Almost4x4

Hello All,

It was a challenging drive as the name indicates, we drove to Al Qudra desert where there was soft sand and a lot of small and medium dunes with bushes.

However, despite the tough terrain we completed the whole drive on time with few second attempts. Luckily no tire pop outs and not to many cresting.

Thanks to all the team lead marshals and support crew (@S.ALSHAMSI @Barish @presa) for their guidance and help.

Looking forward for the next drive soon.

Cheers.

Technical.

That's one word I would use a lot on this trip report.

I was the second to reach the meeting point where I met @brett .. who was already deflated and ready.

I followed the simple instructions on the app on where to reach. The previous night I opened the location on Google maps with satellite mode turned on so that I could understand the terrain and make sure if I needed to deflate before reaching the point. Ultimately I decided it was 90% hard road and some patches of sand which could be easily done without deflating.

@alshamsi_m always used to tell me this. I specifically remember what he told me while in LIWA about how you navigate the way points. Always go with point one. You might think you can easily skip one and two and come to the main meeting point but there is a reason why marshals plot this for us as we saw 3 cars got lost trying to navigate. I don't blame them as they were also late so at the end it would have been a panic movie to try and reach the place.

It was easy, I reached point #1. Put point 2 as the next, did the same and reached the meeting point for the drive.

I was deflated and ready in about 5 mins.

My convoy was led by @presa and this is the first time I was under his convoy. We did have some time to chat and catch up whenever there was a car that was stuck or had a popout.

Things that I liked on this drive:

1. Smaller dunes, softer sand. This combination is deadly though I didn't have any refulsals or neither did I get stuck but it was definitely more fun and challenging than the previous drives.

2. Weather was great. It was not the usual 40⁰ at 9am sort of situation.

3. Watermelon by Mustafa. It was simply lovely.

Things I felt could have been improved:

1. Radio communication from the convoy. It was infact terrible. The car ahead of my rarely gave confirmation that he crossed and it's safe for me to go - multiple times. Which made the drive a little unsafe for me.

2. Several refusals. See I understand that will happen and I'm all for it. But there were people with 10+ drives doing the basic things wrong. Tyre pressure being the no1 reason.

3. Overall communication was poor compare to other drives. No warnings before steps/ bushes etc. So it I had to be alert almost the entire drive to make sure my car was not damaged.

Overall a completely different experience with almost and team. This is what I would love to explore on every drive.

Thank you @presa and all the marshals and intermediates who helped the convoy get back on track.

Looking forward to the next one.

-
Sid (Silver pajero SWB)

Hello Everyone

Although Everyone mentioned our meeting point was C.M play ground I have a secret to share

The chain behind the meeting point was the chain for our intermediate and advance level members in our BFG treasure hunt, if you drive the direction that our marshals did so diffently you are going to face a ditch after another but luckily our leader was merciful and didn't stay long.

The rest of the drive was a mix of tracks and how to avoid bushes...

We finished on time and the other convoy joined us at the same spot. Unfortunately the watermelon didn't survive the heat and the other convoy consumed it half way

Weather is going to get better in Eid and looking forward to see you there

Cheers
Shamsi