Lorenzo Candelpergher

Dear Desert Wanderers, At the moment we have waitlisted for 1st drive @Rizwanm2 and @Ilya and waitlisted for 2nd drive @Lakshmi Narasimhan and @Ashok chaturvedi. Given that we had only one drop-out, the next in line is @Rizwanm2. Final convoy will be in any case definef upon closing of the RSVP tomorrow.

It's 5am, but since I posted while in Italy the calendar got the time wrong. Will fix it. Thx

Drive Brief The famous Area 53, the pyramid-like dune formation belonging to the portion of Al Badayer situated on the south-west side of the E44 Dubai - Hatta Road, offers a great deal of opportunities for off-roaders willing to put their dune climbing skills to the test. With this in mind, this particular drive is aimed at attempting to reach a specific goal, i.e. recording an overall ascent (i.e. the total elevation gain/loss) in excess of +1000/-1000m, which will require a great deal of climbs and descents for the large part of the drive. In fact, as this is the the 2nd edition of this particular kind of drive, the actual ascent we will be aiming for will be in excess of 1'570 m, the previous record. This first ascent will be straight forward from the north side of Area 53, after a rapid approach through a few small dunes to warm up. This climb will set the tone and the level for the rest of the drive, which will take us, as we will progressively move south, through a dozen of different areas with high and complex dunes, where we will perform steep ascents, audacious criss-crossings, crest/ridge ridings and side slopes at vertiginous heights, always with an eye on our total ascent count. In between, we will have to crunch a few kilometers across medium small technical dunes characterized by the complete absence of any specific alignment or repetitive pattern, which will require careful navigation and undivided attention by all drivers. This drive is the epitome of off-roading on the high red sand dunes of Sharjah, an adrenaline and action packed time for those who really want to discover where their limits as Intermediate off-road climbers are. 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: Intermediate and Above (All Levels) When: 31 Jul 2021, Saturday. Meeting time: 5:00 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Al Badayer Exit - E44 Dubai - Hatta Road - https://goo.gl/maps/JkhE9hDwve8mkkU99 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: 9:00 AM End Point: Tawi Ghadaya (Shabiyat Al Rafadeh Mosque) 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

Congratulations @Lakshmi Narasimhan, a very well deserved promotion! I look forward to our next Intermediate Drive toghether!

Fascinating data @Goutam, a goldmine of infos. Thanks for sharing. It would be interesting to record as well some quantitative/qualitative data about if and how you liked the drive and why, like a scoring and a preselected set of reasons for liking / disliking the drive, whether you found it easy or difficult, whether the convoy was overall up to the drive level or not, etc, ie some focus on the subjective experience. Food for thoughts, given that it looks like data mining is your passion! Kudos!

Congratulazioni @PaoloMaraziti, a well deserved promotion, especially considering you earned it after that defining moment where, in the aftermath of a difficult night drive, you were seriously inclined towards taking a break from off-roading for some time but eventually decided to keep hitting the sand every weekend to cover bad memories with the dust of newer and better ones. It was the right choice and this promotion proves it. Kudos!

Dear Deser Wanderers, I've been looking around for a good OBD II Bluetooth Scanner to use with my Jeep Wrangler Rubicon. I ended up aiming at Blue Driver OBD II Bluetooth Scan Tool which for approx 500 aed seems to be one of the best options. The original idea was to find out why I get so often get an error light from the Electronic Stability Control System which tends to appear when I happen to do a lot of wheel spinning. Jeep were not able to figure out the problem, reset the system and said it was OK, but when tested in the sand, the car had again and keeps on having the same issue. Later on I developed a further interest to know more and understand better how my car behaves with or without the "Off-road+" mode activated and other stuff, especially what is the sweet spot for performing "almost WOT" downshifting by feathering the throttle, as real WOT (Wide Open Throttle) downshifting seems to be electronically prevented in the 3.6L Pentastar engine, which is the only real issue I see in my new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon Unlimited coming from a V8 400hp 5.6L Nissan Patrol Y62 which would perform WOT downshifting without any issue. Any recommendations? Any experiences worth sharing? Is an OBD II Scanner a tool worth having or is it wasted money?

