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Garangao Drive Common across the GCC, Garangao has been celebrated in the region for decades. Although known as Garangao in Qatar and Bahrain, it’s also referred to as Haq al Laylah (Due of Night) or Haq Allah (God’s Due) in the UAE, Al Garangashooh or Al Tolbah (The Request) in Oman, and Laylat Garga’an in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. It is held on the night of mid-Ramadan where children come out in groups and are delighted to visit the houses where adults are waiting to receive them with sweets, coins or paper money and nuts and contribute to put a smile on the faces of children. We propose to get to get together by the end of the afternoon, go into the desert with a very short drive (15 min max) to find a nice spot, watch sunset, take our time for Iftar (approx 1h 30m) and watch the moon rise, and then continue with an easy drive (approx 1h 30m) with the light of the full moon. The drive is open to Newbies with minimum 1 drive and all the above levels. Families are welcomed, children also, as long as they have proper seat and seat belts for their age. Donation I know you have a lot of solicitations at this time of the year, but if you want to take this opportunity to donate in favor of People affected by War in Gaza, you can do it here with Emirates Red Crescent Tarahum — For Gaza https://www.emiratesrc.ae/gaza/Default_en.aspx We request every member who joins this drive to go through the information below and strictly follow these guidelines, etiquette, and responsibilities. MUST READ AND COMPLY Environmental Policy Offroad Flag Guideline Two Way Radio Guideline Off road Driving Etiquette's Emergency details for all off-roaders Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities Drive Details Level: Newbie with minimum 1 drive and above (all levels) When: 24 March 2024, Sunday Meeting time: 5:20 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/26LiMnfDyBXW2FXZ6 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), smiles, face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 9:30 PM P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: This drive is limited to 15 cars only. RSVP will close on Saturday - 6 PM. If the RSVP is full, you can add your name to the waitlist, once anyone drops, you will be moved to the RSVP list. RSVP will close a day prior to preparing a convoy 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 below calendar

I have been wanting to update this post for ever; but had been having a writer's block. Anyways I am just posting this for now and I will correct / update it later. I have been experimenting with various visualizations and editing methods. I have done something different in every video I have produced. I think I need to settle down with one way of doing it, but still, I am leaning. The main software I use: Insta 360 Studio, Final Cut Pro X (FCPX), Telemetry Overlay and sometimes CapCut for captions. FCPX and Telemetry Overlay are paid software. One can substitute FCPX with Da Vinci Resolve which is free. There’s ton of tutorials in YouTube for all the main editing software (including Adobe Premier) The three most common workflows I use are: 1. Do the framing in Insta 360 Studio App, and just add titles, intro/outro etc. in Final Cut Pro. Sometimes I have directly uploaded the video output from Insta360 Studio app without any processing in FCPX. 2. Export 4 to 8 different views from Insta 360 studio and then mix them in FCPX using Angles. This allow me to edit to the tunes of the music I use plus gives the impression of having 4-8 cameras being used to record the action. 3. Export 360 video and then Do the framing in FCPX. Da Vinci Resolve is a better software to reframe in the editing software than FCPX because, when one pan/tilts the angle FCPX only allows linear movement, but Da Vinci Resolve lets you control the speed (like in Insta 360 Studio). In the first two cases one can overlay telemetry either in Insta360 Studio or produce overlay in external app and layer it in FCPX. I use Telemetry Overlay app for mac. When I reframe 360 videos in FCPX I use only telemetry overplay export. How do I get telemetry data: Since, I use the GPS remote, the footage has the telemetry data baked into it and I export the *.gpx file while exporting framed or 360 video from Insta360 Studio app. Why I use music: to hide the wind noise. When I mount the camera on the side of the car it produces a lot of wind noise, and crackling sounds. Therefore, to minimize the wind noise I use music. I have artlist.io subscription for music. In the beginning, I used to use free music provided by YouTube, which is quite good IMHO. PS: I plan to update and revise certain sections to enhance clarity, streamline information for brevity, and improve language and grammar.

Dear @Sunil Mathew, @Gurcharan Mehta, @Cristian, @Marek_was003 and @Hugo, just a couple of updates following the drive. Yes, we did beat the previous total ascension record, by climbing a cumulative 2,271 meters (that is 225 meters higher than the previous 2,041-meter limit). We managed in 33 minutes less time, and 18 Km less of driving. The average moving speed (24 Km/h) was 3 Km/h lower than on the previous record holding drive, that however benefited from starting in Tawi Nazwa, which presents a much smoother and faster terrain on the way to Badayer. On the matter of my new car's issues, it turns out that it indeed is equipped with a RPM limiter (which I plan to reprogram ASAP). I very much appreciate the patience and understanding of the convoy in the occasion of the couple of refusals I had on the steeper and longer climbs, which required a bit of rerouting. With this, I thank you all for joining the drive, and look forward to seeing you soon on a new route.

