Lorenzo Candelpergher

Dear Desert Wanderers, @Arman, @PaoloMaraziti, @Hasan Wahlan, @Farouq Owdeh, @Mario Cornejo, @Mus_hus78, @Ruan van den Heever, @Xavier Treasurer, @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @GauravSoni, pls make sure you have a full fuel tank tomorrow morning. The petrol station nearest to the meeting point is this ADNOC one: https://maps.app.goo.gl/LcJAEM3FfibMFyfm6 Also, pls bring lots of water!

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order for our drive: @Arman, @PaoloMaraziti, @Hasan Wahlan, @Farouq Owdeh, @Mario Cornejo, @Mus_hus78, @Ruan van den Heever, @Xavier Treasurer, @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @GauravSoni, this drive is going to be thrilling and exciting, but also very demanding from a technical point of view, both mentally for the drivers and mechanically for the cars. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, especially when we will reach elevated positions on steep slopes, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you. We will be using Carnity Channel 4 (446.08125Mhz). Our meeting point is confirmed at E16 Al Taf Road - https://goo.gl/maps/ht1HmGSnbw1ans5d7 See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:30am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:15am.

Dear Desert Wanderers, Sweihan's appeal was once again confirmed by the fully booked RSVP to this drive. @Xavier Treasurer, @GauravSoni, @Arman, @Mario Cornejo, @Mus_hus78, @Farouq Owdeh, @Ruan van den Heever, @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @PaoloMaraziti, @varunmehndiratta, you are all confirmed for this drive subject to satisfying the Fewbie Plus level requirement and, for those of you coming from outside the Abu Dhabi Emirate, complying with the currently applicable rules pertaining Covid-19 regulations, as amended on August 19th for vaccinated residents: For the sake of clarity, pls make sure you plan your PCR tests in due course: 1) if you are vaccinated: you can enter the Emirate with an Al Hosn Green Pass and an "E" Status if you are vaccinated (ie last PCR taken not later than 7 days before the drive date, so within last Saturday 28th); 2) if you are NOT vaccinated: you can enter the Emirate with a PCR taken within less than 48 hours or with a DPI test taken within 24h from the time you cross the border.

Dear @varunmehndiratta, given the requirements for the PCR, if you wish to join this particular drive, I can, as an exception, add you to the RSVP right away, so you can sort it out in due course.

Dear @Nabeel Abdul Rahman, unfortunately you do not yet qualify for this drive, which is a Fewbie Plus one. I have removed you from the RSVP but look forward to having you soon in another drive.

Ahah, yes true, I did promise an IM.. But given the terrain and the great drivers in the Abu Dhabi lot of club members, a FB+ in Abu Dhabi is as close as most IMs in Dubai, believe me.. As far as noses are concerned.. I'd poke it in Sweihan if I were in you before the RSVP gets full.. 😂

Drive Brief For those in @Carnity who are used to off-roading mostly in Dubai and Sharjah, this drive offers the opportunity to discover, toghether with the Abu Dhabi based members of the Club, the breathtaking beauty of the landscape, the amazing heights of the dunes and the incredible depth of the bowls in Sweihan, one of the most coveted off-roading destinations in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi. For those coming from outside the Emirate, enduring the hassle of getting a Covid-19 test will be largely rewarded by a memorable experience: we will start from E16 Al Taf Road heading East, facing the sunrise, gently riding the first dunes to get acquainted with the landscape. After the initial warm up we will start tackling the big dunes that make Sweihan such a renown off-roading place, enjoying all the climbs, the crests, the ridges and - above all - the large bowls it offers, moving across 8 different areas of high and complex dunes in an exciting sequence of climbs and rides around some of the biggest and deepest bowls to be seen around before completing our loop back to E16. 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 Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Fewbie Plus Above (All Levels) When: 3 Sep 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 5:30 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: E16 Al Taf Road -https://goo.gl/maps/ht1HmGSnbw1ans5d7 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: 9:30 AM End Point: E16 Al Taf Road 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

