Ale Vallecchi

@Thomas Varghese I look worried 😂. Must have been on that roller coaster dune.

Hello @Senthil Kumar. Sorry for my delay, as I just saw your message upon my return at home. I saw you have signed up with Pancho's Fewbie, and in consideration of the fact that that drive has 4 members signed in, while mine has 12, I would suggest that you still join your first drive with Pancho, so that we can balance the drives' numbers. I hope you understand this, which is not a rejection from my part, but an attempt to have equally balanced drives throughout the club. I am sorry if this disappoints you, and I hope you understand. Thanks a lot.

Dear Desertnauts, in preparation for the drive, here are the latest news. First, about reaching the meeting point, be advised that there will be other Carnity convoy in that very same area (along the same track), meeting for their drives. Our convoy will be the last one, in correspondence of the published meeting place. While you reach it, after turning off from the tarmac and crossing the bike track, you will pass these other Carnity convoys: do not stop, and drive all the way to our meeting point, where I should be waiting on a black Xterra. Once again, set the published meeting point on your Google Maps, follow the directions accordingly, and please join the last one of the convoys that you'll see, further into the gravel track. Secondly, once you reach the meeting point, please tune into Carnity channel #5 (462.887). Once arrived you may start deflating to 12-13 PSI, depending on your car and type of tires. The convoy order will be the following: @Luca Palanca Falsini will take Second Lead position @Aravind Padmaraju at #3 @Thomas Varghese as #4 @varunmehndiratta is driver #5 @N@ved will be #6 @Islam Soliman will anchor the convoy at Center Forward @Niki Patel will follow at #8 @Arda Yagcioglu will in position #9 @Denizzalbayrak with shirt #10 @Anand Nataraj you are #11 @Jack Thomas will follow at #12, and @Ahab Shamaa will Sweep the group to safety. Now, let's end the day on a positive note, enjoy a relaxing evening, and prepare for a challenging Fewbie drive, comforted by the fact that we have a strong and experienced convoy, which will do its best to make the newer members feel at ease with this long drive, through every terrain and practice grounds that the Emirate of Dubai has to offer. See you tomorrow.

@Denizzalbayrak, it's confirmed. Thanks a lot. Please sign out of the other drive.

Hi again @Denizzalbayrak. Sorry to bother, but I saw you are also signed up in another drive tomorrow. Can you please confirm which one you will join, so we can be sure of the convoy's composition? Thanks a lot for your help.

Hi @Denizzalbayrak. Just checking if you saw my message about your being IN tomorrow's drive. Please confirm, Thanks a lot.

Hello @Aus Alzubaidi. Sorry to hear that. Hope all will be well. See you soon. Hello @Denizzalbayrak. You are IN the drive. Can you please confirm? Thanks

Hi @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ. Sorry to hear this. Hope to see you soon. Hello @Aus Alzubaidi. Are you able to join tomorrow's drive? Please confirm if so. Thanks a lot.

Yes @Islam Soliman you are in. See you Friday. Thanks.

Congrats @marks

Great news @Tamas Hoffmann. Well done.

Actually after Islam and Aus @Senthil Kumar is #3, and @Denizzalbayrak is #4. Sorry for the confusion.

@Ahab Shamaa I have added you to the drive to close the convoy at 14 cars on total. @Islam Soliman, @Aus Alzubaidi and @Denizzalbayrak you are now respectively #1, 2 and #3 in the WL. Thanks to all.

Congrats @Pancho. Looking forward to drive together.

BRAVA @Vanessa8580 !! Super deserved. You put in an enormous amount of passion (first of all) and hard work, to master your car, adapt to its characteristics, and extract the best out of it under any circumstance. You never gave up and always came back stronger from any setback, using even the smallest events to learn and improve. Plus, you are a pioneer: looking forward to seeing the first Carnity all girls convoy sinuously carving its path through the dunes (why not at...Pink Rock).

