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Convoy:

RSVP IS NOW CLOSED @Mike M.@Jason M@Steffi@Thomas54675@saumik1989@Alex M@Kashx2@Frans M@Suneedh Wrangler@_Herman_@MarkH@Shahid Mehmood@Shiju Raju@Alphin Aloor@nithish468@Simon D Thank you all for signing up for this drive! I am happy to announce that myself and @Mike M. will be splitting the lead duties. No doubt it will be a great morning out in the sand. Some notes before tomorrow: 1. Please try to arrive around 15mins earlier so you have time to deflate, set up your flag, and socialize. (or get a sip of coffee ) 2. We will be using Channel 10 on the walkie talkies: 446.231Mhz 3. Please bring your off-road gears as per your level. For Fewbies this is radio/shovel/pressure gauge/deflator/shovel/off-road flag. See you all tomorrow morning!

Thanks Doc, for organizing this drive. The title well chosen for today’s fog: Secret Dunes like indeed I had not seen them before. Was a fun gathering though, and the fog cleared while we were all firing ideas at the stuck on the slope. Scenery became visible and enjoyable after that. My pics in the gallery are not working, I’ll paste some below: and a before-and-after-the-stuck-when-the-fog-cleared gallery:

Happy Saturday 👍 RSVP is now closed. See you at 06:30 tomorrow deflated and ready for briefing. We will use channel 8. Convoy will be posted a bit later.... @Zsolt @Krinesh @Sam Selim @Myrko @Diego @Glenn W @Ahmed Farouk @vinayak @Mei Ling @Abhishek Chikara @Aser @Andrew John Melvill

https://www.relive.com/view/vE6JAX3ZgxO

A foggy start to the drive

@Luke K P Hi, have moved myself to the waitlist. Something is feeling odd with my car and need to get it checked out today. Will let you know if I can still join a bit later.

fantastic, i'm coming 😊😊

Happy Friday! Thought I’d post a quick update! many thanks to @Gaurav for such a safe and professional “Masterclass” - thoroughly enjoyed the sand and have learned a bit! Looking forward to a newbie drive now

Prado drive!

Update 20251120 - The Sunday Plan: There is a large section of dunes just to the south west of Tilal ADNOC, bordered to the west by a farm and to the east by the Tilal drag race strip. Big Sidies, ridge riding and criss crossing. Next we will double back to the south east towards sweihan lake. Small dunes, technical sections. We will try and go straight through the dunes here instead of looping around too much, to train ourselves on the tech stuff before having a short break at the Lake. Westwards again across sabkha and some long range dunes, picking up the speed and connecting nice flowing sections towards the various rock formations. Next we zig zag south through a high technical zone, and across some areas with vegetation, to be rewarded with some TALL WIDE OPEN dunes which we will take big Sidies on and enjoy some high speed runs finishing towards north Khatim. LETS DO IT 💪

In a moonless night and on time every one started to assemble and preparing for the night drive at the meeting point. after checking on the vehicles i took a newbie brief stressing on the safety precautions especially in the dark environment. we took the track straight away to the secret garden and upon entry to the sand the newbie tribe started to get tested where some refusals was expected and it was all delt with by the patience of the participants and the support team till we overcame the initial hiccup toward the clean sand and wider corridors and then the pace increased and became steady with almost no issues till we reached our solitary lake for a good break. the weather was fantastic and the offroad picnic season seemed to hit as we encountered many barbeque and camps around. during the break we took the time to socialize with the new as will as the older friends chatting and taking pictures which was totally a relaxing moments for every one. The second half of the trip even was more interesting at two folds the first one when i got almost perfectly crested and in no time the support team shovels found its proper way to displace the sand sliding softly in to the V ditch created. huge thanks. as we moved we came to the second one but this time it was not our convoy but another short convoy of local friends who have encountered a nasty pop out in one of their vehicles that entailed changing the spare tire and they didn't have the proper lug nut size of it . here our convoy buzzed to help which was really outstanding showing a high spirit of team work which every one felt good after its all over. i have to say that the support team was really prepared and in seconds tools from all kind appeared around and the job was done. time was approaching toward the end so we took the north track completing the loop back to where we started for exit. I have to say that it was one of a kind of a drive in the night where a like minded effective support team intermingled with two level convoy ( first half newbie and sec fewbie ) and participants who showed endurance, patience and discipline for the desert rules as well as enjoying the moment with chat and laughter. truly thank you all for sharing these moments together especially to the support team who spared no efforts helping and guiding every one in his position in the convoy. I wish you all happy weekend and see you soon again in the sand with another epic night drive. Cheers Seidam

