Varun Mehndiratta

Congrats @premindra rajaram

Congrats @Marketa Dobesova

1 hour ago, Patrick said:

Hi everyone,

Since starting my off-roading journey I have noticed that both of my "standard" sunglasses that I had, whether polarised or not, were way to bright for off-roading. With the sunglasses on, I often found myself pinching my eyes a bit, causing slight fatigue when driving on a bright sunny day.

After doing some research, I found that sunglasses are categorised by lens darkness.

Have a look at the attached chart. 

Your run-of-the mill sunglasses you can buy at the shopping mall typically have a Cat 3 lens which refers to the darkness. You can check your glasses' Cat number  by looking at the inside of your temples/frame. What Cat are you using? Now, the much less common Cat 4 lenses are generally not widely sold and are used more for applications such as winter sports in bright snow. 

After a lengthy journey looking around in Dubai and calling some optical stores, I found that Decathlon sells several models of Cat 4 sunglasses. There are options on the Amazon US store too.

The darker Cat 4 sunglasses have been a game changer for me, allowing me to drive in absolute comfort on a bright day. Only having to switch to my Cat 3 sunglasses close to sunset.

Just thought I would share that, for those that thought sunglasses = sunglasses when in fact different darkness levels do exist!

 

Wow really interesting .. didn’t know about cat 3/4 element. 
 

In general one element I observed is Polarized end up being super challenging on white sand - they make it difficult to differentiate between shades of white - a major issue around Qudra once sun is out. 
 

Bought some sports one with multiple color glass options - realized black doesn’t work at all - kills the differentiation. Best I found are blue glasses. I don’t do much sun set time drives, however understand that green  glasses work  best for that time. 

Understand yellow and Orange are also good, sharp shooter usually use these  - yellow surely didn’t work for me, wasn’t very comfortable. Orange haven’t tried yet. 

Happy Birthday @Srikumar 

Dear Sand Sailors

Thanks for all the kind words and your feedback on the drive. Honestly, it was the each one of you and ofcourse collectively as a group that made it fun and awesome - the banter, the camardarie, the spirit of challenging ourselves really added to the overall experience and a fun saturday morning.

Oh i totally missed to share - it was my 25th Lead Drive and surely couldnt have asked for a better way to celebrate it with you all. Thanks again. 

I have been travelling, so didnt had chance to share my feedback on the drive earlier. In general, between the posts, beautiful pics and awesome videos you all have covered the basic gist of how amazing the day was - starting from word go till the last climb up on Iftar Bowl. Honestly, with all the climbs we did this saturday, Iftar bowl felt like a small baby . 

For Data buffs : Overall we travelled around 48Km. i.e. at an average moving speed of 18.67Km, which may sound slow. However, add to it a climb up of a whopping 1.25Km, it takes the whole element to another level. Yes guys,  we went up 1.5 time the ht of Burj Khalifa. It was just awesome.

Sand was super soft and traffic that beats SZR at peak time. Each and every play area we explored, we witnessed multiple cars stuck or crested - a good reflection of challenge terrain offered- however on the whole drive, we took out ropes and shovels just once. Ofcourse, we had regular refusals but nothing that wasn't self recovered or nicely guided through with limited assistance. 

Kudos to all of you for achieving this feat.

 @Ishak @Felix Obst though thanks to @Bashar Beasha and his videography skills, you both lost your position, still as always, you did really well through the drive. Amazingly receptive and prompt in making all the adjustments - not an easy feat on super crazy high climbs around Area 53. Thanks for your support  But what can i say - Its not you, its me - so its Bashar next time 😜.

 @Bashar Beasha dude you were awesome on this drive, totally a different person compared to our last drive togather - super confident and at ease. Very well done. 

 @Ahmad Nerat Your ear to ear smile through the drive kept me pushing to step it all up. Was amazing to see you sail on your LC. 

