Ale Vallecchi

Hello @Zixuan Huang. Thanks for advising.

@varunmehndirattayou can let me know on Friday evening. No worries

Hello @varunmehndiratta. Thanks for advising. Let me know if you still wish to try to be in the drive, or I should count you out 100%, as you can update me closer to the drive's time, if you wish.

Hi @Rjducos thanks for advising. See you next time.

Dear Desertnauts, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @jeetu sharma, @varunmehndiratta, @Thomas Varghese, @Zixuan Huang, @Sunil Mathew, @Rjducos, @shu yang, @Shaaz Sha, @shu yang and @Jeepie, while getting ready to disclose the Mistery Drive's starting location and itinerary, and thanking you for trying to guess the type of sand we will be driving on 😉... one more clue as to our meeting point. We will be starting in the proximity of a mosque (not a great clue, as mosques are everywhere 😁), but also not far from the presence of animals. While you think about where this location may be, I'll be working on the convoy order, which I will communicate later this evening. The final meeting place will be shared, in the drive's posts and on this thread, on Friday, at 5:00PM. Have a great day

Hi @GauravSoni, that seems harsh, but totally understandable. You have been driving a lot. See you soon.

Dear Desertnauts. Let's start playing the guessing game to unveil the uocoming Mistery Drive's location. Question 1) Will it be an area of yellow/white sand, or rather red color sand? As you know, whiter sand is found from Lisaili and Faqa going west, toward Qudra/Dubai, while red sand is more typical from Badayer going east toward Pink Rock. So, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @jeetu sharma, @varunmehndiratta, @GauravSoni, @Thomas Varghese, @Zixuan Huang, @Sunil Mathew, @Rjducos, @shu yang, @Shaaz Sha and @Jeepie, which area are you guessing we'll visit?

That will be fine @Rjducos. See you on Saturday.

@Rjducos, thanks for signing in. May I ask which car will you bring to the drive (as I see you have listed 2 cars)? Thanks

Hi @Tamas Hoffmann. I have added myself to manage the drive, as discussed on the WA group. I hope you don't mind, even though I see you also got Chaitanya to support. See you later.

Sand to Mountain: The Sequel - Drive Report "It's your road, and your alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you.: - Rumi Dear Desertnauts. This was, as all the previous ones, a drive which never tires. Such a versatile terrain, suiting every off-roading level, which allows to scale up or down the level of difficulty. At the same time, a great variety of plants, landscapes, farming activities, that never bores, and keeps the interest in the surroundings always alive. This time, we also abandoned the usually beaten track, to venture into 2 different dune fields, both with longitudinal dunes, each surrounded slightly different landscapes: the first one, smaller, made of more sandy, tighter set of cordons, the second, much bigger, with very long dunes, separated by wider areas rich with small trees. Especially this second set of dunes allowed the drive to be scaled up, with continuous and snaky ridge riding, as long as the softness of the sand, or the breaks in the ridges, allowed to. Plus, the "usual" camel herds, fields of fodder, spectacular savannah views, all kinds of desert vegetation (as we mentioned, most of them medicinal plants). After approximately 3 hours of driving, we also got the bonus of extending the drive, as wished from the beginning, all the way to that beautiful small plateau of red sand, cascading onto the black foothills of the Ajari mountains. This time this portion took us with a more linear approach to the great, tall, slip-face of a giant dune, where we managed to conclude the drive with a volley of tall and wide side-slopes. Great driving by all the members, with the solution alternating Veterans with Juniors (Intermediates with Fewbies) seemed to pay off, as every refusal or stuck was successfully solved by the cars nearest to the one experiencing the issue. Very smooth and clean drive. Congrats to @Anvar Sadath Bekal (also acting as a well rehearsed Second Lead), and the rest of the "tutors": @imranaasghar81, @Rizwanm2, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ (in his well honed position of Center Forward), @Niki, @Goutam and @Watteau. Well done to all the Fewebies - @PaoloMaraziti, @Chris Wing, @Nithin Vaidir and @JeromeFJ. Great thanks to @Foxtrot Oscar Angela for sweeping the convoy. And, sorry to have seen @Pacific go so soon in the drive, hoping his car is fine. The final score of this drive was 80.2 Km of trails, driven in 3:44 hours (moving time) over a total of 5:06 hours from the start, at a moving average speed of 21 Km/h, and over 1 KM of total climbs. Thanks to all for joining, and see you soon out there.