For many offroaders, navigation looks like a scary thing, and finding your way in the desert used to be a daunting task with old obsolete maps, navigation with sun or stars, and many other old tricks of crossing the deserts. Until 5-6 years ago, companies like TomTom and Garmin were ruling the world navigation software and hardware, until our phones became smarter and smarter, and nowadays there are tons of free or paid navigation software programs available which are tailored for hiking, off-roading, cycling, or other outdoor activities where you would like to record your tracks. In this post i will give some basic essential advice on how to get started with navigating by using GaiaGPS, which is an amazing app that allows you to: 1) Create routes at home via your desktop/tablet through the GaiaGPS website. 2) Use different types of maps like topographic maps, sattelite maps, to find your perfect route you'd like to explore. 3) Save and manage all your tracks, waypoints, areas. 4) Automatically sync all this data with the GaiaGPS Mobile App that is being used to record your track or follow the route you have created beforehand. 1) Registering for GaiaGPS account https://www.gaiagps.com/membership/ You can choose for a FREE account, which works fine for basic topographic and satellite maps, but will not allow to use them offline. The PREMIUM membership is recommended for around 60USD per year. The Outside+ subscription is useless as this is mostly for US based customers. Their Trailforks Pro App is very similar to Wikiloc. Once you have become a member, you can head over to Gaiagps.com, login with your account name, and have a look at the basic functionalities. I've posted a short video below that gives a small demo on how to use the GaiaGPS website functionalities. As you can see in the screen, there are many tracks i've recorded with my phone that remain saved in the website. You can remove these or hide them. The red zones i have marked are called "areas" where you can identify tricky areas that you would like to avoid. They will appear on your phone app as well so you can easily avoid them. Waypoints Waypoint, or pins, could be points of interest, landmarks, entry and exit points, or any place where you want to mark the location and save for later reference. They will appear as a "pin" on your map. You can assign a color to them as you like. This might be useful as you can categorize them. Next to the classic PIN icon, you can choose different other ones, like fences, skulls, forest, or anything that will help you in identifying the waypoint. Satellite Images Having crisp detail in the satellite images you are looking, is essential so you can create a route which focuses on the nice bigger dunes instead of the small technical or bushy areas. Gaia comes standard with the Mapbox "Sattelite with Labels" Imagery which is not bad, but the best one i have found so far is the ESRI Sattelite Imagery Map. Below you will find some information on how to add custom maps. The map called "WORLD IMAGERY" in the Premium version is the same as the ESRI Sattelite Imagery Map. Which phone ? Gaia GPS will work on any smartphone that has a decent GPS antenna built-in. In my case i purchased a separate dedicated Android phone which is mounted in my car that i solely use for navigation. This allows me to keep using my own phone as backup device. That dedicated phone has the offline maps downloaded on it, so i don't need cellphone coverage (no sim card). App functionality On an Iphone, this is how the app looks like. The buttons like "RECORD" and "PICTURE" are customizable, and by keeping your finger on it you can select something else you would like to see on the home page. The Magnifying Glass allows you to enter coordinates. You can copy them from within Google Maps. this button toggles between full screen or normal screen. The crosshair button is very important. Click on it once and it will appear green and bring you to your live location and follow you while keeping NORTH up. Click on it again and another logo appears, looking like two reversed triangles. This is the mode that keeps your live location but constantly rotates the map based on your direction. You can experiment with both modes to see what suits you best. I like to stick to the first mode because it allows me to see in which compass direction i am heading. The + Button contains all your other useful functionalities, like adding a waypoint, creating a route, download an offline map, or create an area. Once you hit the record button, the app will start recording your track. Once you finish, click again on it and select "Finish Track" It will then be saved. (and also appear on your GaiaGPS website once you have synced). On the bottom, you can see your trip details, open the list of saved tracks, or go to your settings. Note: In the settings you can put your units/distances in miles or kilometers (whatever you prefer). You can also enable or disable the autosync function, but better to keep it on. So as soon as you have Wifi/Internet on your phone it will automatically sync your tracks between the app and your GaiaGPS account (website). These things will take a bit of practice, and i can recommend you use your Gaia mobile app for a while on your daily commute and experiment a bit with the settings until you have tailored it to your own needs. Exporting Maps Most navigation software use .gpx or .kml files which you can import in Google Earth / Maps or any other navigation program. On the GaiaGPS website, and also on the app you can choose to "export" your track. It will create a .GPX file that you can share with fellow offroaders or import in the Relive app Adding Custom Maps Adding a TMS Map Source – Gaia GPS for the GaiaGps app users, the Google Maps like Satellite, Terrain, or Hybrid, are not standard built in, but can easily be added by using the GaiaGps website. This is the procedure to add for example Google Terrain. 1) While logged into Gaiagps.com, add a custom map source via TMS here: https://www.gaiagps.com/mapsource/add/ 2) Fill in this TMS URL to get Google Terrain: https://mt0.google.com/vt/lyrs=p&hl=en&x={x}&y={y}&z={z}&s=Ga 3) Give it the name "Google Terrain" 4) Set the Min and Max Zoom level on 4 and 19. 5) Click on "Add this Map Source" The next time you will login it will appear in your mobile app. Some other map links. To add them, follow the same steps as above: Google Maps: https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=r&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Satellite:https://www.google.cn/maps/vt?lyrs=s@189&gl=cn&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Satellite Hybrid:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=y&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Terrain:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=t&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} Google Roads:https://mt1.google.com/vt/lyrs=h&x={x}&y={y}&z={z} ESRI Sattelite Imagery:https://server.arcgisonline.com/ArcGIS/rest/services/World_Imagery/MapServer/tile/{z}/{y}/{x} Open Topo Maps: https://a.tile.opentopomap.org/{Z}/{X}/{Y}.png Others can be found here: Folder: / (arcgisonline.com) 15 Free Satellite Imagery Data Sources - GIS Geography