Thank You @Rajiv Sam ✌️😊

@Rajiv Sam I’m also waiting for the video 🥹🥹

@DP1011 It was truly an enjoyable experience, there were few challenges with the terrain. Your guidance through each stage of the task ensured a smooth movement for the convoy. The timing you chose allowed us to fully relish the moment, although we have the rest of the day free for family activities, which is better. @Sunil Mathew Thanks for keeping an eye on the convoy and good video posted on Flag hunt, it was not that easy for myself and @DP1011 to find the flag, as it was partial covered by sand. Thanks for rest of the convoy, every time we all learn different driving skills. @Rohit Deginal @JohanE @JERINE_B @Faraz94 @Andrew John Melvill @Premjit Vappala @Mohammad Sayawoush Azad @Rk ram @JERINE_B i will whatsup you the video.

@Rajiv Sam where is the ridge ride video 😃

Check or replace the vacuum pipe that goes just behind the driver seat - underneath the car and connects the black rubber pipe to the rear locker. If this is fine, check for an air compressor behind the driver seat - inside the car side panel. If you hear the compressor noise when engaging the rear diff lock, that means the compressor is fine. @Luke K P can you confirm if you hear the compressor noise in gen 4? Mine (Gen 2.5) was lazy for a long time, check and the mechanic fixed the wiring correctly and changed the compressor, then it engaged instantly.

Must be in 4HLC or 4LLC Move to N or P Press diff lock switch. Wait for flashing light to become solid. Of light does not become solid. Engage D, press accelerator slowly three times, allowing car to return to idle. Engage R, press accelerator slowly three times, allowing car to return to idle. If stuck in soft ground. Attempt to repeatedly move backward and forward.

Hey @Sunil Mathew ..we need minimum of three cars to be on a safe side to conduct any drive. I would wait for any last considerations until 9 pm… consider the drive cancelled post 9 pm today.

@Ale Vallecchi Thank you for the update and I'm glad to know that you've been able to diagnose your new car's issues. Look forward to another drive with you soon.

will post in YouTube and share.

Workflow Examples: In this video I had framed the video in Insta360 and added music in FCPX. (Jerome led FB Drive at Nahel) One of my very first videos. I had exported different angles and then layered them to make this video. This one was a lot of work but fun as I was still learning FCPX (Varun led FB+ Faqa'a to little Sweihan) But as I learnt more, I was able to use Angles feature in this video to cut it according to the music. For this video I had exported 8 different angles exported and then I cut them in FCPX. FCPX becomes slow for more than 4 angles. There were no Telemetry in this one. (Varun led FB+ at Badayer). For this video, I exported 4 angles with telemetry from Insta360 Studio and then cut them to the music. There is no panning and titling in this one due to fixed angles. (Looper Led IM Drive at Badayer) For this video I reframed the 360 videos in FCPX. Overlaid external telemetry. With Reframing in FXPC, I can change angles as well as tilt and pan with the music which is not possible otherwise. Added External Telemetry overlay (Looper led FB Drive at Qudra). Telemetry Examples: In this video I laid the telemetry directly in the Insta360 App, where I also did the reframing. Added music in FCPX. (Seidem's FB+ lead at Tawi Nazwa) I applied telemetry from external App (Telemetry Overlay) I was the first drive after I got myself a GPS Remote. I have done few iterations of the Telemetry overlay graphics over time. (Looper's FB+ lead at Faya, AD) PS: I plan to update and revise certain sections to enhance clarity, streamline information for brevity, and improve language and grammar.

Congratulations @Emanuel, keep enjoying !

EDIT: yes I can get hear the compressor start and run for about 10 seconds behind drivers seat. @Gaurav Can't say I've ever noticed/heard a compressor noise behind drivers seat when engaging the locker. Will check this morning on way to work and update. 👍

Wow this is a lot more work involved than I imagined. Results speak for itself tho. 👍 Was watching your latest one on the tv and wife walked in and she asked what video game I was playing. Just looks fantastic.

@Luke K P, @Gaurav & @Ishak thanks for your inputs, it is much appreciated. Also thanks to you, I could start to write on the workflow, which I wanted to write for some time now but wasn’t getting around doing.

Nice video with that combination, just professional @Looper 👍🏼

Congratulations @Emanuel💪💪💪💪well deserved

Congratulations @Shiju Raju👍👍👍👍

Very nice video, with beautiful add-on

Congrats @Shiju Raju...enjoy FB+...see you soon!

