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Dear Sailors WIth less than 18 hours to go for our drive, find below the details. Meeting Time : 545am (we still have 2 WL drivers, so no excuses of friday night party, alarm didnt buzz would be acceptable). Radio Channel : 3 Convoy Order : A long convoy in Area 53 is going to be super fun. As i mentioned in my Intro to drive, this is an area, where one stuck could lead to multiple and its super tough to retract. So, we will go ahead with our shield - The Platoon concept - this is a drive which will really test the skill of Platoon leaders, so come prepared all - with all ropes, shovel, jacks - set and ready. Varun in Maroon Wrangler @Ishak on his Dolphin Pajero will be my wing man as SL. @Bashar Beasha on his Safari will be at no. 3 @Ahmad Nerat with his LC on no. 4 @Benjamin Will be our 1st Platoon leader. As Spidey's uncle Ben once said - with every promotion comes greater responsibility. Congrats on INT promotion @Mark B on his black gladiator will be at no. 6 exploring his first FB+ drive. @Bjoern at no. 7 in his Silver Wrangler. @Jaro Tuzinsky with his phone fully secured will be rocking position 8 on his FJC. @Sunil Mathew on his Fortuner will be our 2nd Platoon leader. Good position to test the new tyres. @Patrick van der Loo on his TJ will be at perfect 10. @Gary F on his sandrunner at number 11 @Felix Obst at no. 12 with his White Wrangler @Krishna R our lone Xterra will be sweeping the convoy. So, see you all tomo morning, all set to take a leap in beautiful Area 53.

Good Morning @Patrick @Ahmed Wagdy @Misha Puskar @Stan @Frans M @Jad Moussalli @Zubair @george charbel @premindra rajaram @Paolo Pellegrini @Mehmet Volga & @Frederic below is the convoy order for our adventures tomorrow, looking forward to seeing you all bright eyed and bushy tailed in the sand ready to rock and roll on radio channel 4. have a great rest of your day

Dear friends, @Sam K @Gertjan @Pacific @Salim Akhtar @Alexanderrr @Beide Worku @Simon D @Charbel @Imteeaz @Mohamad Anwer @Chris Wing @Rob S look forward to meet you ready to move tomorrow 6:15am. We will be on Radio channel 2, and convoy order is as below. Any requirement you can reach me on 0506318834.

Dear Friends It was a real pleasure meeting and driving with you all . Indeed these afternoon weekday short sprints are stress relieving and an opportunity for those who has full weekend to enjoy the dunes still including my self 😄 @Fabien Monleau thank you for executing the second lead flawlessly and despite the pop out it was managed in no time . Good to see you after quite a while realy 🙏 @Ahmad Nerat I am impressed of your handling truly and you proved that you were not the weakest link despite my pushing in little sweihan at some time. I didn’t feel it was your first Fb+ drive well done my friend 👍, thanks for the nice clip too with the monkey dance back ground remix 😄🙏 @Sunil Mathew it seems that you and the fortuner are synchronised doesn’t matter if it’s black or white 😅 pleasure meeting you again dear. @Ignacio Quindós I am more than happy to learn that these weekday drives found a solution to stress relieve your coming busy weekend . You drove you keep fantastically well 👍 @Mohamad Anwer it has been really for a while since we drove together . Good to see you brother and well done 👍 last but not least many thanks to @Hisham Masaadfor watching us all from the rear of the convoy . Really pleasure to see you after such a long time . See you all soon in the sand inshallah Seidam

Day 6: Al Ula - Wadi Deesah (263 Km.) After waking up in The Tent with a View, we headed further North-West, toward Tabuk province, with the goal of reaching a fabulous wadi, located just past the small village of Al Deesah. The two-lane road climbs a plateau, on very uneven surface. From its top, as the road descends, a dramatic scenery unveils one turn at the time: successive mountain ridges outlined against the light, fronted by a wide wadi dotted with savannah-like vegetation, and a thin, low lying, layer of dust, lifted by the blowing winds. A stunning, wild view, of a prehistoric, scorched land awaits us at the bottom of the plateau. At the bottom, we follow wide riverbeds, cross a few patches of sand, and finally reach the last of the canyons, before its ending just at the beginning of a narrow opening, from which palms trees and flowered bushes loom colorfully. That's where the tarmac turns into gravelly sand, and the track dives deep into the canyon, with walls getting closer and closer. It's a scene from Jurassic Park, or Indiana Jones, with the scenery that changes at every turn of the road, alternating palm groves with reed fields and pink oleanders. The surface of the track goes from wet gravel to soft dry sand patches, to water filled pools and narrow lanes. The wall of the canyon, orange red in the sunset light, open up just before closing in again, at some points forcing the car into narrow tunnels, almost completely covered overhead by protruding rocks. While one could expect a small dinosaur to pop out of the papyrus at any moment, we only manage to encounter the occasional goat herd. At the end of the Wadi, the road opens up into a much wider riverbed, quite rocky and devoid of vegetation. At this point we turn around, trace our tracks back to the village of Deesah through the magic tunnel, that manages to show yet another version of itself, thanks to the light striking from the opposite angle as before, thus changing all the previously soft hues into sharp contrasts. As the clouds started to fill the sky again, and raindrops started to fall, we decided not to camp, and found refuge in a local farmhouse, where locals usually rent 2 spacious rooms to stranded (or lazy) travelers. With that, we ended a very relaxing day, filled with the memory of this primitive yet exotic wadi still very vivid.

