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Post Drive Report My lasting memory of today's drive will be the comment that the sand is like melting butter. Soft? Despite the chunky tires on my car, a couple of seconds after driving through, the sand had no tracks. Covering a distance from Faqa to Last Exit, we started with some techincal dunes and found, unfortunately, the recent rains had led to a lot of vegetation sprouting in many of the bowls that would have been play areas. so we searched and climbed and drove and searched again. I am always amazed at how the dunes change and shift over time. We forget that they are living, moving, growing and evolving and it's only when you have not been there for some time that you start to see the impact of these changes over time. The play areas marked on my navigation were no longer the same grandiose exciting swooping bowls, the smooth long range dunes undulate with unexpected gulleys and bumps, the bowls still beckon but super straight sides and soft sand start to put them a little out of reach. Nonetheless, we drove and drove and drove. Generally I regard radio silence as a good thing. By that metric, today was a good day. Everyone engrossed in the drive, for some enjoying a more relaxed morning for others focusing on the drive. With so few stops and stucks we just kept moving. Nothing daunted the drivers, nothing dented the enthususiasm, nothing diverted the fun. The new tires - honestly, we are not yet fully familiar. Most people know that I was until recently driving a completely stock vehicle on 18" rims and HT tires. My decision to 'upgrade' was because it got increasingly challenging to push the car with the limitation of this set up. Keep in mind that's not a recommendation to upgrade - I have led close to 100 drives if you include Carnity convoys and Masterclasses with the old set up, become a Marshal and successfully led at all levels. My decision comes AFTER understanding both mine and the car's capabilities to the full. Unquestionably I feel the grip on the sand from the AT tires. That's a big change. Where I am still finding my feet and feeling like a newbie is on approaching and coming off ridges because I am not used to how this new capability feels. Another drive or two and I am sure it will feel as normal as every day and I am already seeing a big difference on the stability and ability in ridge riding. So, if you're at all interested, in knowing about this, I will post more updates as the weeks go by. For the people that want to know, I moved to 17"rims with 285/70/17 AT tires. I've also nothing at all against the 'standard' choice Carnity tire, the Geolandar G015 ... except for the price. My new tires are Rydanz Raptor09 and the price difference per tire was more than AED200 lower. We will see in the longer term if that 'saving' was indeed a saving. Massive thanks to @Tbone for all the support and recoveries (as much as there were), @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, excellent in sweep and @Pacific with the excellent 2nd lead. ANd finally, the end of the drive was quite special. I know we have a club drive next weekend, but to find three convoys all arrive at LE at the same time and see faces I have not seen in a while (and find @Jeepie waiting as well) was the perfect end to the drive. Thanks to all. See you soon in the sand.

Dear Desertnauts, as you may have seen, the meeting and deflation point has been added to the drive's post. It's https://maps.app.goo.gl/uL39XkdFUb2rGHMX6 which is in Faqa town, next to one of the mosques, just past Faqa's Police Station. From here we'll move into Dubai's side of Faqa, with the following convoy order: @Thomas Varghese in Second Lead @Sunil Mathew in position #3 @Ashok chaturvedi at #4 @JeromeFJ will be #5 @Looper #6 @GauravSoni will be Center Forward @Matt.T will drive as #8 @Arman at #9 @Lawrence_Chehimi in place #10 @Ranjan Das as #11 @Russ in place #12, and finally @marks will Sweep the convoy. Our communication will be tuned into Carnity Channel #1 (446.006). The meeting time will be 6:00AM, with the plan to leave ASAP, considering that first light will break at 5:43, and the sun will rise, behind us, at 6:04. See you all tomorrow. Enjoy your Friday evening.

@Gaurav Thanks for the excellent drive. New experience. Here some actions. I'll upload all pictures soon. Hope everyone enjoyed the rest of the drive.

