Lorenzo Candelpergher

Dear @bassel el rafei, @Arun Mathew, @imranaasghar81, @Hennie Schoeman, @Franco Swart, unless I'm mistaken you have not yet confirmed that you "totally agree" with the new Carnity Covid-19 precautions. If you have, disregard this message. If you haven't, please read the post below and click on" totally agree" emoji at the bottom right of the post. As stated in previous posts, as a matter of policy, anyone joining a Carnity drive must have first read and totally agreed to the new rules. Thank you for your kind cooperation.

Dear @Yusuf Esaf, No problem, family first, even though my Y62 will feel a bit lonely tomorrow..

Obviously for night shots a monopod is not a good solution. I had missed that part of your request 🙄

Then, if your intended use is for stable shots with your 300mm lens even with fairly long shutter time (say down to 1/60"), a monopod may also be an option to consider. I was totally against the idea in the beginning, but had to admit it is a really handy extra piece of equipment. I definitely use it more frequently than the tripod when I am doing action shooting, ie with no time to really get all set up with the perfect framing on a tripod.

Hi @Gaurav, I use a Manfrotto MT055CXPRO4 fitted with a ball mount MHXPRO-BHQ2. I use a Nikon Z7 (645g) and the longest lens is a Nikon Z 70-210mm f/2.8 zoom, which is quite heavy (1440g), for a total of over 2kg. So far, even in extremely windy conditions, I never had to use any stablizing extra weight. I am very happy about it: sturdy and sufficiently heavy to self stabilise, easy to open/close and mount. Not the best friend of sand, it must be said: needs a bit of extra care to keep it in good shape after desert sessions. I must say, however, that when using the zoom lens, I find a monopod way more pratical, generally good enough to avoid excessive movements and avoid fatigue during prolonged shootings. But it also depends if the camera (or the lens) is fitted with an image stabilizer, I think.

@Arun Mathew, unless the weather forecast changes, it is going to be 7am as we are currently not expecting any fog.

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. We will have a slightly shorter than usual convoy (9 cars in total), for which you can find below the order: @bassel el rafei, @Arun Mathew, @imranaasghar81, @Hennie Schoeman, @Aus Alzubaidi, @Franco Swart, @Yusuf Esaf, this drive is going to be technically demanding, requiring your full concentration until the very end, so make sure you come well rested. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you. You're all pre-confirmed for the drive this week, however your final participation is subject to your "totally agree" confirmation of the specific post about the new Covid-19 restrictions and requirements for the drives, which was shared with all Carnity Members in our Whatsapp Group last Tuesday. Unfortunately numbers are rising and we will be therefore much more vigilant this weekend and beyond, until the pandemic will be hopefully under control - which clearly is not yet the case. Make sure you confirm that you totally agree with the new rules: no confirmation = no drive... it cannot be said clearer than this. Also, be aware that if you don't comply during the drive: 1. You'll be escorted straight out of the desert. 2. You'll earn yourself a ban from Carnity. No one is exempted: the rules apply to you, myself and anyone else on the drive. If you have any questions on this, let me know. See you on Friday morning, ready to go (i.e. deflated and flagged) by no later 7:00am (sharp).

Drive Brief A fast paced, action packed re-visiting of the well known areas of Al Qudra Desert, where the drive level will be pushed to intermediate with lots of opportunities to practice ridge-riding, crest breaking and criss-crossing skills along with frequent dives and occasional climbs on the slip face of high and long range dunes, all mixed with a couple of highly technical small dunes stints. General Infos 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 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. SUGGESTED READING: Carnity Two Way Radio Frequencies MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING Drive Details Level: Intermediate and Above (All Levels) When: 22 Feb 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 3:30 PM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Sayh al Salm Roundabout - https://goo.gl/maps/6rYD28XzLS8xeHe9A 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, willingness to learn and your own compressor for tire inflation. Approximate finish time: 6:15 PM End Point: Bab Al Shams Limited Spots Available: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Sunday - 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 EVENT

