Thomas Varghese

@Chaitanya D kindly confirm if the drive which I have RSVP'd with @sertac will be considered as my 2nd drive and I may have to leave that. In that case please excuse me from this drive.

Elevation is only a part. You need to capture the shot using different lenses which is only possible using professional DSLR or videocams. All this is not possible while your concentration is on negotiating dunes. A split second distraction can cause accidents.

The only way I can see it you can shoot a fairly good video is to have a drone mounted camera. Yes you can fix the camera on top of the car but it won't get you the elevation to capture the entire convoy or even a part of it. You need very good elevation and can only be done with the aid of a drone mounted camera.

I agree @varunmehndiratta. Atleast I have something to brag about to my friends. You name the treat and its yours.

Wow @varunmehndiratta. Thanks for the footage. Its me and my car who is shot as we were in front of you. Now I can share the adventure with my friends.

congrats @Gavin Hill. We will see soon in more fewbie drives then.

So again we meet for another drive in carnity @Abdul Rahman Abdul Kader, @Danish Mohammad. We started off as absolute newbies together with @Frederic as lead and @sertac as sweep. As fewbies it will be our 1st drive together. @sertac was the perfect sweep for our 1st drive and now he is going to lead us to Big Red as Marshal. I'm very excited. It will be a pleasure to meet @N@ved, @imranaasghar81, @Anvar Sadath Bekal, @sri ganesh, @Arman, @Rizwan Waheed & @Arda Yagcioglu again for another drive. As the drive numbers progress so do the friends gathered here in @Carnity. Thanks to @Carnity I will be completing 10 drives since we started off as absolute newbies on Nov 27th, 2020 drive with @Frederic. Thanks to all the Marshalls who lead me@Frederic, @Gaurav, @Rahimdad, @Ale Vallecchi, @Chaitanya D & @Wrangeld In these desert drives I've learned some basics to drive on sand. 1. DEFLATE TIRE PRESSURE to around 14 psi, 2. DON'T FIGHT GRAVITY - use gravity to get out of tricky situations, 3. DON'T LOSE MOMENTUM - if lost try again (small secret - I applied this very valuable advice in my business too😅) 4.IN CASE THERE IS NO WAY OUT DURING A STUCK. ask for help from like minded friends and get yourself unstuck. Look forward to drive with all the marshals @Carnity and hone my skills more.

0504541008, my whatsapp no. Please share to me also

@Frederic has given me a good reason to fix a spacer to my Xterra

Thank you @Ale Vallecchi for the detailed description of the drive. Whatever be the classification of the drive I enjoyed it as my wife was very happy with the criss crossing, ridge riding and at the pace we were going. She was shouting with glee at the crossing and coming down the slope like she was riding a roller coaster all in the private space inside our car. To tell you the truth she was very proud of how her husband still drives at this age. Honestly I like it immensely. Who wouldn't like when your own wife is admiring you on your driving skills when you feel like you are getting old? I know its taking a physical toll on her with the jumps and I always tell her she can stay back home and I'll be back after the drive. She said she will accompany me until she feels its enough of the adventure for her. Regarding mods I'm not interested in turning my car into an offroad monster when at present I didn't even utilize the full potential of the car. I think with more drives like this I will finally realize what my car can do and what my limitations are. Some of the crossings we did yesterday demanded extreme concentration and had to overcome the fear of falling down from the top of the ridge. I'm not in my middle age. I have crossed 53 and my reflexes and eye sight is not as sharp as before even though I pretend they are as good as before. I try to overcome this by paying full attention to the task. Looking forward for more adventure drives from you and will join as soon as the calendar opens.

@Ale Vallecchi what would be the classification of the drive we had yesterday? Fewbie, Fewbie Plus or almost intermediate? Whatever classification you give my experience was pure exhilaration of safe adventure. The way you had lead us through unexplored territories without any mishaps is commendable. So surprised the stock SUV's can do so much when challenged. Mine is an ordinary stock base model Xterra which has a 4WD and am so happy the car can perform so much when asked of it. As its a daily drive I have no intention to do any major mods and I'm thankful to all the Marshalls and team of carnity to make me love my car and drive it to its full potential. I look forward to the promised full day drive from @Ale Vallecchi and will be happy to drive under his lead. Hope he will announce us the bonus drive this coming Friday. To all the co drivers I really enjoyed the drive with you all and will look forward for future drives with all of you.

Today's drive surprise. Could shoot only one among the hundreds as they are camera shy and ran off by the time I got the camera out of its bag and the telephoto lens fixed.

Hopefully @Ale Vallecchi's car didn't develop any major problems. Xterra's are rugged and tough but has to be handled with care. Better to get it to its hospital soon. Till now its running but cannot for long. 2007 to 2009 model Xterra's have a flaw in the radiator which makes the gearbox oil to mix with the engine coolant if the separator between them corrodes off. Both flow into the same radiator but is separated inside the radiator coils. Nissan had to recall many Xterra's of that time and replace the radiator with new model radiators. This inbuilt design fault has damaged countless Xterra's engine and the automatic gear box. One symptom @Ale Vallecchi discussed was the car was having a very good thirst for coolant and has to be topped up every week which corresponds to this intermixing of the gearbox oil and coolant. This can only happen if the coolant is going somewhere else rather than the intended path. The leak which developed in this car had a reddish color but had traces of oil in it. If a mechanic checks the gearbox oil level he can immediately detect the flaw as coolant will appear on the dipstick. As the car is running ok and gears are shifting properly I hope there is no major damage and it will be alright once the radiator is replaced, the coolant system is flushed and the gearbox also drained of its oil, cleaned thoroughly and new gear oil is poured. Looking forward to the full day drive promised by @Ale Vallecchi once the stallion is ready and ready to gallop off into the infinite horizon. I hope it will be next week as I really love the way he leads through the desert and didn't get enough of it.

Honeymoon couples still going strong after 30 years of commitment.

The convoy Ongoing classes for self recovery

THE MARSHAL @Ale Vallecchi

Start of the exciting drive.

sorry I left the drive as its also on Friday the 29th

I have also RSVP's for the drive. If you can include me I'm ready to join on Saturday morning if I get back in 1 piece from @Ale Vallecchi's drive on Friday. Kindly include me too. This should be my 4th drive as a fewbie in Carnity and 10th drive overall including 6 as Newbie.

I'm ready.