Awesome dude...really nice clicks How you got the timing just perfect on this one is freaking awesome ...thanks

Another great day in Abu Dhabi! Thanks to @ShereenMK @Josh T. @Warren Flay for their excellent performance and @Brette @Shaaz Sha for their winged support! We found tall dunes to practice hill climbing skills, had chat about tricks to keep optimum pace, to find right track to attack and to make safe turns from the top as well as the nature of forces impacting all such movements. Other than these, we made our regular fewbie class surfing, ridge riding, criss-crossing and numerous side sloping on the long dunes of Nahel. Last part was a bit tricky, as we found a long fence right on our route which is not shown on the maps. We turned around it but this made us a bit delayed. Due to overtime, we had to skip the last cluster of tall dunes just before the exit, hankered after though. But sure we will mess with those for the next time anyway! 💪 Our AD brothers, @Josh T. and @ShereenMK were very calm with their heavy dudes underneath, they found it a piece of cake to pass through the sand waves while @Warren Flay was flying with his super ant just behind them. @Shaaz Sha , the man of the high dunes, shared us his hill climb shows by keeping his wheels right at the top. Appreciated for your contribution buddy! Special thanks to marshall @Brette for joining us today; he monitored the convoy from the back and kept us safe. In the meantime, your GC is still in shape 😎 See you next time friends!

I've uploded mine to this folder (as even JPEGs are 18mb each) https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1bSXtr6h9nSiz4T8rL6KfoHDZnL4sxiBy?usp=sharing Guys, if you can upload the pictures of mine into this folder I would appreciate it (it has only 4 gb of space or so, so we can't use it for all pictures). Or just share your folders!

Here you guys, Some of the successful photos that I took in the link below Thanks again Gaurav! Hope you like your pics! https://we.tl/t-LeGXOaHCTc

Hello all! Thanks to everyone for making this morning super fun! @GauravI'll upload my favourites to the directory For anyone that wants to sift through my shots from today, there is about 60 to download below (click the link) Download Link: https://we.tl/t-hZ2QsMYWib (They are very friendly JPEGs for Mobile and Web use, all 60 equate to about 55mb) Look forward to seeing the rest of everyones photos, super jealous of you guys with the long lenses from what I can already see they look wicked!!

Thanks everyone for making it today, willingly or by mistake Let's just upload the best of the best shots in the gallery and then we can exchange those best shots hi-res jpeg on email or private folder links.

@Ilyasuper photos...well done...cool job today guys...I will share my photos later today.

@Ilya this is pretty cool...will download my collection in sometime and will share ..

Hello guys, thank you all for a wonderful day. we were all set by 6 to start and thanks @Mehmet Volga for the selection of area and superb lead. we had many virgin dunes to play and enjoyed it to the max..Thanks to @Brettefor the marshal support and for all the tips and tricks and for sweeping us all safely out. @ShereenMK, @Josh T.and @Warren Flay. you guys were all amazing today and it was fun being with you guys. Thank you everyone and hope to join you guys soon .

Really enjoyed that drive this morning , thank you @Wrangeld. Lovely to meet some new people too. @Archibald Jurdilove the TJ awesome car , and that self recovery you did in that little bowl was awesome. @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil your driving has come on 10 fold and your position in sweep was amazing and your driving very calm and composed. Pleasure to see ! thanks everyone enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Have a look at below article: For off-road recovery, look for a kinetic recovery rope, made from nylon. The AOR ones are quite popular and available in ACE and Speedex for around 400dhs.

Much better than the last sideways profile shot by @Niki

We met a soul, scaling the dunes in search of his mobile phone...:) Thanks @Gaurav for all the fun...

Thanks a lot @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @GauravSoni for an amazing drive today. I can't wait to be back in UAE in November to join more drives, and continue to improve my skills.

