is 😆 @Junaid120120 @Rsjiv Samuel @Chris Wing But honestly, appreciate the camaraderie and sharing of driving techniques and modification ideas It was great driving with the rest too, as usual, @Joji varghese @Davie Chase @Sunil Mathew @Daniel Yang Drive with you guys soon!

Mystery Drive - Report "Listen to silence. It has much to say" - Rumi A much delayed report, due to work commitments, where the fun of the mystery drive can finally be recounted. In fact, silence spoke very loudly throughout the drive. It indicated that all were concentrated, and most of all, that nothing warranting support, digging work, or a tugging job, was in demand. After all, my definition of a fun drive, includes seamlessly driving through diverse terrains, at the fastest possible speed that security allows, taking one's mind off any other daily matters, to thoroughly enjoy the landscape, the technical challenges, and the achievement of covering as much "unfriendly" ground as possible, in the most efficient way. The itinerary took us through a new sector of the so called "Middle Earth" (the sand cordons sandwiched between Solar Park and the E14), to a middle entry into Little Sweihan's tall and sinewy dune canyons, which we drove through three times, in all directions, prior to reaching the sabkha that connects this area to Faqa, and the AD border. It was decided to extend the drive to reach the Dubai-Al Ain road, through the yellow sand dunes next to the newest Solar Park development (yes, #4 reaches all the way to Faqa), rather than the more usually travelled Faqa district itself. The extra challenge in choosing this little travelled areas came from the fact that we had to make progress mostly from the slip face sides of the dunes, except the very last 10 minutes of the drive. These slip faces were even more difficult to cross, due to a strata of soft, powdery sand, that had deposited itself onto the ridges, following the windy weeks that preceded the drive. That actually didn't stop the convoy from moving, but made me come down from a few ridges, being "rejected" by the soft sand, back down the slope, to look for a more approachable crossing point. Great driving by the whole convoy, with a well executed Second Lead by @Thomas Varghese, an efficient anchoring by @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, a clean sweep by @Dodi Syahdar, and a very proficient performance by @Charbel, @Zixuan Huang - Charlie, @Anoop Nair, @Chris Wing, @Pacific and @Rawad. Thank you all so much for joining me in my 100th Carnity lead, and for making it a silent, yet very eloquent, virtually perfect drive. See you soon out there.

@Islam Soliman Thank you so much for leading us through today’s adventure. I enjoyed the mix of technical dunes and side slopes. It was full of learning and excitement. @Looper Thank you so much for your support & efforts to all convoy team today. To all my convoy colleagues, pleasure driving with you today and see you in next drives. I ve added some pictures.

@Shaaz Sha thanks for a great drive today, hope you are feeling ok and that you get the vehicle fixed. Really enjoyed the learning experience and the fast flowing drive of today. Unfortunate it got cut short but main thing is that you were ok. great SL @Ashok chaturvedi, and support From @Pacific and @Thomas Varghese CW and SW respectively, as always learnt heaps from you guys, great team work during the recoveries from the rest of the amazing team players @Vaibhav, @Waqas Parvez, @topgear, @Aisha S, @Gilbert Khalil, @MMansoor, @Thomas Varghese. hope to see you all again soon in the sand pit

