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Thank you @Gaurav Soni for the exciting drive. Today’s had many firsts - Gaurav’s first IM drive as lead, Daniel’s first IM and for me and Gautam, twin winch recovery! @Chinthaka Ruwan - hope your ride is fine and gets sorted easily and in quick time. @Daniel Rodas, @Tom B and @Simon Dawood - an absolute pleasure meeting and knowing you gentlemen. @Chris Wing and @Looper enjoyed the company as always. wish you all a wonderful weekend ahead

Drive report: With a pleasant weather around 5 am, the convoy was set to move at 5.20 after a quick briefing. we made our way through some smaller dunes heading straight to the fence on the opposite side of badayer entry.. the convoy response was amazing and we reached in 11 mins flat out! we used the dirt track to skip the technical patch and headed for our 1st dune…the sunrise over the vast dunes and the Al faya mountain was breathtaking. Following a quick break we made our way south side zig zagging through slip faces, ridge riding the edges and navigating the soft patches to Reach the highest points on each large dune. The convoy drive exceptionally well to cover 60% of the planned route within the first hour! we made our way to the iftaar bowl, (didn’t realize it until we were on top) and looped back to the starting point. At this time, @Chinthaka Ruwan X started showing signs of overheating with temp touching 105 on the dashboard (it was around 8 am) . @Chaitanya D @Shaaz Sha can weigh in if this is normal. Shortly after , we had our first pop out with @Simon Dawood as he followed me on a slip face climb on a ridge. it took some time to get the tyre seated back. Excellent work by @Chris Wing to fix the pop out! The traffic in the the area has already increased with multiple convoys playing around. We waited for a clear path ahead and made our way to last dune near the exit. With 5 cars making way to last view point, we had a stuck situation with the X. Three cars exited and rest stayed back to get the car our. it required two jeeps winch out the Car from a soft patch uphill. Just as we thought the car was out and the ropes back in, the X would simple refuse to move and dig in again. @Chinthaka Ruwan please get your car checked throughly especially the transmission. we had to give multiple tugs, to get the car finally out of the bowl. brilliant teamwork from @Chris Wing @Ranjan Das @Looper. we made our way to the exit , going around the dune using the flattest path available. (Black - planned, purple - actual) congratulations @Daniel Rodas for your first IM drive. You did amazingly well to drive after a break! Some refusals are ok as long as you learnt something new! thanks @Simon Dawood for a flawless 2nd lead! You did well to reroute and follow the instructions perfectly! @Tom B I could hear your beast roaring all the way in the front!! M sure u had a blast! Your driving improved a lot with less stress on the car after your nice ‘mid drive chat with @Looper. well driven @Chinthaka Ruwan with a car that probably needs a visit to the workshop.. hope it’s not a serious issue. superb support and excellently driven at the back by @Looper @Chris Wing and @Ranjan Das. Having your company @Ranjan Das @Looper makes the drive a lot more enjoyable! we missed you @Thomas Varghese we covered 9/7 dunes planned!!! well done everyone!! hope to see you all soon.

@Hisham Masaad Thank you for a fantastic start to the weekend! mahfiz, in my top favs! @Amr Aydin Brilliant SL and was good to see you again @Mohamad Anwer in an imp position🤘🏽 @Waqas Parvez Looking forward to your (Insta 360 ?) captures! Good to see rest of all members too again! Have a good weekend and see you all sooon again:)

Updated convoy list Sam K @Sam K Jonny90. @Jonny90 JERINE_B. @JERINE_B TT_Dubai. @TT_Dubai Alfred Alinazar. @Alfred Alinazar Senthil Kumar. @Senthil Kumar topgear. @topgear Pieter Potgieter. @Pieter Potgieter Amr Aydin. @Amr Aydin Charlie. @Zixuan Huang - Charlie

