Ale Vallecchi

Very well done @Syed Raza Hussain. Enjoy the upgrade

Congrats @Yasas Dharmadasa. Very much earned promotion!

Way to go @Christian Andras!! Very deserved promotion. See you soon for an upgraded adventure.

Well done @Gok Krish. As you can see, your enthusiastic participation in the drives has been promptly rewarded.

Well done @marks. Hard work and enthusiasm always pay off. See you soon.

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 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 Off-roader 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: Fewbie and above When: 24 October 2020, Saturday Meeting time: 6:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Action Plan: IMPORTANT NOTICE - This is an exploration drive, in a little travelled area for off-roaders, in rather technical terrain. The pace may be slow, and the skills required will include finesse and control, due to the need to pick the right path through an environment with abundant vegetation (shrubs first, then trees), with sporadic animal farms, sets of soft sand dunes with little room to maneuver, and open sabkhas. This drive will test the complete set of off-roading skills, providing a good opportunity to make you a more complete desert driver. Meeting Point: https://goo.gl/maps/UsVoyEaC9YdZdJbG8 IMPORTANT: There was a diversion after turning from E311 toward E611. Follow the signs to the Ritz Carlton Desert Resort. 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), face mask, rubber gloves, enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Approximate finish time: 10:30 AM THIS IS A COMPRESSOR ONLY DRIVE. WE WILL END THE DRIVE AT A POINT WHICH IS NOT CLOSE TO AN AIR LINE. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A COMPRESSOR, PLEASE DO NOT SIGN UP FOR THIS DRIVE. IF YOU ARRIVE AND HAVE NO COMPRESSOR YOU WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO JOIN THE DRIVE. LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 Fewbies and above drivers. 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. 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 BELOW CALENDAR

THE DAY OF THE DRONE: Pink Rock to Badayer "Red Sand Bonanza - Drive Report It doesn't happen everyday to have the opportunity of driving with a professional drone pilot, with his drone in tow. As soon as @Lorenzo Candelpergher suggested that we shoot some aerial footage during the drive, we jumped for joy, and immediately organized an extended itinerary, to include both scenic sites (Pink Rock at dawn is certainly a sight to behold), and more action-packed locations (Badayer's dune pyramids and bowls). After deflating in the morning's chill (17 degrees....brrrrr), we moved, while still in the dark, toward Pink Rock. Once at its base, Lorenzo's drone took off in the first light of day, to shoot the climb through the rock's fork, then hovered to record the sun rising over the desert and the mountains behind. Can't wait to see the footage. With the first scene completed, we proceeded to cross the plateau that separates Pink Rock from Badayer. Unfortunately, the crossing was made unpleasant by the enormous number of tracks, covering virtually every dune, hill, bump, step, pocket, and anything else on the ground. A clear reminder that off-roading season has started, it makes one long for the past months, when driving in these same areas used to be as smooth as silk. Getting closer to Big Red (and the "Tall Dune Before Big Red") it became clear that track-wise things were not getting better. On the contrary, the closer we got to the big dunes, the more we realized how much damage to the terrain the Friday climbing frenzy can make. Nonetheless, we managed a few bumpy ins and outs of a couple of Big red's bowls, before we decided to move into Badayer proper, pointing toward the farthest bowls, in the hope that less cars had reached them the day before. Luckily, that was the case, so that the convoy managed to ride up and down a couple of tall dune pyramids, with a synchronism that went from rusty, at first, to smooth and coordinated toward the end. At this point (we were actually at the furthest point from Badayer Shops) Lorenzo's drone made its second and final appearance, to shoot what I hope will be very nice footage of myself, @Rinelle Sanaani, @Yousef Alimadadi, @Mehmet Volga and @Jun Zamora riding ridges, scaling bowls, criss-crossin over to the successive one, then up, down and across again, in a series of four adjacent bowls. Until the batteries ran out, and we had to all get back from being actors in an action scene, to just being the desert wanderers that we usually are. In fact, we had wandered so much that we found ourselves almost at the foot of Iftar Bowl, and following a couple of stucks on increasingly soft (and once again, very marked) sand, we decided it was time to write "The End" to this drive. In the end, we had driven for 4:20 hours and 60.5 Km, at an average speed of 14 Km/h (22 Km/h while moving) and almost 1 Km of vertical climbing. Thank everybody for enduring the long and challenging drive. Have a great week, and look forward to seeing you soon.