Drive report Dear Friends I was so pleased to meet you all to day and in fact ahead of time truly appreciate it. Explaining our planned route and it’s variable difficulty at times put every one at ease to be prepared for what was coming ahead. Don’t fight gravity rule and clear communication was reminded during the briefing even to myself. I believe that the area of Lisaili and it’s outskirts from Murqab is an ideal ground even for an intermediate level with gradual increase in difficulty and maneuvering skills at any given terrain type ( technical , medium to tall long range dunes to bowling of different depth and height with soft to super soft sand at times , nice short to medium slip faces to attack which entails precision and control .. etc ) the first ( green ) 6 to 7 km was not an easy track any more as the sand covered more than 50% of it leaving unexpected bumps and humps which can’t be underestimated . Before Getting to the yellow ( first arrow ) we had to pass the technical strip and here we got our first stuck with one wheel in the air thanks to @Anoop Nair for waking us up by doing our morning stretching exercise 😅 with proper shovelling. we continued chasing the yellow arrow. Climbing and Side sloping and criss crossing the tall dunes till we got to my own side way crest and @Charbel beautiful tripod crest which was both cleared also with the shovel and there was no need for the rope. Now the terrain becomes slightly tighter and more technical across Baja track to the other side facing middle earth and the Chimney 🤣 . Here I thought the great team deserves his coffee break and it was reaching the sabkha and chasing one another craving for dunes 😄 and there we took multiple loops over the tall dunes of Murqab before we continue with the last yellow arrow against slip faces and zigzagging at times till we reached the red arrow , which was the bowling blast medium to sometimes steep descent where in a moment of hesitation I found my self like that 👇 😅 the shovel remained the king today and here we go thank you @Zixuan Huang - Charlie for the clip 😉 From clearing this one till exit took us about 15 min for the exit leaving my “royal crest “ 🤣 the last session of today’s physical exercise. Home taking learning from today : when we get into a stuck situation always start from the first step and not the last , the rope will always be there but shouldn’t be the ultimate tool to rely on . where to dig and where not ( or must not ) to dig in a particular kind of Stuck . fighting gravity can lead to unhappy outcome especially at “ high speed “ levels like IM drive Safety is all what we seek and keep always at all times in our weekly “risky” hobby. @Zixuan Huang - Charlie you did amazing thank you for being the second lead today . Clear communication and reroute when needed even sometimes before I give you the hints @Charbel we have all the time to enjoy and today we did together and no barbecue was missed 😉, you drove good today . @Anoop Nair driving with stick can be tricky sometimes at critical self recovery . Today you did it to perfection and you saved your clutch 👍 amazing drive buddy @Gok Krish second week in a row what a pleasure , you drove like a pro my friend @Amir Amiri meeting you for the first time great pleasure. I don’t recall any issue . You managed your mighty RAM like a pro even in the tightest spot , hat 🎩 off bro. @Ranjan Das amazing sweep thanks for watching our back . 👍 till we meet in another Epic Loop take care and drive safe cheers

Thank you @Vanessa8580for organizing the drive. Pleasure meeting you @abms2ktrooper @Amit Seth @Mohamed Khalifa @Mayami Raingam @Kouros @Gurcharan Mehta @RiaanJH @Pedro8 @Deepak 11 @G300 For the first time. All you did amazing. Glad to meet you again @Melenany and @Abdelghani Masad 🤣. Look forward to see you again in sand Hisham

What an amazing first drive, thank you @Vanessa8580for organizing and leading the drive, @Hisham Masaad@Melenany for your support and thank you everyone for making this drive fantastic. Hope to see you soon.

Thank you Vanesssa/Hisham/Mustafa for a greatly organized ride.

@Vanessa8580 @Hisham Masaad @Melenany Thank you all for such an amazing first time experience! Absolutely thrilling and you guys made it fantastic for us:) looking forward to next weekend:) 😎 Thanks again..

@abms2ktrooper @Amit Seth @Mohamed Khalifa @Mayami Raingam @Kouros @Abdelghani Masad @Gurcharan Mehta @RiaanJH @Pedro8 @Deepak 11 and @G300 It was great to meet you this morning. You all did an amazing, we had a very smooth drive with a minimal of refusal so we were able to cover over 40 kilometers which is very good for a first drive. You should all be proud of yourselves ! Moving forward you all will be joining the Newbie drives and not an Absolute Newbie drive anymore. Drives are announced every Monday at 11am, and they go live on Monday evening at 7pm. 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 MANDATORY requirement. 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 MUST READ: Offroad Club Structure, Levels and Rules Off roading - Everything you need to know Transfer your previous off-road experience Mandatory Safety Requirements Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities Tire pressure deflation for off road driving Dune Crossing Tutorial and Techniques Emergency details for all off-roaders Off road Club Grading Structure V.3.0 Team Carnity Grading Structure V.1.0 Multicultural Off Road Club in UAE Carnity Off-road Certification Off road Driving Etiquette's Levels of Offroad Drive Off-road Convoy Rules Carnity Drive Notification I hope to see you all again soon ...

Many Thanks @G300 @Amit Seth @Deepak 11 @abms2ktrooper @Gurcharan Mehta @iremmeri @Mohamed Khalifa @Pedro8 @RiaanJH @Mayami Raingam @Abdelghani Masad @Nadeem Ansari @Kouros You all did greattttt. The photos and videos will be loaded to the gallery under our drive Many thanks @Hisham Masaad & @Vanessa8580 Stay Safe

Fantastic morning in the desert as always! It was a pleasure and privilege to be the last car on the convoy. Many beautiful sights of the convoy snaking through the dunes and little churn created ensured it was not too difficult for us the back. Thanks to @Gaurav and @varunmehndiratta for leading and supporting everyone! Some photos in the gallery for you all.