Wrangeld

@Foxtrot Oscar thanks for dealing with all the admin today. Was a great drive, excellent convoy and so nice to see you from time to time on the other side of the dunes.

@varunmehndiratta @Kailas I have a new motivation for anyone arriving with a teaspoon. All shoveling will be handed over. Sad to say, pretty, in this game, us not necessarily functional.

Post Drive Report It was really a drive of two parts. The drive was going well and everyone was showing the potential of themselves and their cars. We covered all of the 'basics' that need to be covered in an Absolute Newbie drive and while we did have a few people with refusals, it was a great drive and everyone was doing fantastically well. What did we cover during the drive: Basic sand driving. Convoy and radio etiquette. Dune crossing up and over. Small rainbows on the side of dunes. Slow descents on the slip face. Driving along the top part of dunes at an angle. Blip blip recoveries. LRLRLRLR steering to get traction. Use of momentum and gravity. Covering 25+ km on an Absolute Newbie drive with a large convoy is no mean feat and is a good indicator that things were going well, until they stop going well! It's part of the 4x4 game that cars will from time to time fail. As we saw yesterday there are 2 extremes. An almost new Jeep out of the showroom was having problems negaging the 4x4 through the drive and we needed to recover this a few times and then an older Jeep had a more major problem with the power steering failing, followed by the drive train and gearbox. Let's make this clear, Carnity is a 4x4 club, we try to pass on knowledge of how to drive in the sand. We are not engineeers, mechanics or for sure, we are not desert recovery experts. We do, however, think that team work is a special thing and so if one of the team is in trouble we try to help them out. If we can, we can. If we cannot we cannot. 4x4 is an extreme hobby. Things go wrong. Our objective is to get everyone in and out safely. I stress everyone, not everything. If your car cannot be safely exited, it's going to have to wait for professionals to get it out. It's the drivers' responsibility to make sure that their car is desert worthy. We make this clear in all the Carnity materials that are there for all to see. But things do happen (and I want to make it plain also that there is no suggestion that someoen came out ot the desert without having checked the vehicle in advance - the specific situation here of a belt giving up and a massive leak occusing can happen to any car experiencing the stresses of desert driving for the first time). Our message is clear, if you think to yourself that a bit of maintenance can wait, then you are putting yourself and your team mates into a situation that it simply unfair. The trip leads give up their free time to prepare and lead a drive, not to replace professionals doing thier job. So please, for your own peace of mind, make sure that your cars are desert ready before venturing out. Then next time, hopefully, we can get all the way to the planned exit point! See you soon in the sand.

Yes. Everyone on today's drive is ready for newbie next time out. Well done everyone.

We have a few latecomers to the drive so changed the order. New convoy list is below. Morning Absolute Newbie Solar Park 29 January 2021 Attendees Level Car Radio Pos # Wrangeld Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero SWB Y 1 Lead Cornelius Wessels @Cornelius Wessels Absolute Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 2 2nd lead Pacific @Pacific Absolute Newbie Jeep Wrangler SWB Y 3 Sherzing @sherzing Absolute Newbie Jeep Wrangler LWB Y 4 Cedric Warde @Cedric Warde Absolute Newbie Jeep Wrangler LWB Y 5 Yahya Munir @Yahya Munir Absolute Newbie Suzuki Jimny Y 6 Leon Haywood @Leon Haywood Absolute Newbie Jeep Cherokee Y 7 Imran Chaudhry @Imran Chaudhry Absolute Newbie Toyota FJ Cruiser Y 8 Cesar Younes @Cesar Younes Absolute Newbie Toyota Fortuner Y 9 GD27 @GD27 Absolute Newbie Nissan Patrol Y62 Y 10 Watteau @Watteau Absolute Newbie Ford Raptor F150 Y 11 Dwain Fernandes @Dwain Fernandes Absolute Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 12 Tamas Hoffmann @Tamas Hoffmann Advance Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 13 SW

Yahya You're in the right space. See you in the morning.

We look to start at 7.00am. If you are there a few minutes early that always helps. Hi Ashwin It happens. Hope to see you on another drive.

