Frederic

With our newly promoted Intermediate drivers, the long rolling dunes of Al Faqa provide a perfect playground to ramp up the pace a bit and stretch the legs of both car and driver. We will explore the area, and alternate between side sloping, ridge crossing, and enjoy whatever this area has to offer. This drive is for Intermediate and above level only. Please check if you have all required tools and gear on board as per your assigned drive level. When: 22 November 2019, Friday Meeting time: 06:00 AM, the convoy will move sharply at 06:15 AM Where: Al Faqa GPS Coordinate: https://goo.gl/maps/dt57TRJ3ak4SrCkX8 Level of drive: Intermediate and above Type of Car: Any proper 4x4 with front and back tow hooks and 10 inches of ground clearance. Plan: Drive and enjoy until about 11 AM, with some small breaks in between to have breakfast and snacks. What to bring along: Some snacks, plenty of water - whatever you like with little extra to share, smiles, stories, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 11 AM

If I should have to call the police on every time I’m confronted with a road bully, I’d be on the line for half of the day.

Have a look in the Wadi Campers club here on Carnity.

Private drives with few friends can indeed be useful to learn a bit at your own pace, but the amount of stuff i learned since joining Carnity is so much more useful. Some of my friends also came with wrong information and assumptions, as they were not senior offroaders but had "seen all the Youtube videos"..... If i remember correctly, @Emmanuel is also on HT tyres and we all know how he is doing. Personally i felt a big difference when switching to A/T and it allowed for running at lower psi without risking a pop-out, but you are right, H/T can do a good job in the desert.

Even if you can't join every weekend due to your demanding job, there are still a few things you can work on either from office (A380 ) or at home in-between shifts: - Research the areas we drive with Google Maps and look at the dune formations, sizes, wind direction, etc... this will help you later on when leading drives. Learning about topography is also useful (you might have learned that already as a pilot). - Research online (Youtube, Carnity, others) information about off-road recovery, tools, gear, tutorials, etc... There is lots of information available. I like for example Ronny Dahl his videos and tutorials: https://www.youtube.com/user/RonBacardi666 I always feel bad when I can't join drives and my balance of work / family /hobbies takes serious juggling sometimes, like for most people here, so I try to make the best of it

So great to see these wonderful reviews from my fellow offroaders ! Well deserved @Halit Mert Issever ! Your CAN-DO attitude will bring you and that mighty LR4 very far ! See you soon in the sands !

Indeed an amazing drive ! For one reason or another, every time a Sweihan drive got posted, I wasn’t able to make it. So that meant I was really looking forward to this drive, and knowing that I would be in this great company made it look even more promising. The wet sands brought a different feel to the driving experience. I needed less power and hence enjoyed taking that drive at 80% engine power, except for a few climbs 🤪. After being in pursuit of the mighty Velociraptor, I got the chance to lead for a while. The area was a bit technical with lots of pockets and smaller dunes, which is something I enjoy doing, but I’ll need to learn to make sure the whole convoy with LWB cars involved can deal with that. Emmanuel has mastered this skill brilliantly, and I keep learning every time while chasing him 😅 As correctly mentioned, Brette did great, and I’m glad to see the Cherokee doing Grand things in Sweihan. @Javier M had the Sweihan dunes for breakfast, and did brilliant textbook recovery work. You’d be Iceman in our Top Gun, but in a good way of course 😉 At one point seeing what I first thought was a child on top of a nearby dune, we quickly realized this was a mighty big vulture. We tried to follow him for a while, while he kept circling around us. Makes one wonder Who was following Who....? Anyways to cut a long story short, it was indeed a wonderful day with a magnificent team, enough to make me drive home with a big smile on my face. On to the next one !!