Ale Vallecchi

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: Intermediate and above Meeting time: 7:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Dropped pin https://maps.app.goo.gl/ee1gy2UjdegK9wfz5 Action Plan: On the tracks of the Desert Trophy Championship's winners route, we'll aim for each of the challenge's 5 waypoints, along the route chosen by Sir Richard, and which allowed him to beat by a large margin all other teams. It will be a challenging track, going straight "as the crow's fly" from each waypoint to the next, across tough technical areas, and a few long range dunes. We may even time ourselves against the winners' clock, in which case, we'll have to extend the drive through new terrain, unrelated to the DCT, which was concluded in record time. 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: 10:30 AM 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

Dear Desertnauts Last bits of info for tomorrow's drive. The meeting point will be to the left of the tarmac road from Qudra's Last Exit to Solar Park. We will gather on the left of the tarmac (watch out for oncoming traffic), and will line up below the pylons. Once arrived, please start deflating, and tune into Carnity radio channel #2 (446.036). We will decide if we'll turn left, toward Lisaili, or right, toward Qudra, tomorrow morning. Let's keep some of the mystery 😉.Therefore, also the convoy order will be unveiled tomorrow morning. In the meantime, @khurram.k, @takeshi sobue, @Azeem M, @Simon Dawood, @Ankit Jain, @Mark D, @ahmed salama, @Luke Johnson, @Rouaj, @Goh KP, @Belal Aldaour, @Harshad Ashraf, @Sunil Mathew and @Russ, enjoy the evening, and see you tomorrow morning.

Hello @Pieter Potgieter. Sorry to hear that. Get well soon.

Hello @khurram.k. Even though I hadn't heard from you anymore, I will sign you IN for this drive. Thanks and see you tomorrow. Hi @Pieter Potgieter. I will ADD you in the drive anyways. No worries. See you tomorrow. Thanks

@Rouajyou are in the drive. Thanks. @Ankit Jain you have also been added to the drive, as @Rouaj.Thanks to both.

Based on the latest news, the new waiting list is the following: @khurram.k is #1 @Rouaj IS #2 @Ankit Jain #3, and @Pieter Potgieter is #4. Please confirm if you wish to join the drive, and I will sign you up, based on the response of each. Thanks

Hi @Nathan, as a "first responder" you are still in time to join, if you confirm ASAP. Thanks

Dear Desertnauts, as we the drive date is approaching, I would like to close the drive, and confirm all the drivers. Since many have asked to be placed in the Wait List, I have tried to manage it in order of request, based on whether the request was for a 1st or 2nd drive. Based on this, I have asked some of you to confirm their wish to join the drive. So far this is the situation: @Suresh K you would be #1, but have not answered my query @Nathan you would be #2, and you also have not acknowledged my request for confirmation. I will put you in the WL's waiting list 😊, and will see if I will be able to accommodate both in case you respond later. @khurram.k you are now IN the drive as the 12th driver: PLEASE CONFIRM if OK @Karthik Raptor you are #2 in the updated WL @Rouaj you are #3 in the WL @Ankit Jain you are #4 in the WL Please, each respond if you are still interested in joining, and I'll let you if the driver in front of each in the WL does not respond. Thanks a lot.

Hello @Nathan. I still have one spot open for Saturday's AM drive. Would you like to join? Thanks

Hello @Suresh K. There is one open spot in the drive. Should I add you? Thanks

Hi @Rouaj. You have been added to the WL. Thanks

@Thomas Varghese the exit will be in the Ganthoot area in any case. It's just a matter of which road we'll reach, but both will be close to Ganhtoot.

Thanks @Sunil Mathew. I will remove you. Sorry to miss you.

OK @Adhir Saxena. Sorry to see you go. Thanks for the update.

Dear Desertnauts final touches on tomorrow's drive. The meeting point will be at Qudra's Last Exit area, just beyond the ADNOC gas station's exit, next to the Spicy Village restaurant. DO NOT FOLLOW GOOGLE MAPS' DIRECTIONS, as they would make you drive on the tarmac on the other side of the road, then back to the ADNOC station (for some unknown reason): just look left as soon as you exit the gas station, before reaching the tarmac, and we'll be there. We will deflate here, as soon as each driver has arrived, and we'll drive a couple of Km's on the sand track parallel to the tarmac road to Bab al Shams, to reach and pass the large farm property just on the outskirts of Qudra's dunes, which as a private area does not allow us to choose it as a meeting point. The radio channel will be chosen on the spot. This will be the convoy order, based on the tutoring principle of higher ranked drivers each leading a lower ranked member: @Adhir Saxena will be Second Lead @Sunil Mathew will be #3 @Santoso Marjuki will follow at #4 @Matt.T at #5 @Mohamad Anwer will take spot #6 @Thomas Varghese from spot #7 will be followed by @Naim Aoun at #8 and @Rsjiv Samuel at #9, while @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil will Sweep the convoy Recoveries will be made by the more senior members, under my supervision, if necessary. Remember, this is a pre-weekend drive, and has been designed to be entertaining but as relaxing and as enjoyable as possible. Bring along some refreshments, as we'll take a break to have a "Te' nel Deserto" toward the end of the drive. The exit, most likely will be at either Ganthoot, on E14, or along the Bab al Shams road from Qudra to Ganthoot. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow. Have a nice evening.