Delighted to read on all fronts, including the social distancing

Dear Absolute Newbie drivers, We will meet tomorrow morning at this point which is closer to the main road. There are 5 Carnity drives starting from this area in the morning so we thought that changing the start point will avoid the possible confusion of your coming to the wrong drive. https://maps.app.goo.gl/oGnFd3Tn7QxMn2aJ9 Myself and @Tamas Hoffmann will be looking out for you. If possible, once you leave the main road, please put on your hazard lights so that we can recognize you and make sure you don't join the wrong convoy. As we know everyone's cars at least we can see you as you arrive. Here is the convoy numbering for the drive. Morning Absolute Newbie Solar Park 29 January 2021 Attendees Level Car Radio Pos # Wrangeld Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero SWB Y 1 Lead Cornelius Wessels @Cornelius Wessels Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 2 Pacific @Pacific Newbie Jeep Wrangler SWB Y 3 Sherzing @sherzing Newbie Jeep Wrangler LWB Y 4 Cedric Warde @Cedric Warde Fewbie Jeep Wrangler LWB Y 5 Cesar Younes @Cesar Younes Newbie Toyota Fortuner Y 6 Leon Haywood @Leon Haywood Newbie Jeep Cherokee Y 7 Imran Chaudhry @Imran Chaudhry Newbie Toyota FJ Cruiser Y 8 Dwain Fernandez @Dwain Fernandes Newbie Mitsubishi Pajero Y 9 GD27 @GD27 Newbie Nissan Patrol Y62 Y 10 Watteau @Watteau Newbie Ford Raptor F150 Y 11 Tamas Hoffmann @Tamas Hoffmann Advance Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 12 SW Please make sure that you do look through the introductory videos and training. We will go over the basic again before we leave in the briefing, but if we have to go through everything from scratch it does limit the amount of time we have to drive. Looking forward to meeting you all in the morning. My phone number for emergencies is 050 425 4574.

a long as there are tow points, the rest will be fine. We drive in stock vehicles in Carnity so I am not sure you need to do anything more than find out how to turn off the air bags and ABS

Rahimdad has said it all. Please make sure that the car has accessible tow points front and rear.

@Ashwin0223, @Leon Haywood @Cesar Younes Welcome to Carnity. thanks for signing up for the drive on Friday. I understand you have, respectively a Hummer, Cherokee and Fortuner. Please confirm that you have good condition tow points front and back and that you have watched all the Carnity briefing videos before you join the drive. These are important. If you come 'cold' to the drive, you'll find it less enjoyable. Please also share a little mit of information about your 4x4 experience if any and reasons for wanting to learn. Looking forward to seeing you Friday.

At one level, @Vanessa8580 you are simply and excellent leader - so what's all the fuss about? You deserve your promotion and I am truly delighted that your capabilities have been recognized and acknowledged. It's fantastic to welcome you wholeheartedly into the marshal group where you will continue to be an incredibly valuable member of the team. Why my first sentence? Because it should be natural that you earned this prmotion on your merits and it should not be BIG news that you happen to be female as well. Sad thing is (and I know this not just because I am the father of three daughters) when a woman does something as well or better than a man it seems to be cause for surprise or additional celebration. So, I will stick to my guns and say it again. You earned this on your merits because you are a brilliant leader, because you, probably more than anyone else did the 'hard yards', supporting the less high profile drives time and time again, because you support everyone else and help them reach their potential, because you almost always have a beaming smile on your face behind the wheel of big blue for everyone to see. And yes, it's great that you are the first female marshal in Carnity - frankly it was about time. Fortunately, there is a fantastic crop of new leaders, both men and women following in your footsteps. They have in you an incredible role model up to which to look.

@Cornelius Wessels thanks for signing up for drive. What experience do you have in 4x4? I am presuming your car is unmodified.

Wow - looks like you have a lot of experience so it will be good to see how much you enjoy the full sized 4x4. Looking forward to meeting.

Congrats @Bernd Stucke on your promotion. Great to see you advancing through the ranks.

@Cedric Warde Good morning. @Watteau Can you please let me know a little about your off road experience (if any). Cedric - I know you have a Jeep. Can you please confirm the tow points are in good condition. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have in advance on this thread.

