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Thank you, everyone, for joining this amazing exploration drive and making it super successful with such a strong convoy of level-headed and sensible yet capable drivers (most imp). Truly, Razeen exceeded my expectations in terms of beauty, vastness, challenges and landscape with it's deceiving dune formation and breathtaking view. At Razeen, we found a good mix of many different terrains of Abu Dhabi in one place: Big dunes and bowls of Al Qua and Wagan Tricky and unexpected dune formations like Bu-Tais Super soft sand and technical dunes like Liwa and TOC. As we have barely explored a quarter of the planned area, surely we need to explore more with good entry and exit points to avoid long gatch tracks and add new areas for our regular drives. @Looper big thanks for taking some amazing pictures of everyone with such an epic landscape, and for giving us a good memory to remember for a lifetime. I saved a few for a real portrait. Thanks, @DP1011 for SL duties, I was not looking at the rear view at all, because of your capable driving which let me explore like a 6 years old playing with new toys. I loved it, thoroughly. Thank you @Joji varghese and @Rajiv Sam for support duties and making sure everyone had your helping hand when they needed it the most. Special thanks and shout to @Zed @Stumpy Paj @Rajiv Sam and @DP1011 for making that insane slip-face climb to save me, when dune was adamant to hold me for breakfast. @Naveen Raj @Bjoern @Salim Akhtar @Amir Amiri and @Gok Krish was great to see you all after a long time and thanks for your wonderful drive capabilities with a lot of patience, teamwork and humor to make such exploration drive even more memorable.

Thank you very much @Gaurav for this wonderful start to the winter drives. When I got up at 6 am on Friday morning I somehow did not fantom that the day wouldn't end till this drive ended. While it might seem a long drive for kind of short drive, for me at the end of the day, it felt that the effort was totally worth it. It was a totally new area and those scenes of mighty dunes ahead of us took all the fatigue that I had and was eager for more. I was having so much fun, I could drive for the rest of the day instead of taking the track for the purpose of exploration. Everyone was super enthusiastic, and we had more fun whenever you got stuck (please see chart below 😉 ). All of the crew not only had a chance to bring out their shovels but also learn a thing or two about recoveries. @DP1011 was a fantastic second lead, there is nothing more one could have asked from that role he played. No Abu Dhabi drive is ever complete without @Zed marking his presence. He is a wise man who is always present to help in any situation. @Rajiv Sam and @Joji varghese always ready with the shovels and displayed excellent support whenever needed. @Amir Amiri showed us how to tackle the last "Pajero Bowl" of Razeen (nice moniker by the way @Zed). The silver surfers of @Gok Krish and @Bjoern did confuse us once or twice but it was fun to hear the roar of 392. @Salim Akhtar never fails to amaze with his Pajero and it was great to see @Stumpy Paj and @Naveen Raj in their SWB cars. Looking forward to many more drives in this area in the coming days and preferably full day drives so that all the extra fuel that we carried could be put to effective use as by the time we were exiting I was once again on a full tank.

I love Zedy's expression here: yes/no/yes/no/yes/no/yes/

The gallery of this drive showcases the joyful moments of everyone in the convoy as they enjoyed. thanks to @GauravThere's not much to add. After driving for 2 hours and 30 minutes, we reached our destination at 5:35 am. We were five minutes late due to thick fog, not to delay i straight went to fix my flag. @DP1011 informed me that the drive was canceled, leaving me speechless. My expression must have conveyed my disappointment, but @Zedand @Looperreassured me that the meeting point had been shifted, which brought a smile to my face once again. As I moved as the sweep in this amazing convoy filled with experts, I observed every detail, savoring the experience. Special thanks to @DP1011for the black coffee and snacks. The sand became progressively softer after 9:00 am, but I continued to enjoy the journey. Typically, the drive back home is a challenging and I tend to get drowsy. Thanks to @Gok Krish who offered me a green bull, I stayed awake and safely reached home.

