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Update #2 Pink Rockers, @Hardik Mody @luwaimn @Kaushal Prithwani @topgear @Syed Raza Hussain @[email protected] @Gijo Javob @RAKIN KURIAKOSE @Suresh Nair @Andrei @siddharth maheshwari Unbelievably we are at the end of Tuesday. This drive will be closed by 9am Thursday and with a few people waitlisted on other drives, it is important to be sure that you are still going to attend - better pull out early and give others the chance than be a last minute cancellation. What to expect #1?: If you have never been to the Pink Rock area then be ready for the dunes to be busy. During the summer months, when Carnity was one of the only clubs driving regularly, each week, we were lucky enough to have the sand almost to ourselves. Now that the season has begun, the area is very busy. What does this mean for you? We may decide that there are just too many convoys and cross tracks for us to play on Pink Rock. What to expect #2?: There is a lot of chance to practice on dunes that are quite forgiving in this area. We will practice going up and over, round and across these dunes. For the more experienced drivers, this is the chance to perfect your technique - are you using too much power, too little, are you dirving your car or is it driving you? The the less experienced, it's time to move on from the excitement and newness of the Absolute Newbie drive to develop your skills and try something new. It might be a bit scary from time to time, it might be exciting. What ever, we will make sure that you have new challenges than you had before. What to expect #3?: You will find the drive a challenge at some point. If you are more experienced, perhaps it will feel a little more relaxed, but don't worry, we will add in some more challenging parts even for the Fewbies that are on the drive ... for a start, the expectation is that Fewbies are able to self recover. We will still be there to make sure you are safe, but might not give as much help as before! At the end of the day, the drive should be fun. And it will be - and we will make it more challenging if we see that the convoy is up for that. More to come later in the week. See you soon in the sand.

Wow looks fantastic , hope I will also get to drive this trail in the future.

Thank you so much @Ale Vallecchi and leaders for arranging such a nice off road trip, it was full on joy and new experiences.

Dear friends, @Islam Soliman, @Rizwanm2, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, @jodha singh shekhawat, @Ilya Golubinsky, @Mukundan Nair , @Craig Finlaysonand @Jeepie Thank you for signing up for this fewbie plus drive on Saturday morning. At the outset I would like to thank you for being part my first independent lead in Carnity offroad club. I assure you we will be having a lot of fun driving out there. Drive details: Location – on Al Ain road behind Skydive, we will be driving towards Margham, Lahbab and exit towards the pylon tracks which will ultimately take us back towards Al Ain road opposite Lisaili. Continue driving for about 200m once you reach the starting location shared and you will be arriving at the parking lot of Skydive where we will deflate and flag up.We will be doing a quick briefing and make the maximum out of the time in the desert driving. Climate – Expect it to be comfy, can be foggy early morning. Always better to leave a few minutes early so that you can drive safe. Sunrise around 6.17am (expected) Terrain – Small to Medium Dunes,long range, minimal plantation and bushes. Nonetheless there can be areas which will be technical needing your full attention and finesse. We will be doing more side sloping, ridge riding, criss crossing and technical areas. Technical areas are where your drive skills will be tested, as there is very little margin for error. You need to keep right distance from the car in front, right momentum and right approach. Towards the exit there are a lot of play areas with long range dunes, which of course we can enjoy as much depending on the convoy response and how early we reach there. See up close – Camel farms, Falconers, Gazelles and something which will be described on the drive! Exit – onto Al Ain road where there are gas stations at close distance, but better to inflate and drive on the highway. See you all on Saturday morning!