Copy that @varunmehndiratta. Let's see if there is more demand. Should be OK. Thanks

Hello @Sunil Mathew. I can add you now, as the drive still has a lot of spots available for more drivers. Thanks

Hi @Shaaz Sha. I will. Thanks Hello @GauravSoni. The drive is wide open. I can put you in now, as I don't think it will get full. Hi @Thomas Varghese. I will put you in, as the drive is wide open, with still many spots that will remain available. Thanks. Hi @Zixuan Huang. I can add you to the drive now, as it's still wide open, and there will be sufficient spots left. Thanks

Great drive @Lorenzo Candelpergher. It was my first Extreme club drive (had done other drives with high level of difficulty and speed with other Marshals, but mostly as our own recce or practice drives), and it was extremely enjoyable, thanks to the well chosen, challenging, route, as well as greatly useful to me, allowing my FJ to stretch to its limits after the engine rebuild. Plus, what a difference it makes moving from the front to the back of the convoy. Exchanging the luxury of choosing a fresh, unspoiled track, for the challenge of moving through churned up sand, trying to avoid the deeper ruts, and moving through dug up tracks, required attention and patience, providing a great training ground, both technically and mentally. From that point of view at the rear of the convoy I have gained renewed respect for all the drivers that end up being placed in that position: what a difficult task we give the big trucks, or heavier cars which normally drive in the rear-most positions, and how well they always carry it out. As far as my close encounter with the fence, I didn't plan it, but it certainly helped make the drive even more extreme. Looking at it with hindsight, it could have gone both ways: as I came off the crest, and committed to exit on the other side of the dune, I could have either flipped, as my car came to a halt, sideways, hitting the few centimeters of fence jutting out of the sand, or could have escaped unscathed, if I had seen the fence sooner, and had simply ridden the ridge for just a couple more meters (on the same path that the rescue cars took to come over the crest from the other side). Anyways, all is well what ends well. For this I have to thank the whole convoy - @Rizwanm2, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @Tero Vallas, @Francois Germishuys and @Shaaz Sha - as it came together to evaluate the situation, with each driver offering point of view and solutions which, summed together, provided the blueprint for the final rescue plan, perfectly executed by @Lorenzo Candelpergher and @Ahab Shamaa, the first winching the car from the front, and the latter anchoring its rear away from the fence. Thank you all for the fun drive. I look forward to see you all in the sand.

Congrats @Pacific. Well done!! BTW, how is your car doing?

Good job @Gok Krish!! I am happy to have seen you grow from your first Newbie drive.

Hi @Christian Andras. I was sad to see you withdraw. I guess you felt it wad the right thing to do, so in the end it was surely for the better. My own 2 cents on what happened, but most of all about your feelings 😊. You say: "The biggest damage is the psychological one, cause my faith in the FJ, which has been rock solid until now, is somewhat weakened 😩". I say, do NOT feel that way. I also felt disappointed when I had my first 2 pop outs, as until then my FJ had proved extremely reliable, and almost unstoppable. Yet, the car was not at fault, in both situation; rather, I was the one to blame, and reviewing what had caused the 2 pop outs restored the confidence in my FJ, and made me learn very useful lessons. The first pop out was due to my counter-steering up a slope, with too much deflation (on a hot summer afternoon). The second one was due to my coming down sideways on a slip-face, onto the hard flat terrain. In both cases, if I had made different choices, I would not have had any pop outs (but, with hind sight, thankfully, I had). Referring to what happened to you yesterday, I am not pointing my finger at you (yes, your tires were badly matched to the rims), but: 1) you may have deflated too much, adopting a deflation point based on your previous tire set-up, and 2) you may have missed the right line of exit from the dune you were criss-crossing. Again, probably your old tire set-up would not have penalized you, but take this opportunity to look back, correct whatever went wrong in terms of "human choices", and keep, or even strengthen your confidence in your FJ, an in your driving skills. Now that you have found the proper solution for your tires, do not forget what you may have learned in terms of choices you can make while driving, and surely you will come back on the sand as an unstoppable force. See you soon out there!!