  @Mark B 1st Fb +, Area 53 and a crazy convoy hell bent on climbing every dune they saw, anyone can get nervous - been there done that. The fact you could eventually manage to beat it all - without needing any re-routing, without any major stuck or refusal is a good reflection on your skill set.  This gladiator has no limit. Very well done, see you soon. 

 @Gary F  Brilliant as always, ofcourse you made sure we give @Benjamin and @Krishna R a chance to take out their weapons. 

 @Benjamin @Sunil Mathew @Krishna R thanks for your support - you kept the convoy togather and ensured each of the refusals are handled with patience and ease.

 @Bjoern @Patrick van der Loo @Jaro Tuzinsky - as always a smooth drive for you all. Hope to see you all soon. 

Thanks all, have a nice week ahead. 

Hi @Gok Krish hope having a nice week. Noticed you were there in the last drive in this terrain - set out couple of years back. Any nice memories, reminisce of the same.

Would be good to give a bit of flavor of what to expect for the team here. 😀

18 minutes ago, Bashar Beasha said:

A few clips for you @Varun Mehndiratta. Not the best quality. Would be better if I drive behind you 🫣

Auditioning for the role of second lead 😁

https://we.tl/t-zKcp9eXSTO

Thanks @Bashar Beasha you are the best.,. They are amazing🙏🙏.. Done you are the SL designate for all my future drives, @Ishak you are fired  😀😀👍

28 minutes ago, Gary F said:

I have uploaded a highlight video from Saturday Mornings drive.

It mostly features the backend of @Patrick van der Loo @Mark B @Benjamin and @Varun Mehndiratta ‘s comms.

 

https://youtu.be/vs1YfeCctOE

 

 

Beautiful video @Gary F next time first I will ask who has the camera and then plan the convoy order … need more than just my voice in it, though I don’t sound that bad on radio 😂😂

20 minutes ago, Mark B said:

Nice video mate! It’s cool to see someone else’s point of view 👍🏻👍🏻🤘🏻🤘🏻

You were awesome from all perspective … takes couple of drives at every level to get used to pace, challenges etc you managed it half way through 👍👍

Wow this filled up real fast - by 7:07 already we had 6 WL. Thanks all for your great response - it’s very encouraging, a much needed one especially for these exploration drives. 

@DP1011 and @Fabien Monleau added you guys to manage tab. In case of change in plans let me know. 

Details for the drive shall follow over next few days, in due course - ensure your cars are in healthy state, tools all set and above all, make sure that in case of any change in plans, update rsvp asap - we still have 6 WL 😊

Have a nice week ahead. Your response has raised my excitement to another level. See you all on Saturday. 

Congrats @Jaro Tuzinsky

Finally its there. A drive that i have been planning to organize since months, however, havent been able to muster courage to post. However, motivated by positive response and support received from the @Carnity community on our last exploration drive to Razeen, i am glad to introduce to you all a hidden gem. A terrain which still remain majorly unexplored by most of the off-road community in UAE. An area, where at Carnity we organized a drive 2 years back and somehow has been lost in our hidden treasures. So, lets get togather on 6th of May, to explore this unscathed terrain and open up this area for the broader community. 

What to expect:  Most of you have already been to Meliha - exploring Fossil Rock and beautiful dunes around it as well as have had chance to enjoy the Scenic drives ( @Frederic special) through the farms in Al Bataeh. Between these two uniquely awesome areas, to the north of Meliha, lies another big terrain - full of huge terraced dunes crazily placed close to each other - ensuring a super technical drive - involving steep climbs, tight maneuvering spaces with super soft sand, unpredictable and highly irregularly shaped dunes, all set to test the skills of experienced drivers. 

General Overview

This drive is organized in full compliance with the COVID19 guidelines. We expect every member that joins this drive to go through below information and and strictly follow these guidelines in order not to jeopardize someone's health, and to ensure we can keep organizing these drives safely.

MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: 

• COVID19 Precautions
• Ban from Carnity Off-road Club
• Two Way Radio Guidelines

Drive Details

Level: Intermediate & above. 

