Thomas Varghese

Off to the playground. Fun at will

The drive starts and excited friends ready to explore the unknown - @N@ved

Leisure time

@Carnity everybody helps a driver in distress.

@sertac & @Luca Palanca Falsini plotting the drive so that drivers will not be bored for a second

@Foxtrot Oscar what a drive you have organized and led. Pure exhilaration in 4 hours. The initial part of the drive was reminding me of of my teenage days where we used to race on dust tracks into the forest. I could only see the flags fluttering ahead of me and I think I did a pretty good job at following the flags swaying wildly ahead of me. I was wondering if this is how a fewbie plus drive is. Very soon you took us into the serious off roading. My 1st fewbie plus drive. OMG it was exciting. I have 1 serious grievance about this drive. I didn't get much time to take out my camera and start shooting pictures as nobody was getting stuck or the convoy could stop for sometime so that I can start to shoot. Everybody performed well. Good thing my wife gave me resignation from future desert drive. I know if she was there she would have fainted. Even my car started to cry please slow down or stop for sometime .My poor Xterra trying to cope up with all the new cars. I hope you all liked him. For all the drivers who participated - everyone performed well. Look forward to drive with like minded and skilled drivers and cars in the future. I'm too tired after the fun. Good Night

congrats @Junaid120120 for your promotion. See u soon in the sands

The adventures or rather misadventures on my Altima in the deserts from ICAD2 to Mussaffah will be much more interesting than this Xterra story. But except for a couple of times my Altima performed well.

@Rahimdad tell us the secret how did @Carnity advertisement started to pop out in my fb page? 🤣 Would love to do the same with my company website too.

@Rahimdad sorry for that long post. There is a reason I joined @Carnity. When my wife was in India and I was alone here, I was getting bored and wanted to do some exploration with my Xterra. So 1 day I proudly took my Xterra to Umm Al Qwain beach and found a place where to drive on the beach. Promptly put the 4HI and started to drive. I could see some loose sand ahead of me and seeing some 4 wheelers had crossed over to the other side of the beach. I thought if they can go why can't I and started to slowly move ahead confident that the drive is now shifted to 4HI. I didn't know anything about deflating the tires and the importance of momentum. I know you must have broken into laughter when you are reading this. Well the inevitable refusal which ended up in a stuck followed. I didn't know anything about turning the wheels left right nor giving the accelerator in a blip blip. The more power I gave the Xterra promptly sat down on the sand up to the chassis. I understood the car won't budge an inch. Got down and started to look for a kind face to seek help. As expected someone from my place was enjoying on the beach with his family and was planning to leave on his Prado. He was not sure if he should help me but being a former Sales person myself I somehow sold the idea that he should use his car to pull me out of this mess. He tried to resist by saying he doesn't have a tow rope which I promptly produced from my car (bought from Amazon for less than 100AED). As he ran out of excuses and not to miss out a chance to perform a superman act in front of his family he agreed and we pulled out the car using his Prado. After joining @Carnity I thank God for saving me from the most stupidest thing I have ever done in my whole motoring life unscathed. We didn't deflate the tires, didn't displace the heaped sand by shoveling as neither both of us had one and most importantly didn't know what all foolish things we were doing and endangering our life as well as the people who had gathered to watch the spectacle. The second part of the story starts after I reached home with a totally deflated ego and lost confidence in my prized 4 X 4. What a fool I made of myself on that beach by attempting to do something which I didn't know. The drive to learn to drive on sand was initiated like this. I understood all the foolish acts I did that day by watching some off roading videos on You Tube. I knew watching videos is different from learning from an instructor in person and was wishing someone would teach me. Anyways our browsers are always spying on our activities and viola @Carnity advertisement started to pop out in my facebook page as if that was the only thing I needed. 1 sentence caught my attention - learn to off road in your stock car with minimal mods. I promptly signed up and started to look forward to learn from all the marshal's in @Carnity. My 1st instructor was @Frederic and the sweep was @sertac. @Frederic did a fantastic briefing explaining all the basics and we were good to go. As Absolute Newbies refusals and stucks were the order of the day. I was impressed by the way @sertac patiently instructed us and helped us by shovelling and towing the car away under the watchful eyes of @Frederic. Not once did both of them complain or their smiles faded. I myself had 3 or 4 nasty stucks and crests. That day I decided if ever I see @sertac lead a drive as a Marshal I will definitely join that drive. I did 1 more drives with @Frederic, 1 with @Gaurav, 1 with you @Rahimdad, 1 with @Wrangeld, 2 with @Chaitanya D and 3 with @Ale Vallecchi. So totally 10 drives at @Carnity. So far so good. At least I am confident I'm not going to repeat all the stupidity I did at that beach. Tomorrow I have joined for 2 drives. 1 with @sertac in the morning and the second one with @Foxtrot Oscar.One is a fewbie drive and the other a fewbie plus drive. Whatever the classification I know I will learn more at each drive. Wish all of you @Carnity fun in the sands tomorrow.