Congrats @Hugo...!! see you on IM drives soon

@JERINE_B - ...an interesting video for you perhaps ..... and also marking my entry into the #insta360 world

Congratulations @Shiju Raju on your promotion 👏 well done 👍

Congratulations @Hugo on your promotion! Well done.

Congratulations @Hugo

Congratulations @Shiju Raju

Congratulations @Hugo. We embark on the IM journey together!

Congrats Shinju!

congrates @Hugo

congrates @Shiju Raju

Congrats @Hugo ! Enjoy the pace

Congrats @Shiju Raju ! Well done and more learnings ahead with Pace :)

Congratulations @Hugo Enjoy teh new level

The second part of the drive video - where we enter into so called Little Sweihan Area.

They say practice makes perfect, and as we keep driving more or less same tracks, we keep doing it better and better. The morning was an indication of coming of early summer this year. It was about 22 degrees. @JeromeFJ had his convoy near the track and I moved a bit ahead. @JeromeFJ came to greet me and we exchanged best wishes. It was his drive that I had ever come here for the first time. I even have a video of that drive on my YouTube channel. By 7:07 in the morning we started to move. Short convoy so there we kind of ordered the cars based on their length and every one of them had a role to play. Within 15 min we were at Ghafteen Bowl. This was the most satisfactory entry and exit out of the bowl. Last two times we had come from the west into the bowl this time we came down the north / north-east side. and instead of exiting from the west as we did last two times, we exited to south climbing steep dunes directly. After traversing through the tall dunes overlooking the vast sabkha we went north once again to visit what was marked as one of the first two play areas in my map. We continued this zig-zag pattern of track till we reached the Old Lady Dune. There were some technical patches, some tall dunes and some mid-sized dunes. We cross them all and we did cross them fast. I was keeping up with the track as much as possible (the black line) but towards the end when I saw Old Lady dune, i moved there directly instead of going a bit south to catch up with the desert track that crosses from Nagra Hill to Old Lady Dune (i did that last time - see the pink track). We had fresh clean desert all to ourselves to make our own tracks. and the drive was almost without any stoppages, and it was possible only because we had a superb team. @Cha, @Anoop Nair and @Stumpy are all excellent drivers and above par, so they made it look easy, a bit too easy if you ask me. Thank you all once again for your participation, till we meet again very soon.

Video of the full drive

Dear Desert Wanders @frederic demolder, @Ale Vallecchi, @GauravSoni, @Ishak, @Frans M and @Robk, firstly thank you all for being on time this morning and being ready to go at the start time. The drive was amazing, and you guys all drove exceptionally well, so well in fact that we had zero stucks and only a handful of refusals, so well done to each and everyone of you. The drive pretty much had everything in it, with some half decent climbs, some cross overs and some ridge riding. we did encounter a little shrubbery along the way but for the most part we had some virgin sand to play on. @Ishak great S/L, good distance, attentive and followed my instructions well, you were able to react when needed so great job in smoothing out the lines for me, well done. @frederic demolder, amazing drive given it was your first Fb+ i hope you enjoyed it and your father also enjoyed the drive. Just be mindful of lines and getting fully onto ridges before crossing. @Frans M you drove extremely well, also be mindful of getting on the ridge and keeping both wheels either side, remember to wiggle the steering (not violent turns just gentle wiggling), this helps to keep you on the ridge as it moves the sand away from the front tires, just be mindful to be smooth. @Robk great drive, we chatted about fish tailing at the inflation point, just remember you have a longer wheel base and the back is really light compared to the front on the gladiator, so really important to keep a high line and be super smooth with the throttle and steering. @GauravSoni, great to have you along my friend, i think that is the first one since you support one of my 6 new leader drives, always a pleasure to have you in the convoy, thanks for all the tips you gave the guys as we were meandering through the dunes, invaluable lessons form a guru. @Ale Vallecchi Thanks so much for joining, having you at the back made the lead so much easier as i did not have to worry too much what was going on behind me, great advise to the team as we travelled through Nahil and Sweihan. thanks again really appreciated. Hope you get the suspension set up to make the ride feel more secure. Added some pics to the gallery and drive stats below Check out Fb+ 17 mar 24 Nahil on Relive! https://www.relive.cc/view/vKv2nXEep4v Have a great rest of your weekend and see you all again real soon in the sand

Thank You @DP1011 for offering such a wonderful drive. It was quick and smooth & I enjoyed both being a second lead as well as the smart duration of the drive. Also, everybody drove really well. Thank You @Rajiv Sam for help with the recoveries 😊 I’m looking forward to the Ridge riding video you recorded 😁 @Premjit Vappala & @Rohit Deginal very well done with the first FB drive guys, hope to see you soon again! @DP1011 I believe we should continue this Smart Drive (2-Hour) series even after Ramadan. 🔥🔥

