Leaderboard

Dear friends I believe the journey never ends somewhere but it takes another level form. I loved the world of sand since I was the age of my 5 year old little one but I never had the chance to encounter it , explore it and knowing it the way I do right now. Knowledge is never absolute however it gives us a step to climb further and when we look down we realise how humble and down to earth we are. Honestly , from day one crash I knew this moment might come and I never took a rush, to the contrary I enjoyed every bit of it and here we go another door opens for a greater responsibility to bear and more passion to take safely. I hope I will do my best and not let anyone down . I owe you Guys more than a word of thank you for all the inspiration, support and encouragement toward this masterpiece art so I can still share it , learn it further and teach it when and wherever I can . Sincerely thank you @Carnity crews and legends , marshals and advisory board and all the support team and fellow drivers. Mohamed

Thank you so much @Islam Soliman as our marshal for this nice drive, everyone arrived on time so we started in cool weather which all of us enjoyed. Part of learning we got some refusals and one pop-out , the best point was when you gave us an option that who want to learn "how to fix pop-out (he can try) this was the most impressive movement which I hope everyone agree with me.👍 Appreciate the support and help given by @Darren Brooke as SL @Abdul Rahman AK as CF & @Hisham Masaad to keep eye on all of us so that everyone should stay safe and enjoy the drive. (Thank you team) In a middle of fun my little baby started crying and insisted to take early exist 😃 So thankful to entire convey for giving such kind of support that I did not felt that my car has break down even everyone stop their fun and supported me till nearest exist which shows a strong unity in Carnity family....... its a real example that shows in Carnity ....... we come together, we stay together, we exist together without leaving anyone behind 👌 (Thank you @Islam Soliman @Darren Brooke @Matt.T @Ranjan Das @JeromeFJ @Lawrence_Chehimi @Abdul Rahman AK @Russ @Hisham Masaad) Also would like to thanks Mr. @Gaurav (our legend) for creating such a great team/marshals who always keep us safe and take care of us so that we all feel as one family. @Matt.T@Ranjan Das @JeromeFJ After 45 minutes workout at exist point I fixed rear noise and transmission successfully and then I was ready to join back in convey but thinking about safety I decided that only one car is not safe to drive inside sand. YES now all set to join in next drive .... InshaAllah See you all in upcoming Saturday Take Care ... Stay Safe

Great drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher finally after my 3rd attempt at area 53 i finally completed a drive and I may be addicted to these dunes 😍. Great job everyone very well driven the only time we really were stopped for a while was when @Abu Muhammad got crested and when the convoy split up other than that everything was so smooth i could have went on for hours. Thank you to everyone that supported @Hisham Masaad @Shaz Shah @Alexander Alcala @Javier Lucero awesome job! See you all in the next area 53 drive 😂

I wanted to say thank you for this drive. It was a really good learning experience. Today I had intermittent steering wheel shake. I had to make the garage take the tire off (they had never seen this before) and see inside. Found about a kilo of sand!

Ohh boy that is ain’t spaghetti, it’s different kind of pasta, elegantly done on the Italian way my friend .. truth is I like pasta 😎

Congratulazioni @Shaaz Sha. Very well done!! Looking forward to driving with you, and to receiving your valuable contributions to the Club's activities. You are and will be a precious presence for all of us. Enjoy the new rank.

Fantastic drive, thank you very much for that @Lorenzo Candelpergher, we have really enjoyed the "Lorenzo" drive. I think drives should be given leads names instead of levels. By all means, yesterday drive was "Lorenzo Drive". Many thanks for convoy joined and each member, who did vey well. @Alexander Alcala @Shaz Shahand @Javier Lucero thank you for the support. Glad to meet @Abu Muhammad @Shehab Alawadhi @Gok Krish @Mario Cornejo @Goutam @Rizwanm2 @varunmehndiratta @Dodi Syahdar. Happy to meet you @Ahab Shamaa, and thanks for having a midium-costly meeting...... just depending on the cost of what we discussed 😂 , BTW dont forget to send me the link 😉

When I wrote "we literally climbed whatever could be climbed in every way possible" I meant this 😂😂😂...

Congratulations @Alfred Alinazar for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. FEWBIE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Basic side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

@Abdul Hanaan as Ale advised there is a button to disable the side airbags, see page 21 on this owners manual for the 2013 FJ. There is no need to disable the front airbags - they are considered necessary for safety and do not trigger unless a genuine impact. PS the GCC spec FJ moved to having the side curtain airbags as optional from 2010 so if your car doesn't have this button to disable (and clearly no airbag marking on the side pillars) - you are good to go!

