Leaderboard

Being in lead the day before and today in support in the same area really felt different. actually I kinda started to like this area 53 now 🤣 . Couldn’t just believe how this area has revived in 24 hours seeing many convoys around. I guess helped in that the relative drop in temperature and cloudy sky. That was a blessing indeed. today @Rizwanm2 has chosen a path route which obviously well prepared and truly I was impressed . Thank you my friend for leading us today in a safe trip full of excitement and thrill. I enjoyed it so very much 🙏 @Haitham Khattab second time we drive and your second lead was just stunning and we were following your path like a magnet 🧲. Your communication with the lead was outstanding well done . it’s always a pleasure indeed , and that’s what is @Carnity all about : connecting people , meeting new people : @Brett Eicher @Imran Kashif and @Gurcharan Mehta was at most pleasure observing how nice and in control you were guys driving that I rarely needed to correct anything for the guys behind whom as I sow from my rear mirror they were following each other in synchrony the two FJC @takeshi sobue and our sweep of the day who did more than great @topgear and his little copilot along 🙏👍 No shovels no ropes , just couple refusals cleared with amazing self recoveries. The only “ event “ of the day is that we had to exit @Gurcharan Mehta as his passenger didn’t feel well I hope all ok by now 🙏 hope to see you soon till then wish you good week ahead and take care . below is our play route hope you enjoy

Drive Report thank you everyone for reporting early morning today. we started our briefing just before sun rise and we were ready to move even before te sun rise. its was perfect weather today morning with plenty of heavy clouds covering the sky. we started our exploration from the northern part of the Badayer, which gave us enough time to warm up under heavy clouds and low visibility. During this session we covered plenty of technical dunes as well, to my surprise everybody did exceptionally well without any stuck or refusal. Then gradually we moved to southern high grounds of area 53. After about 1 and half hour from start @Gurcharan Mehta informed that he and the passenger is not feeling well. so we looped back to almost starting point to make an early exit for our friends. Thank you doctor @M.Seidam for assisting me and convoy by leading us to the early exit. after a quick break we started our climbing session which was not an easy task, the track was heavily churned and there were lot of traffic also in the area. only couple of refusals where everyone was able self recover with help of @M.Seidam precise instructions... Even i had fare share of desert bruise today when i suddenly dive in to uneven dune. Thank you everyone for help me sort out the bumper. after couple of back n forth loops we started heading towards out exit from far northers driving along Dubai sharjah border fence. @M.Seidam you are the star of the drive today for helping and motivating each and everyone of us. When i have such a great support in convoy have no worry or fear to conquer any terrain. Thank you very much my friend. 🙏 @Haitham Khattab You are truly amazing second lead, precisely doing what i want you to do even before i inform you. Thank you very much. 💪 @Brett Eicher i didnt hear much from you during the drive, hope you enjoyed the track today 🙂 @Imran Kashif You also drove very well today, @Gurcharan Mehta I hope you enjoyed the early bit of the drive, @takeshi sobue Hope today track was piece of cake for your monstrous FJ Cruiser. Last but not least @topgear Thank you very much for assisting and sweeping the convoy. hope you and and your copilot enjoyed the drive. Till next time enjoy your week ahead

Thanks you @Rizwanm2 for leading us today, I enjoyed the adventure and the nice weather while clouds were covering us throughout the whole drive. it was a busy day in Badayer with lots of churn but you were able to find us some fresh tracks and created a nice mix of technical, loops & Climbs👏🏻 Thank you Dr. @M.Seidam for the great support, clear instructions and useful information and keeping the convoy intact👍 Thank you @topgear for sweeping us and thanks to all convoy members for making this fun and keeping up with the pace @Brett Eicher, @Gurcharan Mehta, @Imran Kashif, @takeshi sobue see you all soon

Thank you @Islam Soliman for the drive this morning! These soft patches and side slopes are always tricky, especially for the back of the convoy. Great way to start the day in good company, and for me a last chance to take some sand with me before my holidays. @Chris Wing @Simon Dawood @Vaibhav @Zed @Fabien Monleau @Thomas Varghese @Ranjan Das it was nice driving with you, some of you since a long time! See you soon !