THE OTHER SIDE OF QUDRA: Access (restricted) to a still unspoiled desert - Trip Report While many clubs scoff at Qudra as an entry-level, all too busy and easy desert to drive, only few understand, and enjoy, its diversity, openness, and wild (in terms of fauna) feeling. Thankfully so; while most look for thrills in the big bowl areas, or near the famous Rocks, Carnity continues to discover new locations, in and around the Qudra Basin. The so called Bab al Shams area is one of them, along with South Solar Park, Lisaili, Margham and Little Sweihan. Yet, what makes this area interesting and diverse, was also the reason for a delayed departure, from an unplanned deflating point. In fact, as we reached the original meeting point, we were chased away by a zealous watchman, who must have started patrolling the area only since a few days. That is, since a new (almost invisible) "no entry" sign has been put up, exactly at our deflation point. The sign seems to have been put up to protect migratory birds who use this part of Qudra to nest and reproduce, according to the guard's supervisor, who eventually allowed us to proceed into the desert, and deflate far away from the tarmac road, and the protected area. After this initial delay, the drive started very smoothly, and progressed even more pleasantly. It was so smooth that it soon became clear that the convoy was more like a Fewbie Minus, rather then a Newbie group. So I decided to bump up the drive to a gentle Fewbie level, practicing higher side-slopes (this particular area, near our entry point, is a side-slope paradise), and a few dunes' criss-crossings. We still had a few refusals and a couple of stucks (both on crests), but these actually gave the whole convoy the opportunity to pause, and analyze the stucks' dynamics, thus improving the understanding of the dos and donts of this dune crossing technique. The drive ended at the Bab al Shams tarmac road, not before practicing a low and safe ridge riding. All of this without meeting other convoys, and driving mostly on virgin sand. Big thanks go to @Foxtrot Oscar (Angela) for sweeping the convoy on the fly, assisting on all recoveries (self and aided ones), as well as to @Lukas Lewis, who found himself thrown into the Second Lead position, which he did manage in a safe and calm manner. To all other drivers - @Pickey Singh, @Yasas Dharmadasa, @Sandeep Padhi, @Archibald Jurdi, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Karthik Krishnakumar, @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan, @Shital Somaiya, @Athula Dharmadada and @Ranjan Das - I can only say "bravi", as you all drove with very good skills (higher than the average Newbie), facing everything with enthusiasm and willingness to learn. Good job. In the end, we drove 3:54 hours, and 49 Kms, at an average speed of 13 Km/h (24 Km/h while moving). Thanks to all of you for the nice drive. Have a great week, and see you soon.

Congrats @Pickey Singh on your new car. You couldn't choose better !! You have driven well indeed, and will surely continue to improve, quickly, as you'll learn to trust your new car, and yourself in it. A little bit like a horse rider and his mount, there will soon be a "connection" between yourself and the car. An FJ, in particular, regardless of its limitations in terms of visibility (this is its only shortcoming), it's a true workhorse, capable of taking you anywhere, if you let it. Good to see you this week-end, and looking forward to seeing you soon again.

Dear Desertnauts. Let's get ready for the Red Sand Bonanza PLUS the Drone Challenge (by Lorenzo). As already mentioned, with the goal to shoot professional drone footage over Pink Rock at dawn, we'll anticipate the meeting time at 2 December Cafereria at 5:30AM SHARP. We'll deflate quickly and climb PR to wait for the sun to rise. Then we'll head toward Big Red (ant "The Big Dune Before Big Red") through the dunes' plateau, and after crossing the tarmac road, we'll head into Badayer proper, looking for a couple of suitable bowls to ride, while the drone will work its magic. The convoy order will be the following: @Rinelle Sanaani Second Lead @Yousef Alimadadi at #3 @Mehmet Volga will be #4 @Jun Zamora at #5 and @Lorenzo Candelpergher will sweep. Once we reach the meeting point, please tune into Carnity Channel #2 (446.031). Looking forward to see you tomorrow before dawn. Prepare yourselves and your cars to look good for the cameras

Dear @Hisham Masaad thanks a lot for signing in tomorrow's drive. However, this will be an Intermediate drive, while you have just joined the Club, hence your current rank is not enough for you to join the drive. Therefore, I will have to take your name off the list. I still hope to see you soon in another drive.

ATTENTION: EXACT MEETING PLACE There will be another Carnity drive leaving from nearby our meeting point (Sri's Absolute Newbies). Please reach the EXACT LOCATION listed in the post, which is little more down the dirt road from the turnoff near the roundabout. The other convoy will be meeting at the very entrance of that dirt road. Please proceed further down until you'll see my FJ. See attached image. Thanks a lot.

Well noted @Vijaysekhar. Thanks for the update.