Sure @Denizzalbayrak. You'll be #4 on the WL. Thanks

Dear Desertnauts. It has taken a little longer than usual to post the drive's information, as I decided to do a recce drive today, to check the route. Having double checked the itinerary (which we had previously driven only with Advance and Intermediate) I have to say that it should be a challenging, but doable, Fewbie drive. The most difficult part will be at the beginning of the drive: a tight, technical area, which we'll need to cross before entering the long, higher dunes leading to Ganthoot. It will require some patience and perseverance, but we'll surely manage through it. After that, a sea of rolling sand, almost virgin, so few are the tracks on the light yellow dunes, alternating between a lower, open landscape, and deeper bowls strung along taller cordons of sand. Once reached Ganthoot, south-west of our entry point, we'll go north-east, on a terrain of long dines separated by numerous mud formations, toward the military compound which separates this area from Little Sweihan. We'll drive on a sabkha next to the fence, past which we'll move east, into a set of tall dunes much richer with low, grassy vegetation. Once crossed this area, we'll decide, based on the convoy's behavior and cumulative skills, and the time remaining, weather to go south toward Little Sweihan proper (a challenging line of tall dunes, with soft sand bowls), or proceed north toward Solar Park, crossing the last sabkhas and low, technical dunes. @N@ved, @varunmehndiratta, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Niki Patel, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @AlexPol, @Thomas Varghese, @Jack Thomas, @Anand Nataraj, @Aravind Padmaraju, considering the planned length of the drive (which should take no less than 4 hours), please make sure that all is in order with the car, and that you have enough refreshments (solid and liquid) to stay well hydrated and nourished well into the day. We'll stop every hour or so, depending on how we'll be moving along, to take breaks and rest a bit. More news on Thursday. In the meantime, enjoy your week.

Hello @Aus Alzubaidi. You are #4 on the WL. Thanks.

@Aravind Padmaraju I saw that you are already signed up for the drive, so I'll take you off the WL. See you on Friday. Thanks.

Hi @Senthil Kumar. I will place you at #4 in the WL. Thanks

Hello @Islam Soliman. With pleasure. You will be #3 on the WL. Thanks

Hello @Ahab Shamaa. #1 on the WL. Hope to see you. Thanks. Hello @N@ved. No need for a test. We'll stay within Dubai. See you. Hello @Aravind Padmaraju. You are #2 on the WL. Thanks

@Nivin, @Mario Cornejo, @Alexander Alcala we also have discussed the possibility of organizing such clean up drives with the sponsorship and cooperation of a water company whose CEO took one of our Masterclasses (and voiced his disappointment at the pollution in the desert). Nonetheless, more than the sanitary aspect of collecting garbage - mostly plastic, glass and cans which have been exposed tsun, wind, hot and cold for quite sometimes, thus very unlikely to be infectious, if picked up with gloves and masks - the current regulations about limiting gatherings prevent us from setting up such organized, officially sponsored drives, and from advertising or raising awareness about such group activity. I believe we'll just have to wait a little longer, to tackle this issue, which is very much at heart for all of us. Surely we will be able to resume these drives in the future. At the same time, as @Rahimdad said, there will never be enough drives to solve this problem if the culture and habits of desert going people is not changed. As a club we are doing our best, but may certainly do more, by rehiterating the concept of "bringing out what we bring in" with our briefings and advertise our drives as "pollution free", marking "trash dumps" points and alerting authorities of their location (especially in wildlife protected areas, as Marshald and Leaders we could stop the drive for the time necessary to take the waypoint). I guess any idea on how to spread this awareness is welcome, as we all wish this problem to be solved (or limited).

Hello @Ahmed Wagdy. Cannot say why. I recorded on My Trails, and only see 1 track. Hope you can sort it out 😅🍀

@Robert Nammour let me know if you can open the attached file. I use My Trails, but the GPX file can be opened with many Apps (Gaia, Wikilock, My Tracks, etc.). 20210122 .gpx