While offroading, we cross dunes by using different methods, based on how the dune is formed and what the drive level is. Once you have spent some time in the desert, you will slowly start to pay more attention to the dune formations and how we cross them. Once you reach Intermediate and Advance level, you'll need to start learning how to read these dunes in order to navigate and create your planned routes in the desert. As a rule of thumb, the prevailing wind in UAE is blowing from a North-Western direction to South-East direction from 10AM onwards. At night and in early morning it will be reversed and blow from the South-East to North-West. This is something you should remember and you will notice when you zoom into certain areas with your navigation app (Google Maps, Gaia, MotionX, Mytrails,...) you will notice that the wind from that side has caused the dunes to take on their shape. This is a general rule and will not always apply, as you will see that in certain areas where wind is coming from different directions, you will see for example "star" dunes appearing. There are different types of dunes which are separately described below. As you can see in below picture, a dune is formed when the prevailing wind blows on a mound of sand, where the grain will move into the wind direction and create a ridge. The sand which falls on the other side of the ridge, creates a slipface, and this sand is not compacted by the wind. This is the main reason why we generally drive on the prevailing wind side or the convex side of the dunes on the Newbie level. "A dune is a curiously dynamic creature," wrote Farouk El-Baz in National Geographic. “Once formed, a dune can grow. It can change shape and move with the wind. It can even breed new dunes. Some of these offspring may be carried on the back of the mother dune. Others are born and race downwind, outpacing their parents. [Source: Farouk El-Baz, National Geographic, February 1982] The shape of dunes is affected by things like the strength, direction and consistency of the winds; the consistency and amount of sand; the hardness of the terrain and the amount of vegetation. Below we will describe the most common dunes found in the UAE. Different Dunes Crescent or Barchan Dune This is the most common dune. It forms the shape of a crescent moon when the wind blows from one direction. We generally use the words concave and convex to describe both sides of the dune: * Concave is a shape that curves inwards. * Convex is a shape that curves outwards. Crescent-shaped mounds generally are wider than long. On the concave side you will have the slipface. These dunes form under winds that blow from one direction, and they also are known as barchans. Parabolic Dune A parabolic dune is similar in shape to a barchan, but it is just the opposite. The tips of this dune point into the wind, and its main body migrates with the wind, forming a depression between the tips. Because of this formation, parabolic dunes are also known as blowout dunes. These dunes often occur when vegetation stabilizes sediments and a U-shaped blowout forms between clumps of plants. Example of Parabolic dunes near Faya: https://goo.gl/maps/ob8xu3y8VJJvF6hk8 Longitudinal or "Seif" Dunes They are also often referred to to as "sand ridges" or "seifs". Their length can range from a few meters to many kilometers and their height from a couple meters high to a couple hundred meters high. Wind pushes the sand and forms ridges parallel to the prevailing wind direction with slip faces either side of the crest. Linear dunes are straight or slightly sinuous sand ridges typically much longer than they are wide. They may be more than 160 kilometers long. Linear dunes may occur as isolated ridges, but they generally form sets of parallel ridges separated by miles of sand, gravel, or rocky interdune corridors. Some linear dunes merge to form Y-shaped compound dunes. Many form in bidirectional wind regimes. The long axes of these dunes extend in the resultant direction of sand movement. Barchanoid Dunes These ridges are similar to Barchan dunes. They are connected in long crescentic waves as the sand supply is much greater than that which forms a Barchan Dune. Star Dunes These dunes are formed when there are several prevailing wind directions - there is a complex wind regime. Typically there are three or more slip faces, whilst the dunes do not migrate they grow in height. Star dunes are radially-symmetrical, spyramidal sand mounds with slipfaces on three or more arms that radiate from the high center of the mound. They are created when the winds blow equally from every direction, causing the sand dune to grow many extensions and resemble a star. They are rare and are fairly stable and remain in the same place. Some are landmarks with names. Example of a Star dune: https://goo.gl/maps/jRnYghQc8ACzVz6T7 With this knowledge, the next time you step into the desert, you can start looking at the different dune formations, and this will give you lots of knowledge that you'll be able to apply in the future when leading and navigating off-road drives.

