Emmanuel

Congratulations @Barry, wish you the best. In French there’s a funny popular expression when someone gets married. We say that he is « settled down of cars » (rangé des voitures). No clue where it came from...

Congratulations @Goutam!

Congratulations @Alexander Alcala! Very well done!

@Goutam I added you to the drive, can you confirm that you will be joining?

Ok @Dodi Syahdar welcome. You can put your name on the waitlist for the morning, just mention that it would be your 2nd drive.

I’m sorry @kolinrrj but you have to join an absolute newbie drive before joining a newbie drive. Did you put your name on the absolute newbie’s waitlist?

@Dodi Syahdar I see you have RSVP for this drive and also for the morning drive. Please choose any 1 drive for now and you can put your name on the waitlist for a second drive. This would give other drivers a chance to rsvp for atleast 1 drive over the weekend. On Wednesday, if there are still spots available after everyone has got at least 1 drive, you can be added to the convoy for a second drive. If your two mates don’t distract you, if you can stay focused on your driving, no worries.

Congrats @Brette! Very well deserved, buddy.

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 MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: BAN POST Two Way Radio Guidelines Every Offroader brings his own radio, programmed to the frequencies described in below advice topic. We will not share spare radios or program your radio on the drive. If you need assistance in programming the radio, post a topic on the Carnity website with your questions and we will help you out. Make sure your radio is fully charged. It will be your only way of communication while driving. Before buying, please carefully read below advice so you are informed properly on which model / cost / shops... No radio = No drive. It is an essential tool and you should make sure you bring it on every drive and learn/practice how to use it. MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING Drive Details Level: Newbie and above (All Level) Meeting time: 2:00 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/tTiYeFbvsuVVoGCA8 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: 6:00 PM P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 12 cars maximum. RSVP will close on Thursday - 9 AM. If the RSVP is full and you wish to join, please mention your name on the drive thread to add on the waiting list Latecomers will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members without RSVP will be returned back - without ANY EXCEPTIONS. Members that do not confirm the terms of the COVID requirements will be removed from the RSVP list. 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 THE CALENDAR

Congratulations @Mehmet Volga!

@Anish S félicitations ! C'est tout à fait mérité !

Congratulations @Ahab Shamaa!

@Chaitanya D congratulations! You really deserved this promotion.

@Chaitanya D I agree, in one day, 600km on tarmac + 100km on dunes is too much. My suggestion is to arrive the night before or leave the morning after the drive.

DRIVE REPORT : UMM AL OUSH/BU TAIS/WAGAN After an amazing Sunday drive coming from Wagan with @Nabil Bishara and @marks, a good night of sleep in the dunes close to our Monday meeting point and an indescribable sunrise on the sabkha, I heard @Chaitanya D and @Christian Andras arriving from the dirt road, about 500m away, a few minutes before meeting time. It was nice to see them both, the two last survivors from the list of attendees... They directly started to deflate and just when they were done, a massive and unidentified 4x4 truck appeared, coming from nowhere in our direction. First time I had the opportunity to see (and hear!) a Dodge "Power Wagon", with a monster V8 of 6L. The driver, an Emirati citizen, was just coming to say hi, make sure we were OK and have a little morning chat. As soon as he left, we headed East, towards Bu Tais, that I wanted to explore more deeply after the lovely taste we had the day before. After half an hour or so, we reached the famous "Tree Dune" surroundings, where we played a bit before we headed South, avoiding a technical area by using one of the sand tracks recently made in this part of Abu Dhabi (for oil and gas prospections), then back West through the white/salty sabkha to enter Umm al-Oush from the first huge star dune. There, the tracks didn't make our life easier, on the contrary, they made our climbs more difficult as they were cutting/interrupting the inclines. But then what a joy to reach the upper level and admire the vastness of this region ! I think we didn't let any of the high star shaped dunes of Umm al-Oush unvisited. 80% of them were covered with small trees and bush - good news for environment but still a bit frustrating for us off roaders... When we reached the end of Umm al Oush set of dunes and begun our descent to the sabkha, we had to make a choice between exiting slowly from the western dirt track and exiting from Wagan with the risk of finishing the drive later than announced (3:30 pm). We opted for Wagan exit, using the sand track at the beginning, till we realised that it was perfectly doable on time. After two days of leading, I was happy to pass the baton to @Chaitanya D who managed very well to take us out safely. Thank you! @Christian Andras thank you for your good company and excellent driving skills. Hardly one or two refusals if I remember well. Very well done!

DRIVE REPORT : WAGAN/UMM AL OUSH/BU TAIS Every single time I come back from a drive in Abu Dhabi Emirate, be it Liwa, Sweihan or Wagan, I ask myself the same question: Why? Why don't we go there more often? Covid test hassle? It took me less than 45 mn to get it done this time. Long way to get there? From Dubai, you can reach Wagan in approximately 2 hours. Early in the morning you won't find any queue at check point. Why this question? Because off-roading in Al Wagan and all the surroundings (Umm al-Oush, Bu Tais, Al-Qoaa) is a very different experience. Basically, what we are used to call a "high dune" in Dubai/Sharjah area is a small or middle one for this area; to figure what a high dune is in Wagan or Umm al Oush, one should actually call it a mountain. As a matter of fact, everything there is higher, bigger, wider. This comes of course with a little bit more apprehension from the drive leader and maybe the drivers, which is the reason why I decided to restrict the access to "intermediate plus" off roaders for both drives. First, thank you @Nabil Bishara and @marks for reaching our meeting point (Al Wagan ADNOC Gas Station) about 20 minutes before time. After filing gas tank + jerrycan, we were already on our way to our entry point, 15-20 km away, at 8 am. Quick deflation, quick briefing, very quick convoy numbering (well, 3 cars...) and we were off. Since we were only three, I had decided to keep it safe, so we started at a moderate pace and gradually increased difficulty when we reached the first "mountains". From my previous experiences of Wagan, I had kept in memory the image of completely untouched dunes, so I was surprised to see a lot of tyre marks on these first high dunes (it seems that it became the Wagan people's Iftar Bowl). But the most surprising was about 20 km ahead, when we started to see tracks all around, parts of a grid covering the entire area. I had heard about such heavy human interventions on the landscape of Umm al-Oush, something related to seismic surveys for oil and gas prospections, but I didn't know it was also reaching Wagan. Just to reassure everyone, it didn't affect the beauty of this place. Wagan-Umm al Oush still fences the most stunning views that can be found in UAE, with Liwa of course. Back to the drive itself, I must say that both Nabil and Mark didn't struggle at any time. On a distance of 110 km, at an average speed of 28km/h, crossing Umm al-Oush, reaching Bu Tais amazing high dunes and back to Oum al-Oush entry, how many stucks did we have @Nabil Bishara and @marks? Three maybe, including mine, as I had a the best one on a very soft slope ? And I'm not sure if I heard the word "refusal" more than two times during the day. You guys rock! Well done! I posted in the gallery the 3 or 4 very cheap photos that I could take during the day, but surely Nabil and Mark will add some nice shots and videos...

@Veedooshee congratulations! Very well done!

Congratulations @Luca Palanca Falsini!