Like a fresh university entrant, who's been away from it for some time, I've been auditing Newbie drives over the past couple of weekends. Where last weekend was a double feature in the sands of Sharjah, this weekend too came in twos - except that it was the pleasure of joining @Ale Vallecchi on two extreme ends of the spectrum. Having averaged 27km/hr this morning vs. the 28.1 km/hr in the IM drive, I think the Newbies showed us up. And with good reason. With fresh knowledge from the master himself, the drivers today could see exactly what practicing theory looks like. Therefore, a return to the classroom - in the field - with Ale, as a cool breeze wafted through Al Qudra this morning was the perfect pick-me-up after he had washed us through almost 90 kms last evening. I came away from today, with a lot of my fundamental knowledge bolstered through affirmation and new information that had previously been more hand-me-down than academic. So many drivers just jump into the seat and get driving, but it is only when you truly break apart the individual physical forces, the effect of the prevailing winds, the context of where you are, only then do you realize that there's more science to this than just pushing a pedal and swinging a wheel. Thank you Ale, for firstly just taking the immense amount of time that you do to host these drives, but then to also leave us at the end, enriched by it all. This morning, we also had the extended honour of @Brette joining our convoy. Having driven with him last weekend, and seeing him again this morning, I recognize now why he's the gatekeeper for Newbies. Cool as a cucumber and a calming force in the convoy, he immediately helps take away any of the nervousness that you are bound to face when you're just starting out. Where last week he was far up ahead in the distance finding fresh tracks, sitting a few cars behind him today meant I also got to see his lines. They mirror his personality. Soft, confident, and collected. For my cross-crested situation, he was on the radio in a heartbeat, having given me the adequate amount of time to do a self-recovery. And as soon as my hand went up, he was there, lining up to pull me out. Sweeping in the back gives you plenty of time to contemplate about life. Up front, the elasticity of the convoy feels almost electric as it heaves and thrills. And where the marshal defines where to go by seeking fresh sands, the sweep sees the wake of what this herd is leaving behind. This is a unique opportunity, and one I enjoy in great detail. It also enables me to live out that naughty side of me that I couldn't muster to showcase in a strictly academic environment. Here, in the back, I'm up to my monkey business. If there's anywhere where the academic importance of the concepts of "momentum" were felt the most, it was in the bottom end of the convoy. With the day coming upon us, the sand began to lose any remaining moisture, and softened up even further under the blending motion of the wheels running through it. This practical experience of how much power is enough power was an excellent lesson for the drivers in the back. @Azam V2.0 and @Nitin Mohan both had to deal with their share of losing steam - either due to hesitation or simply not choosing a cleaner line. Neither of you should feel anything about this. This is completely natural, and every driver has been through it. As you get more adept with your machine, you'll find where those limits really are. Currently, your mind is imposing even bigger limits. In most cases, as you gents did, reversing and trying again is the best solution. I would only advise that unlike tarmac, where you will get instant grip and traction, increase the length of your run-ups. After backing down, give yourself an additional 10m to 20m if it's available to you. It will make all the difference in carrying more rolling momentum as you ascend. @Jad Moussalli, after the last weekend where newbies were limited from climbing higher due to safety, sitting behind you and seeing the lines you were choosing was a nice comforting place for me to be in. In most cases you had enough momentum, and even if you didn't you reversed and gave it another shot. This is good presence of mind. You're going to be scaling through these next drives quite quickly. For the gents in the back, and up front, the only lesson I can implore you to practice more and more in your subsequent drives is to get comfortable riding the ridge. Regardless of the steep drops on either side, the day you crack riding the ridge, with just enough power to gently coast through, it will become the most pleasurable experience of your drive. And it will make criss-crossing even more fun. You should feel completely levelled out at the top of the ridge. If you're leaning in either direction by more than 5 degrees, you should be preparing to exit out or quickly levelling yourself up. Once again, thank you @Ale Vallecchi for correcting some of the incorrect notions I've been carrying with me with that informative classroom session. For the rest, thank you for a wonderful day out. See you all out in the sands again soon [ 🐵 ]

@Hisham Masaad as always another great unforgettable adveture with you, thank you so much for the incredible drive, which was a journey full of exciting challanges from Mahafiz to Alfaya, and what an ending on the lovely Al Faya big dune dunes!! Thank you @Amr Aydinfor an amazing SL drive with great control and @Waqas Parvez ,my great partner, for your support and fun company, loved the videos taken by you, thank you so much! Thank you to the rest of the team for your excellent drive and for making life easy for us with the minor self recovered refusals and a popup that was sorted out very quickly. Looking forward to seeing you all again in the future. However, it was so sad to see a new fence being erected along the Al Faya bowl, which means further restrictions are coming up around that magical area 😢 😕

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi, @Brette and @munkybizness for this great drive. I learned a lot today. Will upload few pictures in the gallery. Cheers

Thank you @Hisham Masaad for the amazing drive and the great lead, was waiting for a long time to be driving with you and and this drive did not disappoint me at all Thank you @Mohamad Anwer and @Waqas Parvez for your support as CF and SW and for the encouragement/the information and advice for everyone during the drive. All the team, thank you for the teamwork, the effort, and the fun and hope to meet you all soon on the sand. @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler, I hope your passenger is feeling well and all good, we definitely missed you in the last bit with all the nice climbs which I know you would love to go for. On another note, I was disappointed with the amount of litter that we passed by during our drive and this is something to remind us all on how important to take our waste out after a drive or camping. Thank you all and see you soon.