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 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, offroading, 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 sattelite maps, but will not allow to use them offline. The PREMIUM membership is recommended for around 3.3 USD per month. 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. Sattelite Images Having crisp detail in the sattelite 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 do not 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 to 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 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}

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST Two Way Radio Guidelines Every Off-roader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic. We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving. Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops... No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it. Drive Details Level: Intermediate and above When: 17 October 2020, Saturday Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) ACTION PLAN: A faster paced drive, from Pink Rock to Big Red and beyond, into the kingdom of bowl riding Meeting Point: 2 December Cafeteria https://maps.app.goo.gl/E3cQ1iFYLPkmytnV9 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 10:30 AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. WE WILL END THE DRIVE AT A POINT WHICH IS NOT CLOSE TO AN AIR LINE. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPRESSOR, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE. IF YOU ARRIVE AND HAVE NO COMPRESSOR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 Intermediate and above drivers. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - 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 BELOW CALENDAR

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST Two Way Radio Guidelines Every Off-roader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic. We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving. Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops... No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it. Drive Details Level: Fewbie plus and Above (Fewbie members signing up need to have completed at least 5 Fewbie drives). When: 17 October 2020, Saturday. Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Action Plan: We will drive through a stretch of desert unusually visited by offroaders, where we will practice and improvise on controlled driving over technical dunes, side sloping, ridge riding and crossing (low to medium dunes), at a reasonable pace. Meeting Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/ZmTBPqSLqiX3nHKL8 Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 8-10 inches of ground clearance. What to bring along: Loads of water, snacks (for yourself), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 10:00 AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. WE WILL STARTING AND ENDING THE DRIVE AT THE SAME POINT, WHICH IS NOT CLOSE TO AN AIR LINE. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPRESSOR, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE. IF YOU ARRIVE AND HAVE NO COMPRESSOR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 Fewbie and above drivers. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list. Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - 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. Restricted to Fewbie with 5 or more drives at Fewbie level. If you have not done the required number at fewbie level then do not RSVP on this drive. PLEASE RSVP ON THE BELOW CALENDAR

The 2008 Pajeros are pretty reliable and if well maintained can go on for another long while. Most important things to look for is the maintenance schedule, suspension, bushings, condition of tyres. Make sure the drive belt was replaced in time, and the fluids such as transmission oil were done during the regular interval.

Thanks @Ale Vallecchi!

My friend who Recently saved this Jeep Grand Cherokee has now put it up for sale. He has plans on investing this money towards his next project to save another classic which would else be scrapped. Recently major service for including spark plugs, filters, oil change, belts, suspension bushes done .... 236k kms but quite reasonable for the age of car. Looking for an owner who is passionate about Jeeps as WJ's are meant to last if well taken care. Recently vehicle was registered, sale does not include the number plate as its special to him. AC has been serviced fully as well with new condenser. Price is kept low for avoiding extreme bargains Customer is a king and Kings dont bargain. Price is AD 10200 only . You can call Mohit or message him on +971 58 287 6375.

Ciao Lorenzo. Surely it will be great to have some drone action!! Just wandering if it would be best to anticipate the meeting time to 5:30 (or 5:45), so that we can be moving at 6:00 sharp, and gain some time to reach Badayer earlier (and find a bit firmer sand). What type of action you have in mind? Also check if Badayer itself is also green zone (on the other side of the highway, past Big Red).

Hello @Ahab Shamaa. I am adding you to the WL, at the moment of my reply you are #2. Thanks a lot Hello @Bhaskar. At the moment you are #3 in the WL. Thanks

I saw it when I was checking Pajero models. I thought I should share it with you

@Sreejith Sreenivasanthanks for keeping us posted in advance. @Pancho you are first on the waitlist. Please confirm availability and you will then be added.

Ciao @Ale Vallecchi, Pink Rock and Al Badayer are all within GCAA Green Zone, so no flight restrictions for hobbyist drones. What about a 30' extra session for the Drone Challenge if everyone agrees to stretch the drive a bit?

4WD vs AWD and 2WD

I cant open the link, but seeing the url saying Pajero Evolution then I'll be your best friend, whenever I visit my brother in London. On a serious note, these exotic will be super expensive to buy and maintain and plus with regular usage it will cost 5-10 times on maintenance than any other choices.

