Leaderboard

“Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and good bread. A civilization which destroys what little remains of the wild, the spare, the original, is cutting itself off from its origins and betraying the principle of civilization itself.”

We request that every member joining this drive go through the information below and strictly follow these guidelines, etiquette, and responsibilities. MUST READ AND COMPLY Environmental Policy Offroad Flag Guideline Two Way Radio Guideline Off road Driving Etiquettes Emergency details for all off roaders Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities Drive Details Level: Fewbie and above Meeting time: 08:00 am (departure time) Meeting Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/eHfFcszn2f8UGJ7e6 Action Plan: Many books have been written about the desert or have been telling stories where the desert has been a protagonist, rather than just a backdrop. There is definitely a top 10 of desert books that we'll try to count down as the theme of our drives. We start with "Desert Solitaire" by Edward Abbey. A former US Park Ranger, he explores his experiences in the Colorado Plateau's region, ranging from vivid descriptions of the fauna, flora, geology, and human inhabitants of the area to firsthand accounts of wilderness exploration, to a reflection against development and excessive tourism in the national parks. The track chosen for this drive, although the farthest from Colorado's deserts, will take us through an aera where the desert has been greatly modified by the presence of humans. While we can still consider the area to be wilderness, there will be occasions to meditate on how mankind and deserts (its geology, flora and fauna) interact, and how we should best approach our experiences with this vast landscape. In an attempt to distil the best of the book, and to build up to the day of the drive, I'll try to post a book's quote each day. Let's try to find inspiration in this Desert Books' Series to truly appreciate our interaction with our favorite element of nature. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), smiles, face masks, rubber gloves, enthusiasm, and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 12:30 PM P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive. RECOMMENDED OFF-ROAD GEAR: Tire deflator & Tire pressure gauge Compressor (MANDATORY) Walkie-talkie radio (MANDATORY) Off-road flag (MANDATORY) Shovel, Tow Rope & 2 Shackles First-aid kit Fire extinguisher. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE This drive is limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Friday - 12 PM. If the RSVP is full, you can add your name to the waitlist, once anyone drops, you will be moved to the RSVP list. RSVP will close a day prior to preparing a convoy list. Latecomers will be returned - Without any exceptions. Members without RSVP will be returned - Without any exceptions. Please withdraw your RSVP, if you aren't joining, so your spot can be taken by others. Repeated no-show members after RSVP will have their account suspended for a month. PLEASE RSVP ON THE CALENDAR

Incase this is helpful to anyone else in the future, and maybe i'm not the only one who finds the WebUI is completely non-intuitive.... if you are trying to draw a route and it is automatically snapping to roads etc.. you can change the routing style by * clicking the boots icon in the bottom left, then * selecting the non-visible dropdown menu under routing mode.. and * choosing STRAIGHT LINE

Thanks @DP1011 the change to Nahel was well worth it. Absolutely briliant lines and routing through the rolling dunes! A few minor refusals and only two stucks allowed some to get a bit of exercise. The numerous runs through double bowl and then the exit climb was the highlight and the best way to end the drive off. Thanks to @Rob S, @Aser and @Beide Worku for support and sqeep. @Jose Luis Campos, @Sam Selim, and @Abhishek Chikara all drove really well on a drive that reached near IM levels at times, a great learning experience. @Faraz94 your Haval lines were very impressive, lastly to @ChrisW, @Hani crest king and @Frans M always good to see you and catch up.

Leading in the desert is one of the most rewarding off-road experiences, combining adventure, strategic thinking, and real-time teamwork in a constantly changing environment. In the Leaders Lead – Second Session, you'll deepen your skills with a strong focus on navigation and route management — essential tools for confident and safe leadership. This session will guide you through three focused modules: Navigation Mastery: Understand how to use a GPS device, compass, and natural landmarks for reliable desert orientation. Convoy Leadership: Learn how to scale drive levels with achievable challenges, while keeping the convoy safe and engaged. Emergency Route Planning: Develop skills to plan effective recovery and exit routes for unexpected situations and backtracking. You can choose any device or app (garmin, gaia, mytrail etc) and mark these basic points and you will be required to reach anyone or a few of them: Entry and Exit Lisaili Fort Skydive Chimney Mark long range playable dunes Mark pylon tracks, cycle tracks Mark as many sabka, flat track or easy exits in case of emergency Mark fencing or restricted area Mark technical dunes P.S. I will personally check each of your devices to verify and help you further. Approximate Area Perimeter Drive Details Level: Selective Advisors - @Ishak @Emanuel & @Luke K P When: 7 June 2023, Saturday Meeting time: 7:00 AM, (Sharp, without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Al Lisaili - https://goo.gl/maps/UDzJ7FKT2Aq5HcyFA Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. Approximate finish time: 11:00 AM Please RSVP on the below calendar:

After a much needed rest from a marvelous drive by @DP1011 with the very wise decision to change to Nahil giving us the fun and waking up earlier of course I can say I am ecstatic that I got to experience the signature roller coaster by @DP1011. Thank you and definitely a memorable desert drive that I will always remember. Truly Carnity club is a gift that keeps on giving. Thank you @Andrew John Melvill for a great second lead and @Rob S your support and quick sharp decisions made this drive even better. @Aser like I said I trust your driving line with my life, as well as @ChrisW smoothing the drive in the middle. @Beide Worku we had much fun in the back especially the exit roller coaster was an experience and a half. Thank you all for a fantastic Sunday morning, some pictures are up in the gallery

I’ll join you with a verse of a poem as we Latin have hot heart! Out come the shovels, gleam of silver bright, Like warriors armed, prepared for this sandy fight. Sweat drips and gleams, a desert, glistening dew, As we scoop and dig, a tireless, determined crew.