Finding our way in the desert probably was never easier than it is today. All of us have a phone with GPS signal and with a simple click on Google Maps we can see where we exactly are in the desert. In below topic we will compare some of the most known GPS applications and devices. Of course there are probably hundreds of apps on the market, but we will focus on the apps often used by off-roaders and particularly in this part of the world (Middle East). It is important to divide GPS apps into different uses, based on the type of off-roader you are. 1. Record the track you have done with the club. Can be done with most GPS apps free of cost (GaiaGPS, Gurumaps, Alltrails, etc..). In the free apps you might be restricted to Topo maps only, not satellite imagery. Offline download of the maps will not be possible. 2. Find tracks uploaded by others and follow them. Once you have some off-road experience and you recorded some tracks, it might be interesting to find trails that others have posted or uploaded. The community approach of Wikiloc, Trailforks, or Alltrails is perfect for this. 3. Create your own maps, routes. This part is more for people who lead drives or want to create their own overlanding routes. It will be important to have access to good map layers like satellite imagery or topographic maps, or POI (points of interest) so you can trace a route of where you are planning to go. This kind of planning will need to be done on a laptop or computer. You can use Caltopo, GaiaGPS, or even Basecamp. Advantage of Basecamp is it's a standalone windows program that does not need an internet connection. Disadvantage is the limited amount of maps you can use (satellite imagery only possible if you have a Garmin device with Birdview license). I personally prefer Caltopo as my planning program and then export to my mobile app. Google Maps (Phone and Website) While Google Maps is good for basic use, it lacks recording possibilities, so it does not provide an option to record your tracks and re-visit them for later use. You can add some waypoints and save them in the application, but as most of this requires a data or wifi connection to work properly, Google Maps is not ideal for navigating in the desert. It allows for downloading some offline maps, but even this is a temporary function (30 days from what i could remember). The positive points of Google Maps are the fantastic satellite imagery, and the POI (points of interest) which allows you to find nearby gas stations, lodging, etc.. and also provides the well-known turn-to-turn guidance. I think most of us use Google Maps or Waze for daily navigation in the city and we cannot miss it anymore. Garmin GPS devices (standalone - Desktop Functionality through Garmin BaseCamp. Even before Google Maps arrived, Garmin was the king of GPS and navigation devices but has lost lots of market share with the advent of phones and apps. For that reason, they jumped into the world of fitness apps and smart fitness watches. Devices like the Garmin 276C, launched in 2004, are legendary for all kinds of offroad navigation (marine, aviation, 4x4), allowing overlanders to store thousands of tracks and waypoints, and the 276C was known for being big but super reliable. In 2016 Garmin relaunched a facelift model called the 276cx, but in the meantime there were other models like the Montana series, or the Overlander model that offered similar features but now included touch screen features, while the 276cx remained a push button model. Of course it depends on the type of use, as bikers and boats might prefer the simple push buttons over a touch screen that will act up when it gets wet. The main advantages of dedicated GPS devices like Garmin are the screen quality (much less glare), reliability, and in most cases also accuracy is slightly better than a phone. Furthermore, it allows you to keep your phone for other purposes like preserving your battery in case you need to take calls. Their devices can take a serious beating, are often waterproof, and remain the preferred choice for hikers and adventurers that don't want to rely on a flimsy phone. The Garmin devices are also still popular with people who go overlanding across different countries, as all the maps are stored in the memory so there is no need for a data connection. Rather than buying the maps from Garmin, most people head over to Opentopomap or Openstreetmaps to download free and regularly updated Topo and DEM maps. (Digital Elevation Terrain Model - offering shaded relief). Tip: The Shaded Relief layer functionality is brilliant to find the bigger dunes and bowls They also offer satellite imagery by means of the Birdview satellite Subscription which used to