Rest of us meanwhile:

As mentioned in the early morning briefing, terrain was going to be challenging and soon enough we were riding inside the massive bowls climbing to our hearts delight. We had a good run, but unfortunately had an incident along the way. The most important thing is you both were unharmed. The unfortunate incident showed the fantastic teamwork, and all of you worked very hard to get the Pajero back into a condition so we could drive it out of the desert. @Mehmet Volgayou are a true warrior and kept calm throughout the ordeal and surely we will be meeting again on the sands soon enough. My sincere thanks to the entire team for the efforts to get the car out. Purely from a technical driving perspective, i wanted to give some pointers and feedback on the drive itself on how i experienced it: @Gertjanyour communication was spot on, and the lines you took were very very smooth. Fantastic driving. @Mohit Gurnani I've seen you driving the last couple of weeks and I've been very impressed. The only minor thing i noticed is the speed you carry sometimes, which is in some places excessive and that also means that you need quick corrections to get the car under control. This is a minor remark and overall I've been super impressed with how far you came now. Just try to be mindful of the speed. The trick is to just create enough momentum and speed that's necessary without having to decelerate or brake. I am sure you'll master that very soon. @Ishakas we spoke on the drive, i was very worried about you yesterday, as i saw your Pajero fishtailing and fighting gravity in many areas. Hence i asked you to check in which gear you were driving (we have seen 4HLC can sometimes help in getting a better power ratio vs the regular 4H). I would not advise you to keep driving in 4L otherwise your transmission will be giving up very soon. The Pajero is a heavy car and you will need to learn to find clean lines with good momentum while now you were forcing your way onto most of the dunes and ridges, which not just looks scary, but you have seen yesterday how the desert can be unforgiving. I highly recommend you to join 5-10 Fewbie level drives and adjust your way of off-roading before doing higher level drives. I was seriously concerned about your safety yesterday and hope you understand.

So these should be marked in dark red as no-go areas😂😂

And @Zed was the lead supervisor. A slightly worried team lead.

Today's Video

Thanks looper for giving the chance. And my pleasure to see you all guys.

Prologue: I crave at least two drives a week. This morning when I was driving to the meeting point just before the Last Exit fuel station, I had a thought that I could have slept this morning after a very long previous day. But I must confess that after the drive I felt like it was a worthy end to the week and all the fatigue that I had was lost. I met @Bjoern at the fuel station, and we started together. I saw @Haneef Thayyil overtake me and then @Rk ram and @Deepak Eswar overtake me and @Bjoern. On the way to the meeting point I felt the chill for the first time for the season. It was a cool 27 degrees when we reached the meeting point and I had my windows down and my hand outside, I experienced the wind hitting my face. I posted the same track a couple of weeks ago and 4 of us were driving again today as well. In the morning, just before the start I pondered on how the track was going to be today - easy? difficult? Lots of refusals or none? I threw all those out of the window and started to take a new track. At the briefing I took more time explaining the reasons for refusals and how to tackle them. Drive Report: I have now got a good understanding of the track. We drove mostly on the northern side of the area, which has taller, softer, and difficult to drive dunes. At every dune crossing I was like now we were going to have a refusal, but the convoy drove very well. Everyone behind me was super focused and I felt that the briefing had rubbed on all. After we completed the super technical part, it was time to rest a bit. We reversed back on a southern track from the previous and were a bit faster. This is when @Pacific put on some music and tried to relax, and promptly got stuck. @Bjoern was all ready for a tug offering the choices of pull or winch, meanwhile @Deepak Eswar and @Rk ram dug under the car to recover the fellow doctor. It all paid off when @Pacific was able to self-recover. Then we again drove east toward the larger dunes and did a few flying sidee laps on a few of those dunes. After that we took a break at Crescent Lake, and I must thank @Deepak Eswar for the croissants he offered as breakfast. After the break we moved towards Richie's bar. Just before reaching there, we saw a lone driver stuck in his TJ and gave a helping tug. Last time I was at Richie's bar I remember all the bushes were only a few millimeters tall but now they are tens of centimeters tall. Then we went west towards the exit. At the end to summarize it was a great drive. Good mix of technical and fast paced dunes. For a Sunday, a shorter amount of drive and great fun. Credits: @Mahmoud Taha you were an excellent second lead. I, however, noticed that you used to fall back a little more than you should. @Haneef Thayyil impressed by your driving today. There were parts that I would be scared to bring even a FB+ convoy but you managed all sections quite well - well done 👍. @Pacific thanks for joining the drive. In case we had refusals I knew I could trust you to recover the stuck cars and you kind of did that today by self-recovering yourself very nicely. @Deepak Eswar you did a great job today and hope you enjoyed the drive. @Rk ram You had a flawless drive, and it is always good to see your enthusiasm that you bring to the drives. @Bjoern back-to-back drives for you as well. Thank you very much for the support at the back and helping with both the refusals. See you all in the next installment of Looper's loops.