It's so lucky you had a Camel compressor to work on this weekend

Mahmoud Asar @Mahmoud Asar Mohamed Abo ElKomsan @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese Shehab Alawadhi @Shehab Alawadhi Mohamed Seidam @Mohamed Seidam Szymon Stankiewicz @Szymon Stankiewicz Arman @Arman Alphin Aloor @Alphin Aloor Aus Alzubaidi @Aus Alzubaidi Harold Roberts @Harold Roberts I just looked at the awesome relive video from @Mohamed Seidam and the great photos from @Thomas Varghese to remind me what an epic drive it was yesterday. From Last Exit to Lisali is no mean feat for IM never mind Fewbie and you guys... well you guys were amazing. There's all sorts of reasons I did not advertise that we would be aiming for Lisali before the drive started. It might have added to the pressure both on you and me, and because, the truth is the routing meant that we were going against the slip face quite a lot more than would normally be the case in a fewbie drive. I was, however, quite sure that this group of drivers could and would make it. And you did not let yourself, or me down. @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan I am truly sorry we had to exit you early, but I knew where we were headed and if you look at the route you will understand why I did not want to take the risk of your overheating car into the next section of the drive. You might find that if the car is overheating now in the winter, it makes sense ot put in an aux fan for the drives? @Janarthan thanks for your support. Having your expertise and knowledge on the drives is a gift. Looking forward to supporting your drives very soon in the future. @Mohamed Seidam I can see how you are applying everything you learned over the months into the whole process of drivign and it's wonderful to see. A final word on technical dunes - in truth, we scratched the surface. Once you can drive technical with fluency the rest of this game becomes even more fun, so I will continue unaplogetically to take my convoys into these areas. If it's big thrills and spills that you want climbing hills and bowls, there will be drives for that as well, but do keep a look out because I am planning a technical fiesta day some time soon. Thanks to all for your amazing drive. I am not singling out anyone today for specific feedback - because very honestly, I was focused on getting the navigation right and leading to where we needed to be. The fact you all made it out says everything you need to know. See you soon in the sand.

Great. Please make sure the tow points are accessible and if there is a sport spoiler, think about removing it.

What radio unit do you have? The Boafeng UV5 is very sensitive to all external interference. the Motorola is better. Some cars seem to impact the radios more than others, or just the atmospherics. By the sound of things there is something in the systems in your car that causes the problems, interferring with the reception. Perhaps take a look on google and see if there are people with a similar problem. Maybe there are other Jeep owners that have a similar problem here on Carnity that we can ask.

The wait is almost over. Only one more sleep until the desert. Below is the convoy list for the drive and positions. Morning Fewbie Last Exit to Solar 22 January 2021 Attendees Level Car Radio Pos # Wrangeld Marshal Mitsubishi Pajero SWB Y 1 Lead Harold Roberts @Harold Roberts Fewbie Toyota FJ Cruiser Y 2 2nd lead Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese Fewbie NIssan Xterra Y 3 Arman @Arman Fewbie Jeep Wrangler SWB TJ Y 4 szymon stankiewicz @Szymon Stankiewicz Fewbie Mitsubishi Montero Sport Y 5 Mohamed Seidam @Mohamed Seidam Intermediate Nissan Xterra Y 6 CF Alphin Aloor @Alphin Aloor Fewbie Nissan Xterra Y 7 Mohamed Abo El Komsan @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan Fewbie Mitsubishi Pajero LWB Y 8 Shehab al Awadhi @Shehab Alawadhi Fewbie Ford F150 Y 9 Aus Alzubaidi @Aus Alzubaidi Fewbie Jeep Wrangler LWB Y 10 Mahmoud Asar @Mahmoud Asar Fewbie Jeep Wrangler Unlimited Y 11 Janarthan @Janarthan Advance Nissan Xterra Y 12 SW We will be using radio frequency 3 (44605625). Due to covid we will be restricted in any activites outside the car. Please only one person out of the car to deflate and if we are able to do it, brief. Being conscious that while this sort of weather is like high summer for me it is not for a lot of the drivers, if it's cold tomorrow morning we can brief inside the car. The plan - we will drive South from our start point to reach the long range dunes near to the Al Qudra Short cut. We will then travel East along the dune range making the most of these lovely wide high dunes.Passing through a few small sabkas we will reach the North side of Solar park and then cut North East across a mix of sabkas and high pyramid dunes enjoying some of the highest used dunes in the Al Marmoon dune complex. Here we will face cross tracks and cut up dunes - but that's the price we need to pay to reach the areas where we will be able to play and traverse for kilometer after kilometer ... We will be stopping for breathers for both car and drivers along the way, and for me to check the route because, in all honesty there are areas of deadly technical dunes all around. We will venture in there from time to time with our drive ending with a truly challenging technical section that will be all the more difficult because it is going to come at the end of the drive when everyone is tired. Our end point - well, we will keep that between friends for now. Am I looking forward to that routing - you bet. You'll all need to bring your A game tomorrow. This routing will be a real Fewbie challenge. Pace will be quick, dunes will be big and we will be taking a route that is at least partly slipside rather than our usual routing. It means you will need to be able to criss cross confidently. But enough ... Let's hope there is no fog. If there is, we will treat it like a night drive Myself and @Janarthan are truly excited about what's to come. If you have problems getting to the start pint because of fog my number is 0504254574 - ping me with problems. See you soon in the sand.