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Today's drive was called "The 1km ascent quest": the whole purpose of the drive was in fact to climb as frequently and as high as possible for the whole 4h of the drive with the aim of scoring the highest possible total ascent, ie the total cumulated altitude gain/loss during the drive and to exceed the ideal threshold of 1000m both ways, ie up and down. For this reason the drive was planned to move from one area of big dunes to the next one and to perform, in each area, at least 4 to 5 climbs from various sides to reach the highest elevation in the smoothest way, so that even a 14 cars convoy could make it to the top and so that, for every group of tall dunes, at least 100-150m ascent could be built up. This plan resulted in an incredibly fun, mentally and physically demanding and totally exciting drive where we literally climbed whatever could be climbed in every way possible, making it most of the time to the highest peak, pumping adrenaline for 4 hours in a raw and generating one burst after another of endorphins as we fought our way up and and dopamine as we conquered the very top with amazing views all around. If your hormones were asleep, they certainly woke up today 😂😂😂.. We started quite on time at 5:06am, in the twilight before the sunrise. After a first few minutes to warm up out tires and wake up completely, we tackled straight the big dunes at Area 53, from the north west side. A couple of refusals immediately showed that this wasn't going to be a relaxed and easy drive. After we climbed Area 53 from 3 sides, everyone had tuned to the right mindset for the drive and the fun really began. We moved progressively through 8 different areas of big dunes and every time, no matter what, we made it to the top from all sides. It was really impressive how the convoy handled the big challenges that this type of drive put in front of the drivers. Yes, we had refusals, but very few, and even less stucks, all quickly recovered, except for a nasty one with @Abu Muhammad who had to be winched out from a nasty crest. Area 53 and Al Badayer are always very busy but today we met very few convoys: this is one of the few perks of driving in the hot season (possibly the only one..😅). Nevertheless we had often to fight against churned up sand with multiple tracks from the days before, even though the strong wind of today had done a very good job at polishing most of the dunes, especially on the south west side of the track. @Javier Lucero had a very hard time as my 2nd lead but did extremely well, as today's drive was definitely a step up for him. Even if occasionally his momentum was lost, he always knew when to stop safely while I was making an attempt or having a self-recovery. Well done! @Gok Krish followed with great concentration and an excellent performance as a fairly new Intermediate driver. Today's drive for sure boosted his confidence through the roof. @Mario Cornejo finally found a terrain worth challenging his legendary car. Great performance with a few refusals and a spectacular crested stuck at the very top of Suhail dune, if I'm not wrong. The yellow Jeep Wrangler of @Goutam was never idle today and was very prompt to give it a 2nd attempt whenever the 1st one didn't go through. Today we have several interesting bowls to run around and I could definitely see him flooring the throttle to climb as high as possible to enjoy every full bowl. @Alexander Alcala, with his super upgraded Jeep Wrangler certainly found today the fun he was hoping for when he asked to join the drive, but was also a precious center forward helping the middle part of the convoy to get out of trouble and even towing me down from a crest where I had remained stuck. I couldn't see much of what happened behind but I know for sure that everyone did great. We had a couple of situations with a split convoy, which is a frequent risk in these long and high climbs when someone in the middle has a stuck or a refusal, if those in front are not prompt enough to stop. Too many tracks around make it impossible to understand where the car in front may have gone.. so convoys end up cut in two. Great job by @Rizwanm2 (more and more brave), @varunmehndiratta (I think you could do even better if you deflated more), @Ahab Shamaa (survived to yesterday's Extreme: which of the two was better?), @Shaaz Sha (glad to see your leak was sorted out or that the tape still did its work and great Center Forward today + same question as Ahab). Kudos also to the "big boys" at the back: @Dodi Syahdar (who was craving for a midweek drive while still inflating after today's), @Shehab Alawadhi (who finally completed a full drive in Area 53) and @Abu Muhammad who had the toughest task of all with his beast at the back. Last but not least, our great Sweep @Hisham Masaad, newly promoted (with @Shaaz Sha) to the Advisors Group, who did an awesome job at the back taking good care of the last part of the convoy. As time went by we started to see a few more refusals (after all it isn't easy to endure these levels of drive intensity for so long), but not a single time we had to reroute because of someone struggling. A few minutes before 9am, @Hisham Masaad announced he had lost his power steering, so we planned a our exit a few minutes earlier (we would have probably done just 15-20 mins later as our time was in any case almost over), so we headed straight towards Iftaar Bowl, which was surprisingly empty but, most notably, we climbed from the west side straight up to the top back to back one car after the other with zero hesitations: after all what we had gone trhough, Iftaar Bowl was literally a piece of cake for everyone, including @Hisham MasaadMasaad, who climbed it to the top even without power steering... We then completed the drive with a couple more climbs (we got addicted) and exited in Tawi Ghadaya by 9:15am. We drove 65.9km at an average moving speed of 19km/h. To come up with a proper analysis of our ascent / descent I had to process the track data on line with proper tools and I am glad to say we overshot our target by more than 50% as we hit almost 1600m ascent/descent (with an average climbing speed of 29km/h)!!! Congratulations to everyone for a fantastic team performance and thanks to the Seniors who supported it. See you soon in the sand again!

