Ale Vallecchi

Hi @Zixuan Huang - Charlie. Let me check with the Crew if this maybe a possibility and still count as a completed drive. Will get back to you ASAP.

@Zixuan Huang - Charlie there is an open spot for Saturday's Full Day drive. Let me know if I should sign you up, or I should ask @Gilbert Khalil who's #2 in the WL. Thanks

Dear Desertnauts. The planning of Saturday's All Day trip is proceeding. At the moment, the following are the more important points to share with you, in preparation for the drive. MEETING, DEFLATION AND STARTING POINT It will be in Qudra. My idea is to meet on the sabkha adjacent to the big farm, accessible from the first roundabout on the road from Qudra's Last Exit to Bab al Shams. That farm is private property, and we cannot meet at the very beginning of the road that leads to it from the roundabout. I am deciding where exactly we should meet to avoid any annoyance from the security staff there. Instructions will follow soon. ITINERARY We will move from Qudra in the direction of Ghantoot, then around the military area to Little Sweihan, and from there to Faqa. We'll have a break in Faqa's dunes, before directing ourselves toward Al Jabib, and beyond to Al Hayar, in Al Ain province. I have not chosen to drive in Lisaili's direction to enjoy the more open, less driven, areas south of the Solar Park general area. This may end up being the longer itinerary, but it will also be less technical, and will allow a more "fluid" driving style. FOOD AND DRINKS We will have a picnic in a suitable, shaded location, among the dunes and a small forest of Ghaf trees. So make sure you bring your food of choice, enough drinks and any kind of refreshment you feel. Also, it would be best to bring something to sit on (chairs and/or mats). Wear hats, and sunglasses. We should take a break of up to 2 hours, depending on how the drive is proceeding, and the time of arrival at the planned picnic destination. FUEL REQUIREMENTS I am planning to cover approximately 100Km during the first segment to Faqa, and another 60Km in the second segment to Al Hayer. My car, an older model FJ, is equipped with a tank that drives for 200 Km of off-roading. Therefore I am counting on the initial full tank to last to the end of the drive. Each driver should check the maximum capacity of their tank, its consumption average off-roading, and make the necessary calculation, to decide if an extra jerry can should be necessary. An alternative possible solution would be to use 1 hour during the break (making it much less useful as a break) to reach Faqa and refill. i would prefer not to do this, as we'll have to prolong the drive excessively, reduce the relaxation time, and drive the second segment in less than ideal physical and mental conditions. It will imperative to refill at Qudra's ADNOC station before meeting, so that all tanks are full to the brim. That's all folks. Final info and convoy order will be issued on Friday by 5PM. @munkybizness, @PaoloMaraziti, @varunmehndiratta, @Looper, @Zed, @Mario Cornejo, @Anoop Nair, @Mus_hus78, @Hasan Wahlan, @GauravSoni and @Jeepie, see you all Saturday.

Good job @eldose baby. Glad to see you improving rank. Enjoy.

Well done @Alexanderrr. Enjoy!! See you soon out there.

Hi @varunmehndiratta. Thanks for the suggestion. I appreciate it. I had considered it, but the only problem with that is we would be always driving across the slip faces, making the drive more difficult and tricky in the long run. We will still plan to exit early enough to reach home well in time for dinner. 🍀 The Dubaians would still have a longer sleep and later wake up, anyways 😉 so total time spent driving to and from will be the same.

Thanks @looper for the clarification. This means that @Zixuan Huang - Charlie is #1 in the WL, and @Gilbert Khalil is #2. Thanks a lot.

Congrats @Abdul Rafay-S. Well done! Following nicely in the footsteps 😀. Looking forward to driving with you again soon.

Hello @Gilbert Khalil. I saw that you probably signed your name into the drive in the Manage tab. That's reserved to Carnity Support/Advisor team ranked members and above. I've removed your name from the tab, and have placed you in the drive's Waiting List at #3, hoping that something will open up. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation. Hope to see you.

Hi @Looper. You are #1 in the WL. Thanks Hi @Zixuan Huang - Charlie. I will place you in the Waiting List at #2 after Looper. If something opens up I'll advise. Perhaps if you manage to get a spot, I can see if there's any other member who may want to take you place for the afternoon segment of the drive. Thanks

Dear @Mus_hus78, you can sign in yourself as there are still 2 places available. Thanks a lot

