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Thank you @Mark Byes was really great drive, I personally enjoyed, and wish I can another one tomorrow morning. The team was up to the level of the drive, and allowed me yalla push and enjoy. Nothing could be better than a great SL @Waqas Parvez, @DP1011 holding and connecting in the centre, and @Gary F watching our back, and strong convoy @Mohit Gurnani you did very well, @Bravoecho @Alphin Aloor @Ahmad Nerat @Stumpy Paj @Krishna R did not hear you names, means you did great, and @Jaro Tuzinsky nice to meet you after long time, and nice to see you looking for the high dunes only to get crested 😂. In summary, drive was good fun and good time. Look forward to see you again in sand. Nice weekend

update Dear friends @Joji varghese@Krishna R@Benjamin@Senthil Kumar@Sunil Mathewand @Rajiv Sam This is to inform you that the Drive remains with the following notes : 1. meeting time extended to 8:30 pm instead of 8:00pm so every one can reach at ease without rush. Drive safe on tarmac and mind the accumulation of water to the sides of the road . 2. we will take the drive easy at the beginning to feel the ground . 3. At any moment if felt not safe will abort and exit . 4. finish time remains same see you by 8:30 pm all

Dear friends @Joji varghese@Krishna R@Benjamin@Senthil Kumar@Sunil Mathewand @Rajiv Sam Please wait and be stand by till 7 pm sharp before you leave home to the meeting point . Will decide by 7pm wether we proceed or cancel the drive tonight due to the current climate condition . Which I believe it passed . at 7 pm sharp will tag every one and confirm please acknowledge my emoji to this msg so I know that every one got the msg 🙏

Great drive today @Hisham Masaad really great pace! Definitely mi kind of drive 😎😎😎😎

So I took a detour en route home earlier and spoke to a Lexus sales person. As luck would have it, I just caught the last orders for the final batch of current generation GX’s arriving in 1-2 months then it’s a wrap for the 460. Funny enough, the only cars that were rolling off to new owners were 3 GX’s, looks like everyone’s trying to catch the last of the Toyota/Lexus SUV V8’s. I sat in one of the GX’s and was immediately sold, the latest center stack update is a major upgrade from my last experience as a passenger in a mid-2010’s GX. Since I’m going to be on the road most of the time, the Prado doesn’t really compare. Decision was made for a top spec GX absent Minister of W&F so will wait to see a surprised face in a couple of months hopefully when we walk over to the Lexus side instead of Toyota Thanks a lot to everyone for “sway”ing the decision in the right direction!

Really great drive , a new perspective for me being sweep. I’ll be using my radio with the longer antenna for future drives , I suspected a few times my comms were not getting through. Also even with only 11 cars, the convoy seemed to stretch 300-500 meters at times. @Stumpy Paj I managed to get a good video of your perfect climb at iftar bowl. Nice job. https://share.icloud.com/photos/067bKkNifZA09F2Mi4fV2AUUA thanks @Hisham Masaad for finding me after my car decided the rear diff lock was having an error despite being off an the stability control had an error also being off. And giving me the opportunity to sweep. @Jaro Tuzinsky good drive and amazing Crests and the self recovery in the first one was excellent . @Ahmad Nerat great to catch-up. @Bravoecho switch those yokos around to the white lettering Good to see you again @Krishna R and @DP1011 @Mark B always good to talk gladiators and their endless upgrades.

@Ismail, like @Stumpy Paj I also own a GX460 and it is a Titanium with a 2" lift and Method wheels with BFG KO2's. Not a colour I would normally pick but very happy with this choice. I've added a couple of photos below for you. Photos are from when I picked it up in 2020 but nothing has changed since then.

Couldn’t agree with @Mark B more. Great lead @Hisham Masaad, great pace, great location and on time like a Swiss watch. Just put up some photos in the gallery

Hello Doc @M.Seidam..can i sneak in to fill the gap 🙂

It’s a hell of a decision, I have been around 4wds for 35+ years now and the Japanese cars have always been the pick. I would probably get in trouble saying “i would buy a 10year old second hand Japanese car over a European or American in most cases”, so I won’t say it. 😅 My GX460 uses noticeably less fuel than my Pajero. Personally wouldn’t look at the 300 with the 4.0v6. It’s too much car for that engine (like the 4.0v6 in the patrol) the 250 series looks good, I think it will come with the 4.0 as a option as well. But will be a bit of a wait for delivery. if you are going to look at a GX for off road definitely get the bottom spec one. You can upgrade the suspension easy and it’s lighter without the electric rear seats, and the ventilated front seats. KDSS has been around for awhile now and is actually a very good system, so don’t be scared off taking it off road by a E11 salesman. The minister for war and finance will love the GX drive. Good luck

