Lorenzo Candelpergher

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order: @Islam Soliman, @Lakshmi Narasimhan, @Rawad Bahsas , @Antoz, @Werno, @Ahab Shamaa, @Batuhan Kulac, @Lawrence_Chehimi, @Paul Zeitoun, @Dodi Syahdar, @GauravSoni, this is going to be a fun and fast paced drive, covering quite a long distance. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, so make sure you come well rested, hydrated and without reasons for distraction. We will be using Carnity Channel 1 (446.00625MHz). See tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already deflated and flagged) by no later 5:45m (sharp).

Hi @Dodi Syahdar, may I know which car will you be driving tomorrow? Your Ford 150 or your Mitsubishi Montero? I need this info to plan the convoy order. Thanks in advance.

Hi @Paul Zeitoun it seems we are not alone anymore.. 😂😂

Hi @Tariq Carrimjee, you are the 2nd waitlisted for this drive.

Sure @Shaaz Sha, you are the 1st waitlisted for this drive (1st drive).

Dear Desert Wanderers, the RSVP limit has been reached for this drive. @Arman, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Mario Cornejo, @Goutam. @Hisham Masaad, @Ilya Golubinsky, @amir amiri, @imranaasghar81, @GauravSoniand @varunmehndiratta are pre-confirmed, for the time being. Looking forward to meet you all on the sand on Friday!!

Hi @imranaasghar81, the RSVP is not yet closed. I've added you as an attendee.

Drive Brief This early morning mid-week drive is meant for those desert addicted off-roaders that, by Tuesday night, are already craving to get their wheels back in the sand. Starting at dawn, 5:45AM, from the pylon track crossing the sabkha at the end of the Al Qudra - Solar Park Road, our bearing will be constantly north-east, (the ideal direction for an early morning drive in terms of light and terrain readability), as we will move across an almost continuous stretch of desert featuring beautiful long range dunes, with plenty of opportunities for Fewbie off-roaders for refining their driving skills on slide-sloping and ridge-riding. Crossing the pylon track trough an area of more technical small dunes, we will eventually make our way to the exit point at Lisaili Fort by 8:45AM, re-energized and ready for a fruitful working day. 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: Fewbie and Above (All Levels) When: 21 Apr 2021, Wednesday. Meeting time: 5:45 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: 8:45 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

