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Day 2 - Al Bathaa to Edge of the World (685 Km) Let's start from the beginning of tomorrow (Day 3). A 6:00 am water up in a windstorm and 14 degrees, after a full night of rain. It felt we had punished for having reached the End of the World. A Martian landscape, of a miles long sharp cliff separating the central plateau of Arabia from the lower lands expanding from here to the Red Sea. Barely 68 km west of Riyad, yet 2 hours of driving away, End of the World is reached through 30 km M on a rocky dirt track. The excruciating drive, takes a heavy toll on the back and spine, but leaves you breathless once at the top (see picture). Everything else between Al Bathaa and here is quite insignificant, except a large dune field running along the highway not far from Riyad, which would warrant more time to explore (on the next trip). The camp was set at night on track back to the tarmac intersection, yesterday above a small wadi lined up with leafy trees. Food was served and enjoyed just on time for the arrival first of an electric storm, then of the heavy rains that were the sound track of the night, until the windy dawn.

Thank you @Hisham Masaad for allowing me to lead your drive today , thoroughly enjoyed the experience and as always learnt loads. Our journey took us to pink rock which all the guys climbed extremely well and then meandered through some lovely long range dunes towards the end, finishing up with a couple of nice climbs around the large bowls at the exit Thank you @Imteeaz for the amazing support in the CF role you did fantastically well in your first drive as full support. And a big thank you to @Pacific for sweeping the convoy and support us through the couple of refusals and stucks we encountered along the way. @fayez @Parliament @Misha Puskar @Paolo Pellegrini @Mahmoud Taha @Ishak and @Gok Krish you guys drove superbly and handled everything that I threw at you with very few staucks and refusals, I hope you all enjoyed the drive as much as I did and hoe to see you all in the sand again very soon @Bashar Beasha

Thanks All for joining in for the drive and making it a fun morning on sand. It started off as a very beautiful morning with amazing weather, oryx lined up to welcome us in Faqa, all riders on time and ended up with a smile on face having successfully traversed through a beautiful terrain that offered some amazing views while regularly challenging our driving skills. The pleasant morning start, followed by hot and soft sand provided us with a good idea of what lies ahead in coming months. Thanks @Looper for this lovely route planning. Very well executed drive, it literally had it all - some steep climbs, a beautiful over landing experience through bushes and for me the most amazing part was the last one hour with all the criss crossing. 👏👏👏 Every one did really well throughout the drive. Apart from a 45 min stoppage due to tyre issue at beginning of drive, we had minor refusals and minor stucks, which were either self recovered or at most sorted with help of little shoveling. This meant that we had ample time to even practice on 1 on 1 basis - criss crossing - hope came in handy for all. Thanks @Mehmet Volga and @Looper for executing some demos on it. @Sunil Mathew day didn’t roll out positive for you, hope all went fine on your way back home after that early exit. Do share feedback on that tyre with whole convoy - always good to know what went wrong. Overall a wonderful day, thanks all for joining and looking forward to see you all sometime soon. @Juan R @premindra rajaram @george charbel @Sebb

Hi everyone! I am sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused today. I know that were some other members in the waiting list, but I want to believe that was better to leave than having a major problem in the middle of the track. I just got the car fixed with new sway bars, so I hope to join the next ride! thanks to @Gok Krish I was able to see that a bolt was missing! Take care! Xavi

Thanks @Davie Chase @Hisham Masaad. And see you all next and my pleasure for new people i saw for first time.

@Davie Chase @Hisham Masaad thank you for the drive.

Thank you @Gaurav, thank you all for an amazing day. Really enjoyed the clean shrub-frew dunes and the good flow during the drive. Have a great Sunday everyone and catch you soon.

We drove 1:49 net time. @Gaurav it perfectly chosen track, I enjoyed it a lot. The whole convoy did fantastic job and everyone drove amazingly. Especially @Felix Obst in font of me, it was a great learning for me. Thank you all of you for your company and I am looking forward to the next long weekend:)

Well that was fun! 🤩 thanks @Davie Chase and thank you all for shoveling me out, hope this counted as your Sunday workout 😄

Tnq @Gaurav had a wonderful time driving the big sand dunes .... espicially the whole convoy in sync for the crossing loops...where one had to wait till the front car had to cross the track... looking forward for more fun and learning ....

Thanks, everyone for the wonderful drive today, really got a good chance to enjoy Sweihan's pristine dunes to heart desire. Blessed with a brilliant convoy and drivers today, made all the big difference that we managed to say Hello to all possible peaks in that area. Have a nice weekend, see yall soon.

@Ale Vallecchi awesome achieve and well deserved. Congratulations!

And I thought it’s the eye of Sauron 😂 (very interesting - thanks for sharing)

Congrats! I will always remember my first drive with you! I had a passenger with me and every time we meet we are talking about the only man (probably from fiorentina) on earth for who can change the rules of physics. It was so inspiring to see you driving! Well deserved and looking forward to another drive! enjoy your Saudi trip!!!

Congratulations on your promotion, @Ale VallecchiYou have always been an inspiration to me when it comes to off-roading, and you were instrumental in helping me comprehend it as well.

Congrats and well-done Ale @Ale Vallecchi . Always a fan of your free-flowing style....👏👏👏

Congratulations @Ale Vallecchi .

Congratulations @Ale Vallecchi well deserved for your support of all us! Thank you for it.

Congratulations @Ale Vallecchi you deserve this new title.