@Islam Soliman Thanks for the drive today! the weather was great and thought the terrain changed a lot we still managed to find some good lines. Somehow I reverted to Newbie in a couple of instances today Hope you get the car fixed quickly and we'll see you on the next drive. Congrats to @JeromeFJ for the 100th drive! Thanks to @Ranjan Das for sweeping us today as well. As usual was a pleasure driving with all the guys today, we know each other well by now and makes all the drives a lot of fun!

@Islam Soliman thank you for the drive Such a lovely climate. Just felt like winter but just warm.very challenging drive with the dunes completely changed due to wind and rains. @JeromeFJthanks for the dates. Have a lovely vacation and see you soon. It was pleasure meeting with @Chris Wing @Simon Dawood @Simon Dawood @Zed @Fabien Monleau @Thomas Varghese @Ranjan Das Hope to see you all on the sand soon

Thanks @Rizwanm2 for leading the drive today and supported by ever reliable Dr @M.Seidam Always learning from you guys. This is the first time I’m at Badayer for Fewbie drive. My previous visits were all F+. Today my son was with me and F level suited him well. The orange sand and high climbs was breathtaking. @Haitham Khattab @Brett Eicher@Imran Kashif @Gurcharan Mehta @takeshi sobue you guys made up a great convoy. As mentioned by Doc, no shovel and rope just refusals. @Gurcharan Mehta no apologies needed. Safety is important and honestly, even the exit drive was fun for us. @takeshi sobue it was easy following you as your exhaust note will tell me how much to push have a great week ahead

Thanks for the IM drive today. It was fun driving with people whom you have driven with before. At 1st it seemed relatively easy but very soon got into challenging terrain. Plus point of the drive - @Islam Soliman took us through a track which had no cross tracks meaning less frequented area. Everybody showed up before time and so we could exit on time. Most of the time radio silence as all were experienced drivers. Had 2 crests - 1 for @Chris Wing and 2nd for me at the same place🤣. Had a crest situation after a long time. @Simon Dawood tugged out the 1st crest of Chris and @Ranjan Das pulled me out relatively easy. See you all soon in the sands. Some pictures are posted in the gallery for all of you to enjoy. Couldn't take more as no one helped the photographer in me by having a refusal or stuck.

Was great having you @JeromeFJ and congratulations on your 💯 drive.. thx for the dates 😂

Glad to learn that . And please no need for apology 🙏

Thank you for the kind words @M.Seidam, likewise it was a delight to meet you. Yes, the family is doing better now, thank you for asking. @Rizwanm2, it was a fun route as always, unfortunately we had to exit early, but looking forward to your future drives. I would like to once again apologize to everyone in the convoy for the inconvenience due to the early exit as we weren't feeling well. @Rizwanm2 , @M.Seidam and everyone else, thank you for taking us to an exit even though we were in the middle of Badayer. It was a pleasure meeting everyone, see yall again soon!

@Zed & @Thomas Varghese thanku so much, just saw your msgs. Reconnecting the battery took some time but @Zed like you said no lights initially but came back on after some time. I wont be able to make it to the meeting point ontime now anyway, better for me to sit this one out and get it checked rather than take a chance and spoil the fun for the rest of the grp. I hope you all have an enjoyable and safe drive, i will def catch up with you soon.

Thanks so much for having me along, gents! It was a great morning, with plenty of variety, some stellar views, and a couple of small "community service projects" along the way. Carnity to the rescue! Take care, y'all.

Thank you again for organising this drive @Rizwanm2 What an amazing way to spend a morning. I had an absolute blast, always learning, and can't wait for the next one!

Great drive today. Learned a lot. Thanks Fred and the rest of the guys.

@ASAD. hope no serious issue with the car @Amir Amiri sorry to hear about the water pipe.. hopefully no damage to the house looking forward for driving with both of you soon

