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What a drive! Thank you @Hisham Masaad for organizing this Fewbie/Intermediate quick and crazy drive on a Friday morning and executing it to perfection. I say perfection because the convoy showed up sharp at 5 am, the briefing was quick, we experienced everything the desert could offer AND hit the tarmac at EXACT 8 am. This is not easy. Refreshing lines by the King Emperor of Badayer. We enjoyed even the technical portions. My first experience of a Yalla Push drive from the man that coined the term and I am still craving for more. The highlight was the surprise play area which was nestled among hidden dunes. I am sure not many people know about this place even though Badayer is a popular offroading spot. Somehow, Hisham found it and took us through the secret passage to play in the virgin sand bowls. When I heard Hisham on the radio - " guys just bear with the tech portions for 5 mins, we are going to a nice play area", I knew something special was coming up My admiration to the fewbies today - @Marketa Dobesova @Pavel Pashkovskiy @Abdelghani. You guys were the real heroes of today. You were pushed beyond your limits and you emerged without spilling blood and I know you guys enjoyed it as well. @Pavel Pashkovskiy Great stuff today. Heard a lot about your special coffee and I got to experience your hospitality today. I had to drag myself out of bed with 3 alarms and you had the time to make fresh coffee for us. Love the sandrunner BTW. It sounds sweet. @Mohamad Anwer Don't hate the Nissan, old friend. The jeeps played your mind today. Great stuff as usual in the SL position. You brought your usual dose of humour to the drive today @Marketa Dobesova It was a pleasure meeting you and 🌻. I don't believe you're in fewbie level. After all, you were one of the very few that made the climb in the first attempt. @DP1011 Driving with you after a long time. Amazing CF stuff as usual. Laid back driving and eating up the dunes as nobody's business. @Felix Obst Driving like its a newbie drive. Just floating on the sand without a sound. no re-attempts whatsoever and asking for more 😜 @Pacific Amazing support as usual and thank you for watching my back. I know you were thinking to sell the jeep and buy an Xterra. Mine is not for sale 😝 @Benjamin The designated sweep. I've lost count of drives that you were the sweep man. Don't do it so well and you will only have churned sand on all your drives. Jokes aside, impeccable driving and clear communication to the Marshall on convoy status. Well done! @Ignacio Quindós Followed us everywhere even with the churned sand from all the wranglers up front. It was truly an intermediate drive for you and Benjamin. @Abdelghani We all know you are not a fewbie. Don't hide behind that badge However, you did magic with the stock FJ. You should drive the black one next time. I want to see you fly! Overall, today's drive satisfied the offroader in me, thanks to @Hisham Masaad Looking forward to driving with you guys again. Until then, Keep calm and don't watch offroading videos on YouTube, the PTSD is real! P.S. If anyone has a video of me flying in iftar bowl, Please whatsapp it on +971 526334562. It would be much appreciated.

@Hisham Masaad Fantastic Yalla Push drive, which started with 27 degrees and we managed to push it by 7 degrees in 2.5 fast pace with a coffee break (thanks to @Pavel Pashkovskiy again) at perfect spot, after that adrenaline climb! Brilliant SL @Mohamad Anwer and support at back @Pacific with calm composed sweep by @Benjamin! @Abdelghani I am still not able to believe it was your first time in Badayer!! ( @Hisham Masaad pls can u explain this! why!!!) Congrats to all FBs at front who took up the challenge and did flawlessly brilliant ( @Abdelghani, @Pavel Pashkovskiy and 🌻 @Marketa Dobesova! no words for bad boys at the back😂, I know how challengimg it was to be back with total churned up tracks but your skill was a reason you were at back of convoy😂, @Felix Obst @Ignacio Quindós @Krishna R 💥! Looking forward to more , summer friday , quick morning drives✌️with u all!

@Krishna R - where were you between exact 8am to 9am ?