Awesome drive today @Sunny84, enjoyed driving behind you. 😀

PDU ( Pre Drive Update ) Dear Friends Sam K @Sam K Jonny90. @Jonny90 JERINE_B. @JERINE_B TT_Dubai. @TT_Dubai Alfred Alinazar. @Alfred Alinazar Senthil Kumar. @Senthil Kumar Quresh Pajero. @Quresh Pajero topgear. @topgear Pieter Potgieter. @Pieter Potgieter Amr Aydin. @Amr Aydin Thank you all for RSVPing to the drive . It’s expected to be about 28 degrees Celsius at 5 am and will be rising up to 37 degrees by 9 am . So please be on time 05:00 or bit earlier the better. once you arrive to the meeting point please immediately switch on your radio to frequency channel 2 ( 44603125 ) then start deflating to 12 PSI regardless of your tyres type or weight of you car. Erect your flags after which will have the radio check and brief together . @Zixuan Huang - Charlie and my self will check all cars . All recoveries will be strictly done by either one or both . Any help needed will be asked for so make sure your shovels are on stand by 😅 during the drive we will check all of us the tyre pressure at least once as needed and will be announced. in case of any emergency please don’t hesitate to reach me on 0554045278 Please find the convoy list below See you all tomorrow morning inshallah Seidam

Thanks @GauravSonifor an exhilarating drive, one that I did not experience in many a days for now. Loved the seven dunes that we climbed and then some more. If not for the pop out and breakdown we had an excellent time to show for how fast paced the drive was. But then pop outs and breakdowns are common occurrences in our hobby so there’s no qualms about them. Today’s drive was an excellent demonstration of “Pajero Power” with @Simon Dawood as a excellent 2nd lead and @Daniel Rodas on his first intermediate drive keep up pace with you onto every sand mountain you chose to climb. @Tom B was pushing hard in the first half of the drive, with uneven pace so I fell back a little, but by the second half I could see he was settled with a predictable pace, and certainly he enjoyed his drive. @Chinthaka Ruwan hope your ride is back to being fit once again and see you soon. Towards the back @Chris Wing and @Ranjan Das were quite a help with the support and hope to see you guys doing a lot more in the near future.

I have been stalking Zad's Instagram for a while, he's building lc1000 out of lc100😂

Dear @DP1011 , Deepak wrangler @Brett Eicher @george charbel @Thomas Varghese Tomorrow we are blessed with a short convoy which is a great recipe for a fun and playful drive .. I wouldn’t really call it a NB drive so let’s see how far can we push the bar.. my expectation is already hitting the roof 😇 Pre-drive details below: Please be on time and bring all your passion for off-roading and pull as much as you can of yourself out of bed.. trust me you will need all of it. Be at the meeting point by 5:00am (or before) and start deflating your tires to 14psi (front) and 13psi (rear) Please ensure your programable radio is on, fully charged and set to Channel 1 (446,006) Briefing will be done on on the sand before we start moving Please ensure everything in the car is tied down and there are no moving objects Please check all car fluids, tow hooks, and ensure no hanging parts below the chassis. please ensure you come with a full tank (as much as possible) in addition to all necessary gear for this drive level specially your tire deflator, pressure gauge and a compressor, safety flag and radio. (NO FLAG or RADIO = NO DRIVE) MeetingPoint: LisailiFort https://goo.gl/maps/ZikRWU1YYas968yT9 Convoy Order will be communicated during the briefing see u all shining tomorrow on the sand 🤩

it was perfect choice of the area today morning. I have learn good lesson what to do & not ?. Keep learning more. Thanks to @Ale Vallecchi,@Brette,@Maynak. Always good to learn in ur umbrella @Brette. have a great weekend and see you the next weekend again.

My dear friends! The adrenaline rush is still on. I felt like going to the Top Gun academy with the captain @GauravSoni"Maverick". This is literaly a flight school now 🤣, I did fly few times... 😎 Thanks for the great drive and memories. See you on the sand soon.