500 dhs for my spot? 😅

@Mohit Gurnani, @Gautam Banka, @Parliament, @Bravoecho, @Adam James, @Stumpy Paj and @GauravSoni Here's the plan for the morning. Meeting time: 6:00 AM Meeting Point: Faqa Fuel Station: Emarat- Grayteesah Radio Channel: 2 (446.031) Convoy Order:

Not many drivers on this one, hopefully @Looper can reward us with some intermediate-level runs as a reward

Wanted to put all fj's in front, but felt bad for the Pajero's😅

Please have mercy on the pajeros 😅

Yup!!! 😃 tested at 14 and 13 psi , last weekend and mid week drives, will be testing lower pressures tomorrow 🤞🤞

😈😁

Nice convoy! We’re going to have a blast at the back @Rob S @Mohamad Anwer🤣

Always ready to help with shoveling @Varun Mehndiratta, anytime before 8am 😂😂 looking forward for tomorrow

Hahaha we will have @Mark B and @Bashar Beasha to do all the shoveling now… they should get the feel of FBPlus, m old school - bullying/ragging was legal and not frowned upon 😀… good old times 😂😂

Varun! You are a legend!! Thank you I was about a day away from finding some of the convoy and doing some sabotage 😂😂😂 kidding of course!! thanks again and seee you Saturday 🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

Hi Sand Sailors Hope the week is going nice for all. It seems like a long time ago that we had some off days, so already looking forward to the weekend. We still have 4WL drivers, so with less than 48 hours to go for the drive, kindly review your plans and update the rsvp (in case of any change). Based on the final status tomo morning will take a call on how to proceed with final convoy. Thanks for your understanding and looking forward to see you all this Saturday @Benjamin @Sunil Mathew @Bjoern @Gary F @Mike M. @Krishna R @Ishak @Jaro Tuzinsky @Patrick van der Loo @Senthil Kumar @Ahmad Nerat @Rajiv Sam @Felix Obst @Bashar Beasha

@Ale Vallecchi thank you for sharing with us these marvellous pictures and experience. enjoy the rest of your trip.

Hi @Varun Mehndiratta I don’t have a ton of experience with it but I have tried it before With the Apple Watch variant you can do a number of basic things with it 1. Navigate: from here you can go onto your iOS version of Gaia gps and switch your tracks to ‘routes’ after doing that you can then send any desired route to your Apple Watch to of which it’ll sync for a few mins around 5-10 mins. On the watch it’ll show the route you saved to it and will display basic info like distance travelled or elevation. From there you can navigate to start route. And your watch will record your track as you follow the route. The watch then displays a few other taps one of which being an off route tab (basically tells you how off route you are and what direction you gotta be to get back on course) it updates relatively slowly in my opinion so I don’t see massive use in it but maybe other people have had other experiences with it. You also have access to adding waypoints and pausing your movement which will also stop recording your Bpm and distance travelled. Apart from that the final tab allows you to see how many kilometers you have travelled the total time you have taken and how fast your going per Km. Once ending your session it will display things like average bpm and the max alongside how many calories you have burnt. 2. Record: I don’t have tons of experience with this one but all I know is that you can create tracks and waypoints where your standing. conclusion: for off-roading I don’t see the need for the app in most cases you’ll have your phone on a mount which is probably safer than looking at your wrist. For hiking and other such activities it can be a nice aid but usually the app will ask you to look on your phone if your lost or to find a more accurate way to your route. So you’ll be carrying your phone with you anyway; still a nice piece of software apart from that if your looking to record your activity your better off using apple’s exercise app as this records all bpm, distance travelled, and exercise rings only massive difference is you can’t make tracks with it. I’ll attach some pics below so you can have a look of what the app should look like on an Apple Watch

Brooom brooom 🥳 I'm not sure my radio will be able to hear Hisham with the long convoy but I'll be shouting yallah push regardless!

For such drives it is really the shorter the better. I extended the convoy since all added their names since drive is posted, and felt bad to leave them. The RSVP is closed and might loose the fun if we extend. We always make it maximum 12 cars. Hope you appreciate

@Hisham Masaad any possibility to enroll for tomorrows drive,

Congrats @Bashar Beasha for new level. looking forward to drive with u tomorrow. well deserved 👏👏👏

When I first joined the waitlist on Monday evening I was number 1 on it, not sure why you think you were ahead 🙂

Hi @Felix Obst Hmm, I didn't jump any queues - I was always ahead of you on the waitlist for the last few days when I checked the website, so all seems correct

Ah, the streak is finally broken. See you next time.

