JeromeFJ

Thanks @Ale Vallecchifor yesterday afternoon drive. It was the perfect escape from the work week, and from the city ! The target set for the drive was challenging but beautifully executed by the team. The perfect sand condition has helped for sure, but really, excellent performance from all drivers. @Gregory @Santoso Marjuki, happy to see you at this level, excellent progression ! Thanks @Sunil Mathew and @Looper for the yellow Wrangler support, and all the team for joining and driving so well!

You can upload them in the Gallery https://carnity.com/gallery/category/1219-absolute-newbie-al-qudra-dubai-6-feb-2022

Many thanks Angela @Foxtrot Oscar for the drive yesterday morning. It was a beautiful and smooth introduction to the desert driving, and we have all enjoyed a lot ! Even if we crossed the way of some other convoys, you took us through empty spaces of the Qudra area, and we could enjoy empty dunes, beautiful desert landscape, and cross some gazelles and a lonely oryx who was marking his territory. Of course the main purpose was to drive and to explore the capacity of the cars and the drivers. The progression from the shabka to the first dunes, and to the first slopes were perfect to get the first feeling of the movements of the cars, that weird feeling of driving sideways on an incline, or being nose up, with only the sky in sight, and nose down, carefully holding the brakes to avoid touching touching the bumper on the ground. After the brake, as the team was really doing well, and the sand conditions were excellent, Angela has increased the pace of the drive and we could really enjoy riding those dunes. In some occasions, it was more difficult at the back of the convoy as the track were a bit churned by the first cars, and we had to use more momentum to pass through the softer sand. The group did very well, a few stucks and refusals where the first opportunities to see that with some guidance, and making use of the features of the cars (4 Low, diff-lock...) it is possible to self-recover from many situations. The Prado of @Vasja Zupan got stuck on a crest, and this required a bit more effort to shovel the sand below the car. The situation was a bit more precarious with a deep pocket of soft sand on the side, and a dead tree just below. An excellent team work allowed to extract the car from the difficult situation. In the last minutes of the drive, @Waqar Ahmed Khan got crested in a similar situation (without the tree). To save time I decided to use the rope and give the car a small tug form the rear. Just to remember that it is important for each car to have proper recovery hooks at the front and at the back. @soumyasaklani, thank you for the excellent support as 2nd lead, welcome back in the sand ! @Vasja Zupan, very well done, including the efforts in the self-recoveries, good control of the Prado @Paul OR, nice drive, no issue at all taking the Pajero to the dunes. And careful listening to the support instruction when you were in a difficult situation. Keep enjoying ! @Krishna R, well done also, your car is a bit heavy, you will realize that you need more momentum in some situations to pass the obstacles @shailendra singh vilkhu, good job with the Montero. You were in sync with your car and attentive to the support instructions. Continue the same @Ameera AlMarzooqi, excellent control of the LC100, with a good combination of momentum/ trajectory to pass through some difficult configurations. Check the operation of your gear box, as I have the impression that you were in 2H sometimes, and not 4H @Waqar Ahmed Khan, the heavy Patrol requires more power to pass through the obstacles. Use it with moderation, and don't hesitate on the top of the crests, and you will see an improvement. Also listen carefully to the support instructions during recoveries, it will help you to get out safely. @CEdric Rodrigues, good job taking the Patrol out in the sands. You will see that the car has largely enough power to compensate its weight. You will enjoy a lot discovering the capacities of the car ! @Sam H, very well done with the Safari. The car is born for this environment, only asking for more ! Thank you all for joining, and see you soon in further drives !

Thank you @Islam Soliman for the drive this morning. Beautiful itinerary and quite a distance with challenging sand conditions. This mix of soft surface and solid bottom part of the dunes made it very sliding on the side slopes, and unforgiving on the crests. @Humayun Ghias was an excellent complement to your lead, rerouting and supporting when needed. @Amir Amiri was following precisely, manoeuvring the long Ram in the technical parts with dexterity. and behind…. Honestly, it was a bit messy 😅, the Jeeps struggling to control their fishtailing and the FJs doing barely better (it costed me a pop out ), and cutting the lines to limit the sliding. … and tomorrow I will support an Absolute Newbie drive and tell them « no fish tailing, steer down ! » 🙈 thanks to the skills of the drivers, all this was still executed safety and we have all enjoyed the drive ! @Pacific @Looper @Matt.T @Ranjan Das @Ashok chaturvedi, it was a pleasure to meet again and drive together. enjoy the rest of the weekend !

Congratulations @varunmehndiratta!! Well done !

Wow, guys, amazing ! It is an honour and a responsibility which I accept with pride and humility. I’ve learned so much from you all, and I will do my best to transmit this during the drives to come, and still so much to learn…. Thank you for the recognition, thank you for this beautiful activity of desert driving that I’ve discovered with Carnity, and let’s continue to have fun and enjoy safely !

Wow excellent ! Congratulations @munkybizness !!

Well done @Santoso Marjuki ! Congratulations !

Some more pics in the gallery!

Thank you @Brette for the beautiful drive this morning. Perfect introduction to the desert driving ! Thanks everyone for reaching the meeting point on time. Unfortunately @Krishna R could not join the drive. Hope you can rapidly fit a rear tow point and join soon. We started slowly crossing the shabka and reaching the first dunes. With smooth arches on the slope, we could experience this feeling of the car being sideways, or even sliding a bit despite the good grip provided by the wet sand. Then you have introduced some dune crossings, always a bit impressive, as we don’t know what is behind. This is when we had the first serious stuck of the day, with @Luiz Nóbrega being blocked on a crest, with one wheel in the air. After some attempts of self recovery, we decided to help with a small tug from the rear. Good opportunity to practice for me, and experience the feeling for Luiz. The group was driving very well, and @Brette has increased the pace, leading us through bigger dunes, for higher side sloping and dune crossings. It was then @Haitham Khattab turn to be stuck in a tricky position, on top of a steep slope. @Brette managed the recovery with great control, and it was impressive to see the two JGC tided with the rope, one supporting the other. The rest of the drive was a smooth continuation, and we crossed a more technical part with dunes closer to each other, before reaching the exit point. @Paolo Morresi and @Samer Najm where very comfortable in the drive, ready for more adventures, @Taimur Khan gained rapidly confidence to push the Prado to the top of the dunes, @Haitham Khattab and @Luiz Nóbregaenthusiastic and eager to learn. It was a pleasure to drive with all of you!

Congratulations Goutam @Looper !!