@Hardik Mody they are good for up to some speed. My magnetic flag pole dropped down with the flag on to the body at speed exceeding 120km/hr. The drag of the flag surely over powered the magnetic force which holds it up to the body. For the flag its ok as we don't do that speed during our desert drive and its super easy to stick it on and take it off when needed. For the LED light the drag of the light will be more and I'm not sure it will hold up. Better to have a permanent fixture using a bracket and nuts to secure your light. Moreover someone can easily flick your LED light when you are not around. It will be difficult to connect and reconnect the wiring harness also when you need to remove the light.

I found mine in an accessories shop in the naif area

I'm using a magnetic mount for the flag pole and so far that was the best choice I made.

Thank you @Chaitanya D for organizing this surprise drive and leading us through wonderful terrain. Thanks for the compliment. Even though I have been promoted to Fewbie and have done drives there the Newbie drives always excite me. Every drive gives me an opportunity to test my skills and learn new things. Moreover, more drives makes me see more of the desert and its beauty. Yesterday's sunset was very stunning. Probably its stunning every time. I got to see the sun setting only couple of times in the desert. The beauty was so overpowering that I had to acknowledge God who created all this is a painter. Even when the sun is bidding farewell to our day it does so in a majestic and elegant way. The clouds I felt were trying to obstruct the sun rays themselves got soaked in those powerful rays and had to take the sun rays color. The overpowering SUN. Thanks to @Chaitanya D for giving us a short break in the middle of the drive to absorb this beauty. These pictures gave me more insight into my future. I'm 53 and age is just a number but we know we cannot go on for eternity. Everything which has a beginning has to end one day. The sun taught me even when your time is up you can go down majestically & elegantly by shining upon all who comes in your way whether its family or friends. The sun rise reminds me every new day has a new beginning. Regarding the drive it was very exciting as I felt it was a less frequented area by many as there were not much tracks left by previous explorers on the sand. Everybody drove well especially at the great slide slope dune towards the end. It gave a bit of adrenalin rush to scale that dune. Thanks again to the Marshal to lead us to that area and by giving us the opportunity to do a good slide slope. I had 2 great drivers ahead of me in my visual range - @Mohamed Seidam & @rajeshkumar rathod and it was fun watching them drive from behind. No mistakes, perfect approach angle, perfect throttle response and good momentum. No churning up the tracks by powering the car unnecessarily and I could follow them without any difficulty which saved me from getting stuck or having a refusal. It was the best drive I had till date. The few refusals or stucks we had made the drive even more enjoyable as it gave us lessons in recovery and some stunning views. I would be joining whichever drive comes my way regardless of the status of the classification but will be careful to leave a spot for aspiring newbies for a much needed experience in that category. I would leave my name for a waitlist in that thread so that I can join if there is a slot opening up if the Marshal wishes so. Special commendations about the elegant long slide sloping done by @Foxtrot Oscar. It was pure display of all the knowledge gained through experience driving on the sands. She made it look like she was taking a casual stroll in a park and fooled me into thinking it was so easy. Thankfully the Marshal agreed to my request and I tried to follow her tracks but barely escaped by not fighting gravity and exiting when it was needed and joining others down on the sabka safely. Kudos Angela. No wonder you are ranked an expert in Carnity. Will try to learn few tricks from you on the coming Friday afternoon drive if I can manage a slot.

@Foxtrot Oscar sorry i got added when i checked who all was going. You can remove me and put me back on the waitlist if there is a stampede for the drive. Its my 2nd drive.