Desert Dweller

On 3/16/2020 at 8:44 PM, Srikumar said:

3 drives a week. At this rate you would probably grow from Newbie to Intermediate within a month

Wouldn’t be bad huh 😁

Being able to do this 👇🏽 takes a lot of practice 😅

Thank you! As it didn’t show the end point, this is why I asked. It’s about the same time then as from Maliha. I’d like to explore this new area then.

I wish the other morning drive was on Saturday! This way I could join all 3 😁

Hi @Srikumar, I have a question...

Do I have enough time to join the afternoon drive in Al Qudra from the finishing point? Or is it better for me to join @Rahimdad drive in Maliha as it might be closer? I’d rather go to Sweihan as I’ve never been there yet if time would allow me to reach the afternoon drive on time.

Thank you @Gaurav for a very fun and exciting drive! This time I noticed the importance of having a variety of tools available 🛠 

@Shamil has earned the promotion, running to the rescue of us newbies, offering guidance and definitely taking action when needed.

@Ale Vallecchi and @Xaf were also quick to respond and offer their expertise. Thank you for staying behind, allowing the rest of us to cross to the other side without delay!

@Kalahari sorry for overtaking while climbing to the top! You can always show that there are no hard feelings by sharing the video you took of my car 😏. By the way, for some reason I also got error message while uploading pictures if I leave the page when they’re still uploading. I found that if I stay on the page it uploads fine.

Again, met great people and a promising team of Newbie drivers!

see you all next week!

3 hours ago, J J said:

Yet another drive done and it keeps getting better

Spot on lead by @Srikumar and sweep by @Wrangeld and the recovery pro @Jeepie

@Jamy B.s flag had a ball in the sand it seems :))

 

Posting some pics in the Album 

You’re just jealous that the desert spirit kept choosing my flag 😌

As always, @Srikumar’s lead delivered, beyond expectations. I was sad when I realized the time was up and we had to head back to the Finish point! It was fun and just makes me look forward to more expeditions.
 

1 hour ago, Kalahari said:

@Jamy B. hopefully open-book multiple choice? Or phone a friend - @Rahimdad is my phone pal!

I think with your 50 car convoy on Friday, the last guys will just about finish by the time we leave on Saturday!

I’m taking the test tomorrow firstly, so I’ll let you know 😉 

The 50 cars convoy idea reminds me of that snake game. I don’t know if someone else played it before 🎮 

1 hour ago, Gaurav said:

Dear Newbies and Absolute Newbies:

To speed up our newbie briefings, we have drafted an Absolute Newbie Essentials Briefing here online, which does not take more than 10 minutes to read, and is consisting of our main safety advices.

We kindly ask you to go through this briefing, so we have more "action" time instead of "talking" time coming Saturday.

@Kalahari @E.C. TAN @Chaitanya D @Jamy B. @RohanH @Shahid Mehmood @Alexander Sarte @Hariharan @Matti Brockman

https://carnity.com/brief

Please take your time to read these advices to arrive prepared and good to go  

Random question will be asked to make sure that everyone complies with above brief.

Uuuh a quiz! 🤓

17 minutes ago, Frederic said:

To all Newbies, please make sure you have obtained you own radio, as we will most-probably not have enough spare radios available for this drive. 

@siddharth maheshwari@Najeeb Mohammed@Jamy B. @Nitin Mohan @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ @Nayan Shenai @Alexander Sarte @Chaitanya D @Muffy Acidwala @Salarios @Shiju Manuel @Nitin Mohan @Jihad Hachem @Anvar Sadath Bekal @J J @Cara Jordan @Nizam Mohammed @Nizam Deen @Mathavan Muthukrishnan @Pickey Singh @RohanH @Magellan @Nacho

 

More information on this topc can be found here:

 

 

Got mine and programmed it already ✅ 

19 hours ago, Gaurav said:

Wow, that's the spirt @Jamy B., I'm yet to see that girl in you who wanted to do overland safari.

With your new ride you have lot to explore, first the ride then the places.

Thank you ☺️ And totally true! First getting to know Paco (I officially named my car)

I’ve actually done a few overland trips in Africa already, not with my car yet 😁

I was telling Rahim on Friday that I followed your advice and rented cars in some countries (Ethiopia, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia, so far).

The only thing is that it has been driving in muddy terrains, mountains and crossing a river... no African desert driving as per yet, but that’s why I’m “training”.

I remember a thread about overland trips, and will share some pictures and details of the cars I’ve driven there so far.

I have to add that even though my car had full history, I still took it to a mechanic, where I found some issues that I used to negotiate the price, including the repair costs.

11 hours ago, Colin Jordan said:

Thanks guys and happy belated womens day to all the ladies! 

 

  Please officially welcome @Cara Jordan to the club 😁😁

Welcome @Cara Jordan. Let's take over the club! 😋

On 3/9/2020 at 12:18 PM, Rahimdad said:

@Jamy B. and @Asif Hussain recently acquired their Nissan Xterras so I will leave the stage to them as to how each one came to know about all these vehicles for sale. This process also took them an year to complete in which they either came across lemons or were too late to close the deal on time. So keep your eyes and mind open and do ask a lot of questions, we are all here to help one another. But do keep your trust in God, if it's good and meant for you, nothing can keep you apart.