@Looper no worries looks like you guys were supervising 😂

First of all @Mehmet Volgaglad you and your friend made it safely- looking forward to seeing you in the desert soon! @Fredericthanks for the guidance on this, and I fully agree, I do carry that tendency - certainly will keep this in mind for coming drives to iron this out

Hi Vanessa reading this late, I had booked for yesterdays ride unfortunately it got cancelled and I enrolled for Sundays, I was told yesterday that compressor is not mandatory for first ride hence I got radio and flag only. this is my first ride and now it’s late to get a compressor , can you excuse as it’s my first ride ? see you tommorow at 6 thanks amal

Thanks @Gaurav for this interesting drive today! It was the drivr which we all were looking forward to, it was more like a one day picnic, where we were prepared for everything and anything that the drive will offer, and Towards the end as we all echoed' Was totally worth the effort. And with such a lovely bunch of people, who always make weekends enjoyable! And thanks for the opportunity for the SL, Was pleasure watching you on all your experiments and lines taken. Was great to watch you in rear mirror @Salim Akhtar and how amazingly you handle your machine! and then all behind @Stumpy Paj @Naveen Raj @Zed @Looper @Bjoern @Amir Amiri @Gok Krish @Joji varghese , Great to see you all ! Thanks @Rajiv Sam for sweeping ! See you all soon again ( who knows could be Razeen again, " Razeen exploration 2.0 - The untouched beauty"? 🤘🏽🤞!

A big thanks for @Frederic and team Carinity for taking us into these awsome dunes! I enjoyed the morning out with @Mehmet Volga, @Ishak and @Mohit Gurnani. It was indeed a lesson that the dunes need to be treated with the utmost respect. I trust that all will work out well. A few pics in the gallery to enjoy! See you all soon on the sand again!

Forgot to share this crowded petrol satation pic…

@Vanessa8580 @Hisham Masaad @DP1011 thank you very much for your support and it was very reliving to see my tyres didnt popout i was thinking if it pop out on this drive i will just stick on to wadi drives...but I learned something very good today. I don't have to push so much my vehicle or myself... I think we(my tyre me and my engine) reached a harmony today, which is the most important in this sport.. I will take one more relaxed drive to see the relation is strong and afterwards will just push myself... may be more than my vehicle I need to be relaxed...I was just thinking of completing the drives and get myself to the next stage....so stupid of me...it's not about climbing up there is no competition her be comfortable know your vehicle, what it can do and how much you can push and how...I am posting this so all absolute newbies don't make the mistake of thinking about the going up the ladder but instead concentrate on knowing your vehicle how much gas you need, knowing the sand under your tyres and please don't try to keep the line and get stuck...just go down....it's so easy...hope my stupid advises help....

Thank you very much for the advise @Frederic 🤝😉

Thank you @Mahmoud Taha

following is the convoy order. we will be on channel 6

No worries @Amal Sunil, I have a spare compressor

Hey man, I don't know if this is against carnity rules, but I just bought a new one yesterday. I can share mine so you don't have to worry about it! See ya all tomorrow on the dunes!

Another great adventure today with a great team, who made the drive fantastic. All arrived on time, I was the last one to arrive, briefing with all reminder points, and started moving. As usual mahafiz part was full of bushes, but the bowls worth to cross these bushes. Everyone did well, except one case with @essam ibrahim which was a good exercise to go through all the bowls after. And the only case where we have used shovels. After that all side slopes were done perfectly without issues. A break of about 10 minutes opposite fossil rock, and moved to the nice area of Faya. Few refusals, and reached al faya dune, which was totally churned and full of tracks. And since it was the end of the drive time, decided to exit. Great performance every one, and special thanks for SL @Emanuel you was really perfect SL. As usual @Benjamin great support for all drives. @Simon D very happy and glad to see you again, and as expected was a nice surprise for @Mohamad Anwer and @Abdelghani. Thank you again @essam ibrahim @Shiju Raju @Xavi Moyano @Ben Williams @Issam Atra @Srilakshman Karthikeyan @Haneef Thayyil @Juzer Gandhi @Abdelghani for joining. Look forward to see you again in sand. Nice weekend ahead Hisham

Great drive with a wonderful trail selected. I remember a previous drive also with @Hisham Masaadon this same track. The rolling dunes towards the latter half were fantastic. Thanks a lot @Emanuel, @Benjamin for the SL and Centre. @Issam Atra, your handling of the Cherokee was fantastic to watch powering up the climbs. The weather is still quite hot as the day progressed. My vehicle did not overheat but was venting out coolant from the reservoir vent (just as it is supposed to be), but was kept continuously monitoring the temperature on my ODBII display towards the end. Thankfully it was all good. See you all soon.