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, this was my first midweek drive and it wasn't planned at all.. But it turned out to be a fun and nice drive. When @Foxtrot Oscar unfortunately announced that she had been grounded due to mechanical problems (hope they are fixed soon), I happily offered my support for the drive, as it was indeed an unexpected breathe of fresh air. @Chaitanya D was so kind to allow me to take the lead, so we headed west along the pylon track around 3.45pm as soon as everyone was ready to go. Unfortunately Al Qudra / Solar Park areas are undergoing major works and every week the construction sites and the fences are different. This forced us to go further West that I had planned and to get across a tiny, but yet nasty strip of small technical dunes, where we had immediately one car crested, a second with a refusal and a third badly stuck, to the extent that winching was required. What a start, after only 10' drive! @Thomas Varghese, who later drove very well, ended up learning the hard way, in these initial minutes, that when the track of the convoy is lost, the best option is to stop and call for help, rather than attempting to go along unknown routes, at risk of getting in trouble, but we have all learned something the hard way (and sometimes it was also hard for the car.. 😭😭). When, after almost 40 mins, we were eventually out on the sabkha, the fun could begin. We headed straight toward the long range dunes of Al Qudra South, where we enjoyed neverending side sloping stints, one time with the sun straight in our eyes heading West and the other time with the shadow of our car anticipating our moves on the sand in front of us heading East. These large dunes were very tempting, almost completely virgin with no previous tracks and we indulged for quite some time, alternating long slide slopes and straight climbs to cross the crest and dive down on the slip face. In one of these occasions @Ammar Najiapproached the crest with a bit too much enthusiasm, which resulted in landing nose down on the slip face, luckily a very soft one. It takes time, practice and many many mistakes to understand how to find the best balance between speed and safety when crossing a dune crest, so very well done to @Ammar Naji and everyone else, crested or not crested, as you did some good practice today. I was pleased to see how well the convoy was doing on those endless sideslopes. I know for sure @Veedooshee enjoyed them, as she confessed, when she was not busy being an amazing Center Forward. @Ashok chaturvedi was a fantastic 2nd lead. Always super focused and immediately responsive to my rerouting requests, always providing meaningful advice to the following cars, fast and efficient when he had to backtrack to rejoin the central part of the convoy when I requested to do so. @Rob Harper and @Shehab Alawadhi did extremely well with their long beasts, with little or no fishtailing on the long slideslopes nor any hesitation in crossing the crests. Kudos! Everyone else, including @Arman, @Hisham Masaad, @Junaid120120 @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ did a fantastic job, and the drive indeed was very smooth and with a great pace. For the approx 1h 26' we spent in movement, we cruised at 2'35"/km, covering a distance of 33.4km to eventually make our exit on the tarmac in Al Qudra East by 6.10pm, as planned. Special thanks to @Chaitanya Dfor his great help and for giving me the chance to lead this drive today. See you all in the sand soon!

Dear @Karim Allam and @Aus Alzubaidi you are booked for this drive and also for @Wrangeld's drive. You will have to opt out from one of the two. Please advise.

Dear Desert Wanderers, I fell in love with Pink Rock the very moment I first set eyes on her majestic beauty. Reaching the Rock from Tawi Nazwa, heading North East, is always a refreshing experience in the morning. With the sun predominantly on the right side still low above the horizon, the visual on the dunes will be perfect: bright orange the wind sides, darker red the slip faces, an ideal adagio to refine our dune reading skills. In an inspiring crescendo, Pink Rock will be progressively unveiled in front of the convoy with more and more exciting views. I've gone through this route many times, but not a single time I didn't find myself in awe for the magnificent landscape: one doesn't really realize the true meaning of the name, "Pink Rock", until he/she makes it to the top and actually sees the color or the rock.. Moving South from the Rock will be equally fascinating, an allegro andante along the route to Big Red going through a never ending sequence of convoluted, diversified and fun dunes. Big Red doesn't require any presentation: it's BIG, it's RED, and it is one of the nicest dunes in the UAE. The view from any side and from any elevation, from the top or from the bottom, will be worth alone the whole drive: the Gran finale for the day, before exiting on the tarmac on E44 Dubai - Hatta Road. @Yusuf Esaf, @Hennie Schoeman, @Franco Swart, @Arun Mathew, @imranaasghar81, @Aus Alzubaidi, @bassel el rafei, you are confirmed for this drive. Looking forward to meet you on Friday!