Waiting for Sunday 🤪

For many, Oman is tucked away somewhere in a corner of the Middle East, and even though you might have heard abouts its beauty, its hospitality, and its variety, it is quite large and takes a bit of preparation to explore. We decided to take a road trip over the last couple of weeks in Oman and it was no coincidence as to why we chose July. Every year, the Khareef (monsoon) blesses the Salalah region with clouds, rains, and turn the region into a green paradise. That includes daily temperatures around 26 degrees, and a lot of fog. As we were trying to escape the Dubai summer heat, we reckoned this was a great trip worth taking as we talked about it for years but kept postponing due to COVID and other issues. The main plan looks like this: Dubai to Nizwa: 420km to cover in Day One. Enjoy Nizwa old town, and Jebel Hatt/Akhdar. Nizwa to Salalah: 876km to cover in Day Two. 7 days exploration around entire Dhofar-Salalah region. (wadis, trails, beaches, etc..) Salalah to Duqm: 676km to cover on the 10th day, following coastal road and few stops in-between. Duqm to Sur: 518km on the 11th day, mostly along the coastal road, with planned stop at the Sugar Dunes. Sur to Dubai: 654 km on the 12th day, along Muscat, stopping on the occasional sinkhole but no wadis. (we explored those in 2019) Important Notes: 1. As we were traveling with one vehicle only, we were careful with off-roading and stuck to gatch tracks and existing trails as much as possible. 2. The drive from Nizwa to Salalah is long and boring (not scenic). You'll find petrol stations along the way where i recommend keeping your car always topped up. The temperature was +40 degrees, and you don't want your car to breakdown on this road so make sure it's serviced and fully inspected before embarking on this trip. 3. The main road that goes through Salalah is the Route 47, also called Sultan Qaboos Road. Although this is a stunning road and perhaps even one of the most beautiful roads in the world, the fog made the visibility in many places almost impossible to drive. Especially once the elevation exceeded 350m it became very difficult to drive, and the cows crossing the streets on the mountain villages did not help either. This also meant that some of the waypoints we wanted to visit closer towards the Yemen border took hours to reach and we even had to skip a couple of them. 4. Military checkpoints. The Dhofar region has a couple of military checkpoints. We did not face any issues but needed to carry our ID's at all time. 5. Rain, and lots of it. I was happy we got new tires installed two weeks before the trip, and the car underwent a full inspection as well. At times we could not even distinguish the color of the car anymore as it got so dirty from all the mud. Luckily carwashes were easy to find. 6. The Salalah region is predominantly Sunni, while the rest of Oman is mostly Ibadi. Throughout Oman we were advised to dress modestly and even then, we got a lot of curious stares and looks It felt like being back in Saudi in many cases (restaurants with family section, etc..). But overall, the people are very friendly and helpful. Further in this topic i will shortly describe the areas / waypoints we visited, with some photos to visualize the experience (although difficult). Stay tuned for more trip updates!

Thank you @Looper for the amazing drive, full of technical dunes! Thank you Fernando for the picture, we seems very happy and “fresh” in that picture have all of you a weekend with some relax!

No worries my friend

I’ve had superb reception everywhere with Etisalat. Correct about the waterfalls. All are in short driving distance around Salalah, we visited several places in one day. Most places are around 20-40 mins from the city, you can spend 1-2 hrs at the waterfalls, explore a bit, and then head out to the next destination. Only at the main entrance of Wadi Darbat it was very busy with long queues hence we decided to find another route (the one I posted) which was a nice gentle 4x4 trail.

Always welcome to join @Imteeaz! You can add yourself in the manage tab

You are surely a wise guy, my friend. I had a similar conversation with my brother who wasn't understanding my language either.