@Ale Vallecchi it was perfect choice of the area today morning. @Brette so happy i was able to follow you. All guys, it was amazing experience today, we had an opportunity to learn so much today. I was enjoying today morning a lot.. have a great weekend and see you the next weekend again.

Totally agree about the waist, and I really appreciate the Carnity members knowing that they don't litter like some others

I hope everyone made it safely to the exit and the recovery wasn't too troublesome. @GauravSoni absolutely incredible drive today. I felt on the limit at points! @Looper thanks for the support and sorry for burying you in sand at some points due to my over zealous use of the throttle! Will continue to work on that. @Daniel Rodasand @Simon Dawood, was fun following you guys and seeing you launch your Pajero's off various dunes! See you all soon.

@Imteeaz Only one person was happy with this 10min break, My co-passenger😂😂 https://www.instagram.com/reel/Cep7G5yByPW/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Dear Sand Sailors With around 30 hours to drive, i am looking forward to see you all there in Sweihan, so are all the angry birds in the area full of poultry farms. Convoy order is as below. Please ensure to be there latest by 5am. Myself, Varun will be leading the drive in grey wrangler. Followed by @Mus_hus78 as second lead in his awesome Pajero. @takeshi sobue on his first FB drive will be next (no. 3) in FJ. At number 4 will be @Indra Ozola in her Ram. @Ashok chaturvedi in his FJ will be at number 5. Then we will have two Prados with @Shahid Mehmood at 6 and @Imran Kashif at no. 7. At number 8 we will have our next Int driver @Zed in Patrol No 9 will be @Pascal in 4runner. . And @Srikumar with his Jeep will be sweeping the convoy. Thanks all, ensure you are well rested and have all the requisite gear ready. We will be using Channel 1 on our radios. Cheers

Thank you all for joining the drive today. Shall we call it a drive ? Maybe it was rather a workout. Once the briefing done, and the few pre-drive adjustments cleared, we hit the technical dunes immediately after the Lisaili Fort, and then it was only sand and dunes. That’s the purpose of course but today, it was really one dune after the other, in a continuous way, crossing this portion of desert, so close from the city, but so remote once you have entered. And I must say, you have been amazing, keeping your concentration, focused on the tracks of the car in front of you. The terrain was far from easy, into these medium size dunes, these crests and sharp ridges, with these soft patches and pockets, as many traps to avoid, and to remind us that driving in the desert is not about pushing the gas pedal (ok, we like it also), but maintaining your momentum and the balance of your car, and choosing the best line to cross this dune, and the next one, and so on…until we reached the mosque of Murqab. We had two difficult recoveries, @Jessica Lambert stuck in a simple way, but just on top of a steep pocket, and @Dr Tanveer Ahmed stuck sideways, with a steep angle. It could have happen to any of us. Both of them were cleared with shovelling at the right place, and self recovery of the drivers. Myself I got stuck on a flat area, literally sinking into a soft pocket. @Beide Worku could pull me out effortlessly. @Andrew McCarthy thank you very much for the 2nd lead. You were fully aware, anticipating my moves, and holding or rerouting when required @Suresh K your SWB Pajero was at ease today in this environment. You improved a lot since our first drives together. @Joseph Sebastian, very well managed with your SWB Jeep. It was you first Fewbie drive, but nobody could tell. Your experience is there and you were navigating effortlessly through the dunes @Jessica Lambert you did not feel the power limitation of your car today, and you managed very well. You few stucks were more related to the convoy movements and are not questioning your driving skills @Dr Tanveer Ahmed it was a pleasure to meet you in these leisure circumstances (yes, he is my dentist), I was feeling more comfortable in the sand than on the seat in your practice! It was not easy to take the LX in this environment and you did very well @Gurcharan Mehtano issue at all, the LC is calling for more open spaces, but you managed very well @Sudhanva Sonawane your experience is clearly showing, very well driven @Gerrit Bus very well driven also. The Gladiator may be a bit long in this technical environment, but it was not a problem for you @Beide Worku, a big thank you for the reliable sweep and the assistance in the recoveries. Nothing could stop the F150 today ! see you soon in a next drive

Hi @varunmehndiratta thanks for arranging the convoy; the LC is still in garage tho, so i'll be with the Y62 Patrol, need to test its new high-clearance bumpers & skid plates anyways 😂 No worries if u need to re-arrange, i can be center or sweeper with the big car 😅