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 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. MUST WATCH: NEWBIE VIDEO BRIEFING Drive Details Level: Fewbie and Above (All Levels) When: 19 Feb 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 7:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Tawi Nazwa - https://goo.gl/maps/PnUGGLyxkKXzz3NEA 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, willingness to learn and your own compressor for tire inflation. Approximate finish time: 11:00 AM End Point: E44 Dubai - Hatta Road (Al Badayer area) LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE: Limited to 10 cars only. 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 EVENT

Dear @Rahimdad, You are very right in highlighting the great performance by @Yusuf Esaf in 2nd lead. Whenever I looked back in the mirror his Y62 was steadily behind me. Having the chance to follow another Y62 is surely an opportunity and @Yusuf Esafhasn't missed this chance. His drive was always clean and precise, and he followed carefully any instructions for small reroutings when needed. The best reward for me, however, was to see his simile from ear to ear everytime he pulled down the window to have a word... His Y62 has a great future in the sand with Carnity.

@varunmehndiratta I also had a long lasting fight with my flag suction cup mount, which was constantly detaching and distracting me.. Then I finally resolved to get myself a proper mount, fixed on the roof bar, where my flag could be tightened and untightened with a spanner at every drive. Since then, my flag problems disappeared. The only issue, now, is that from time to time I forget the spanner on the roof 😂😂, typically at the end of the drive..

Done

You are right, @N@ved, it wasn't you crested, I indeed wasn't sure who it was. Fixed the report 😉, thanks.