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 strictly follow these guidelines. MUST READ AND TOTALLY AGREE: COVID19 Precautions Mandatory Safety Requirements Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Fewbie plus and above Meeting time: 7:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/pEskiZcR2Fuj7TD49 Action Plan: With the coming of the cooler weather, it becomes possible to plan drives that span the length of a half day, as well as cover a greater distance. This time we are looking to link Dubai's nearest desert area - i.e. Qudra - with a location as close to Al Ain as possible. The off-roading areas that we'll cross should be Qudra, Lisaili, Murqaab, Faqa, and Al Jalil, in order to reach at least Al Hayer, in Al Ain province. The same arrival point may also be reached from Qudra via Ganthoot, Little Sweihan, and Faqa, on the way to Al Jailil and Al Hayer. Which one of the 2 itineraries will be the final one is still to be decided, based on a more accurate study of the terrains, distances, ideal places to take the lunch break, etc. Regarding this latter point, there will be surely a couple of hours of break between the morning and afternoon segments of the drive, when we'll be able to eat, rest, and perhaps refuel (based on the final itinerary's route). As soon as I'll have completed the planning, I'll inform of the possibility of eating lunch at a local restaurant, or if we'll have to carry a picnic lunch. 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 (first half break expected around 11:30/Noon, lasting about 2 hours, for lunch, refueling, etc.). P.S. Only join if you have a compressor to inflate your tires after the drive. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 cars maximum. RSVP will close on Friday - 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

Well done @Prakash Anoop. Very much deserved. You are constantly improving, and surely will enjoy the new level a great deal.

Exploration Drive from Al Ghail to Al Zubair - RAK to Sharjah Report "If you find all your roads and paths blocked, He will show you a secret way that no one knows" - Rumi Since the start of this drive we have been finding our path blocked: first the very access from our meeting point to the entry along the pylon track, secondly a brand new road being build in the middle of the first sabkha, then several fences blocking our way through the second segment of the drive, between Biyatah and the planned exit point. Nonetheless, we always found a way around, and endured, what turned out to be the longest drive, in terms of overall duration: 5:38 hours, from 6:41AM to well past Noon. A good deal of time, in truth, was spent while assisting @Rawad's car, in the attempt to fix its 4WD, blocked in the 4L gear it had used to get itself off a crest. Somehow a cable had gotten damaged, and in spite of @Rob H's best efforts, it was impossible to make the car get back into normal driving mode. Recovery was eventually called, and Rawad managed to reach safely first the garage then home. Profuse thanks go to Rob, who always comes through as a magician, whenever a mechanical problem arises. Your help has been invaluable. The drive saw a couple more defections along the way, with @Jorge Stepniak Felippe having to exit early (at the same location as Rawad) due to his passengers not feeling well, and @Sunil Mathew who did complete the first segment of the drive (still quite a long one, lasting for the first 4:20 hours overall), but had to leave due to time constraints. The first section of the drive, as someone mentioned, offered us the possibility to cross what appeared to be different continents: African bushy savannahs, Australian rugged Outback, and Emirati's sand deserts. The main feature of this first part was the serial ridge-riding of the longitudinal dune field just north of Al Ghail, where we ploughed our way through the soft tops, mostly in a north to south direction, and zipped back up the narrow sabkhas in between the cordons, to reach the next ridge, and repeat this simple but fun drive plan. Having exhausted this area's possibilities, we entered the low plateau that separates this mostly flat region from the village of Biyatah: this is an area of massive red colored slip-faces, kissing the white sabkhas and yellow longitudinal dunes to the east, where animal farms and local's tracks separate the plateau from the first foothills of the Ajar Mountains. The driving here is mostly technical. Truth be told, we had to take as many open tracks as possible, in order to make up for the time spent early on in the drive. Upon reaching Biyatah, we crossed E55 through an underpass, and entered the drive's second segment. A rugged plateau of soft round shaped dunes and some fun riding longitudinal dunes, dotted with ghaf trees gathered in small shady forests, with occasional farms popping out on the horizon. The first part of this section was the most fun. The second half of the itinerary turned out to be interrupted by new and less recent fences (all unmarked), which blocked our passage toward the last field of longitudinal dunes that I had planned to cross. We had to manage the drive as best as we could, across a very mixed terrain, with quite a lot of vegetation (actually making for great camping places) and some soft sandy dunes. Fortunately we found a way to reach the planned exit point, on the road between Bataeh and Al Zubair. We concluded the day with 3:34 hours of moving drive (put of the total of 5:38 hours), covering 82.4 Km, at an average moving speed of 23Km/h. Great thanks go to @Thomas Varghese for his precise Second Lead, to @GauravSoni for anchoring the convoy (and assisting Rob H in the mechanical work), and to @Mario Cornejo for taking up the Sweep position after Jorge's exit. Very well driven all other members: @Sunil Mathew, @Rawad, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, @Looper, @JeromeFJ, @Russ and @rob, hoping you found the exploration satisfying, if not entirely relaxing 😅. Looking forward to seeing you all again. Have a great week ahead.