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, This was my 1st drive after having skipped 2 weekends, but it was also @Luca Palanca Falsini's and @Yousef Alimadadi's first drive in almost 2 months: a lot of rust to remove! We started from Lisaili Fort with great punctuality, moving at 5:48 am, in the twilight before the sunrise. Our first stint, from the Fort to the Pylon Track, was a nice "warm-up", as someone defined it on the radio. Those very irregular dunes where not at all easy to read and we soon inaugurated the day with a couple of stucks there, with @PaoloMaraziti doing the honors of the 1st one, sorted by some good team work at shoveling, followed by a 2nd stuck, requiring a tug, by I don't remember who.. @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, maybe? After reaching the Pylon Track we entered a 2nd stretch of small technical dunes, which again caused a few refusals and a stuck by @Yousef Alimadadi, who had to be tugged out just before entering the long range dunes area. After 2 months out of the game, it takes a while to get the sand feeling back. We then spent a good hour riding long ridges back and forth in a very smooth stint, with no stucks or refusals. Lots of fun there, as we progressively made our zig-zag south towards the Mighty Lisaili Dunes, which we climbed from all sides. A few times the convoy got a bit stretched, but we were able to quickly recompact it with a couple of stops. It was around there when@Shehab Alawadhi managed to get eventually stuck and soon after crested. He had been asking me on the radio if all those tight crests and sharp turns were specifically chosen to get him stuck with his F150.. Well, for sure they weren't chosen to make his life easier, but judging from these photo he kind of enjoyed the challenge 😂😂: After descending on the south side of the Mighty Lisaili Dunes we entered a very nice area where we performed a long sequence of convoluted spaghetti-style rounds: It was definitely a very enjoyable portion of the drive, but probably a bit too demanding for @imranaasghar81's passenger, who eventually ended up with motion sickness. It was then decided to help@imranaasghar81 make an early exit on the nearby dirt track across the sabkha to ease his passenger's condition. While on the track, we noticed @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil's front left tire was flat. With no apparent damage or sign of leakage, we decided to reinflate the tire and see how it behaved a few mins after. This was, probably, the time when everyone relaxed a bit too much, because as we headed back to the dunes, while @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil and myself re-checked the tire pressure finding out we needed to replace it with the spare, both @Rawad and @Yousef Alimadadi had a front tire pop-out, respectively on the right and left side. Thanks to the experienced support team, all three issues (tire replacement and 2x pop-out fixing) were sorted out simultanously and we could soon move again, heading towards the last playground of the day, a big bowl where we enjoyed a couple of rounds before the last popout by @Luca Palanca Falsini occurred while we were just 200m away from the nearby sabkha to exit. What a day! Once fixed, we were quickly out, reaching Al Qudra Road by 9:47am, just 1 min under 4h from our departure at Lisaili Fort. Overall we covered 68km, driving for 3h 7' at an average moving speed of 21.8km/h and stopped in total for 53'. The whole convoy did very well today: @Alain Canivet-AbikhalilCanivet-Abikhalil was a great 2nd lead, following my lines with very few hesitations. Hope his leaking tire can be easily fixed. @PaoloMaraziti, at his 2nd FB+ drive, managed to keep up with the high pace, handling well all passages including a couple of tricky criss-crossing points. Well done! @Rawad handled his Y62 very well even when we approached the area of the Mighty Lisaili Dunes, where we had to do some tight maneuvering. @Chinthaka Ruwan followed surely and safely in all situations. I don't recall any refusals with him, if I'm not mistaken. I didn't have much visual on the Intermediate guys behind, @Matt.T, @imranaasghar81, @Looper, @varunmehndiratta and @Shehab Alawadhi, who probably found today's drive a walk in the park, but I 'm sure @Yousef Alimadadi and @Luca Palanca Falsini will add their precious feedback in the comments. Kudos to everyone and great thanks to @Yousef Alimadadi and @Luca Palanca Falsini for their support. Very glad to have you both back!! See you all soon in the sand!

That's strange. When I try from my phone it works. If you have any issues tomorrow give me a call.

Dear @Darren Brooke, I'm sorry to hear about your problems. I hope they can be sorted soon. It is quite late but, given the abundance of support and the reduced number of participants, if @GauravSoni@Adhir Saxenaand @Chris Wingwould like to join, I'd be happy to extend the convoy. Let me know guys!