Drive Brief After a short approach across some small dunes we will reach 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, which we will climb from the west side. This first ascent will set the tone and the level for the rest of the drive, which will take us, as we will progressively move south, through 16 more 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, reaching so high that only the sky will be our limit. 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-roaders 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 2.0 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: 23 Apr 2021, Friday. Meeting time: 6:00 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: 10:00 AM End Point: Shuweib (Al Madam Farms) 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, If thrill and adrenaline are what you were looking for, I'm quite sure this drive served the purpose quite well. With a few minutes of delay, we left at 3:15pm from Lisaili Fort. The warm wind blowing from the south was promising a virgin terrain, newly reshaped crests and untamed ridges. The first stint of the drive was meant to be an innocuous transfer from Lisaili Fort to the pylon track, but those small technical dunes were too inviting to be avoided, so I decided to ride them all, from crest to crest, as an initial test to measure the convoy's worthiness. With just a couple of refusals the test was passed, and I felt comfortable to set the bar quite high for the rest of the drive. The stretch of desert south-east from the pylon track was the most technical one for the day. This is where we had our first pop-out with @Yousef Alimadadi(which luckily we could fix easily) and where I got crested for the first of two times, which required a bit of shoveling. Once we made it to the the long range dunes, the fun began. Two weels on one side of the crest and two weels on the other, we started crushing crests as if we had to flatten the whole area. It was on one of the deep dives on the slip face that we had first @GauravSoni then @Tero Vallascrested in nasty positions which suggested we winched both, for the respective pleasure of @Ahab Shamaaand myself. We then got back on track, but we soon had to stop again due to @Tero Vallas's defaulting traction control. Luckily we could check that the traction control, whatever the problem may have been, was disengaged, so we decided @Tero Vallas's car was good to continue. The convoy did great today: @AlexPoldidn't give up an inch from @Yousef Alimadadi's tail nor from mine, after I shifted to 2nd lead. @Goutam was equally effective in following my tracks, even in the most challenging passages. @Tariq Carrimjee got the best out of his JL and showed very little signs of hesitation even in the most daring passages. @Ahab Shamaa, no surprise, did great as well. He repeatedly mentioned I should have warned him to bring his pampers for this drive, but reality is he was way more thrilled than scared.. (I'll remember to add something about pampers next time I post an IM drive.. Ahah). @GauravSoni and @Mario Cornejo both had very little to say over the radio today: for sure they were busy with both hands on the steering wheel in this challenging drive. @Shehab Alawadhi, a survivor of Tuesday afternoon IM drive in Al Qudra, found again reasons to test his driving capabilities . As far as I could hear, his passenger enjoyed the drive as well.. @Jorge Stepniak Felippe was quiet at the back of the convoy. He had for sure a harder day because of the churned up sand left by the whole convoy and the beast in front of him. @Tero Vallas was "all cool at the back" even if this wasn't his luckiest day as he had to deal with the 2nd pop-out of the day in addition to the traction control issues. After a good 1h 45' drive, we finally made it to the hot spot of the day, the "Mighty Lisaili Dunes", as I call them. We really climbed them from all possible sides and in all possible ways and I must say I really had loads of fun, even if I managed to get stuck once again. Soon after having completed our endless runs around the "Mighty Lisaili dunes", @Yousef Alimadaditook over to do his partial led. Wow, what a nice stint we had with him: beautifully chosen lines with long side slopes and a very smooth ride. A perfectly executed lead, that took us safely and with a lot of fun all the way from Lisaili to Al Qudra. We reached the tarmac by 6:50pm, completing 58.8km in 3h 37', of which we spent 2h 30' moving and 1h 7' stopped. When we moved, we did so with a great pace, for an average speed of 23.6km/h. Congratulatiojs to everyone for a great performance in quite a demanding drive. And congratulations to @Yousef Alimadadi, who is certainly ready to lead his own independent drives.

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, Although well known to most, the drive to Pink rock to Big Red is always one that I love and yesterday's one made no exception. We started with 20 mins of delay, mostly because of some confusion on the meeting point, as everyone except myself and Marks stopped at an earlier point, which they had used in previous occasions. We then hit the sand, heading north-east with the sun rising from our right side. I personally love driving towards the sun in the morning: it's like being energized for the day. The first 30 mins were about knowing the convoy and testing their capabilities. We drove smoothly across some mid sized dunes, with a few steep descents, some side slopes, some ridge riding and some occasional criss crossing. Everyone did well, which allowed me to let @marks take his partial lead stint, with the aim of taking us to Pink Rock and start heading towards Big Red. @marks led us with good pace and nice lines to the bottom of Pink Rock, from where we climbed to the top to enjoy the beautiful view. As @Werno's passenger rightly said, you onky realise the reason for the name, Pink Rock, when you make it to the top and actually see the rock is.. pink! As @marks moved ahead, we started heading south towards Big Red. This portion of desert between Pink Rock and Big Red is one of my favourites, as it offers nice, long and flat ridges to ride on but also a lot of steep slop faces which allow to increase the level of the drive as desired. We indulged for quite some time in this area, where, unavoidably, we experienced a bit more challengesa and refusals/stucks, among which I can recall a couple of crested cars, @Hennie Schoeman's and @Batuhan Kulac's if I am not mistaken. After approx 1h20' I took over the lead again. As the convoy was doing too well, I decided to bump the level up a bit, both in pace and in technical difficulty. This led to a few more refusals and repeated attempts in a few complex passages, but in general the convoy responded very well. I have no hesitation to say that the last hour was a full Fewbie Plus drive. We quickly headed south to reach "The other big dune next to Big Red", where the whole convoy made it to the top at the 1st attempt. @imranaasghar81, in his role as Center Forward, was very worried about his pace and kept on asking if the G63 behind him was fine with it. A great deal of attention and care, however the guys behind did all very well. We then approached the final climb to Big Red. This was a tricky and difficult ascent, with very churned up sand and a lot of tracks added on top of the intrinsic complexity of the dune, which we approached from the northwest side. The fist attempt didn't go very well and we had to spend a little time winching @Hennie Schoemanout of a cresting just in front of a nasty little pocket first and then to help out @jodha singh shekhawatand @Batuhan Kulac out of a deep bowl. Both did extremely well and got out of the bowl in no time. After a brief rerouting, we reconnected with the rest of the convoy and restarted our ascent to the very top. We couldn't possibly let this moment go down in memories without a photo, so here it isb a proud Febwie convoy at the very top of Big Red: a fantastic achievement. After this last shot of adrenaline, we quickly headed out on E44 Hatta Road by 10am, as planned, to relax and reinflate. We covered 59.8km in 3h43', of which 3h 03' in movement and just 40' stopped, with an average moving speed of 19km/h, with a total ascent / descent of +/- 440m. Excellent stats for a Fewbie Drive: kudos to the whole convoy! Last but not least: congrats to @marks@marks. You led with confidence and with very good pace and lines. You are definitely ready to lead independently, I look forward to supporting you drives.