Mabroook @Bashar Beasha

Exploration already started it seems 😅 Please save petrol, we can always go back to Milky Way for a drive towards Hameem 😂

I reached meeting point, Gok sleeping in parking bay little before the meeting, let's all catch up there. I'm roaming around to find an entry through the fence, as expected.

I and @Salim Akhtar now leaving this, the fog started to get dense just now

Following you behind

Hi @Vanessa8580 As Ale's drive for tomorrow got cancelled, I have booked myself here.please include me in this convoy. See you on in sand Thanks Ali

Please find your convoy number below. We will use Radio channel 6 @DP1011 @Salim Akhtar @Stumpy Paj @Naveen Raj @Zed @Looper @Bjoern @Amir Amiri @Gok Krish @Joji varghese @Rajiv Sam Gaurav Silver Pajero DP1011 2021 Jeep Wrangler - Rubicon Salim Akhtar 2017 Mitsubishi Pajero 3.5 LWB Stumpy Paj Pajero SWB Naveen Raj Grey Rubicon SWB Zed Grand Cherokee V8 2009 Looper 2019 Jeep Wrangler Sport - 2 Door - Yellow Bjoern 2022 Jeep Wrangler 4 door silver Amir Amiri Fj cruiser 2019 Gok Krish 2022 Rubicon 4 door SIlver Joji varghese 2011 Nissan Xterra, Red/ black Rajiv Sam Fj Curiser 2021

@Abhilash Kottakkal It is no problem if your wife and child join but just make sure your 3 year old is secured in a proper car seat. I will keep it an easy drive because I have a few Absolute newbies 😊

@Chaitanya D, first of all, very good subject. The situation you have depicted is not that out of the ordinary, so it's very good to have a thread to go back to, and refresh one's memory and skills. All of the above considerations, of course, are very appropriate and effective, so not much else to be added from my side. I actually have only seen one recovery of the #1 scenario (horizontal stuck) done with a tug (as usually the #2 and #3 scenarios can be self-recovered by pointing the wheels in the right direction, and letting gravity do its job). It was a successful recovery, but as it almost went badly, so I'll try to indicate what I thought went wrong. The car was slightly heavier toward the back, yet it was pulled from the front: always check meticulously if the car is front or back heavy (even an horizontal stuck, it's unlikely to be 100% perfectly horizontal). No channel was dug (as suggested by Gaurav) in front of the front wheel (considering the frontal tug). This made the car bump onto the small sand mound that the stuck had created, with the risk of a roll-over. Lastly, even if this was not the case above, I suggest to not dig out the sand from both lower wheels (which may seem intuitive to do, since that sand is what is making the car being stuck): that's when you risk a roll-over. What this means to me: take plenty of time to assess the situation, and confer with other seniors (each may see something different that you fail to notice), so you can always make the choice the minimizes any risk (including removing cars and people immediately below the stuck car, even it they are parked on the flat ground, down below).

Brilliant topic @Chaitanya D and very well displayed your concerns with images and drawing. Everyone has almost hit the nail on the head with their collective inputs and they all are correct too. Small add-on from my side is whenever we have side slope stuck, if you dig a channel front or behind (as displayed in pic below in red color) you can accelerate the recovery process. The core idea for this red colored channel is to drop the car wheel with a tiny extra movement after the initial movement and when this drop happen, the gravity will do the rest as you successful manage to shake the 2 ton weight. 90% side stuck you can self recover with below techniques and only 10% will be needing controlled tow-rope tug or winch (much better) in such scenarios. Such controlled tow-rope stuck we teach at advance and above levels. Idea is to force vehicle to point down in any direction. Though steering control front wheel so it will be relatively easy to steer down from 100% horizontal (imaginary) situation. As soon as that happen you will follow the steps in scenario 3 to get them out. Easy backward recovery Easy front recovery

Hello @Vanessa8580, Sorry I will not be able to make it for tomorrow's drive. I am removing myself from the list.