Dear Pitch Black Riders Time to wrap it up . one day before the event . its not the Big Red you all Know especially after the heavy rain which might have reached that area recently. we will come to know in the couple of minutes we drive on either soft sand or rocky ground. Nevertheless we will drive in continous manner as a convoy at all times , no one by one turns even with the biggest climbs to the tightest turns on the other side of the moon , i mean the eastern side of that grid where people usually fear to go🤪, its Dark and the terrain might not show any specific pattern in the technical side. Please final check your vehicles and gear . come with full tank and big passion . lets rock it together. cant wait to see you all on time or bit earlier so hopefully we finish on time as well. DRIVE RSVP IS CLOSED NOW @Joji varghese will be in the second lead . @Krishna R will be in the 3rd position @Benjamin will anchor the convoy in number 4 @Senthil Kumar will be in 5th @Sunil Mathew in number 6 and in the sweep our friend @Rajiv Sam enjoy and cheers Seidam

Looking forward to it. See you on sunday!

Draft Convoy List: Good afternoon team ! @Deepak Eswar@Shiju Raju@Srilakshman Karthikeyan@Issam Atra@Vishnu Ramankutty@DP1011@Abhilash Kottakkal@Faraz94@Shiboo Kr@Haneef Thayyil@DTG@Ben Williams@Anish S Above you can see our draft convoy list for Sunday morning. We will be using Channel 2 - 446.031 Mhz. Please make sure to bring your offroad gears as per your level. For Newbie this is: Radio, Shovel, Compressor, Flag, Medical Kit, Extinguisher, Pressure gauge. The plan is to enter from Lisaili and make our way towards Murquab, which has some nice dunes and challenges along the way. The weather is still hot so wear some protection from the sun please. The RSVP will be closed by tomorrow noon time. See you all soon !

Whoa ! what an honor to have you @Anish S !! - Looking forward to see you ! Welcome back

Thanks @Varun Mehndiratta! Camping is perfectly possible here in Salalah and even encouraged with many camping stuff for sale in the super markets. In our case we had booked a small villa for 7 days in Salalah and didn’t bring the camping gear along. After visiting the places we’ve seen so far I kinda wished we brought the stuff along. On the other hand it rains practically every night so that has to be taken into account. Our hiking boots needed two days to dry out so we had to alternate between wadi hiking and beaches. Lulu Hypermarket had nice camping stuff on sale, and we went to visit this store as well as we were passing by: https://goo.gl/maps/doh1pxuyTSKVh14E6 Small shop but some nice items. They even sell the Golden Camel compressors Overall I’d recommend taking some camping gear along and setting it up when you have the occasion and feel like camping, but there are plenty hotels for each budget in Salalah and we were happy taking that option as we spend a lot of time on the road as well during the day.

Some Photos Continued: Wadi Darbat Bottom: Becoming more challenging here: Wadi Darbat Hike and Wadi Trail: https://goo.gl/maps/MnAjvjHvznTCvrM79 Thumrait to Rakhyut Canyon Road: Unforgettable.... Fazayah Beach: https://goo.gl/maps/8EkfwGxVaM4XxAQm6 Ain Khor Waterfalls:

Trip Update: Date: 18 July 2023 Country: Oman Border crossing at Al-Ain Meyzad: https://goo.gl/maps/dfTBdaLyCXjAiZ1P6 Do not bring drones, two-way radios, alcohol, or any other illegal items! We sorted out our e-visas beforehand online (29A for sponsor and 29B for dependents), 5 OMR per person. The border official told me there’s a free visa for GCC residents somehow. Not sure if he meant online or on arrival. Crossing the border was very smooth and a matter of minutes only with a short visual check of the car. Make sure to get car insurance coverage for Oman and get the “orange card”’ from your insurer. This is just a piece of paper in Arabic that states your car is insured for Oman. Make sure the vehicle is under your name. I’ve seen an occasion where the guy was barred from entering because the car was under his wife’s name, and she was not with the group. Vehicle on car loan will need clearance from the bank I heard in the past. Not sure if this is true or still valid. Region: Nizwa - https://goo.gl/maps/EVo2Gx8e5fuGmots8 Known for: its fort and adjacent souk, a beautiful palm tree-lined city nearby the majestic Al Hajar mountains. Somehow it felt a bit cooler here than Dubai already. View from Jebel Hatt (2000m elevation): You can follow the tarmac road and climb all the way until this viewpoint: https://goo.gl/maps/NzuvpEsNyG6QX9rz6 If you fancy some decent off-roading trails, you can go from here all the way to Rustaq via Snake Canyon. https://goo.gl/maps/SXnWP6YEKvRWkrz19 We skipped this due to lack of time and the unpleasant weather (40+ degrees C). Courtyard of Al Bustan Inn, a cosy small hotel which we booked for one night: https://goo.gl/maps/PpKW2dpNavRXctSw5