Thanks for letting me know @Jon M. @Francois Germishuys, you are the next waitlisted. Are you willing to join?

No problem @Jack Thomas, pls remove yourself from the RSVP. Given that @Gaurav Soni has taken @varunmehndiratta's place the 2nd waitlisted, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, will take your place. @Gaurav Soni, @Jorge Stepniak Felippe, pls confirm if you are in.

Dear @Pacific, no problem. Thanks for informing us.

Dear @varunmehndiratta, if you think you are not going to make it, I suggest you drop out and let @Gaurav Soni, the first waitlisted, join the drive.

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order: @marks, @Thomas Fumarola, @Werno, @imranaasghar81, @Pacific, @Batuhan Kulac, @Hennie Schoeman, @jodha singh shekhawat, this drive is going to be a nice and entertaining Fewbie Drive: we will have the chance to enjoy the sunrise heading towards Pink Rock, experience the thrill of climbing the rock itself and then progressively increasing both pace and complexity of the drive as we will head towards Al Badayer. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated and that 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 2 (446.03125MHz). See tomorrow morning, ready to go (i.e. already deflated and flagged) by no later 6:00am (sharp).

Dear Desert Wanderers, this RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order: @Yousef Alimadadi, @AlexPol, @Jon M, @Goutam, @Ahab Shamaa, @Tariq Carrimjee, @varunmehndiratta, @Mario Cornejo, @Shehab Alawadhi, @Jack Thomas, @Tero Vallas, this drive is going to be technically demanding, both mentally for the drivers and mechanically for the cars, given the high temperatures. It will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, so make sure you come well rested and hydrated 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 1 (446.00625MHz). See you on Saturday afternoon, ready to go (i.e. already deflated and flagged) by no later 3:00pm (sharp).

Dear @Fabien Monleau, unfortunately this is a Fewbie Drive and, as per Carnity rules, your current rank does not allow you to join it. Please understand this is mostly for your own safety and for that of the other convoy members. I'm sure there will be other occasions for you and I look forward to have you in one of my next Fewbie drives as soon as you will have reached the rank.