Dear Desertnauts. A few tidbits to wet your appetite before this Saturday's Intermediate drive. We are looking to execute a fast paced drive, starting from 2 December Cafeteria, climbing one side of Pink Rock, to circle it and dive into the red sand plateau that separates it from Big Red, and Badayer's entry point. In fact, the plan is to extend the drive to Badayer's pyramid dunes, skipping from one to the next, across the technical areas that separate each group, until it's time to head back to Badayer Shops. Even though this area's most famous attractions are Iftar Bowl and Super Bowl, we'll focus on some of the other, un-named, pyramids, to the west of our entry point, looking to enjoy surfing in and out of them, up and down their tall slopes. @Najeeb Mohammed, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Rinelle Sanaani, @Jun Zamora, @Yousef Alimadadi and @Mehmet Volga, be concentrated, be motivated, be ready to have some good fun, riding as a single unit on this red sand playground. More news will follow on Friday. In the meantime, enjoy your week.

I am Srijith Gangadharan, registered for the al Khatim newbie drive on 16th oct 2020. Had few drives with oasis and other groups. Have a Pajero 2011 and necessary Offroad kits like inflator, flag, radio etc.

Current Waitlist as of 12Oct 3PM: 1) Melenany 2) Ranjan Das 3) Bhaskar 4) Topgear 5) Probir Mukherjee

Waitlist: @Pancho @Francois Germishuys @Jihad Hachem

Dear Desertnauts, time to provide some information about this coming Friday's Newbie drive. While most drives in Qudra start near Qudra Lakes or from Solar Park, we have chosen to start from an alternative point, along the road to Bab al Shams. This is the western quadrant of the Qudra area, which is characterized by long sets of open white sand dunes, sometimes separated from each other by small technical areas (where the dunes are lower but closer, and call for a more careful navigation and a more controlled style of driving). The area is also still a part of the Al Marmoon Conservation Area, so it will present the opportunity to drive by a few feeding and watering stations for gazelles and oryxes, which we hope to be able to see along our route. Part of the drive will take place in areas with quite an abundant low, bushy vegetation, while we may will also encounter some solitary thorny trees, both near the start and toward our exit point. The skills we will be able to practice will be straight crossing of dunes and controlled side-sloping, all at a leisurely pace. We will take some time during the drive to give a technical briefing on some of these skills, and more. It would be best to be carrying a compressor, to re-inflate at the end of the drive, as the nearest gas station (Adnoc at Qudra Parking) has a very weak and slow compressor, and is usually taken by storm by all unequipped off-roaders. @Sandeep Padhi, @Yasas Dharmadasa, @Lukas Lewis, @Yusuf Esaf, @Archibald Jurdi, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Karthik Krishnakumar, @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan, @Shital Somaiya, @Athula Dharmadada, @Ranjan Das and @Vijaysekhar, Welcome to the drive. I will provide more information before the drive itself. In the meantime, enjoy the week.

@sertac, Please remove me from waiting list as I got slot in another drive. Thanks

Please add me to waiting list, thank you

Hi @Pancho I have added you to the drive, you were the first in the waitlist @Mukundan Nair you are now the first in the waitlist. @Nacho you are number 2

Pink Rockers, @Hardik Mody @luwaimn @Kaushal Prithwani @topgear @Syed Raza Hussain @[email protected] @Gijo Javob @RAKIN KURIAKOSE @Suresh Nair @Andrei @siddharth maheshwari Congratulations. You successfully signed up on the Sunday evening rush to secure your place on Friday's Pink Rock drive. Pink Rock is a great newbie terrain with low wide dunes in the lead up to more challenging pyramid dunes close to the base of the rock. The sand color is also red/pink which makes picking out the route when following the convoy a little easier than around Qudra, where the glare from the sand early in the morning sometimes makes for more difficult driving. What to expect on a Pink Rock drive? The plan is to challenge you with a lot of practice of driving up and over dunes, to start drivnig along the side of the dunes (and slipping) to find our way through taking the higest point in the dunes to cross from one range to the next. Depending on convoy performance we will push the pace and push the complexity, but newbie is all about learning and relearning the skills to take you further and further into the desert. Myself and @Lorenzo Candelpergher who will be supporting the drive look forward to seeing you all bright and early on Friday. THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR RADIO PREPROGRAMMED. YOU WILL NEED TO HAVE A COMPRESSOR, FLAG AND RADIO TO BE PART OF THE DRIVE. More to come during the week. Have a Happy Monday. See you soon in the sand.