Congratulations @Paolo Pellegrini for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. FEWBIE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Basic side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congratulations @Abdul Rafay-S for reaching the Fewbie Level with Carnity Offroad Club. Looking forward to seeing you growing further and helping others to learn the art of offroading in a safe environment. Please make sure your Carnity user profile is always updated with all the latest Emergency contact details. P.S. Trip lead might deny your participation if you don't have required off-road gear. FEWBIE Drives Attended (Indicative) Minimum 5 Newbie drives are required within last 3 months for Fewbie promotion. What you'll learn Basic dune and sand reading Self-recovery techniques Shoveling at right place Crawling out of difficult situations Blip Blip - Coordinate steering and gas control Basic side sloping and hill climb Basic ridge riding and criss crossing Basic control over technical dunes Slightly faster pace desert driving Ability to manage stuck/refusals with radio Learn to control and avoid fishtailing Never fight or challenge gravity Skills required Enthusiastic and positive attitude Willingness to learn and help others Presence of mind and attention to detail Car Worthiness Any 4x4 vehicle with low range gearing Suitable approach and departure angle Off-road gear required Safety flag, tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, shovel, fire extinguisher, medical kit, radio (walkie-talkie), air compressor. Drive teamwork Manage second lead and sweep positions upon request Intuitive and proactive to support Trip Lead Observe recoveries and offer help, when needed Drive Joining Join Newbie and Fewbie drives Forum participation Active participation on the forum Share drive experience + feedback Share drive pictures in the gallery Post trip report after the drive

Congrats @Alfred Alinazar

Congratulations @Shaaz Sha

That's pretty common after a pop out. We do advise getting your tyres cleaned out after every pop out for this reason. Post Drive Report A drive of two halves? I think it's fair to say that we had a great start to the drive with not too many stops, but after it got dark the challenges increased and we had to deal with every softening sand and some unreliable machinery. We ended much later than planned - but that happens (unfortunately) when things start to go wrong and concentration levels drop. Was this worse than any other drive? No way. It's just the case that when things start to go wrong the problems tend to multiply. Everyone did well for a mainly newbie drive. Support from @Jeepie and @Gaurav Soni was welcome and needed.

Thank you my friend @Chaitanya D for your kind words . I wouldn’t reach up here if it wasn’t for all the support and encouragement from you and all carnity off-road club members from seniors and fellow drivers whom I always love to share with them this ever growing passion safely. 🙏

@Luc Khaldoun congratulations, Well done

Great to have you here @Shaaz Sha, for all that you bring along. Always was a pleasure to see your oman registered jeep - earlier and now a red xterra in any convoy, meaning help is on hand. Keep up the enthusiasm and positive nature, Congratulations

Indeed unforgettable drive by @Lorenzo Candelpergher Thank you as always pleasure to be part of your convoy. Thanks everyone See you soon guys on the sand.

Thank you very much for a very challenging and amazing drive lead by @Lorenzo Candelpergher and support from @Hisham Masaad@Alexander Alcala@Ahab Shamaa @Shaz Shah @Shehab Alawadhi. Please find moment of recovery from today trip.

See @Frederic …. Worth secretly purchasing and hiding from the wife (I had recommended this to Fred a short while back 😂)! I have followed this product for a short while and love the idea (previous it felt like cheating however have come to terms with going the easy route ) the observatory @Zed mentioned is the officially distributor for the product here and the owner on Instagram posts his captures from the unit often… I was super tempted also and just waiting to see if the new smaller version will be as effective (comparison is below) Meet Vespera, our newborn star Vaonis.pdf This would make our Astro nights a breeze and we could just focus on beers and bbq!!

It's a very good price for such revolutionizing product. I always wanted to buy the telescope but the one on which I can attach my SLR and always drop the idea due to it's weight, size, pricing and mobility issue. This seem to answer all in one. Even if the first version is half as good and crisp as explained in video, I'll go for it.

Congratulations !