Hello @Simon Dawood. There is one open spot in the drive. Would you like me to sign you up? Thanks

Hello @Azeem M. One spot has opened up. Would you like me to add you? Thanks

Dear Desertnauts. @Bernard Kalaani, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Rsjiv Samuel, @Mohamad Anwer, @Adhir Saxena, @Thomas Varghese, @Naim Aoun and @Santoso Marjuki, welcome to this Mid-week drive. Just a few pointers, before handing out the convoy numbering, tomorrow afternoon. As mentioned in the drive's presentation, "Il Te' nel Deserto" is the original title of "The Sheltering Sky" a 1990 award winning movie by Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci, with Debra Winger and John Malkovich. Immediately after WW2 a couple arrives in Northern Africa, and ventures into the desert, travelling eventually as far as Niger, on a camel caravan route. Everyone in Italy has heard about the movie, which became very famous worldwide thanks to its stunning photography (by Oscar winner Vittorio Storaro) and the sound-track, also by Oscar winner Ryuichi Sakamoto (you can look it up as The Sheltering Sky Soundtrack on Spotify). As you'll have guessed, the Italian title means "A Tea in the Desert", and as such it has become a catchphrase, used referring to any outing to any desert (usually by Italian tourists visiting Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt or other friendly desert destinations). In this case, I have thought of making our own caravan, from Qudra's oasis, across a mix of terrains, to reach the date palm trees of Ganthoot, under which we will enjoy our own "tea in the desert" just before sunset. Besides dunes, small natural springs, mud formations, sabkhas and palm trees, we'll see oryx (usually quite a lot in the Ganthoot area), so bring your camera (and become your own Oscar winning photographer), download a suitable soundtrack (the original one or otherwise), and carry your own favorite brand and blend of tea (or coffee), to have toward the end of the drive, under a lonely palm tree, miraculously surviving amidst the sand. It will be a great and relaxing beginning of the long National Holiday weekend. Final update, convoy numbering and radio channel, coming tomorrow.

Dear @Azeem M, therefore you will be #1 in the WL. Thanks

Shaaz and Ale Explore Bab al Mutawha - Drive Report "If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished?" - Rumi I used (and mostly still am) irritated by technical areas. Even though, on one hand, they are less nerve wreaking than adrenaline packed long climbs, fast ridge-riding, or steep side sloping, on the other hand they break the flow of the drive, bring along a lot of bumping around, hide pop-outs and stucks behind every dune, and seem to go on endlessly. Nonetheless, as I had promised myself after the DCT, I would need to have my "desert wolf" fur rubbed the wrong way, if I wanted to polish my arsenal of off-roading skills to as much perfection as possible. Hence this drive, in a seemingly innocent, yet extremely technical, area of Abu Dhabi: a thin string of dunes, never more than 3 or 4 cordons deep and around 15 Km long, sandwiched between Sweihan Road and Bab al Mutawah Road, just before the intersection with E75. From a relatively hidden entry point, through an automatic gate, driving around a camel farm, and through a small gap in a kilometers ling fence, one is thrown into a heap of tall and extremely soft dunes, at first built in steps, where each ridge hides a short drop into a pocket, then a climb onto the next ridge, and so on, until from the dunes' top the flat sabkha and farms on the other side (the ones parallel to Bab al Mutawah Rd.) become visible, and it's time to revert and snake your way back toward Sweihan Rd.. While climbing the first of these "zigurrat-like" dunes we knew we were in for a slow and challenging drive. There would be a lot of rubbing, hence a lot of polishing to go through. It couldn't have been a more challenging location for @Shaaz Sha's first lead. We had planned to switch drives after having found the right entry, and having reached the furthest point along the corridor, Abu Dhabi's side. Having done so, Shaaz started his lead without batting an eye, undeterred by the couple of stucks we had in the first 5 minutes of the drive, and unfazed by the difficulty of the terrain. With calm and assertiveness, he led through the complex terrain, choosing routes that certainly pushed the drive to a Fewbie Plus (at times even Intermediate). Other members of the convoy have already testified to the difficulties that the area offered; I will only add that, contrarily to most of my drives, yet according to plan, it took us 2:50 hours to drive a little over 20 Km, at an average moving speed of 19KM/h, but with a total average speed of just below 7Km/h. Sometimes, even Long Range Desert Patrols have to crawl through enemy lines, and grit it out. A very resilient drive by @Santoso Marjuki, the only Fewbie in the convoy, who was forced to up his game, with only minor errors due to distraction, rather than lack of skills. Very nicely driven by all the others, in particular @Adhir Saxena, with the less powerful, yet very maneuverable car, and @Zed, facing Adhir's exact opposite situation (great power, and less agility), as well as @Looper exploring his car's new functionality, @Sunil Mathew perfecting his Intermediate skills, @Thomas Varghese, facing the churned, soft sands of the convoy's rear, and @Tbone, elegantly driving with ease as our Sweep (BTW, how's the car now?). Thank you very much to all the Desertnauts, and hope to see you soon in another drive.

Thanks @Simon Dawood. You will be #2 in the WL, as first drives take precedence in the WL. Thanks.

Hi @Thomas Varghese. I have to leave this up to you, as only you can gauge your energy reserves. Will you plan to camp out at the Lisa meeting point, as many will do?

Dear @Azeem M, is this your first or second drive of the weekend? Thanks Dear @Simon Dawood will this be your first or second drive of the weekend? Thanks

Hello @kiranshinde. You will be #1 in the WL. Thanks Hello @khurram.k. You are #2 in the WL. Thanks