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order for our drive, which, as you will see, will benefit from @Luca Palanca Falsini's and @Yousef Alimadadi's support: @PaoloMaraziti, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Rawad, @Chinthaka Ruwan, @Darren Brooke, @Matt.T, @imranaasghar81, @Looper, @varunmehndiratta, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Luca Palanca Falsini, @Yousef Alimadadi, this drive is meant to be a fun one but it may turn out to be quite demanding from a technical point of view, mostly at the beginning. Don't forget to check your fluids and to make sure your car is in perfect conditions to ride in the current hot weather. The drive will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, especially when we will reach elevated positions on steep slopes, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. . Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you. We will be using Carnity Channel 4 (446.08125Mhz) The meeting point is confirmed at Lisaili Fort: https://maps.app.goo.gl/iuyS2JQkvEUm21ik7 See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:45am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 5:30am.

Dear @JeromeFJ I'm sad to read the news and wish you a quick recovery and return to Dubai. See you soon in the sand

@Pacific, as noticed by @Hisham Masaad you are already in @Islam Soliman's Intermediate Drive whose timing overlaps with that of this drive. Can you please confirm your intentions?

Congratulations @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ! Well deserved promotion!

Congratulations @Rizwanm2, very well deserved promotion!

Dear Desert Wanderers, The RSVP was full in no time. For the time being: @JeromeFJ, @Chinthaka, @PaoloMaraziti, @Matt.T, @Alain Canivet-Abikhalil, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Looper, @varunmehndiratta, @Darren Brooke, @imranaasghar81 are confirmed for the drive subject to qualifying for Fewbie Plus and not having responded to an RSVP for another drive in the weekend. @Pacific, @Rawad, @GauravSoni, @Adhir Saxena are waitlisted for their 1st drive in this order. Looking forward to seeing you all next Saturday! And be ready, because after being off for 2 weekends, I'm eager to hit the sand!

Hi @varunmehndiratta, yes. The drive will be mostly about long range dunes.

Drive Brief The stretch of desert around Lisaili offers infinite possibilities for desert off-roaders, ranging from small, super-technical dunes to long range, almost endless ridges. This drive will offer a taste of all these terrains, with a short, more challenging technical stint at the beginning followed by a faster and more "driven" one on long range dunes where most of the time will be spent. There is however a specific place, where dunes become so high and so big that they well deserve to be named the "Mighty Lisaili Dunes". A majestic conformation which will be the perfect playground for breath-taking climbs and arduous passages, combined with neverending slideslopes. 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 Ban from Carnity Off-road Club Two Way Radio Guidelines Drive Details Level: Fewbie Plus Above (All Levels) When: 28 Aug 2021, Saturday. Meeting time: 5:30 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Lisaili Fort - https://maps.app.goo.gl/iuyS2JQkvEUm21ik7 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: 9:30 AM End Point: Pylon Track, Al Qudra Road 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 @Abu Muhammad, I took the freedom to do some fact checking, and I think @Lakshmi Narasimhannailed it in his last comment. I was able to check from the video taken from @M.Seidam that, in fact, @M.Seidam clearly announced on the radio "I'm trying again, Lorenzo" and I responded "I'm holding". However, no one behind apparently acknowledged this exchange nor reacted about it, furthermore failing to realize (and therefore to announce on the radio) they had taken the wrong track, not being in visual distance with @Ashok chaturvedi, who as well hadn't noticed that nobody was following him. In the meantime, in fact, the last 5 cars where already on another track, because in the video when @Ashok chaturvedi held his position behind the struggling XTerra he had no one behind him. Find the video here (shared with @M.Seidam's permission): I hope this closes this chapter: two cars were in trouble, it was announced, the lead stopped (it was just me and @Lakshmi Narasimhan, whom I was leading up to the 1st part of the convoy), but the last 5 cars, who were a bit too far behind, probably, failed to acknowledge the situation, went along a different track without realising it and reached the first part of the convoy soon after, following a different path, having missed the fact that two cars, who had announced having issues, were not to be seen around. In the end, convoy discipline wasn't applied properly and we ended with two lost cars to be found. It's nobody's fault and everyone's fault. These things happen and will happen many times again. The point is not to blame this or that driver or to discuss "if only they had done or not done this or that", but to jointly understand what went wrong, why it happened and, possibly, to learn, all of us from lead to sweep, how to avoid such situations in the future. Possibly without taking any of this as something personal.