A wonderful drive, when all factors work well, match and react together. Nothing more good than wonderful drivers, cars, and nice area and terrain. Badayer never disappoint, and always offer great tracks. Started with nice early morning, meeting all participants excited and ready to start our adventure. Briefing done, and started moving. As mentioned, a good drive is made by all. When getting pushed by cars behind, it encourage to raise the level. Eventually, had good time, good fun and exited with a big smile, made me feeling really good and happy. Covered about 45km in less than 2 hours. Pleasure to meet new friends @Marketa Dobesova @Pavel Pashkovskiy. Both of you did amazing, and managed to exit without any issue. @Mohamad Anwer thank you for being SL. @DP1011 @Pacific and @Benjamin your presence to support was assuring to keep moving without looking back. I have to be more careful @DP1011 when you join, specially when you carry you phone to take photos 😅. @Abdelghani amazing in your first badayer challenge, congratulations 👏🏼👏🏼. @Ignacio Quindós @Krishna R @Felix Obst happy to meet you again, and thank you for joining. Below screen shots of what we have made today. Wish you happy weekend. Look forward to see you again in sand.

Dear Desertnauts, even though with some work related delay and "radio silence", here's the briefing for tomorrow's drive. As you may have imagined, I borrowed the theme from Ewan Mc Gregor's series of drives around the world (literally Round, Up and Down). He's used bikes, and taken months, we'll use cars and take hours: nonetheless, the spirit is unchanged. It should be a loooong drive, facing heat as its major adversity (let's hope only that one), and will take us around from Faqa to Solar Park, via whatever we'll find in between. As I have not yet made up my mind which way to go, in order to find the sand as clean from vegetation as possible. we'll settle for the most popular Faqa's starting point, on the sabkha close to the Eye of Sauron (better known as the Solar Tower). Hence, let's meet at https://maps.app.goo.gl/vsXqojmtRA1hLcb97 The convoy order will be as follows: @Gertjan in Second Lead @FERNANDO SYRIO at #3 @Glenn W at #4 @Mohit Gurnani at #5 @Sunil Mathew at Center @Tom V #7 @george charbel at #8 @Bjoern at #9 and @Looper in Sweep. We'll choose the Carnity Radio Channel at the meeting place. Please note that in keeping with my liking it hot, the meeting time is scheduled at 7:00. Forecasted temperature is 30 degrees (not too bad). The radar maps also show winds blowing at max. 5 meters per second, from the South, which will be against the slip faces: expect some sand walls on the dunes' hard-faces, and some blurred ridges as well. The weather will look like the charts below. Enjoy the evening, and see you tomorrow.

Thank you @Hisham Masaad, it was a great drive and great moment to complete my 100th drive with you. Great climb followed by great coffee courtesy @Pavel Pashkovskiy Everyone did excellent. @DP1011 @Mohamad Anwer, always pleasure driving with you guys. @Ignacio Quindós great talking to you. Lots of laughter and talks over the drive....say it a dream.drive. Guys have a great weekend.

First drive in Badayer, Best drive so far!! Thank you Emperor of Badayer @Hisham Masaad for arranging the drive and for all the "Yalla Push". Really enjoyed every part as the desert was very nice after the rain. Also special thanks to everyone for keeping up so that we could keep pushing. Nice to meet new faces and lovely old friends. See you all soon.

This week I want to present to you two videos once again. These are from the Intermediate Drive at Al Saad led by @GauravSoni. I was on the second lead and Super @Mario Cornejo was the sweep. We also had @Jaro Tuzinsky @Gertjan and @Chris Wing in their FJs, @Benjamin, @DP1011 and @Vaibhav in the JLUs. @Waqas Parvez and @ASAD. were the Prado Boys plus any drive that starts at Abu Dhabi, we have @Zed's presence to complete the convoy. The first video is a couple of refusals I faced and the self-recovery. It shows what to do and what not to do during refusal situations. The second part of the drive was extremely exciting, but I do not want hours-long video, so it is just a few clips. Part 3: this video focuses on the Lead @GauravSoni

@Krishna R, @Frans M, @Joseph Raju, @Gary F, @Bashar Beasha, @Mark B, @Bjoern, @Chris Wing, @Zulfikhar Naiyar, @Anoop Nair cc: @DP1011 & @Davie Chase Thank you very much for joining this drive. The plan is to extract the most out of the area and it is going to be quick in more ways than one and it will take a toll on the vehicle so please make sure that your car is in tip top condition. Do also double check your calendar, make good excuses, if necessary, in case you have any commitments that you are trying to ignore and be ready. Please do confirm your availability by tomorrow afternoon to plan the convoy. We will publish the Convoy order later on Saturday afternoon. @Pieter Pot, @Senthil Kumar hang in there for some more time if you are still interested.