Thx @Sertac. As I found a spot on F+ drive I’d like to leave my spot here to next WL.. thx again and see u soon

I removed you @Dagdag Sofiane as per your request. As first one on the line @Islam Soliman added to the drive. Currently @Christian Andras no 1 on wait list, @siddharth maheshwari 2 and @Kailas 3.

please add me to waiting list

Please add me to the waiting list.

Pls add me to waiting list.

pls add me to waiting list

Thank you @Srikumar for posting the drive and allowing me to lead. Everyone reached on time except @Arda Yagcioglu he was delayed at Abu Dhabi boarder checkpost for some reason. After quick breafing we decided to drive around the meeting point until he arrives. We were expecting him after 1hour but he joined us is 30mins. I thank everyone who joined the drive @Martin. @Arda Yagcioglu@Bhaskar @Xavier Treasurer @Goutam @Mikhail Lukichevall of you performed well with few refusals and two stucks at the end of the drive it was a amazing experience for me to lead a newbie drive in sweihan. See you all next time.

This used to be my favourite story to tell in pre-Covid times. I'm sure many of you are interested but many are too shy to ask and some can't find the words or think it's inappropriate to question on that. It's not so bad a question and it's all about friends making new friends and passing on the skills we acquired in over a decade of off roading each. Thanks to Dr @Chaitanya D for asking and @Desert Dweller reminiscing those good old pre-Covid days. @Gaurav bhai is my senior and has been in the desert for maybe 14 years if I'm not mistaken. I just completed 12 years in the wilderness. For @Gaurav bhai he caught up with life and some difficult decisions trying to nurture Carnity since 2010. While I continued to learn where he left off. At one point he supported me in my initiatives and events and started coming back to off-road regularly. He hadn't lost what he had learned since we learned things the hard way. @Carnity started up thanks to his Mitsubishi Pajero which he never gave up on. In 2010 if you googled up your car issues we would just see websites from either USA or South Africa or Australia. Another thing was the Pajero never made it to USA and was known as Shogun or Montero in other places. The biggest concern was these other model specs would be built slightly differently not allowing us to understand or work on our own cars. @Carnity became the first website to share information on GCC spec cars, proudly it is the only one to date in the Middle East. Back in late 2016 when I got really interested and started sharing information about my cars and checking regularly for updates and advise for my Nissan Pathfinder R50, I saw some interest in members for off-roading. I asked @Gaurav bhai if we could start an off-road club to which he was not sure. But after several discussions and couple of months of heated arguments we came to an agreement. @Gaurav bhai proposed I post 3 drives at different locations and he would support me. If we had interested members coming out to drive we would form our club or I would never mention it again. Agreement made. Our first official drive was on 27 Jan 2017. @Srikumar was on that fist drive and never look back. This and all 3 drives went full and soon we had enthusiasts and that's how the @Carnity off-road came to existence. Initially it was all about creating awareness about the different aspects of off-roading and passing on the skills and the art to fellow off-roaders. But the only constant thing in life is change. Thanks to @Gaurav bhai who thought we needed to put the structure into words. Although it might seem that I am a man of many words, but putting the technical details to words is what @Gaurav bhai did best. Revising the structure and improving with every drive became our passion. The newly joined off-roaders seeing things from a different angle became our strength. I'm very pleased to be coming close to 500 members in the club and how each one of you have contributed and made the @Carnity off-road club a success story. Each member brings their own flavour with their experience, culture and point of view as we have over 40 nationalities coming out every week to help us grow this common passion for this ever growing sport of off-roading. We have been through many hardships and difficult decisions. But together we are proud to make the decisions best for everyone's well being. One such challenge was Covid19 which we are still all trying to deal with on a daily basis in all aspects of our lives. We at @Carnity made a decision to be the first club to introduce drives with the Covid19 restrictions in place. Our community who understands and stands by our decisions are our strength to continue doing so in the toughest of times. Love our community and love each and everyone of the members striving to wake up at 3 am for drives posted at 5 am. For taking pics and videos and sharing it on @Carnity and their social media channels and making @Carnity popular among family and friends. My sincere thanks to all of you who read it through. It's your efforts that makes us stand out among a sea of clubs.