Dear @Francois Germishuys, the one on your flag was a joke.. I guess you didn't get it.. 😂😂. Usually all those who have a falling flag ask for permission to remove it, whereas you asked for permission to fix it.. So I made a joke saying you "ignored" my instructions to just put the flag away, concluding that it was anyway better to be safe than sorry and you had it fixed in no time.. I see no reason for you to get upset! Keeping the flag up can only be commended. Regarding my comments about the sweeping position, I have no reason not to believe, as you say, that you plainly had no chance to realize we had lost two cars. @varunmehndiratta's explanation further supports it. This is not the point, however, and you seem to have missed the context of my comments, which were meant to address the overall issue that I keep on seeing in recent Intermediate Drives among big dunes, ie the fact that, when someone in some mid-convoy position has a stuck or a refusal during a climb, convoy order keeps on being lost beyond reason, with chaos as a consequence: cars from behind overtaking and continuing the climb, with no or delayed announcing of the problem or simply ignoring it. This leads to split convoys, lost tracks, etc, exactly the same dynamics we witnessed today. I invite you to read my comment again and to realize that it wasn't written as a specific critique to YOU as such, but as a general comment about the problems that originate with poor convoy discipline and the fundamental function of sweeping in these circumstances. I was indeed taking today's case as an example to make my point: convoy discipline in the specific case was not followed, and the result was that two cars in trouble were left behind. Neither the car in front, ie @Lakshmi Narasimhan nor the car behind, ie @varunmehndirattarealized and announced the problem nor stopped to wait for the troubled cars to recover. In fact, @Lakshmi Narasimhanhad just climbed up behind my tail as I had come back to help him overcome the difficult spot. When I came back, before leading @Lakshmi Narasimhanup, I had made sure the convoy was all toghether, Sweep included. What happened next is that apparently @M.Seidam followed but had a refusal on his way up, circled around and reattempted multiple times, while the rest of the convoy, five cars, inexplicably, must have inadvertently climbed up along a different route, thus leaving the two cars behind with all five drivers not realising what had just happened. As improbable as it may sound, this may have happened and I don't question it. @varunmehndiratta is probably right when he says there was a bit of delay when the convoy restarted while he was on a bio break: I remember joking about it while circling around to check the situation. All of this, however, again proves the point that excessive distance, poor or no radio communication, no visual checks on the car behind and in front, overtaking or unintentional rerouting caused a split convoy. @Francois, you are right when you say nobody asked you to intervene. In fact you are an Extreme driver, not an Advisor and it was probably my mistake to even give you the responsibility to be Sweep, as supporting roles are meant to be for Advisors, who have been specifically selected and have experience in undertaking the role. Having said this, you did your part as Sweep today, communicating well and frequently whenever required. If you want me to be specific on a feedback about YOU today, I'll say that I felt you were often driving too far back behind @Abu Muhammad roaming around (a temptation that comes to all when in sweep), but I'll say also that you were often helpful and present, for which I even thanked you in my post (you must have missed that). In the past you have been always very open and vocal in sharing your comments and criticism (often quite direct, not to say harsh) towards your fellow drivers. I'd expect you to be equally open to receive some comments and potentially even criticism from the Drive Lead, as the purpose is never name shaming but always, and only, giving all participants opportunity to reflect on what happened and learn from it. I am sad to read you were upset by my comments, but I stand by them, even more now that I had the chance to explain better what they meant. I'm equally sad by your decision to leave Carnity and wish you best of luck and fun in your future Desert adventures.