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. Drive Details Level: Newbie and above (All Level) Meeting time: 3:00 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: https://maps.app.goo.gl/V1SQwxnUEXJLGh4X6 Action Plan: Usually members choose a drive based on location and Marshal, and we start creating expectations about it from its posting. This time we'll just have to go with the flow, and keep our minds open to visiting any kind of terrain and location, as well as using all the available Newbie skills. No giveaways at the moment, other then the drive will take place between Sharjah and Dubai. Stay tuned for more. 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: 7:00 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

Last bit of introduction to the drive. We'll divert from the explored track in correspondence of the red circles, where we aim to explore some long range longitudinal dunes (Image 1) If time permits, we'll cross the tarmac and cross a small plateau of very soft dunes (blue marked area), ending right on the black mountain rocks (Image 2).

@Chris Wingcopy that. Thank you. See you tomorrow.

Hello @Chris Wing. I have just realized that you are signed up in 2 drives tomorrow morning: this one, and @marks drive in Lisaili. Can you please confirm which drive will you join? Thanks for your prompt response.

Dear Desertnauts last info about tomorrow's drive. Please follow Google Maps to reach the meeting and deflation point, which will be just off the small tarmac road leading to the Ritz-Carlton Desert Resort (you may find signs indicating the resort on the motorways). This small road will be off to the right on the Al Shohadaa Road, shortly after crossing (or turning from) E611, just a short while beyond the Sheikh Khalifa Specialty Hospital. Once reached the meeting point, please park either on the right side of the tarmac road, or in the gravel space to the left of the tarmac. We will be using Carnity Channel 1 (446.006). As already mentioned, the nature of the drive will be easy relatively easy from the technical point of view. Due to the nature of the terrain, with a great deal of vegetation (grass, shrubs and trees), and the presence of many locals' tracks, we'll drive at a leisurely pace, occasionally facing soft sand, some sharp drops or climbs (both short), and looking to practice some ridge riding on the very soft tops of longitudinal dunes. Together with the very different, almost savannah-like nature, these will be the major attraction of the drive. We'll divert from the tracks I have already driven in this area, to go looking for a couple of fields of these longitudinal dunes, while we are sure to find them toward the end of the drive. The convoy order reflects, once again in my drives, the composite nature of the drivers, equally split between Intermediates and Fewbie (or FB+). Therefore, I'd like to alternate Intermediates (our "veterans") with Fewbies and Fewbies Plus (or "juniors", relatively speaking), as follows: @Anvar Sadath Bekal (V) at Second Lead) @PaoloMaraziti (J) at #3 @imranaasghar81 (V) at #4 @Chris Wing (J) at #5 @Rizwanm2 (V) at #6 @Nithin Vaidir (J) at #7 @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ (V) will be Center Forward @Niki (V) at #9 @JeromeFJ (J) at #10 @Goutam(V) at #11 @Pacific (J) at #12 @Watteau (V) at #13, and @Foxtrot Oscar Sweeping the convoy. @Niki (V) at #11 @JeromeFJ (J) at I have also tried to pair Intermediate "tutors" with Fewbie members according to their cars' make, so that the former may provide guidance, and the latter may follow the example of a more experienced driver, with the same car, on the same terrain. Looking forward to seeing you ready to go at 5:30AM (please, sharp, considering the longer drive for those coming from Dubai). Have a great end of the week.

Thanks @Ehab for advising.