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, I've always loved riding ridges and crests, especially when dunes are high, as being able to control the car in such conditions and finding the guts needed to keep pushing it even further gives a great sense of accomplishment. Well for sure yesterday, at the end of 3h spent restlessly riding ridges and crests, we certainly felt accomplished... The challenge of the day was riding 100+ crests in 3h, that is, on average something like one crest every 100 seconds.. When I set the target I was honestly not sure it could be done, as I had no previous benchmarks from my past drives, but after I spent some time analysing our track, I can tell we went way above 100, as I counted approx 140 crests, not counting at all (as I had originally planned) very long crests as multiple crests on the basis of their actual lenght in multiples of 50m. We were super punctual, to the extent that by exactly 5:00am we were ready to go, after the briefing. We crossed the sabkha on the south east side of the pylon track and made our way into the sand with very minimal light, relying mostly on our own car lights to have a decent visibility of the way ahead. Not even 5 mins into the drive, @Gok Krish experienced his first cresting, quickly towed back by @GauravSoniafter we realized shoveling was not the option.. As we moved ahead, fiercely riding on top of any rideable ridge or crest, the convoy started to get accustomed to the leitmotiv of the day, and the fun began. We went though the initial long range dunes with meticolous precision not to leave behind any crest unridden, which resulted in a very nice zig-zag, making sure we avoided the tricky rock formations that populate the area: We then moved north east, and reached the two big play areas where I usually like to have a couple of rounds: It was in this area where we had to winch out @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ's jeep from a bad stuck and soon after @GauravSoni got tricked into a tight bowl from where he had to be winched out by @Kailas. As we made our way fourther North, our zig-zag took us to the Mighty Dunes in Lisaili where we kept riding crest, but this time with a view from an elevated position. It was soon after that thay we had to say goodbye to @Wrangeld, who had to head out though the nearest sabkha back to Love Lakes as @Jeepie's car, that Richard had stolen overnight, was showing an engine error light. The several refusals experienced during the drive showed everyone how tricky it can be to ride ridges/crests where all of a sudden you may find with your car on the belly and your wheels in the air.. Luckily all refusals were easily recovered and we could complete our drive all the way north to the long range dunes in Lisaili, before exiting on the pylon track and eventually reaching the tarmac close to Lisaili Fort. Riding so many ridges / crests in a raw surely polished everyone's skills, especially when we had the chance of repeated criss-crossings to change the side of the dune while still staying with two wheels on one side and two on the opposite side, depending on the curvature of the dune. All of this while we all definitely had loads of fun. Everyone did well yesterday: @Gok Krishwas a perfect 2nd lead, @Ashok chaturvedifollowed with great focus, with the extra pressure of being tailed by a Marshal, @Wrangeld, who in turn seemed to finally enjoy an Intermediate drive after so many Newbie ones.. @varunmehndiratta had a chance to test more deflated tires (it went well apparently), @Ahab Shamaa enjoyed his 3rd drive with me in the lead in the last 6 days, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ once again joined the drive in style, as always with a twin uniform for himself and his son. I didn't have eyes on @GauravSoni and @Dodi Syahdarat the back, so I'll be curious to read their comments here. @Kailas was a great Sweep at the back, allowing me to relax during refusals and recoveries as I knew he had everything under control. Great drive, great fun, great convoy. Thanks to everyone and especially the Seniors in support. See you soon in the sand again (after a short summer break to Europe, in my case..).

Very nice video @Gok Krish, it really gives a good sense of what the drive was all about: riding ridges/crests. For sure repeating this over and over again eventually helps polishing your driving skills. I think the most interesting challenge yesterday was the continuous criss crossing required to stay on top of the crest with two wheels on one side and two on the other side adjusting the side based on the curvature of the crest. Another challenging drive, very well managed!

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order for our drive: We will have the pleasure to have with us @Wrangeld, in one of the rare occasions when he leaves his duties as Carnity Marshal and takes the luxury of joining an Intermediate Drive for fun. So will do as well also @Kailas: I'll do my best to make sure we get as much fun as we can!! @Gok Krish, @Ashok chaturvedi, @Wrangeld, @varunmehndiratta, @Ahab Shamaa, @MUHAMMAD Kashif RAZZAQ, @GauravSoni, @Dodi Syahdar, @Kailas, this drive is going to be very demanding from a technical point. It will therefore require your full and undivided concentration at every step, considering we will spend a significant portion of the drive on the crest of high dunes, which requires constant instantaneous adjustments with throttle and steering, 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) See you tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already caffeinated, deflated, flagged and briefed) by no later 5:00am (sharp), so make sure you make it to the meeting point at least by 4:45am. The meeting point is confirmed as per original drive post: Al Qudra Pylon Track - https://goo.gl/maps/VurDujZbhkNZjGah7

Interesting. Let me know more pls

Congratulazioni @Paolo Pellegrini. Looking forward to having you in one of my drives!