be quite expensive, but seems to be released now as a free option. At least on my devices it shows as "valid until 2038". Birdview is not as crisp as Google Maps but is definitely not bad. The main disadvantage is the user interfacing and complexity of use. Garmin devices mostly have an older classic style of user interface (except for maybe the overlander model), while apps on phones became much easier to use. Secondly, Garmin really struggles to club together the different devices over the years into a centralized platform. Sure, you can connect your device with a cable to Garmin Basecamp on your laptop and this works fine, but wireless transfer of a GPX track to your phone works via the apps Garmin Explore or Garmin Connect, depending on which model. And on some older models like the 276cx you can use the Connect app, but you cannot export the track to GPX into your phone. All of this is for novice users a steep learning curve, and on top of that the devices are not cheap. If you like to venture into different countries and you want to have a dedicated device that contains all your maps and waypoints, then Garmin could still be a good fit. But as you will see further below in the phone apps, there are similar options. (keeping a dedicated phone that has an app with offline maps downloaded onto them). Garmin Basecamp desktop software, however old it is, remains a fantastic piece of kit for planning trips. What might be confusing to new users is the different ways of how Garmin considers tracks or routes or activities. Creating a route will put marker flags along the way so you cannot consider this is being an actual track. You can however convert a route into a track to overcome the limitations of a route. An activity is a recording that was made, like a hike, or an offroad drive. All in all Garmins is quite confusing in this aspect in comparison with the GPS apps. Gaia GPS (Phone and Website) GaiaGPS is an app that runs on your iphone or Android, and has been the market leader for offroad navigation via apps. There are plenty of Youtube videos that explains the functionality, and most of us in the club are using it. I found it by coincidence in 2019 and was then still using MotionX, that got discontinued eventually so if shifted entirely to GaiaGPS. Pros: - Fantastic amount and quality of built-in maps. For example, the one called "Sattelite with labels" which enables you to find trails (dotted lines). This alone has helped me tremendously to create routes for longer drives (scenic / overlanding). You can also add custom maps like Google Hybrid, Terrain, or Maps by having a look in my above post "Gaia GPS for beginners". - Great user interface, easy to learn. - Planning a route via the website works great, with snap-on routing that works flawlessly. - Offline download of your maps on your phone. - All tracks and waypoints are saved and synced across your devices and your account in the cloud. - You can enable a layer called "Public Tracks" which allows you to see tracks uploaded by other users. Great function to find new tracks ! Cons: - Number of updates over the last year has reduced the reliability. A few times i was automatically logged out of my account on my standalone phone without any reason. This is unacceptable when being somewhere in a remote place. - Syncing is sometimes slow and buggy. - Folder and organizing of tracks is not great. It's also quite slow to manage hundreds of tracks and thousands of waypoints via the website interface. A standalone desktop program would be fantastic and probably much faster. - Price has been steadily increasing over the years since Outside+ has taken over the ownership. - Route planning for draft or different projects is difficult. Sometimes i like to create a complete route with different waypoints where i don't want to keep this for later use. With GaiaGPS you are essentially always working within the same map (unlike Caltopo). Caltopo (Phone and Website) CalTopo - A Backcountry Mapping and Navigation Essential I found Caltopo as there has been a lot of discussion in the Gaiagps and Reddit forums of several users (hikers and offroaders) that moved over to Caltopo. I decided in 2022 to give it a try and it became my main app to plan routes (via the website). The main reason is that it allows you to work on different maps. So for example when i want to create an overlanding route through UAE, i can create a map called "UAE" and put all my routing and waypoint in there. I save it as a separate project and that way it does not clog up my other maps. Quite differently from Gaiagps but i really like this functionality. Secondly, the website works super fast ( no java-style like Gaia website), and