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for sharing this amazing trip! The narrative and the photos are a great incentive to discover more! I'm sure you will have more beautiful photos after sorting them. Let us know if you can put a few of them on a shared drive or gallery.

Congratulations @Bashar Beasha, nice progression. Keep enjoying !

Congratulations @Benjamin, you reached the IM level rapidly, but on very solid bases. And you have not only the driving skills, but also the team spirit required for more advanced drives. Keep enjoying !

I am in, drive of the year 😎

Confirmed Haji

Confirmed.

@Hisham Masaad confirmed.

@Varun Mehndiratta extra sharpened shovel? 😂

Congratulations @Benjamin. Super 🫡

Great so it seems everyone is confirmed for the drive. Since we have a super strong convoy and we have few friends who missed out on last drive as well - I have extended the convoy. @Mark B and @Ahmad Nerat you both are added to the convoy. What this means - more focus, more challenge and ofcourse more fun. See you all this Saturday 😀

I tried these and returned after 1 drive. They let sand it at the tongue/laces area. Maybe just my experience but I wasn't too impressed. Also found them not to be very breathable. It's a nice idea for a sand shoe, but this shoe needs more R&D

Thanks @M.Seidam for organizing a drive on a weekday. Lately I have worked every weekend, and I’ve been unable to join any drive (still looking for a chance to get my first intermediate). A nice mix of terrains, starting with daylight and finishing at night so, great combination! Congrats @Ahmad Nerat on your first FB+. Keep it up! @Fabien Monleau, @Mohammad Anwar, @Sunil Mathew and @Hisham Masaad nice to see you all again. I will post some pictures in the gallery. This one for @Hisham Masaad Have a nice weekend!

I have been using these for my offroad drives for the past 2 months: https://www.amazon.ae/dp/B082862R3F?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1&psc=1 These are fairly high and I have no issues even walking up relatively steep slip faces of dunes without getting in any sand at all. In fact, I can't remember ever having sand inside when taking the shoes off. Amazon offers 30 days return on them, so it was no risk buying them. I use size US 11, and they fit true to size. They are also quite lightweight and fairly breathable (no sweaty feet). Whatever shoes you buy, make sure you invest in a few pairs of quality Merino Wool socks, they are excellent both in the heat and cold and will keep moisture away from your feet. Very popular for both winter and summer hiking. The worst socks you can wear inside boots are cotton socks as they will trap moisture. Make sure you ventilate your boots well between uses, leaving them in the sunshine e.g. balcony so they are well aired out.

Congratulations @Bashar Beasha

Day 5 - Al Ula Exploration (114 Km.) As one of Saudi's most developed tourist destinations, with direct flights reaching it twice a week from Dubai, it'll be much easier to find a commentary on Al Ula's beauties, natural, archeological and architectural, on guidebooks, or traveler's blogs. I'n terms of off-roading, Al Ula is no longer the "free for all" paradise that apparently was until just a few years back, as most of the areas surrounding the old town, the archeological sites and many of its monumental rock formations and canyons are now fenced off. Therefore, our day was spent mostly visiting the UNESCO Heritage Site of Hegra, with its Nabatean tombs, and the ancient city, which is the twin sister of Petra, in neighboring Jordan. We enjoyed a relaxing lunch in the gorgeous Habitas Hotel, splendidly located in the secluded Ashar Valley, with a guarded access, where 3 luxury facilities are nested between the red canyons. The afternoon went quickly by, with a very leisurely off-road drive dedicated to finding a nice camping spot in one of the canyons north of Al Ula. The whole area is an amazing labyrinth of red rock cliffs, made of extremely weathered and oxidized sandstone, with honeycombed walls, where the alternation of wind and rain erosion has carved niches and ledges alternating throughout their length. Wadis, mostly dry in spite of the recent heavy rains, have cut their way through the rocks, while the winds have created dunes on the windward side of the canyons. We finally decided to stop on one of these dunes, overlooking a small "oasis" at its bottom, the wadi just beyond, and the opposite walls of the canyon starting to glow red from the sunset's light. An idyllic campsite, where we took all the time we needed to stretch, relax, set up camp, and prepare a light but succulent dinner, next to a crackling campfire. A most relaxing day indeed.

Congratulations @Bashar Beasha 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

@Looperand @GauravSoni I recived the Jeep just now but there is a leak from transmission . Not taking a risk, so pulling out from the drive 😞

Hii @Looper - Something coming up last minute for me too, and will miss this one, apologies, and hopefully see you on Sunday ! 🤞

Why all these shoes are only for men or men size 🥺🥲😔 So far, I did not find anything below 39 😒

Hi Hisham, apologies for leaving the drive at the last moment. Some unexpected family commitments have come up. Was really looking forward to the drive.

Unfortunately will have to drop off this drive. Enjoy and see you next time

Uh oh, just learned that I need to travel to Oman over the weekend for work, so have to pull out 😏