Thank you @Hisham Masaadfor such an amazing drive today. I think everybody enjoyed it as much as I did. As I told you at the end, I cannot imagine what an IM drive could be with you leading it 😁😁😁 The second part of the drive was unknown to me, beautiful area with virgin sand at times… Congrats to all fewbie drivers for coping so well with the challenges today. Keep it up! Not only drove amazingly well, but also brought coffee, biscuits and dates!! Extra point for you guys… Big shout out to @Pacificfor reaching your 100th drive today!! Thanks to @DP1011 @Mohamad Anwer and @Benjaminfor your support. See you again soon!! Dedicated to @Pacific for his 100th! Rest of the pictures in the gallery. @Marketa Dobesova, @Pavel Pashkovskiy and @Krishna R you have some you might like. Cheers!

@Hisham Masaad, this was just a wonderful morning drive 🙌 We were discussing with 🌻that this was one of the best Fewbie drives for us 🙏🤩 Thank you for arranging this trip on Friday morning, that was just perfect timing before the work starts 👍. Always fun to drive with you my favorite off-roaders, @Pavel Pashkovskiy, @DP1011, and my @Felix Obst, and nice meeting new faces today too ☺️

I’ve been pondering about all the things I could say about this drive, of course only good things can come to mind. @Hisham Masaad will always be a pleasure driving with you! Every drive you teach me something new even under the circumstances of “yalla push” @DP1011 always great to see you man I hope to see you soon on the next one @Krishna R thank you for the kind words! We have had many drives together and always will make the ultimate support team one day 💪 the mighty Xterra did some crazy stunts today and managed it through some of the roughest terrains including that airtime. Of course it all comes down to the driver behind the wheel you did amazing mate. @Marketa Dobesova I can see the practice is paying off in the desert seeing that yellow jeep conquer the dunes is always awesome to see. @Ignacio Quindós you drove amazingly in the back I’ll look forward to the next one together mate. I believe I managed to get a pic of you behind the sun (posted it in the gallery ) Congrats @Pacific on 100 drives you drove exceptionally well today as well @Mohamad Anwer always good to catch up man I look forward to the next one! @Pavel Pashkovskiy thank you again for the coffee it was much needed this morning with a very early start. Your gladiator sounded mint ☘️ climbing those dunes today will see you soon! please anyone I missed out you guys drove amazing especially if this was your FB drive you all pushed beyond expectations. Have a good weekend, Ben

Hahaha. my bad. 8 am. Today is crazy starting from the drive

@M.Seidam @DP1011 i have updated my signature to reflect my Decision Process: For now, simple: only LC has the night lights 😂

🥹 @Krishna R, this is such a beautiful write up 🥲☺️🥹 Hope to drive with you soon again 🙌

Congratulations @Pacific for the completion of 100 drive. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

I am in the same boat: only Trooper has the night lights 😆

You can put it in the comments section, it will also time stamp them to click and see, that's a neat feature on YouTube. @DP1011 added them as comments on the YouTube videos. Thanks @Zed for the putting the time stamps and giving the idea. One more key moment in the 2nd video is when i got stuck in a bowl just behand @GauravSoni about 5:09. I need to change my tires; they don't have the same grip that I am used to and expect from them.

I love this @Zed - Key moments ! way to quickly go and learn ! ( Perhaps for @Looper for further enhancements for lazy ppl like me, who take time to look at these when relaxed, but when you added key moments, you got the curiosity take its course ! )

I recorded all you guys coming in and climbing the dune but due to the focal length you can't see much. Same with the Al Qua drive I recorded @GauravSoni doing his rounds but never gave the video to him because it is difficult to comprehend what is happening.

@Frederic - If you take your other car for night drives - I have one suggestion for you which once a great person said : "Go as far as you can see; once you get there, you'll be able to see further."

Key Moments: Part 1 Minutes 2:16 and 9:35 , Part 2 Minutes 2:14 and 9:10 @Looper where is the tall dune climb towards the end? Memory full / battery run-outs? 😄

FJ.