Thanks again for the nice drive yesterday @Frederic Also for the entertainment after the drive, I was convinced he would have another go at it and come back when we reinflated. However faith in humanity was restored just that tiny bit when he came out and drove off after giving @Mark B the bottle of water! Also, as I was crested yesterday, the Defender came up with something I had not noticed before: Extended Mode... Did some checking and apparently, in certain conditions, the air suspension enters into that mode automatically. When it is in that setting, one can raise the vehicle higher than the regular Off Road height, by pressing /holding the brake and the up button for more than 3 seconds. Unfortunately one can not get this setting manually, but the car does seem to notice when it finds itself stuck, crested or in deep water. That little tidbit would've been helpful to know a couple of months ago, but better late then never, I guess 😅

Congratulations @Amr J!

Yeah he was a little stubborn but he did give up and came back out of the track when we were re inflating again! Even gave me a bottle of water as a thank you haha but all in all it was a really nice drive thanks again Fred

That was indeed a great morning out! With the help of @Mark Band @Mike M. to keep the flow throughout the drive, we managed to cover quite some ground. The original plan was to exit a bit further south, but as time was moving quickly i decided to head straight to the exit. All of you drove extremely well today. I just hope the 5 door Jimney we came across made it up that hill eventually 🤣 Fantastic second lead and help by @J-P L as well. It's always re-assuring that i have you behind me to polish my tracks, and the result showed in the minimal issues. After inflation, we were approached by a driver who got his delivery truck stuck on a dirt track across the road. @Mark Band @Myrko decided to deflate again and help out, and we headed onto the dirt track to go and have a look. The driver was determined that he wanted to go further straight, but Mark towed him a few meters backwards (which made the most sense) and got him out with the winch. Thanks guys for the help and for deflating again. I was too lazy to inflate with the compressor for the second time so drove down to the nearest ADNOC Enjoy the remainder of the weekend and see you all soon in the sand again ! Check out this trail from @Wikiloc! https://www.wikiloc.com/offroading-trails/faqa-to-sweihan-216128518?utm_medium=app&utm_campaign=share&utm_source=5764925 (Faqa to Sweihan)

People never believe me when I tell them how you pump your tyres up after an offroad session… 😉😂😂

When I exporting from Garmin Explore, first I creat in Garmin collection, where I add all waypoints and track, giving the name onwant, and then share the collection, so it's imported in gaia as 1 folder with same name, inside which is track gpx and waypoints

Great topic @Looper and i knew when i took up this issue with you that you were gonna be prepared I find the folder structure GaiaGPS uses a bit awkward and many hardcore GaiaGPS users are now stepping over to Caltopo, which i've been testing for a while now and really impressed by their web browser are route planning, but the mobile version is not yet up to the mark in my opinion. Anyways, what i do is make a folder for each emirate, and then put my tracks in that folder based on where i've driven. That way i can export for example that entire folder (Dubai by example) into one single .gpx file (including all the waypoints associated with that). This method works well in Gaia, but whenever i import a track someone else had sent me, it creates its own folder, which i do not want, and have to move this folder into the folder of the right emirate. Colour coding of tracks is a good idea. I do not use any colour coding on my tracks, but i do for my waypoints: 1. Red waypoints are entry and exit points. 2. Yellow waypoints are landmarks. 3. Purple waypoints are bowls and play areas I also recommend to keep the "best" version of a certain area you have done, and delete or archive/hide all the rest. If not, within 1 year your Gaiagps app will look like a spiderweb and will become extremely frustrating to use while leading. Naming is also important. I use the following example: SHJ-Badayer-FB-FNU (Sharjah Emirate, Badayer Area,Fewbie Level,my name code) That way, if you use the alphabetic filter in Gaia, all your tracks from SHJ will be all nicely lined up.

Recently Gaia has been a regular topic of discussion, as I started to do partial leads. During these discussions, an issue that came up regularly is how the tracks become unmanageable and do not make any sense anymore, leading to users deleting their old tracks. I too found the same issue while I was still new, perhaps 10 to 15 drives old, and I was intermediate already! When I was driving in the same area there were multiple tracks in different colours, and nothing made sense. Since Fewbie level I have been organizing my recorded tracks and I want to share my housekeeping tricks in post in the hope that a few of you might find it helpful. 1. Start Early: If you start early to organise your drives and with a little bit of housekeeping from the start you can better manage the tracks in the future, and it does not become a big headache later. Even if you are not subscribed to the app, do record the tracks with the free version and save them. 2. Folders: Create folders for each level of drive, such as Newbie, Fewbie and so on. I have folders for other types of drives, e.g., drives with friends, wadi drives etc. After each drive while saving the track, immediately put the track in those folders while saving. Gaia also gives an option to add photos you took during the drive to attached. While I do it, I delete them (Profile>Photos) later as it leaves a bunch of waypoints that I don’t need. The photos seem to stay with the track even after deleting them. Saving tracks in folders makes it quite easy to hide/unhide (eye button in saved tab) a bunch of tracks at the same time. These days I hide all the tracks and keep the current plan visible. Any new drive you record will automatically be visible till you hide them. 3. Colour Coding: You can colour code all drives in a level with one colour. In my case I used the same colours that were used in my stats posts. I considered either colour coding or creating folders by Lead or Area instead of filing tracks by Level + color-coding them at the same time, because it seemed like duplication. But those options either did not add any value to me or the process made it more confusing for me. Your experience might vary. 4. Rename Tracks: Rename the track with the area you did the drive and the lead with who you drove in the title. I also put the participants' names in the notes section. This helps to find specific tracks by searching for them (use “Download guest list” in calendar to get text of all names). As a newbie lead, I go back to my most memorable drives from the past in an area to plan for the next drive. Some time I get to see a great track to drive and other times I take the convoy though a technical jungle; either way it is fun.