Even a car that belonged to a Sheikha (for her guards) didn't have the full history

The process is definitely long and draining! not only because I've considered many other options (through recommendations from experts over here in Carnity: Land Cruiser, Prado, Pajero, Wrangler, FJ Cruiser, Xterra... over 125 posts to analyze...) before deciding to go for an Xterra Off-road model. It is true that full service history is scarce, specifying that as filter is possible though, only to reduce your results to very few. Still, that has proven not to be a guaranty that the car would be a good fit for me...

I've test-driven over 30 cars the past year, taken around 4 cars to get checked by a mechanic as I was close to deciding that was the one... money spent on that obviously! And many hours searching in a few car websites, even Facebook groups... a lot of help from Carnity members as well, to whom I'm eternally thankful!!! Until I found the best deal for me, after deciding to check ads not only daily but from morning to evening, even when I was at work, as the good deals get sold within hours!!! (Lost many opportunities for calling a day or a few hours after the ad was posted...).

So obsessing is essential, I'd say I'm extremely happy with the final result!

Best of luck!

😎 Advanced huh! Congratulations @Shamil!!!

On 3/8/2020 at 8:06 PM, Frederic said:

Today we celebrate International Women's Day 2020, which aims at elimination of worldwide discrimination against women, and celebrating the efforts towards gender parity.

As Carnity Offroad Club, we are proud having female members amongst us in the community. They prove every single time that there is ZERO difference, and that their abilities in the offroad scene equal and even easily surpass the male group. They have the fantastic ability to see the big picture, multitask, and their enthusiasm is something that brings a unique flavour to our club. 

@Vanessa8580 you are the living proof that with utmost determination no-one can stop you. I am proud seeing you join the club and bringing full commitment and infectious enthusiasm. I look forward to many more drives and sharing our stories at home.

@Jamy B. from overlanding in Africa, to exploring the UAE deserts, you are easily underestimated, but you're living proof that first impressions can be misleading. I take my hat off for you

@Jeepie You've been in the male-dominated biking world for a long time riding Royal Enfields, and now when driving the mighty TJ you keep crushing the prejudices people might have about women . You are blessed with an amazing talent for driving and abilities to feel the vehicle and controlling it in the best possible way. 

@Colin Jordan no Colin, not you, but Cara, who has taken the wheel of her Wrangler and will probably not let go of that wheel anytime soon. She's a quick learner and it's amazing to see her tearing up the dunes ! Ask her to make a user profile and join us on the forum  

And last but not least, a big shout out to our partners at home (or in the desert in my case), who help us preparing for the drive, giving us the mental support, and for having the patience to allow us being away from home and enjoying our free time in the desert to erase the daily stress from our office and work environments. They have our back and i am glad coming home and sharing the stories of our desert adventures. 

 

 

Since the first day I joined Carnity, I have been treated with the most respect, and found a very welcoming and comfortable environment, which encouraged me to join the off-road club.

@Frederic It's so nice of you not only to remember, but to take the time to write this post and say those touching words. Thank you! For going beyond congratulating female members of the club, but showing that you do know more about us, that you took the time to reflect part of each one's personality and interests.

On 3/1/2020 at 1:08 PM, Wrangeld said:

Congrats Jamie. Nice drive. Good choice. 

Thank you! Choosing took a while but I'm happy with the final result

7 hours ago, Rahimdad said:

@Ale Vallecchi always a pleasure having you on board and great to hear you're recovering well. Catch you on Friday.

@Jamy B. great to see you're finally back to get your hat from my car.

My haaaat!!! Totally forgot about it! I missed it in Africa

12 hours ago, Gaurav said:

CONGRATULATIONS @Jamy B., very nice choice you made and seems like real good deal you got there with low km Xterra offroad.

Looking forward to see you soon in action.

 

Thank you. At first, I doubted the mileage as it seemed low for this kind of car. But got it tested twice in addition to checking the service history which showed consistency.

Well, finally the search has ended! I’ve gathered so much information, gained significant knowledge and above all, made friends in the process.

Special thanks to @Rahimdad for his patience, assistance, continuous Support and valuable advice. To @Gaurav for asking the right questions to put me on the right search path and, more importantly, answering mine in such analytical way. And special thanks to @Emmanuel who tirelessly gave advice whenever I needed, and made sure I knew what I was getting myself into with every option I considered. Last but not least, thanks to @sertac, @desertdude, @Shamil and the rest of participants for sharing their opinions and personal experiences, as well as the comparative analysis between different makes and models they shared here.

So, without further ado, I went for an Xterra Off-road model, 2014, 70.000 km. Looking forward to taking it to the desert!

See you guys on Friday! I won't have the necessary gear yet but I hope it won't be too much of an inconvenient and that someone can share 😊

Can't wait to be on the sand again!

Congratulations @Xaf. It’s an impressive rhythm of improvement!

6 hours ago, Xaf said:

Don't mind to take something with me for you, only the delivery is sometimes unreliable. I only stay 2 days in the USA for work, and when we are going to order something, we have to be sure it will be delivered in this timeframe. 

Ordering too early, the risk exist that my schedule changes and nobody can pick it up.

Ask Santa for a nice 4x4

I’m afraid I haven’t been good this year (my last name is, literally, Baadi)!! If I do ask him for that, he might bring me a Picanto, or whatever the equivalent of coal in cars is 😁

I’ve just finished Christmas shopping and trip preparation, nonstop since the morning. If I’m not there in time that means Mr. Sandman dictated I stay in and therefore see you all next year! (Unless you organize an afternoon or evening drive before Thursday 😁)

In...shalah. Hitchhiking again...

Shotgun with whoever isn’t leading 😁