Dear Desertnauts. Time to get ready for tomorrow's drive. Please make sure you show up punctually at 6:00AM sharp. Those who will be early may start to deflate, looking for a pressure of 12-13 PSI. Once you reach the meeting and deflation point you may tune into Carnity Channel #4 (446.081). We'll start the drive heading in an easterly direction, through a first set of tighter dunes, to reach quickly the long, open dunes. We'll then make our way slowly to the south-west quadrant of the Qudra basin, in the direction of the Bab al Shams Resort, through a mix of long range dunes and some lower, tighter dunes (we'll try to minimize this portion), before reaching our exit point on the tarmac road heading back to Qudra Parking. The convoy order will be the following: @Vijaysekhar will be my Second Lead @Athula Dharmadada will follow in place #3 @Pickey Singh will start at #4 @Yasas Dharmadasa will be #5 @Archibald Jurdi will take #6 @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan will be #7 @Ranjan Das will start at #8 @Arda Yagcioglu will wear #9 @Lukas Lewis with the prestigious jersey #10 @Karthik Krishnakumar at #11 @Sandeep Padhi will be #12 @Shital Somaiya will take spot #13 and @Foxtrot Oscar (Angela) will close the convoy in the Flying Sweep position. Looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow, I wish you a great evening.

Dear @Rinelle Sanaani, @Jun Zamora, @Yousef Alimadadi and @Mehmet Volga. I have received a proposal by @Lorenzo Candelpergher, who is also an authorized drone pilot, to be able to fly a drone during our Saturday's trip, to take shots and movies of our convoy driving through Pink Rock, Big Red and Badayer. This will be part of a "Drone Challenge" which eventually will put together different Carnity drives, with a spectacular set of images. In order to exploit in the best possible way the different hours of the drive, and the different terrains, I would like to move the meeting time to 5:30 SHARP (always at 2 December Cafeteria, as already posted). This will allow us, with everybody's compliance and rapid deflating, to move into Pink Rock proper, and climb it, just before sunrise (first light coming at 5:55am) and shoot the sunrise (scheduled at 6:18am) from the top of PR. Please mind this change, and aknowledge here. Thanks a lot, and see you Saturday.

Perfect @Lorenzo Candelpergher. I'll move the meeting time to 5:30 (knowing the exciting work you'll be doing with the drone, I am sure they'll all be happy to do it). This will allow us to climb Pink Rock just before dawn, so you can shoot the sun rising. Then we can take more shots either on Big Red and/or in Badayer, choosing a bowl that suites you best. Thanks for this very nice opportunity.

Hello @Pickey Singh. Yes!!! You have been added to the drive. See you on Friday.

Ciao Lorenzo. Surely it will be great to have some drone action!! Just wandering if it would be best to anticipate the meeting time to 5:30 (or 5:45), so that we can be moving at 6:00 sharp, and gain some time to reach Badayer earlier (and find a bit firmer sand). What type of action you have in mind? Also check if Badayer itself is also green zone (on the other side of the highway, past Big Red).

Hello @Ahab Shamaa. I am adding you to the WL, at the moment of my reply you are #2. Thanks a lot Hello @Bhaskar. At the moment you are #3 in the WL. Thanks

Dear Desertnauts. A few tidbits to wet your appetite before this Saturday's Intermediate drive. We are looking to execute a fast paced drive, starting from 2 December Cafeteria, climbing one side of Pink Rock, to circle it and dive into the red sand plateau that separates it from Big Red, and Badayer's entry point. In fact, the plan is to extend the drive to Badayer's pyramid dunes, skipping from one to the next, across the technical areas that separate each group, until it's time to head back to Badayer Shops. Even though this area's most famous attractions are Iftar Bowl and Super Bowl, we'll focus on some of the other, un-named, pyramids, to the west of our entry point, looking to enjoy surfing in and out of them, up and down their tall slopes. @Najeeb Mohammed, @Lorenzo Candelpergher, @Rinelle Sanaani, @Jun Zamora, @Yousef Alimadadi and @Mehmet Volga, be concentrated, be motivated, be ready to have some good fun, riding as a single unit on this red sand playground. More news will follow on Friday. In the meantime, enjoy your week.