Video is dedicated to @Lorenzo Candelpergher and the rest of all of us.....in my first few clips, I am hearing myself from the dash cam recording a few sighs after holding my own breath!! But as the drives and climbs went on, I did not hear them. Thanks guys for this wonderful display of skills, speed and entertainment.

Waitlist me please. 2nd drive

Pls wait list me - I have one more drive friday reserved

@Abdul Rafay-S Congratulations...!

@Abdul Rafay-SCongratulations!

Congratulations @Alfred Alinazar

Congratulations @Abdul Rafay-S

Congrats @Abdul Rafay-S

Congrats @Paolo Pellegrini

Interesting observation...would be good to know feedback/advice from @Lorenzo Candelpergher @Alexander Alcala...in general don't think yesterday drive tested the clearance of JL... stock wheel as a concern, would like to know how much would that have helped...

@Ale VallecchiThank you for the action-packed drive that surpassed our expectations by a mile(especially towards the end)! Looking forward to the next drive💪Thank you @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ for being a good sweeper, and for the tug🙏.

@Abdul Hannan you should indeed find a way to disable your LATERAL airbags. I had them explode on me in my early driving days, on a sharp criss-crossing, where I was too quick off the ridge, and the car's computer thought I was rolling over. FJ's have lateral airbags since 2008 (what year is your car?). There should be a button on the left side of the dash, below the wheel, next to the rearview mirror's arrows: it's labelled RSCA. That will switch off the lateral airbags. If you don't have that, you'll have to pull the fuse.

Many Congratulations @Shaaz Sha Following u.

@Shaaz Sha amazingly achievement and truly well deserved! 🍻

Thanks and would like to see you soon

Dear @Damiru Dharmadasa, @Gilbert Khalil, @Iliyas Bava, @Abdul Hannan, and @hasan hamadeh Welcome to the Carnity team of "desertnauts". From the Greek language, the word "Naut" indicates a sailor, but today is more widely referred to "a person engaged in the navigation of a vehicle". Combining that with "desert", makes you part of the large group of Desertnauts who engage in navigating the desert as a passion. This weekend's drive was one of the best "initiation" drives I have personally attended. Great display of self-control, and a perfect job at applying the newly learned skills of managing dune's crossing and riding. A few useful learning moments allowed Damiru to find out the difference between speed and momentum, Iliyas to set his Wrangler's electronics, and Abdul to find his balance and composure on the side of the slopes. We managed to push the itinerary further than intended, also thanks to @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ's support from the Sweep's position, and drove with minimum issues as far as we could. By the end of the day, from Bab al Shams to Solar Park via the northern reaches of Qudra, we covered 61.1 Km, in 3:39 hours (of which 2:30 moving), at a fast average moving speed of 24 Km/h (17 Km/h total). With this recap, you are all welcomed to join any future Newbie, and enjoy the thrill of desert off-roading. Have a great week ahead.

@Gauravcan we now have some weekly Fewbie + drives in Abu Dhabi?

I would just go to the scrap yards in Sajaa area (Sharjah), you will find 10s of shops selling used parts, I got both my front and rear bumpers from there, spent some time looking between all parts until I found a clean one that doesn't need to be repainted. As far as I remember I got the front at 150 aed and the rear around 300. I usually get any cosmetic item from these yards, for other parts I will stick with the agency. Btw if your car is till under warranty, any mechanical part will be covered by warranty. Sand managed to get behind the buttons on my steering wheel and they are getting stuck sometimes, when I took it to service I told them the same, they were very helpful and ordered a completely new steering wheel and will replace it under warranty, just waiting for it to arrive from Japan.

@Foxtrot Oscar: I love the view and the play area today. Thanks for leading us on the amazing drive. @Vanessa8580, @Veedooshee: Nice to have you both on the drive as usual. By seeing how you climb the dune, encourage me that I don't really need a beast to climb the dunes. See you later on the next drives !

Beautiful video @Mario Cornejo, it is so intense that when you start watching it, it's difficult not to continue until the end. And your crested stuck, it was really spectacular: a stuck with a view!

It was a great drive and my 1st drive and really appreciate Mohammed and Alle guidance and support. Thanks

Thank you lorenzo for fun and adrenaline filled drive... Of couese it was one of a kind drive... Hope you will do a take 2 for our dear friends who missed the opportunity 😊😊

@Lorenzo Candelpergher now I know why it’s called area 53 😄 and definitely this it was a drive that I missed . But this is life you miss one occasion only for the better one to come … so I am kindly asking you when are you planning of the next 2000 meter climb ?😊 even if I take a leave don’t wanna miss that dopamine / adrenaline action climb 🤣 cheers my friend 👍

Congrats @Shaaz Sha and good for the future rendezvous. 😇