Section 2: Filming Techniques Effective Filming Techniques Most of the discussion in this post is going to be about the 360 cameras. The reason is you want to capture action all around you. The winding tracks we take, and the refusals we have, the ridge riding and the crisscrossing we do; we want to be able to capture everything that's happening to us as well as to see what other guys are up to. With a unidirectional camera you would not be able to capture the action around you. The only time you can get away with a unidirectional camera is when you say you are driving in the dark and you have only the front that is visible for you. You can see me doing it in the current “Chasing the Doctor Series” on YouTube which was mostly short in the dark in the evening and in night. Even here, I am using a camera to track the Doctor where both 360 degrees angle is put to use. Before you start shooting - Check and double check the settings. I cannot tell you how many times I didn't check and lost what could have been a very good footage. Camera Mount Angles Having understood that a 360 camera is the way to go, let’s discuss where you would like to mount your camera and what will be the results of it. The discussion will be limited to my own experience and productions. My favorite place to mount the camera was on driver side Rear Quarter Glass or Rear Door Glass for 4 door cars. This would provide a very good view of the front and rear as well as a view of what the driver is up to. You can see this mount in action here: I had used it on the passenger side as well as seen in this video: If I am not leading a drive, I like to mount the camera on front bumper, because it is best when you intend to cover the action in front of you and it will show how you handled the ridge riding and side sloping etc. You can see the results here in action here: When leading I like to use the rear mount because I can show what the guys at the back have been up to. You can see it here in action: I have not personally mounted the insta360 X3 on the bonnet or on the roof so I will not comment on it for the time being. PS: I plan to update and revise certain sections to enhance clarity, streamline information for brevity, and improve language and grammar.

Section 1: Gear Preparation Insta 360 X3 Setup Before you mount the device on your car, you must dial in the best settings for the use case. Make sure that you are shooting 5.7k 30 fps. For the morning or daytime drives also make sure that you have selected Active HDR shooting mode. In case of low light in the evening or night drives, you should use Normal Video mode. Remember that the last setting that you have dialed in will be retained if you switch off the camera and switch it on later. Always double check that you are in the correct mode before you start recording because it happened to me when I recorded the best part of a drive in Bullet Time mode completely ruining the entire video because I used it before that I had used Bullet Time mode and then switched off the device. Recently I have shot a video in Log mode. Log mode is a type of video recording that is used to preserve more of the image’s dynamic range and tonality by redistributing the digital exposure value representations over the entire value set using a preset logarithmic function. It is often associated with better image quality and is used in professional video production. This however takes extra steps to color the video since the video output looks low contrast. Next you must connect your device with a remote. You can use either the phone app or a GPS remote. In the case of phone app, it will ask you to join the action camera wifi and once it has secured the connection you can control the device with the phone such as start/stop remote, change modes, use it as a remote screen, as well as change settings. In case you are using GPS remote you are able to connect it and can only change the mode and start stop recording. The benefit of GPS remote is you get a much more compact and stable remote. Before you start shooting - Check and double check the settings. I can not tell you how many times I didn't do and lost what could have been a very good footage. Mounting Action Camera Next you want to mount the device on your vehicle at the most optimal place. You can either use suction cups which are temporary and needs to be fixed every drive or permanent mounting solution to mount the action camera on your vehicle. Suction Cups: At the beginning I used a popular Triple Suction Camera Mount available on Amazon.ae with the 120 cm selfie stick that I had got along with the X3. But I could not extend the stick all the way out because the ball mount wouldn’t handle the weight of the device that far away from the base and will slip down. While using it I would extend the selfie stick only 1 or 2 levels out. The benefit of suction cups it that you can mount it anywhere on the car as long as it is a smooth surface. Many prefer to mount on the front bonnet as well as on the roof tops. Permanent Solutions: For my Jeep JL with metal bumper at the front and Teraflex flag mount on the rear door, a local enterprising offroad enthusiast has come up with permanent mounting solutions. They consist of a base which is permanently fixed in place and a rod that has a screw at one side and is attached to the base. I have mounted one at the front on the metal bumper and one at the back on the teraflex flag mount. Front Mount Rear Mount Other vehicles have roof rails that provide alternative mounting options. Either at the sides or at the back of the car. Some users also fix mounting brackets directly on their vehicle either using glue or screw them into the place. PS: I plan to update and revise certain sections to enhance clarity, streamline information for brevity, and improve language and grammar.

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.

@Rahimdad @Gaurav Having been lucky enough to join Carnity before Covid hit @Jeepie and myself have heard this story from you direct. I know I am but one of many to feel so lucky to have found @Carnitybecause, when all said and done this is a club with members who really do care for each other. Driving is what we do. Thanks to you, Carnity is what we are.