it allows for quickly deleting tracks or waypoints without running through different web pages. I all looks a bit more dated but you get speed in return It also allows to create custom map layers, for example you can use the Google Sattelite image with a different layer. Currently i have a layer of ESRI sattelite footage with an overlay of Google Maps. It also offers a fantastic Shaded Relief layer, like described in Garmin above as well. The mobile app however is not yet where it should be in my opinion. It works less intuitively in comparison with GaiaGPS. Icons are smaller, and even though there are similarities, GaiaGPS offers a better user interfacing in general. The general consensus with many hikers and offroaders is that they use Caltopo website for planning their trips, and then import it in Gaiagps mobile app while on the hike/road. I do this as well quite often. There are different subscription levels, but most go for the Pro version which goes for around 50USD per year (similar cost to Gaiagps). If you are a plot surveyor or professional hiker, then the most premium (100USD per year) will offer you a standalone desktop version with more complicated custom functionalities. One disadvantage i found is that due to copyrights, the mobile app allows for offline maps downloading, but only a selected few maps can be actually downloaded. This is a bit of a turnoff if you are planning to use it often abroad when you have no data. You can however download the sattelite imagery, but this one lacks the "labels" which Gaiagps offers in their "Sattelite with labels". Guru Maps (Phone) Guru Maps - OpenStreetMap Wiki After testing so many apps, i personally find GuruMaps as good or even better than GaiaGPS. What i personally like most is the smooth flowing map when you are driving. While other apps have a kind of a stutter effect whenever the maps is shifting, Gurumaps doesn't have this issue. Unfortunately there is no website, so you will need to do your routeplanning on Caltopo or GaiaGPS and then export your route into Gurumaps. The interface is very user friendly and simple. Within minutes i found myself using the maps without having to scratch my head on where i could start recording or browse through my collection. The tracks you record can have a multicolor scheme based on speed or elevation. This is a very nice feature. For 22.5USD per year this works great for novice users. Disadvantage is the limitations in offline maps: it does not allow you to download imagery, only street and topo maps. This is a big disadvantage in my opinion, but probably explains the lower subscription cost. With Guru Maps Pro you can however import custom maps in MBtiles format. I've been experimenting with QGIS desktop software and now i am running GuruMaps with a Google Hybrid imagery offline downloaded layer! All Trails (Phone and Website) Alltrails is available for 36USD per year and offers a very user-friendly interface. It offers a view into nearby hikes or trails posted by others, so it has a bigger social functionality. I have not used the website and route creation function yet, but i think Alltrails is definitely a good option to consider using. It also allows for offline map downloading, and plenty of people in our club use it as well for the ease of use. To me, the website looks similar to Wikiloc, which allows you to find uploaded trails done by others. It does however not offer route-planning. Wikiloc (Phone and Website) The main focus of Wikiloc is finding trails posted by others (via the website), and by using the mobile app you can follow those same trails. Perfect for hiking. Outside+, the company that owns GaiaGPS offers something similar with Trailforks App. For off-roaders it can be used as well but lacks many functionalities. In my opinion it's a great platform to share your tracks on or download some interesting tracks that others have posted. That is the only functionality i am currently using it for. BackTrackMaps (Phone and Website) Backtrack: Maps for Backcountry Adventures. Very interesting desktop functionality when it comes to planning routes, and very similar to GaiaGPS. Also free to use for most of its functionality (30USD/YEAR for the PRO version) and even includes Mapbox Sattelite Imagery. Unfortunately, the mobile app only allows for "backtracking" your planned gpx routes, and does not allow recording your actual track. If this feature would be there, it would take a lot of Gaiagps customers away 2025 Update: Backtrackmaps has included Recording functionality.

Morning, I did email yesterday but not sure if anyone saw the email as these comment boxes weren't working on my phone. I won't be able to make it this morning. Apologies!