Dear Desertnauts, time to provide some information about this coming Friday's Newbie drive. While most drives in Qudra start near Qudra Lakes or from Solar Park, we have chosen to start from an alternative point, along the road to Bab al Shams. This is the western quadrant of the Qudra area, which is characterized by long sets of open white sand dunes, sometimes separated from each other by small technical areas (where the dunes are lower but closer, and call for a more careful navigation and a more controlled style of driving). The area is also still a part of the Al Marmoon Conservation Area, so it will present the opportunity to drive by a few feeding and watering stations for gazelles and oryxes, which we hope to be able to see along our route. Part of the drive will take place in areas with quite an abundant low, bushy vegetation, while we may will also encounter some solitary thorny trees, both near the start and toward our exit point. The skills we will be able to practice will be straight crossing of dunes and controlled side-sloping, all at a leisurely pace. We will take some time during the drive to give a technical briefing on some of these skills, and more. It would be best to be carrying a compressor, to re-inflate at the end of the drive, as the nearest gas station (Adnoc at Qudra Parking) has a very weak and slow compressor, and is usually taken by storm by all unequipped off-roaders. @Sandeep Padhi, @Yasas Dharmadasa, @Lukas Lewis, @Yusuf Esaf, @Archibald Jurdi, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Karthik Krishnakumar, @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan, @Shital Somaiya, @Athula Dharmadada, @Ranjan Das and @Vijaysekhar, Welcome to the drive. I will provide more information before the drive itself. In the meantime, enjoy the week.

Hello @Pickey Singh. I will add you to the WL.

Hello @Lukas Lewis. It will be good to meet. The drive will be in a very nice area with the possibility to test and work on several skills. See you on Friday.

EXPLORATION DRIVE "SEA TO MOUNTAIN" COMPLETED - Trip Report Fog, crispy wet sand, un-scalable dunes, free ranging camels, wild donkeys, longitudinal (Seif) dunes that suck your car down into their molasses-like sand, and, most amazingly, wide open plain areas with the look and feel of a savannah. This are some of the amazing situations and sights we found and saw during this first ever exploration of this un-named area, between the new Ritz-Carlton Al Wadi Desert Resort and the farming/industrial village of Al Ghail. Fog was the protagonist of the first hour of the drive. It hung on the whole area like a blanket, with visibility of less than 20 meters. Tired of waiting for it to clear, we ventured off the marked track, only to be bounced back on that same track by an un-scalable sand wall, made very slippery by the thin layer of wet sand on top, and at the same time very sticky by the soft sand underneath. Hence, we followed the marked track around the first group of dunes, very careful not to lose ourselves, having to venture out of the car at times, to take a better look at the many pockets and unseen drops that suddenly materialized in front of the lead. With only a stuck and a few refusals, and having to re-route only a couple of times, we finally found our way out of the fog, to emerge in an area inhabited by free ranging camels and wild donkeys, and characterized by stunning longitudinal dunes (or Seif), a few kilometers long and separated from each other by vegetation-rich stretches of flat land. The first and second sets of these amazing dune formations were divided by the greatest surprise of the whole drive: two huge sabkha areas with a completely flat and smooth surface made of an almost black hard soil, dotted with lonely acacia trees. Beautiful places for camping, in fact one of these "savannahs" was occupied by a small group of locals training their falcons. Here we rounded up our cars in a circle around a giant tree, for a quick stretch and to allow Najeeb to play with his drone, (which was luckily spared by the falcons 😅). From here we progressed toward the tarmac road which separates the industrial area of Al Ghail from its farming district. After crossing the tarmac we proceeded into the last stretch of the drive: a small but interesting plateau, full of intricate and very soft yellow dunes (some of which with hugely tall, Liwa-like, slip faces), which ends abruptly where the desert literally slams into the dark foothills of the Hajar Mountains. We could finally say: Mission accomplished. Thanks to all the Explorers who joined this "blindfolded" drive: @Wrangeld and @Jeepie, for advising me on a couple of tricky re-directions, which surely saved us a lot of headaches and precious time, @Yousef Alimadadi and @Jun Zamora for showing excellent control and continuing to show impressive progress in their driving skills, @Pancho for relaying all radio information to the back side of the convoy (even adding some personal touches and interpretations to the messages, that kept the whole convoy entertained), @Desert Dweller for managing to drive extremely well even at that horrific hour (it must have felt like sleep-walking) and @Foxtrot Oscar for sharing the ride and drive with Jamy, bringing her enthusiasm and energy along, @Najeeb Mohammed for documenting his first Advance trip from the sky, and finally @Kalahari, who took the sweep's position in great stride, and perhaps felt at home on a terrain which, in places, greatly reminds of some parts of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana. At the end, we drove for 60.3 Km, in 3:44 hours, at an average speed of 16 Km/h (22 Km/h while moving), and reaching from a lowest altitude of -63 m under the sea level to 230 meters (with almost 1 Km of total climb). Looking forward to the next Exploration drive (somewhere out there there are still little visited stretches of desert waiting for us), I wish you all a great week. No worries. It's very much appreciated. We'll soon post this drive again, as we now know that it can be adjusted also to a Fewbie level. In the meantime, I am looking forward to driving with you (and to your promotion, soon),