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, The day started at Mahafiz in a beautiful dawn with the skyline of Fossil Rock over the horizon: All convoy members made it to the meeting point quite early, so we would have been ready to move quite soon hadn't it been for the missing flag mount on @Manish Kashyap's Raptor, which required a bit of engineering effort to figure out a way to fix the flag with tie straps and gorilla tape, as I really didn't like the idea of sending Manish back at his very first drive just because of a missing flag. As soon as this artwork was completed with the help @GauravSoni we were ready to go trhough our briefing and eventually hit the sand by 6:30am. The first bit of the drive was quiet and easy, across the bushy and innocuous dunes of Mahafiz, until we reached the first play area were we could practice a few rounds of sidesloping: As we proceeded further east, we approached several other bowls where we indulged in more half-moon climbs, until I got crested in a moment of distraction trying to figure out the best way forward. On the last of these play areas @Ferl Brown's XTerra remained stuck on a slope and had to be winched down. Probably due to the high inclination and an excessive quantity of fluid in the circuit, the coolant of his engine had been overflowing and therefore spilling out, so once on the flat ground, we took a break to check that there were no leakages and that there was enough coolant to proceed the drive. After a good 30' break, we were able to move again and we quickly made our way to the glorious Long Dune. There we practiced as many half moon climbs as we could possibly think of, as can be seen from our track: As we moved further east, we eventually reached the pylon track on the west side of Fossil Rock and the new fence around the Natural Reserve there. Once on the south side of the fenced area, we had a chance to give a last glance to Fossil Rock, with the company of some very scenic camels: We then headed south, aiming at the evocative Camel Rock, where we stopped for a good convoy photograph: We then moved again, driving by the Sphynx and then entering Faya area: As we moved south, the sand got more and more soft and churned up, with tons of tracks from other convoys, which made our life way more difficult than expected. The convoy, however, was excellent, so we kept marching on with very few refusals and stucks along the way. Faya is a fantastic place, with higher and higher dunes that our Newbie convoy successfully climbed all the way to the south side, where @Prakash Anoop got crested at the edge of a nasty bowl, which required some shoveling and some maneuvering to get out of.. Eventually we made it to the famous Faya climb, which was as badly full of tracks and bumpy as I had never seen it, to the extent that none of us could make it to the top, so after a couple of attempts, we eventually made our way out to the tarmac on the Mahafiz - Kalba Road by 10:15. The convoy was excellent today: @Joji varghese was an excellent second lead, always careful and responsive to my instructions. Kudos! @Manish Kashyap was undoubtedly the star of the day: on his 1st Newbie Drive after the Absolute Newbie one, he found himself on the heights of Faya and made it through them like a pro in his blue Raptor. Well done for your 1st drive! Just remember to follow convoy discipline and stand still when the convoy halts for a stuck/refusal and to never overtake the car in front. @Waqar Sarwar is gaining confidence at every drive and did very well today in a challenging terrain like Faya with his Wrangler. Still some temptations to fight gravity here and there, but definitely a grest performance today. @Prakash AnoopAnoop had his 5 minutes of celebrity in that final bowl, when reversing out, but all is well what ends well. For the rest, some refusals today were totally part of the game, and they only demonstrate that you were pushing yourself to the best of your current capabilities. Keep up the good work! @Ferl Brown certainly won't need the gym today after performing an endless left & right steering recovery attempt when stuck on a side slope. Luckily your coolant issues were just an overflow, and I'm glad you could complete the drive, as otherwise you would have missed the best part of it! @Mohammed Mansoor is also showing great progress at every drive. Less fishtailing, less fighting gravity, better distancing. Keep it up, as you are doing great. @kiranshinde is coming to terms with his Y62. As with Mohammed, controlling fishtailing will be your most important achievement, as it is also the biggest challenge with your back heavy vehicle. For the rest, the car has tons of power, you just have to learn being less shy on the throttle! Well done today, it wasn't an easy one. @eldose baby pushed his Lexus where probably 95% of these luxury cars never get, and did it very well and effectively, with few hesitations only on churned up sand. @Raman_Dbx, quiet but sure at the back, came through everything that was thrown at him today, while still finding the time to enjoy the newly discovered landscape. @Rsjiv Samuel was an excellent Sweep at the back, always responsive on the radio, and never hesitant along the way, even when having to face incredibly churned up sand. Great job! We overall drove for 41.3km at an average moving speed of 15.3km/h, stopped for 1h 6' out of 3h 49' of total time spent from tarmac to tarmac. Great distance and pace for a Newbie Drive. Last but not least, a great thank you to @GauravSoni, on his 100th drive with @Carnity in just 365 days. Invaluable support as Center Forward, all over the place helping everyone, giving clear and effective instructions and meaningful insights during the drive. Fantastic! See you soon again in the sand!

@Ilya Awesome clicks . I think our first attempt is really successful 🤩

@Larry Cadden there is a last minute drop out, let me know if u can make it for the drive this afternoon.

Hi @Gaurav and everyone attending this drive - the tips @samamara shared are spot on, perhaps the only couple of things I can advise are to keep an eye with the sand on your lenses and camera. It will be a fun drive, hope it gets a 2nd part and I will try to attend! Have fun and stay safe in the sand!