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, I had set the expectations quite high for this drive with my introductory post.. Luckily the magic of Mahafiz, Fossil Rock and Faya didn't let me down today. @Yusuf Esaf, upon arrival at Mahafiz meeting point, said it felt like he had just entered the gates of Heaven as we were literally surrounded by a thick, almost solid, white fog. Not sure @bassel el rafei felt the same way, though, when at 7am he suddenly realized the meeting time had been postponed by one hour due to fog 😂😂. After the briefing it was decided that I would do a quick recce to check the visibility and by 8:45am we started our adventure, with everyone agreeing that 30m visibility was enough to give it a try. For almost an hour we drove in a surreal Mahafiz desert, transfigured by the fog: it was the first time for me and even more so as a new leader. The exact opposite of the drive start I had pictured in my mind, riding east towards the sunrise, but still quite an experience worth making.. The convoy did pretty well in such foggy conditions. A couple of refusals and a short break to deflate a bit more @bassel el rafei's tires didn't stop us from wandering around until the sun eventually made the fog fade away. Just before the fog thinned out, a tricky sharp dune got @varunmehndiratta crested, but @Ashy tugged him out in no time, as a perfect Center Forward. With a clear visual, the fun started as we reached the play areas around the Long Dune, where we enjoyed the long and wide ridges and the the extensive side sloping passages we were all waiting for. Shortly after, @bassel el rafei's Pajero started showing transmission oil overheating issues, so we stopped to cool it down. Apparently the problem was under control, so we decided to continue and headed straight to the mighty Fossil Rock, which we reached in a triumphant parade. The descent on the steep east side was not advisable as there was no sand cover on the initial rocky part, so we decided to start our move toward Faya from the south-west side. As we proceeded in our zig-zag from one side to the other of the rocky crest that links Fossil Rock to Camel Rock, we enjoyed a fantastic set of dunes in a spectacular scenery, in a mix of red sand and white rocks. Unfortunately @bassel el rafei's transmission was still having issues, so @Rahimdad and myself had to halt the convoy and lead him out on the nearby pylon track, from where he made it safely out on E106. The convoy was so good and with so little troubles (except for @varunmehndiratta's constantly falling flag 😂😂) that we even took the time to watch @Rahimdad giving a free recovery masterclass to an unlucky lot who had gotten badly stuck with their Nissan Patrol Safari near Camel Rock. I was amazed by the great performance of @Paul Zeitoun with is long wheel base RAM1500: he handled the beast as if it were 2m shorter. Equally great was @Mikhail Lukichev, who quietly but steadily got his Prado wherever he wanted it to go. Kudos also to @bassel el rafei, @N@ved, @varunmehndiratta and @Ashy for a very smooth ride. All of this was happening under the 360 degrees fisheye of @imranaasghar81's camera, installed on the most ambitious cantilevered mount I had ever seen. I am very curious to watch his video of this drive, especially for the final bit at Faya. It was indeed at Faya that the drive transcended from a great one to a memorable one.. After exiting almost half of the cars, a handful of brave Fewbies asked to go back to taste a bit more of the big Faya dunes. I must confess my son Miki was very wisely advising against going in again, but his was the voice of a 7 years old wise man talking to his 46 years old childish father who could only feel the hitching to go back in and wouldn't listen to reason.. 😂😂 So myself, @Matt.T, @Yusuf Esaf, @imranaasghar81 and @Ashy, at 12.30pm, decided to go back "for not more than 25 minutes". We played around, attempted a few straight ascents at Faya play area, then made it to the top with an exciting and fast paced climb from the South-West Side. All the magic we could desire was there, we just missed a bit of drama to spice up this last stint and @Matt.T, after a majestic performance during the whole drive today, delivered it by stopping at one of the highest points in Faya with a totally incapacitated car, most likely with a non recoverable clutch failure. After waiting for 45 mins to see if the clutch would cool down and resume some functionality, we resolved to tow the car all the way from the top of one of Faya's highest points to the west side flat track and eventually on the tarmac. With power steering and braking systems still running but with zero traction, the challenge was to find a route that could lead us down without ever having to climb up anywhere, which is far easier said than done. After a quick recce, the exit plan was hatched and executed in perfect coordination with @Matt.T and, hopefully captured on camera by @imranaasghar81, as this one was definitely a keeper. With the whole convoy back on the tarmac, we could eventually have our adrenaline levels normalize and let this amazing day sink among our best memories. Thank you all for this fantastic day and special thanks to @Rahimdad for granting his Marshal supervision on my 1st totally independent lead and for the support as today's flying sweep.

FOG ALERT Based on the last two days' consecutive foggy mornings and tomorrow's forecast, we will be starting tomorrow morning drive from 8 AM (instead of 7AM) till 12 PM. @N@ved, @imranaasghar81, @Ashy, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Yusuf Esaf, @Matt.T, @Mikhail Lukichev, @Paul Zeitoun, @bassel el rafei, @varunmehndiratta, @Rahimdad, kindly take note of the change, unless you wish to spend an hour waiting in the middle of nowhere just you and the fog!!

Sorry to hear that @Arda Yagcioglu. It will be for another time.

Dear Desert Wanderers, the RSVP for this drive is now closed. Please find below the final convoy numbering: We will be using Carnity Radio Channel 1 (446006.25) More details in preparation of the drive will follow later during the day. @N@ved, @imranaasghar81, @Ashy, @Arda Yagcioglu, @Yusuf Esaf, @Matt.T, @Mikhail Lukichev, @Paul Zeitoun, @bassel el rafei, @varunmehndiratta, @Rahimdad, see you all tomorrow!!

Dear @Baskaran P.R, I see you have added yourself on this drive under a "manage" role. Unfortunately, only Advance and above members can do it, so I have removed you from the drive, as the 10 available slots are all already taken. Should you be interested, you can be waitlisted for the drive, in case anyone else drops out before Friday.

Dear @Shaaz Sha, understood. Thank you for informing me. @varunmehndiratta, you are now added to the drive.

Dear @Shaaz Sha, understood. Thank you for informing me.