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, The fact that this was going to be a complicated drive was evident already at 4:30am, when I realized my phone had not been charging and had died overnight so I had missed my 4:00am wakeup alarm . I managed to reach the meeting point by 5:30, finding a fully lined up convoy with everyone diligently ready and deflated. By 5:44, after the briefing, we were on the move. Apologies for the delay, guys! We immediately headed East, towards Fossil Rock, but just 1km into the drive we had the first two stucks / refusals by @Lakshmi Narasimhan and @Ranjan Das, the first sliding down the slip face and the latter crested before they even knew they had actually started the drive 😂. To make them more comfortable in such an embarrassment (I'm joking, of course.. 😂😂) I felt it appropriate to get crested myself while backtracking to have a look at what was going on. Thanks to multiple zelant shovelers, I was out in no time. As we headed west, we pinpointed back-to-back all the play areas marked on my navigator between Mahafiz and Fossil Rock, enjoying long sidesloping and bowl riding. We did have fun, but we also collected a few more refusals and we also had a couple of stops to fix @Francois Germishuys's flag: he must really be fond of his flag as he ignored my advice to put it away and drive without flag, given his position as Sweep.. But better safe than sorry, so with the flag somehow fixed, we were good to go again. It was at this point that @Abdul Rahman AK announced his front right wheel was making a strange noise during climbs. It was initially decided that he would try to continue, but once we made it to Fossil Rock we concurred it wasn't a good idea to stress the car more, so we opted for an exit. Unfortunately the exit towards Maleha, the most obvious one, turned out not to be as obvious after all, given that the newly built fence forced us to reach the tarmac more on the east side. After greeting our friend, we entered the sand again, made it back to Camel Rock, then looped around the Sphynx, while progressively increasing the pace in the attempt to catch up on the accumulated delay. As we started our approach Faya, along a sustained long climb the convoy suddenly split: @Lakshmi Narasimhan had a refusal on a tricky S-shaped climb, which forced @M.Seidam and @Ashok chaturvedi to loop around and hold. Apparently the rest of the convoy, probably too much enthralled by the on-going climbing effort towards the coveted Faya hills, ignored the fellow drivers in trouble and kept going for another 400m, where I had stopped the convoy upon the realization that we had two missing cars. It is important to stress here, once again (as I did on last week's Drive Report) that, while it is OK for the one driver immediately following a car having a sudden stuck/refusal (or aborting a climb) to safely overtake and continue the climb not to lose momentum, it is generally considered correct convoy procedure for all the cars following to hold, allow the car in trouble to reattempt as many times as needed and only then follow. This is, of course, unless specific circumstances do not allow, which should clearly communicated on the radio. Furthermore, it must be reminded that the sweeping position in a convoy is meant to ensure that no car is left behind at any time. The two cars who had been lost today had not gone out of track (I found them back-tracking along my own route) but had simply stalled at a difficult point and were left behind without assistance. Last but not least, it is also important to notice that too many times, especially at the back, I could see the convoy overstretched, with too much distance between cars. I understand everyone wants to have a clean line but if you leave so much space that you can't see where the car in front has gone, you are most likely going to get lost..especially in a place with so many tracks as today. Once the convoy was again orderly reassembled, we tackled the final ascent to Faya from the north side, which is one of my absolute favourites and always gives me a great sense of accomplishment. @Danish Mohammad drove as if he was on steroids... Following my tail no matter what, actually doing even better than me when he crisscrossed correctly at the exit of the last big bowl behind Faya while I had made a mistaken and fallen back inside the bowl. @Ranjan Das is slowly but steadily coming to know his Rubicon and I could see today that the few stucks incurred were mostly because of a moment of hesitation while deciding what to do or because of an unexpected response of the car. @Lakshmi Narasimhan is still occasionally fighting to come to terms with his car. Maybe @M.Seidam, who could closely watch him today, will be able to give some more insight. We then made it to the bottom of Faya Big Dune, where everyone had a chance to make an attempt climbing from both the right and from the center. The big power loaded truck guys at the back, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Dodi Syahdar, @Abu Muhammad and @Francois Germishuys had their chance to let their engines roar... But surprisingly, no one managed to join me at the top and only @varunmehndiratta reached quite high even if not at the top. Cearly it wasn't meant to be: too soft and churned up sand. As time was shortening and temperatures rising we didn't indulge and promptly made our way to Suweidan, after crossing S153 Road at Mahafiz Roundabout, where unfortunately @Shehab Alawadhi had to quit as his passenger was feeling some motion sickness. We then entered the Suweidan stretch of desert, which was meant to be more a straight transfer to 2nd December Road than anything else. It was a boring bushy sabkha area which we crossed rather quickly with a couple of short detours on appealing nearby dunes, until we reached the last group of dunes North of 2nd December road.. These dunes are beautiful but very tricky. In fact, after a very shot ride at the top, @Danish Mohammad made his only serious (but very unlucky) mistake of the day, ending up with a crested car, one wheel in the air and the other deep in sand with a pop-out and the back completely sitting in a pocket. Quite a combination! It wasn't an easy stuck, and it took two winching attempts to move the car out, after which we fixed the pop-out. By the time we were done, we were also drained by the extreme heat and it seemed the only reasonable decision that of cutting the drive short, leaving the 2nd December Cafeteria - Pink Rock - Big Red stint for another day. It was a though drive, challenging, beautiful and probably a bit frustrating for some because of the many stops, even though we always restarted quickly with the exception of the popout recovery. We drove for 70.5km in exactly 4h, at an average moving speed of 22km/h, with approx 1h 5' of stopped time (my GPS recorded me moving back and forth to help, but the convoy was certainly idle for longer time) and a total ascent of + 1378/-1326m. Everyone drove well and hopefully enjoyed the experience. Kudos to all those at the back who made it through churned sand: I had only occasional views on @Ashok chaturvedi, @varunmehndiratta and the trucks gang behind, but my overall impression is that you all handled well, with little problems except maybe in some more technical stretches with tiny manouvering spaces in Suweidan. Thanks to @M.Seidamfor his fantastic support and to @Francois Germishuys for holding the fort as Sweep. When temperatures will go down, rest assured we will reattempt the full itinerary to Big Red! See you soon in the sand!