@Foxtrot Oscar yup I’ll be in Dubai from morning and will join your afternoon drive 👍🏻 Thank you

All images are uploaded to the gallery. Finally, I have used 65 out of 1380 images clicked. Thanks, @Frederic for all the motivation and knowledge to push me to use Manual mode. Thanks, @samamara and @Mario Cornejo for sound advice, I have tried a few experiments and am kind of satisfied (not fully, though). I still feel we need a lot more time, patience, colder weather (a bit more) to try different experiments. I shot many on Manual mode today and from time to time switch to Auto as I was afraid to use manual - all the way, as I'm still learning and practicing. Also learned a lot from the off-road point, that is what really makes the perfect splash. Overall, I am happy with the first Passion Play experiment and with the results, I'm sure we will get progressively better and more structured as we go along. Thanks to everyone for joining it and making it possible today, really appreciate the great teamwork, cooperation and support.

Good evening fellow adventurers, I hope you are all ready for tomorrow's adventure in the sand. With the temperatures cooling it should make for a pleasant enough afternoon. My proposed convoy is below. We shall use channel 3 (three) - -Meet at 1500hrs - - Radio Channel 3 (three) 446.056- - Driver Car Rank Position Angela @Foxtrot Oscar Black Xterra Marshal Lead @Wade Pat2 Black LC Fewbie 2nd @Goh KP Prado Newbie 3rd @Gertjan Prado Newbie 4th @Brendan White Xterra Newbie 1st 5th @Niki FJ Advisor CF @Mohammed Mansoor Patrol Newbie 7th @Alexanderrr LWB Pajero Newbie 8th @salah2u Y62 Newbie 9th @AlexM Rubicon Newbie 10th @Daniel Rodas Pajero Fewbie 11th @luis mantecon Jeep Fewbie 12th @Zed LC Fewbie+ 13th @Pacific Jeep IM Sweep See you all tomorrow

Check Amazon for the “Artan” brand Shackles. Lot cheaper than the AOR ones. A snatch block you mean ? That’s only being used in winch recovery in very rare cases. I have one and never used it.

Wow….what a drive today…most challenging drive for me and most enjoyable. Thnx @Lorenzo Candelpergher @Gaurav Soni @Rsjiv Samuel and whole team.

DRIVE REPORT On my way to the meeting point this morning, i had @Sudhanva Sonawane with his nice Montero Sport already in my pursuit, and hence making him the second lead today was the obvious choice I was delighted to see you all joining us with enthusiasm, and perhaps a bit of apprehension or fear of what's about to come, but soon we were heading into the dunes and all of you really impressed me this morning and we tackled whatever was ahead of us with bravoure and style ! @Sudhanva Sonawane you did great as my second lead. On the next drives you can reduce the distance between the cars a tiny bit to make sure you can always see my exact tracks. Excellent job ! @Shyam Menon with the beautiful Wrangler has already many skills as a photographer (we have a Lens Lovers Club and do regular drives with the intention of making photos, so keep an eye out for these events as well). You drove fantastic today and i will be delighted to see your co-pilot joining us soon as well! @Hitham mohamed was unknown on my list in the morning, which we quickly sorted. It was really nice meeting you and your son and it really shows you have experience in the desert. Well done ! @Maria Rodas was driving under the watchful eye of her passenger @Daniel Rodas , and at one point he whispered to me that he has serious competition now, and i have to agree ! You drove really great today ! You had the most difficult 4x4 of the convoy as with the Pajero you'll need to push the throttle a bit more in comparison with the other more powerful cars. But your steering control was perfect and you always kept a cool head and a smile and that's what really matters. As i mentioned we really emphasize on teamwork and i have to thanks @Jeepie massively for the support she gave me today. It's always a pleasure to have you with us, snapping shots, tugging cars, and congratulating our guys and gals on their achievements. Moving forward you all will be joining the Newbie drives and not an Absolute Newbie drive. Drives are announced every Sunday at 11 am, and they go live on Sunday at 7:00 pm. Due to the high demand, these drives get full in about 10 minutes, so please be online at 7 pm to book your spot. If you miss a spot, put your name on the waitlist asap. Generally, by Thursday with dropouts everyone does get a spot if they have waitlisted. For the next drives, please bring along a deflator, pressure gauge, flag, compressor, and radio as a minimum. Learn to deflate your tires and checking them precisely (14psi for highway tyres, 11-12psi for All Terrain Tyres) Learn to fix a flag on your car Learn to program and fully charge your radio Also you can join the Carnity Whatsapp Drive Notification to get the latest updates on the drives, so that you can RSVP on time for the next weekend's drive. Please have a look at below topic which describes the tools needed for every level. There is a separate tutorial inside which explains which radio we recommend and how to program them: (Please do not buy the screenless spare radio we gave you, as these cannot be programmed without a special cable and software). Please have a look at below grading structure that explains various off-road levels: See you all soon again in the sand !