When:  6th May'23, Saturday.

Meeting time: 5:45 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions).

Meeting Point:  Roundabout at the intersection of Al Bataeh Road with E102 Sharjah-Kalba Road - https://goo.gl/maps/jqJgB18J8xkuQg9t9

Type of Car: Any  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: 10:30AM

THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE UNLESS YOU HAVE A COMPRESSOR. ANYONE ARRIVING AT THE DRIVE WITHOUT A COMPRESSOR, FLAG, PROPER SHOVEL AND DEFLATION KIT WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. ALL TOW POINTS WILL BE CHECKED BEFORE DEPARTURE. 

50 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

@Varun Mehndiratta seems like a great way to get the product you actually want! 
 

I have seen Garmin’s watch products they look awesome funnily enough when you mentioned it in your post I had to go check it out as it’s the first I’m hearing of the brand. Good choice though in the end! 

Yeah got some nice features and looks smart - only thing holding me back was no LTE option despite high price tag (in the models I was looking for). 

On 4/28/2023 at 7:31 PM, Benjamin said:

Hi @Varun Mehndiratta I don’t have a ton of experience with it but I have tried it before 

With the Apple Watch variant you can do a number of basic things with it 

1. Navigate: from here you can go onto your iOS version of Gaia gps and switch your tracks to ‘routes’ after doing that you can then send any desired route to your Apple Watch to of which it’ll sync for a few mins around 5-10 mins. On the watch it’ll show the route you saved to it and will display basic info like distance travelled or elevation. From there you can navigate to start route. And your watch will record your track as you follow the route. The watch then displays a few other taps one of which being an off route tab (basically tells you how off route you are and what direction you gotta be to get back on course) it updates relatively slowly in my opinion so I don’t see massive use in it but maybe other people have had other experiences with it. You also have access to adding waypoints and pausing your movement which will also stop recording your Bpm and distance travelled. Apart from that the final tab allows you to see how many kilometers you have travelled the total time you have taken and how fast your going per Km. Once ending your session it will display things like average bpm and the max alongside how many calories you have burnt.

2. Record: I don’t have tons of experience with this one but all I know is that you can create tracks and waypoints where your standing. 
 

conclusion: for off-roading I don’t see the need for the app in most cases you’ll have your phone on a mount which is probably safer than looking at your wrist. For hiking and other such activities it can be a nice aid but usually the app will ask you to look on your phone if your lost or to find a more accurate way to your route. So you’ll be carrying your phone with you anyway; still a nice piece of software apart from that if your looking to record your activity your better off using apple’s exercise app as this records all bpm, distance travelled, and exercise rings only massive difference is you can’t make tracks with it. 

I’ll attach some pics below so you can have a look of what the app should look like on an Apple Watch 

Thanks Benjamin got the Garmin 😀 As my wife always says - moment I start comparing a well established/well known/commonly used product with something, more often than not I am just finding excuse to prove the other one is better, in my mind I am already sold 😊😀 So yeah map rep on Garmin is better is the reason I used to convince myself 😂

Anyone tried Gaia Maps or GPX files on Apple Watch or Garmin watch? Any feedback.. planning to go for one of these watches, wasnt able to get direct feedback on using GPX/Gaia on these. 

1 hour ago, Benjamin said:

@Varun Mehndiratta extra sharpened shovel? 😂

Hahaha we will have @Mark B and @Bashar Beasha to do all the shoveling now… they should get the feel of FBPlus, m old school - bullying/ragging was legal and not frowned upon 😀… good old times 😂😂

Great so it seems everyone is confirmed for the drive.
Since we have a super strong convoy and we have few friends who missed out on last drive as well - I have extended the convoy. @Mark B and @Ahmad Nerat you both are added to the convoy.

What this means - more focus, more challenge and ofcourse more fun.