Mahmoud Asar @Mahmoud Asar Mohamed Abo ElKomsan @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese Shehab Alawadhi @Shehab Alawadhi Mohamed Seidam @Mohamed Seidam Szymon Stankiewicz @Szymon Stankiewicz Arman @Arman Alphin Aloor @Alphin Aloor Aus Alzubaidi @Aus Alzubaidi Harold Roberts @Harold Roberts Evening Desert Drivers, Wednesday night is the last opportunity to bow out of a drive gracefully. I say that not because I want to lose anyone, but because signing out after that date really has not been paying attention during the week. Assuming you are all still committed to the drive, tomorrow I will send out the convoy order and the radio channel. Some of you may wonder about my convoy positions and why you are being put there. While you wait and see, I will let you know that convoy positions are not haphazard and random. Drive leads look carefully at the drive and the positions of the drivers from a number of perspectives. A number of my choices for the drive Friday will be because I want to offer new challenges to the participants. They may or may not be welcome challegnes, but they are always considered from the viewpoint that we want every driver to develop at their own pace and capability and our job as leaders is to help everyone reach their full 4x4 potential. We may not get it right all the time, and we are by no means the complete drivers ourselves (boy there's still so much to learn), but we do feel that it's not just about driving round the desert and finding nice dunes but about helping every driver. Perhaps it comes as a surprise, perhaps not, but the leads talk to each other and check the recommendations on the convoy, identifying if a particular driver might bebetter placed in the convoy than the original plan. Mine, I am glad to say has been validated so I know what is planned ... unless someone pulls out. By 10,00 tomorrow, you'll hopefully see what we agreed - with any changes that need to be made because someone'e plans changed. If not, you'll get the final pre drive instalment so you can prepare yourselves for Friday's adventure. Myself and @Janarthan are looking forward to seeing you all soon in the sand.

Mahmoud Asar @Mahmoud Asar Mohamed Abo ElKomsan @Mohamed Abo ElKomsan Thomas Varghese @Thomas Varghese Shehab Alawadhi @Shehab Alawadhi Mohamed Seidam @Mohamed Seidam Szymon Stankiewicz @Szymon Stankiewicz Arman @Arman Alphin Aloor @Alphin Aloor Aus Alzubaidi @Aus Alzubaidi Harold Roberts @Harold Roberts Tuesday is the day we all start looking towards the weekend again - after all, even though we are half way through the morning, it's technically the middle of the week! So ... if your plans are likely to change, please do sign out from the drive. Our club is growing quickly and there are people who will fill any space that might become free. Secondly, today is the day to check your vehicle. Last week, we had a challenging time because one of the vehicles started having problems and we ended up on a much longer drive than planned. We all had a ball and really enjoyed it, but there was not as much movement as I would like so PLEASE do make the checks on your vehicles to make sure that you will not be disappointed by their failing to match up to your enthusiasm. I think we all tend to take the cars for granted and forget that these weeklend jaunts really do take a toll on the cars. Check the levels of your fluids - we say this in the briefings, but not enough people actually make the check before they go out. Make sure you have a good spare - last week I had a pop out that would not pop back. Imagine our trouble if that had not been changeable with a good spare tyre. Check your tow points for structural integrity - in the last month, I have seen two tow points go flying during recoveries. Luckily, nothing serious happened, but seeing a piece of metal hurtling towards a car is quite scary. And finally... make sure you have a proper shovel. Over the height of COVID we practiced a lot more towed recoveries because we wanted to be sure everyone stayed safe in their vehicles. Not that COVID is by any means over, but we need to get back to the idea that drivers learn how to reover with a little shovelling and driving expertise than being towed out of trouble every time. This means that if you bring a teaspoon to the party, you'll be working much harder than you need. Happy also to announce that one of our new leaders is joinng the party. @Janarthan has signed up to support the drive. I am really delighted about that and know that he is going to be a great asset for us all. More to follow in the coming days. See you soon in the sand.