Drive Report Driving early ahead of time thinking that i will be the first one to arrive. surprised to see already three cars almost ready and it was not even 5 am so by then every one was there preparing to have a blast in this iconic area of Sharjah desert. I truly appreciate the punctuality and passion which says it all about how great you are my friends. starting slowly to get the feel of the sand and keeping not far from exit line but parallel to it and not for a long till @Rob S had a leaking air from his tire and we agreed to safeguard it by early exit. resuming the drive back and directly now boosting it ascending and descending cluster after the other with steep climbs at some times sensing the sand is being cooked under our tyres. never gave up despite couple refusals which cleared by nice self recoveries and successful reattempting in one hand and few re routing in few occasions on the other hand. our only stuck of the day which required rope recovery came when @Trekadogot bogged in a soft patch that the 4 tires sunk in. done safely in no time after which i asked every one to recheck the pressure and keep it on 12 PSI regardless of tyre type or how heavy is the car. after this we reached Iftar Bowl directly from behind like a woke in the park and there every one took time 2 to 3 attempts to experiment climbing from either side or just straight up till top and down. while sipping my coffee in my air conditioned darkly tended X my eyes never took off on them enjoying and feedbacking on the radio whenever required. heading to super bowl were the way to it was even more fun than the bowl itself in and out bowling criss crossing sharp crests from hard to slip and from slip to hard some times in sequence and that was epic and the climax of the fast drive . looking into my watch to realize that its time to push the landing gear and start to slowly descend taking a small loupe stripe of technical dunes in between trees and some scattered camels here and there till we reached the dirt track and existed at Tawi Ghadaya. you know guys non of my drive is free from technicality the most what i love and hope you loved it too. @Rob S sorry that you day was cut short but even till then you did amazing as second lead. hope you sort out the issue soon. take care my friend. @Alexanderrr you drove like a pro today and was a treat to see the Pajero climbing till top of iftar bowl today. @Trekado pleasure meeting you for the first time. after lowering the pressure in your tires it was different as you see and remember deflation is the king in sand driving. well done my friend. @KAMALIO nice drive you are getting finely tuned with the different terrain as we drove many time and this is big plus my friend. @Karthik Raptor seeing the raptor climbing and hearing it roaring in the middle of the convoy but fine and smooth you offered a track to follow for the back half is testimonial of how good you were today. well done. the wrangler pack @Prakash Anoop @Morshedi @RiaanJH and @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler I believe guys you had a ton of fun knowing it from the big smiles at the end of the drive . pleasure driving with you all . and i almost forgot thank you @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler nice meeting you for the first time and thanks for taking over the sweep position after Rob's exit. your communications were clear and relevant. @Ashok chaturvedi bhai its always a pleasure driving with you thank you for the initial sweep and then the second lead. your care for the convoy is always remarkable and effective .thank you @Zixuan Huang - Charlie thank you dear for being in the middle and for all the guidance in self recoveries and advices. i enjoyed today very much and hope you all did . till we meet take care and drive safe cheers Seidam

It was a beautiful morning in the sands. Thank you all of you for joining, we had a great drive and a great company. Mahafiz area has always nice surprises, as the area might look relatively flat with a lot of bushes, but it has some hidden gems, as perfect shaped bowls and long dunes calling for side sloping. We took advantage of all of it, and each of you was attentive to correct their lines when needed. Good practice for the next steps ! Then, leaving Fossil Rock to our left, we reached the Faya area, crossing this beautiful stretch of dunes. There was almost no tracks, and a very soft sand. Even with the majestic views of the mountains and virgin dunes, you were focused on your tracks, and we had almost no refusal. Finally, the high dune of Faya was there to test our machines and our capabilities, showing that a big climb is not only about power, but a combination of line selection, acceleration dosing, proper gearing... and power! All of us (ok... one of us was a passenger) made it to this perfect bowl at the top of the dune, to enjoy the fantastic view around. Very well driven everyone we had only minor refusals, no stuck, showing definitely high level and concentration. Still we had 2 recoveries, not from our convoy. One motorbike stuck in soft sand, and a Patrol stuck in a pocket not even 1 km from the exit. Just reminders that driving alone in the desert is always to be avoided. @Gregory Powell thank you for the 2nd lead, very well executed. @Jaro Tuzinsky excellent progress during the drive itself, with a good control of the Pajero. @Brett Eicher nice performance with the manual Cherokee, we forget that some of us have additional work during the drive! @Dinesh Kumar A you take the Prado to heights without efforts, making any climb or bowl look easy. @Jonny90 excellent control of the Safari, you will enjoy your car more and more! @takeshi sobue, always a pleasure to hear the FJ in the climbs! @Imran Kashif it was a pleasure to meet a new FJ fellow. A few adjustments in your lines, and you will see the performance of the FJ can still be increased. @Ignacio Quindós, very well driven with good control. Big thank you for the sweep, with timely indications from the back of the convoy. Big thank you also to @Pacific keeping the lines of the convoy and assisting the refusals when needed. I will be away for a month, enjoy the desert during this time, and see you in September !