See you all this Saturday 😀

Hi Sand Sailors

Hope the week is going nice for all. It seems like a long time ago that we had some off days, so already looking forward to the weekend. 

We still have 4WL drivers, so with less than 48 hours to go for the drive, kindly review your plans and update the rsvp (in case of any change). Based on the final status tomo morning will take a call on how to proceed with final convoy. 
 

Thanks for your understanding and looking forward to see you all this Saturday 

@Benjamin @Sunil Mathew @Bjoern @Gary F @Mike M. @Krishna R @Ishak @Jaro Tuzinsky @Patrick van der Loo @Senthil Kumar @Ahmad Nerat @Rajiv Sam @Felix Obst @Bashar Beasha

Congrats @Pieter Pot

Congrats @Benjamin 

21 minutes ago, Benjamin said:

Don’t worry @Varun Mehndiratta my shovel was forged in the realms of alfheim! They actually call me Ace of spades😂

Looking forward to doing everything I can to support the convoy  

Hi Sand Sailors

Thanks for RSVPing for the drive and your usual amazing response to the post . As @Frederic aptly described another Gone in 60sec opportunity 😀.

@Beide Worku can’t help my friend,. These tiny bits keep me pumped up through my prep. 
 

We have a super solid convoy (tried and tested over last weeks) for a super awesome terrain. M all psyched and hope so are you - as it won’t take anything less to get through this place.

So get your vehicles checked, ensure you are fully rested and sleep on time this Friday. @Benjamin ensure muscles are pumped and the shovel is sharp & ready and @Jaro Tuzinsky No drive for you without an upgraded phone holder 😀😀

For those on WL, still some time to go so stay put. 
 

@Felix Obst @Gary F @Benjamin @Mark B @Ahmad Nerat @Senthil Kumar @Ishak@Bashar Beasha @Patrick van der Loo @Bjoern @Sunil Mathew @Rajiv Sam @Krishna R @Jaro Tuzinsky 

26 minutes ago, Mark B said:

Not going to lie, super frustrating Iwas on the drive reservations before it was full but the same glitch happens every time I pay the subscription, It doesn’t give me access, this is the second time I’ve been bumped off a drive cos of this error and after waiting the whole day, with an alarm set.
so each Time I basically get 3 weeks for the price of 4 🤦🏻‍♂️

@Carnity fyr .. in case something need to be checked technically. 
Hi @Mark B stay put my friend still some time to go, have been there so can imagine the pain, especially being on wl second week in a row. In general, I have been using one month subscription for last 6-7 month, never had any tech issue, still good to have this feedback for tech team to check.
 

Cheers

DRIVE PLAN 

Pyramid shaped vertiginous dunes in Area 53 seems unsalable at first sight. However, each of these offer a secret stairway which if treaded right lead to the top of these majestic dunes. Of course this demands approaching them with right plan and momentum. It requires a convoy high on skill and temperament - with sand super soft and steep climbs, there is no way to recover a wrong step.

So, this Saturday, lets get set to challenge our climbing skills through this awe-inspiring terrain which has tested the best of off-roaders in UAE. 

We request every member that joins this drive to go through the below information and strictly follow these guidelines, etiquettes and responsibilities.

MUST READ AND COMPLY

• Off-road Flag Guideline
• Two Way Radio Guideline
• Off road Driving Etiquette's
• Emergency details for all off-roaders
• Off Road Driving - Roles & Responsibilities

DRIVE DETAILS

When:  29 April 2023, Saturday

Meeting time:  5:45 AM - Sharp (Without any exceptions)

Meeting Point: Dropped pin: https://goo.gl/maps/JkhE9hDwve8mkkU99

Approximate finish time: 10:00 AM

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, enthusiasm and willingness to learn.

Mandatory off-road gears: Tire deflator, tire pressure gauge, compressor, walkie-talkie radio, off-road flag, shovel, first-aid kit and fire extinguisher.
 

LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE

• This drive is limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on FRIDAY - 12 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