Drive Brief Mastering long crest riding, at the very top of sharp edged dunes, with two wheels on one side and two on the other side as long as the crest lasts, is one of the most fulfilling achievements for a desert off-roader: it takes a great capability to read (and sometimes guess) the terrain ahead in very short time, a fine coordination of fast but precise steering and throttle response to control fishtailing, often the ability to criss-cross multiple times switching rapidly from wind-side to slip-side and back depending on the crest curvature, and - above all - that subtle balance between daring to go a few meters more and opting to safely steer down (before getting stuck or losing control of the fishtailing) that only endless practice will eventually build up. And if there's a place where long crest riding can be practiced, that is - no doubt - the Al Qudra to Lisaili stretch of desert. Starting before dawn, 5:00AM, from the pylon track crossing the sabkha at the end of the Al Qudra - Solar Park Road, we will quickly make our way into the sand and start our zig-zag heading north-east, riding fiercely all available crests on the way to Lisaili with the objective to ride each crest of a dune high enough and for a distance long enough to be clearly identifiable on our GPS track so that the total count will reach 100+ (*) before making our way out at Lisaili Fort by 8:00AM. A 100+ crests will be good practice, won't it? (*) Every crest ride longer than 100m will be counted 2 or more depending on how many multiples of 50m it covers) 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: 30 June 2021, Wednesday. Meeting time: 4:45 AM (SHARP - Without any exceptions) Meeting Point: Al Qudra Pylon Track - https://goo.gl/maps/VurDujZbhkNZjGah7 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: 8:00 AM End Point: Lisaili Fort Limited Spots Available: Limited to 10 cars only. RSVP will close on Tuesday - 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

When I wrote "we literally climbed whatever could be climbed in every way possible" I meant this 😂😂😂...

Beautiful video @Mario Cornejo, it is so intense that when you start watching it, it's difficult not to continue until the end. And your crested stuck, it was really spectacular: a stuck with a view!

DRIVE REPORT This Extreme Drive was one of those you'd never want to end, as it was too good to finish. With a convoy of just 4 cars, quoting @Ahab Shamaa, this sounded more like a private drive than a standard @Carnityone, but it had all the ingredients of the best drives in the club.. We were welcomed at the meeting point by a very strong "bio smell" (let's be politically correct 😂😂). Despite the challenge, we all managed to deflate and flag up and by 5:08am we hit the sand, almost completely in the dark. We quickly made our way to the Maleha Terraces, then climbed up to the Tawi Khatimah, on the east hillside of Pink Rock. From there the morning twilight looked beautiful. After this short warm-up, we started acting as real "Extremists", as @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, calls us, and we tackled full throttle the big bowls and straight climbs of this less known but very nice and challenging small area before crossing the sabkha and heading straight south, getting ready to accelerate to ridicolous speed. It was there where we found an F150 with a family of campers who was stuck at the bottom of a dune. After attempting to help the guy out with some instructions (which he would not follow much) we decided to winch him out so we could quickly get back to our space ships and move again at light speed. Light speed indeed is the proper description of the velocity we were able to sustain flying by Camel Rock, Pink Rock and The Sphynx, until we reached the area Faya. Even if the plan was not to indulge and simply drive through, we couldn't resist doing a few rounds in the bowls around Faya end climbing it from the south side. Just a 5 mins chill was needed before we headed down to the Mahafiz - Al Faya Road, which we bordered until the Mahafiz Roundabout, where we crossed to enter Suwaidan area. It was at this point that @Shaaz Sha found out that an A/C pipe had cracked and tha the had a leakage.lukily a good number of layers of Gorilla Tape was the perfect temporary fix, so we were good to continue. As we moved south we initially stayed on the west side, populated of medium small sized dunes with a lot of annoying bushes. We then moved a bit more to the east side, where we enjoyed a few interesting crests which we rode without slowing down a bit. We then stated approaching the area of 2nd December Cafeteria, but before crossing the road we climbed the big dunes which you typically see from down and never really drive onto. Beautiful! The fun continued on the corresponding dunes on the opposite side, west from Pink Rock. Luckily @Shaaz Sha's taped duct was holding and we enjoyed a fantastic high speed stint to the west of the Rock, where we climbed to the top at the south end side. As the place was busy, we didn't stop and we headed straigjt south towards Al Badayer. We first had a blast around the big bowls south from the two rocky spines at the southern edge of Pink Rock, then we approached and climbed "the next big dune before Big Red" and eventually Big Red itself, where we met @Islam Soliman's FB+ convoy. As there was no place to safely land, we did a fly-by and continued our acrobatic flight climbing Big Red and heading down on the Dubai g Hatta Road, which we crossed at the Al Badayer interchange. We then entered Area 53, and started pin pointing each available group of tall dunes around, furiously climbing to the top, riding long ridges and criss-crossing or breaking crests diving into the unknown on the other side at exhilarating speed. We were really pushing hard and eventually ended up in Suhail Dune with very little fuel left, so - also considering it was 8:40am already - we decided to fly over the dirt road along the fence on the west side of the dune and to head back to Tawi Nazwa for our exit. We eventually landed on the tarmac by 9:10am after driving for 95.6km at an average moving pace of 28.3km in 3h 50' (of 3h 23' moving time) with a total ascent of +1486/-1480m. @Ahab Shamaa, @Shaaz Sha and @Francois Germishuys were perfect jet pilots. I recall only one crested stuck that required a winch recovery but other than that the flight was super smooth and absolute fun. Thank you guys for the Extreme experience, and see you soon again in the sand.