Emmanuel

Congrats Bony !

Congrats to both of you. It’s always a pleasure to drive with you. See you on Friday!

Congrats TJ ! Well deserved !

Congratulations Adil

Congratulations @Adam Marston

Very good news, congrats @Frederic. We are so lucky to have you in Carnity!

Congrats @Xaf !

Have fun guys

Ah ah thank you @Gaurav ! Thanks Xaf and Brette.

Personally I don’t listen to any music while off-roading, especially when it gets a bit extreme. I came to the conclusion that it might be dangerous because unconsciously you try to follow the rhythm and the mood of the music while driving, when actually you should follow the rythm of the dunes. Maybe it will sound weird but that’s how I feel it.

And so is Belgium my friend : Jacques Brel, Arno, Stromae, the list is so long Yes of course I like DJ Shadow

Off-road : my V6 and Carnity FM On-road : it can be anything except Celine Dion 😜 : Bach, Handel, PJ Harvey, DJ Krush, Ahmad Jamal, John Coltrane, Yusuf Omar, La Lupe, Girija Devi, Biohazard, Fishbone, High Tone, John Cage, etc.

DRIVE REPORT We all met on time, but started with a slight delay because of the short interval between morning and afternoon drives, among other things. I kept the briefing quick, focused on safety advices and numbering. @Frederic was my second lead, @Srikumar was in the middle and @Rahimdad (with @Jamy B. as a copilot) in sweep. @Shamil and @Brette, who have recently been promoted to intermediate level, also gave a hand for recoveries. Thanks all. Our entry point being Badayer Shops, we started directly at a good pace to climb the first set of high dunes, and as I understood from @Ale Vallecchi, his two passengers got a bit shocked since they were expecting a relaxed drive. Let’s hope they didn’t hate us at the end of the day! Reaching the top of the second set of dunes was a bit more tricky, but, after a few refusals, everyone made it. At this point, after several failed attempts, Shamil realised that his Xterra had a problem. For some reason, the engine wasn’t delivering its 260 HP. While we were waiting for him and others to reach the top, one of @Ale Vallecchi guests (I didn’t hear her name well, very sorry for that) suprised us, as she took a trashbag and started to clean the area around us. When I told her that, in Badayer area, which unfortunately became a big junkyard, there is so much to do, she just reminded me of the Hummingbird’s tale : « I’m doing my part ». During the Newbie briefings we always emphasize on the fact that we must keep the desert clean and never throw anything (personaly I don’t even leave a cigaret stub), but here, it was a much more advanced level… Hats off! And hats off also to the person who will help me to understand how someone can leave garbage in the middle of the dunes, since I still didn’t get the idea. After that, the drive has been smooth, with very few refusals and only one or two stucks, and I have to say that at some points the level was not a regular fewbie level, actually not far from intermediate. As a matter of fact, our two Fewbies, @Ale Vallecchi and @Xaf, did very well, even when I decided to spice things up with a couple of challenging crisscrossings in high dunes and, later, in the technical patches that we crossed on our way to Superbowl area. We avoided the main playing spot since it was full of crazy supermodified patrols and buggies, so we can have more fun on the other side. Before we head out, my plan was to play a bit at Iftar bowl, but Brette hitted a bush and had a pop-out. Because sunset was already close when we finished to fix it, we decided to exit. Just before we reached our usual inflating point for this area, we found a police patrol blocking the access to the tarmac, showing us to take left before the residential area. We understood later the reason behind this when we reached Badayer Shops : crazy trafic jam everywhere and earsplitting crowds of buggies and ATVs - for the record, we should always avoid Badayer Shops on Fridays just after sunset, at least during the offroading season. Anyways, apart from this last detail, I can't tell how much I enjoyed leading this drive. Thanks everyone.