DRIVE REPORT Dear Desert Wanderers, after a long period of forced abstinence from leading, today's drive was for me a great opportunity to get back in the game and feel once again the mix of adrenaline, fun and freedom that leading an off-road drive offers, so I couldn't be more grateful to all those who joined today and made this drive enjoyable, fast and smooth. All convoy members were sharp on time at the meeting point, so by 3:48pm we were already moving after the briefing: the best possible start for a drive meant to be all about speed and pace. A warm wind welcomed us on the sand. Maybe annoying during the very few recoveries, but perfect to grant us a virgin terrain, with ridges and crests perfectly reshaped in the anticipation of our passage. Less than a minute in the drive, we were already riding the first ridges at high speed: two wheels on one side of the crest, two on the other side, it became immediately clear this was going to be the leitmotif of the day. The name of drive became clear as well quite soon, as we systematically criss-crossed the ridges/crests, deep diving on the slip faces of dunes of all heights, to the extent that only once we did a straight up / straight down crossing. The convoy responded to my challenging routing far beyond my expectations. @Shehab Alawadhi was a perfect 2nd lead. Cautious enough to hold when I showed some hesitation, fast in response to my slight rerouting instructions, never hesitant to follow through, even in the most daring passages. Being crested in a couple of occasion only shows Intermediate level is now the right rank for him to polish even more his driving driving skills. @Thomas Varghese demonstrated beyond doubt how deserved his fresh promotion to Intermediate was. The drive pace and technical level were definitely a step up, but Thomas' response was excellent. A couple of stucks are to be considered part of the game, proof that even when one deservingly makes it to Intermediate, there is still more to learn. @Ali Abas led his Landcruser beautifully on all those crests. The only moment of hesitation (and a bush too much, probably) caused an unfortunate pop-out, which was however fixed in record time. I felt very sorry when I heard his daughters were a bit scared during the drive and that the little one got even car-sick in the end... Maybe a fast paced Intermediate drive was not the best occasion to bring the family along. @Gaurav Soni, despite driving in churned up sand, showcased the great wealth of experience built up over the many intermediate drives done with Carnity. @Rob Harper's Tundra was a beauty to watch.. I often looped back to keep an eye on the convoy and see how everyone was doing along the crests: everytime I looked, Rob's all black monster rode with two wheels past the crest in a very authoritative way. @Jack Thomasundoubtly had fun today, as he knew already what he had signed up for... He was indeed with me on my first "Slip face of Al Qudra" drive: I'm curious to read his views on this "reloaded" version, when compared to the first one. Last but not least, my appreciation and gratitude go to @Ale Vallecchi, an unusual sweep, who made my life a lot easier in the few recoveries we had to manage. I am glad to read he enjoyed the drive though churned up sand. Overall, we drove 52.3km in 2h 51', of which we spent in movement 2h 16', with only 34' stopped time. This resulted in a very fast pace at 23.4 km/h average moving speed. Not bad, but nothing to be compared with the running speed of the beautiful gazelles that crossed our path in the sabkha at sunset on our way out... I couldn't have planned a better gran finale. Thank you everyone for a great midweek drive and kudos for an outstanding performance.

Dear @Batuhan Kulac, the drive will start at 6am with the aim to finish by 10am, so it will be a 4 hours one, as specified both in the drive details and in the calendar.

Hi @Rob Harper, Yes, you responded to the RSVP. It was my mistake not to include you. Probably a wrong copy / paste. Apologies. You can, of course, join.

Dear Desert Wanderers, the RSVP is now closed. Please find below the convoy order: @Shehab Alawadhi, @Thomas Varghese, @Ali Abas, @Gaurav Soni, @Jack Thomas, @Ale Vallecchi, this drive is going to be very fast paced and technically demanding, more mentally for the drivers than mechanically for the cars. For those of you who have been newly promoted to Intermediate Level, it will be a significant step up from Fewbie / Fewbie+, mostly because of the higher pace, but also because of the more frequent technical challenges, as we will be doing a lot of criss-crossing and deep dives on slip faces (hence the name of the drive..). This drive will require your full and undivided concentration at every step, so make sure you come well rested and you don’t have any reason for being distracted. If you are fancying to take a lot of photos, be aware that this may not be the best occasion, as you will need both your hands on the steering wheel at all times,.. Also, please consider carefully if you wish to bring passengers along with you. We will be using Carnity Channel 1 (446.00625MHz). Please make it to the meeting point, ready to go (i.e. already deflated and flagged) by no later 3:45pm (sharp).

Dear @Thomas Varghese, I'm pleased it will be with me. Looking forward to it.