Thank you @Islam Soliman, @Davie Chase, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ and all other team members who joined today’s wonderful trip for your guidance, support and patience. I reached home safely and doing good @Islam Soliman It was a great pleasure to drive with you. Today I have learned a lot by doing mistakes. Thank you for correcting me and guide me. Through out the trip you helped me a lot to recover from many stucks. I am extremely thankful for the recovery of my vehicle when it faces some issues @Davie Chase I know my vehicle burned your hand. Sorry for that. Your technical knowledge and guidance is awesome. Thank you for your support and guidance through out the trip and especially at the end of the trip. @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ What I am thinking without you and your support still I will be in the desert😁. You are today’s gadget person. What all tools required everything will be there with you . Thank you for taking care of me till last even after prayers. and all the members, Thank you for your support and patience. It was really nice to have a trip with you all. My car is in workshop now. Definitely I will be back with more energy and enthusiasm 👍

thanks @Wrangeldand the support team for this lovely morning. always a pleasure seeing old faces and meeting new ones. it was a challenging yet a fun first FB+ drive. looking forward to many more. sorry Vinod @Tbonei made you use your recovery gear at this nasty hill today 😀.

Thanks a lot for the wonderful drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @GauravSoni

Great adventure today guys really enjoyed it and more importantly great company too. @Islam Soliman thankyou for leading another superb adventure, this was more than a drive lol. we had some great learning opportunities with some very interesting and challenging stucks... appreciate you and @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQguidance, mentoring and assistance. was great to get to see a pop off tire and how to recover from that situation. All in in a great learning experience today @Joseph Raju hope you got home safely and there is not too much wrong with your car just the wiring loom issue i hope. was great to meet you and the rest of the convoyees@Max Beloenko @salah2u and @Felix Obst stay safe and look forward to more adventures in the sun and sand with you all Davie C

Thanks so much for the drive this morning! Really enjoyed it, thanks for being so helpful with refusals and overheating…

@Anvar Sadath Bekal @Ashy @Naim Aoun @Fabien Monleau @Pierre de Maigret @Desert Dweller @S Jacob @Bernard Kalaani @Aisha S @Zixuan Huang - Charlie Hello Everybody, My apologies for sending the convoy list late, there has been few last minute changes to make. Actually, it might subject to more change before the drive, thank you in advance for your understanding. We will be using Radio Channel 1 ( 446006).

Congratulations @Lorenzo Candelpergher well earned promotion. The tow out of my manual JK with a completely burnt out clutch is an experience I shall never forget and an indication of your commitment to look after the drivers in your convoy. See you in the sand Marshal

Thanks @Gaurav for this excellent opportunity to make many fantastic photos. Should we just upload everithing to the directory or use any kind of ext drives? Actually I would like to get at list a few high res pict

Hello @Ale Vallecchi I am out. Had to plan something else for my Saturday since no one withdrew from this drive till now. Have tons of fun guys and see you all soon 👍👍

@Foxtrot Oscar it’s a pleasure, looking forward to Saturday PM

@Josh T. @ShereenMK @Warren Flay @Miguel Codes @Shaaz Sha @Brette Check out that convoy! Not any car is same with another. We have LC, GC, GMC, XT, Wrangler, Pajero... SWB, LWB and a truck in a single line! Also Marshal @Brette and @Shaaz Sha from advisor team as well as experienced fewbies are here! A unique opportunity to exchange experiences, tricks, hints and methods for long hill climbing in different type of vehicles. Let's use it! Here is the convoy order; We will use channel#2 on the radio. See you all in the morning!

AOR ropes are available in adventure HQ also around 420/- Aed , but the AOR soft shackles are quite pricy around 185/- a piece

Or try this ..

I know its late, but brilliant video to sum up all basic points for manual shooting in 10 minutes. Watch it with your camera in hand set to Manual mode and keep experimenting. See you tomorrow morning.

Hi @Gaurav sorry had a busy week. I will try to find my cam today as it was stored somewhere unknow by the Mrs. 😅