Discover Al Hayer - Newbie Drive Report "Some nights stay up till dawn. as the moon sometimes does for the sun." - Rumi Beautiful start of a festive day: after a rapid deflation and a short drive along a pylon track, the sun peaked above the red dunes to the east, while the moon was still up just, watching it rise from the west. We entered a very interesting area of tall dunes, close to each other yet separated by open corridors, at times dotted with low shrubs. Al Hayer's farms kept showing on the horizon to the south, until we managed to move north, zig-zagging our way through canyons of very clean sand, with the whole convoy managing to side slope and straight crossing the opening between the cordons, with very few hic-ups. This is a very enjoyable area, especially the section between Al Hayer and a dirt track separating it halfway from the northern village of Al Jabib. The sand is red and firm, the dunes long and wavy, with plenty of room to side-slope them (even though they would be ideal for fast criss-crossings), and plenty of vegetation, amply spaced so that it doesn't represent an impediment to maintaining a good speed. Beyond the dirt track, in the direction of Al Jabib, the landscape changes a bit, with closer dunes (forming almost a small plateau), a few more tricky situations, such as old tracks left by the Oil & Gas exploration machinery which is currently scarring most of Sweihan (evidently they had already come this way), some old and fallen wood pylons, abandoned plastic pipes, which forced the convoy to redirect, occasionally, or to pay special attention when crossing. As the Al Jabib camel farms started to loom on the horizon, grazing camels also begun to appear. All drivers did very well, in a little travelled terrain, thus potentially hiding tricky situations. Well done to @Derius Olivier, @Alexanderrr, @Morshedi @kiranshinde, all of whom managed greatly, with minimal refusals, and a couple of stucks in a couple of unavoidable soft bowls. Welcome back to the sand to @andy_macdxb. Thanks to @Josh T. for your availability to work the ropes, as well as thanks to @Trekado for assisting from the center of the convoy, and of course to @Foxtrot Oscar Angela for sweeping and providing guidance to the convoy. The drive ended after 60 km, covered in 2:43 hours of driving (3:52 hours total), at an average moving speed of 22 Km/h. Thanks to all for the enjoyable drive. Have a great week, and see you soon.

Dear Desertnauts. Last minute info about tomorrow's drive. Thanks @Looper for bringing up the issue of gas supply: please make sure you fill up at a gas station as close to the meeting point as possible. Even though the drive should not be as long as other Long Range Desert Patrol ones, it's always best to arrive with a tank as full as possible. Having said that, just make sure you have enough gasoline to cover at least 150 Km (even though we'll drive less), based on the size of your tank and your car's consumption. The main characteristics of the drive will be first its location (as some of you already know, long range longitudinal dunes, all kinds of vegetation, wild and domesticated animals roaming free, and a variety of tracks crossing through the dunes left by locals), and secondly the exploration of the southern area of Al Ghail, toward Biyatah (rich in tall, red sand slip-faces), and the whole area from Biyatah to Al Dhaid (intended as a general area), on a track just identified by waypoints, and yet to be tested. The Intermediate denomination, in this case, has not been attributed so much for the sheer difficulty of the drive (which may very well be), but rather for the uncertainty that the terrain poses, and the necessity to face and adapt to different and perhaps unexpected circumstances. Tomorrow's convoy order will be: @Thomas Varghese in Second Lead @Sunil Mathew at #3 @Rawad at #4 @Humayun Ghias driving in place #5 @Looper in place #6 @GauravSoni in the Center Forward position @JeromeFJ at #8 @Jorge Stepniak Felippe will be #9 @Russ at #10 @Rob H in place #11, and @Mario Cornejo in Sweep. Please mind that the meeting time has been moved to 6:30AM, to allow for the longer drive to the starting point. Said meeting point will be inside Al Ghail Industrial Area, at its end end, just before the pylon ttack and the beginning of the dunes. We have chosen to tune into Carnity Radio Channel #1 (446.006). See you all tomorrow. Have a nice Friday evening.

@Rawad, you have been added. Thanks

Hello @Rawad . We have an open spot for tomorrow's drive. Would you like to join? Thanks.

Hi @Looper. Just finished a long day with an early wake-up call tomorrow. Will get back with final instructions tomorrow afternoon, but no extra fuel will be required. Thanks for asking.

No worries @Johannes Roux. Hope to see you next time.

Dear Desertnauts getting ready for tomorrow's drive, please keep in mind that those coming from Dubai may need a bit of an earlier start, to reach the meeting point at 6:00AM. Make sure you fill up the tank as close as possible on the way to the meeting point. We'll start the drive from a point just passed rows of farms, off of E20 (on Lane 1815). Please, start deflating once arrived, so we may depart as early as possible. The Carnity radio channel for our communication will be #1 (44.006). From our entry point we'll direct ourselves toward the village of Al Jabib, across long range, golden/red dunes, alternated by some more technical areas, before deciding weather to loop back toward our starting point, or perhaps continue across E14, toward Faqa, to experience some of its taller, bushier dunes of red sand. The convoy order for tomorrow is the following: @andy_macdxb in Second Lead @Derius Olivier at #3 @Mohammed Yazir Thattarathil in place #4 @Alexanderrr #5 @Morshedi will be #6 @Trekado will take care of the Center of the convoy @kiranshinde will drive at #8 @Johannes Roux at #9 @Josh T. is going to be #10 @munkybizness will be #11, and @Foxtrot Oscar will Sweep the convoy. With this in mind, enjoy your Thursday evening, and see you tomorrow.

Yes @Rawad. Good to hear the car is back. You are #1 on the WL. Thanks

Done @Rob H. Thanks

Sorry to hear that @Rawad. See you soon. Hello @Rob H. I can add you to the drive if you wish. Please let me know. Thanks