Brilliant drive, with a small convoy who allowed us to maintain a good technical level and a good pace, while discovering an area completely unknown to me. Thanks @Fredericfor the opportunity and kudos to @Hasan Wahlan and @Naveen Raj for an excellent drive. It was a pleasure being in support.

Dear @Danish Mohammad, first of all, I definitely think you should join tomorrow's drive with your current tires. You are a capable Intermediate Driver and you have all the skills that are required to perform well in tomorrow's terrain, even more so because tomorrow won't be a drive about "shear climbing", but rather a drive about "continuously flowing": we will cover a lot of distance, moving across various and different terrains, with the aim of moving fast and smoothly, keeping a good rhythm, cruising from ridge to ridge, criss crossing, circling bowls and climbing gently and easily for the vast majority of the drive rather than doing straight bottom-to-top climbs, which will probably be only the case at Faya Big Dune. Second, you really have to get rid of this concern about slowing down the convoy. You are at your 3rd Intermediate Drive and you compare yourself with guys in the convoy who have done 10+, 15+, 20+ intermediate drives. Obviously they drive better, but I can absolutely guarantee that a) at their 3rd Intermediate they were struggling as much as you may be and b) after 10+ and even more after 20+ Intermediate drives you'll be flying as much as they do. You will make mistakes, you may occasionally slow down the convoy, as everyone of us has done and this is totally OK, as it is what it takes to turn you (and us all) into a great offroader. Third, I totally agree with @Frederic's comment and share with you a little story. When I reached the number of drives that fueled my ambition and applied to be promoted to Intermediate, I was still driving my Nissan Patrol Y62 with 275/60R20 H/T tires and I was still having frequent pop-outs. @Carnity seniors at the time, introduced a new requirement (which later became a standard in the grading structure) that all cars participating in Intermediate Drives should have high profile tires. Hungry for more off-road adventures, I sold my 20" stock rims + tires and got 18" rims with 285/70R18 A/T tires: so smaller rims, higher profile tires, stronger side walls, all terrain thread. It changed my car completely: no more pop-outs, way more traction, more deflation and, above all, tons of additional confidence. It was the best modification I ever implemented and it allowed me to become, in time, a better off-roader. In a nutshell: come tomorrow and have fun with your current wheels without concerns about slowing the convoy (total nonsense) but if you are seriously aiming at improving your driving capabilities and your car's performance even more, consider moving to 17", having said - however - that many are brilliantly driving Pajeros on 18" tires, so eventually if you just allow yourself to slowly improve by driving more and more you can get better even without emptying your pockets for new wheels.