Thank you @topgear. We might be young as a club, but we have over 26 years of experience if you take only @Gaurav bhai and myself. We used our experience to mold this club to a community who cares about each other. When we start doing things right the right people with our mindset started joining in and we are now close to 500 strong. I must praise @Gaurav bhai a lot for his patience to understand the need for a structure and almost single handedly putting it in place. @Srikumar to be among the first to join us and moulded himself to an amazing individual we are all proud of. @Asif Hussain who learned a lot from us, but opened our mind to possibilities we could not have imagined. @Emmanuel for bring his amazing flavour to the community with endless questions. This enabled us to answer questions and realize where we need to plug the gaps. On the way brilliant people like @Frederic, @Ale Vallecchi, @Wrangeld, @Jeepie, @Brette, @sertac, @Shamil, @Desert Dweller, @Foxtrot Oscar, @Vanessa8580 and the likes kept joining in and making this journey absolutely worth it. Surely there are many more names that will get added to this list as we grow at an exceptional rate. We continue to look forward to remarkable individuals to learn from us and keep Carnity at the number 1 position it has achieved. My sincere thanks and gratitude to all who make our community the best one in the Middle East.

I am very surprised that the off-roading club/drives started fairly recently in 2017. With all the structures, team members etc that I see today, I thought the club has been around for much longer. Very impressed with all the hard and good work that you guys did throughout the span of 3 years + and continuing.

Thank you @Rahimdad for this wonderful thread and I felt proud while reading the words you wrote about how the story begun exactly the same fire of passion growing with each single drive I have done so far. I have seen Liwa dunes Up to Ghaiathi in the heart of the empty quarter when I was at age of 10 or younger when I my dad used to take us by his land cruiser ( his nature of work let him drive ) ... I realize Carnity has relighted the fire of passion of the desert in me and more than that all the help and support from the very beginning from @Gaurav and off course my colleague and friend @Chaitanya D . at times of crises ( Covid 19 ) we stand still at home, at work , and yet behind the steering wheels Navigating the desert that we all love , with all the precautions on ! cheers 🚙❤️🌷

This is the only club started by 2 friends. But all like minded friends joined in making the journey more pleasant for all who want to continue as part of this community.

Absolutely Fantastic efforts put together by @Frederic, this is real gold mine for many offroaders here. Especially to our new leaders in making, please invest some time and get familiar with this app, as MotionX (my fav) is slowly fading off and on the verge of getting discontinued. @sertac @Chaitanya D @Kalahari @Tbone @Brette @Vanessa8580 start using this app and start getting familiar, as from second leaders lead drive you will be required to do planning and leading with navigation app or stand alone satnav (if you prefer). Feel free to post your questions here, so that everyone can learn together.

@Frederic Your hard work as always been much appreciated. I purchased the app but for some reason they charged me 34.99GBP. I am still getting used to it and so far so good.

Thank you so much @Frederic for these important informative guidelines. Hopefully see you soon.

@Biju Abdul we do brief everyone say for example before going for side slopping and the drive lead is the first one to show and demonstrate how it's done even before any one else is allowed. Before Covid19 we even used to encourage drivers to join the senior members while doing it or the seniors could join the newer member while they performed these manoeuvres to give them confidence. As these are high risk manoeuvres it's not possible to talk on radio while performing them as full attention is required along with both hands on steering wheel.

Hi @Brette, I won't be able to make it to this drive. I withdrew my RSVP.

Hello Sertac, Apparently i m on managing the event could you please delete my participation? Thank you