Almost4x4

[CENTER]Catch Me If You Can XII - Group picture
[/CENTER]
[IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/attachment. ... 2231&stc=1[/IMG]
PS: Rashidjass was with us on this drive
PS2: My trip report will follow later
Cheers

Amazing trip started of with a slow pace and ended up with all of us flying and running tires at times in the air :D (got some good airtime ! ) this trips first surprise for me was when I was asked to be second lead and 5 seconds in I was head first against a huge boulder breaked in last minute hearing Strawb yell over the radio and Strawb took a hit for the team and his tires sidewalks were done for ( that's an expensive hit for the team ) thanx a lot had it not been for the warning over the radio you had seen me sit over the Boulder with a bent bumper . The trip then picked up pace once Strawb changed his tire and everybody got a chance to be second lead . This drive focused more on how to Cross over the softest sand possible . The car kept turning sideways and sliding while driving at an angle and had to be corrected. Rashid jass's car started giving him problem mod drive so hAll in all it was a teaser in the intermediate level ! And boy oh boy was it amazing. Thanks to the marshals for giving us newbies a sneak peak in the intermediate style of driving and for leading and bearing with us newbies for todays trip as it happened to be a pretty long one due to the slow pace in the starting
regards
Defragmantor

What a great experience in my book again, all stared at 7:30am with usual meet and greet with all participants and Marshals, preparation of the cars before Marshal Strawb call us for briefing.

We started at 8 AM entering the legendary Capriland, Strawb Leading the convoy, RashidJass on the 3rd car and Al Falasi sweeping the convoy.

Capriland is really one of a kind place where it is so tricky in many ways, the convoy start in a bit of chaos once we enter Capriland since many of us had to make second try so we end up stoping the convoy and re group again. We continue till we reach the drop in Fossil Rock.

The drive continue for about 15 minutes after we past the fossil rock and again we stopped as we got the convoy stop a few times due to cars got stock, second tries, pop outs and huge gaps in convoy so Strawb call us again to re brief us and now this time Strawb clearly make us understand that the drive is turning out us a 5+ drive, Starwb provides good motivational words that pump up the participants, he makes everyone understand that the drive should be as Intermediate like so we need to drive like one and not to make any newbies mistake.

The drive became more exciting and fast phase and more technicality, everyone did their best as Strawb calls each driver to be the second leads.

Hats off to everyone who participated and showed their skills. I'm proud to be part of this event.

Thank you to Marshal Strawb for the great lead through nice dunes, cresting and Surfing as well great convoy management , Thank you also to Marshal Rashidjass which unfortunately needed to leave the convoy due to engine issues (i hope all is well with your car) and to Al falassi for sweeping and being very patience with us.

Thank you all and see you on the next drives...

It was one long Friday which consumed us all i believe. Personally i was happy to be invited yet nervous about what is waiting for us.

The first part till Fossil Rock was a real challenge that some of us including myself, suffered due to soft sand. As you are on the skirt of a hill and with the help of formation, i felt i lost the sense of the slope. I guess that causes you to get mistaken and fight gravity. Anyway, we managed to reach Fossil Rock and made our drops one by one.

The second part was also tricky with lots of direct and side cresting. @strawb was testing our limits. One by one we were called to be second lead. When it was my turn, it was obvious @strawb was testing my reactions. I felt like he slowed down, changed direction and played like he was suffering on purpose. Hope i managed well, except the last one which i did a second try.

Unfortunately, i pushed my car too much in one place (i forgot if there was a name for that bowl) and my transmission fluid started to bleed from bottom. I stopped and let it cool down till the leak stop. During the wait, convoy played in the bowl and before leaving i had the chance to make the round. Thanks @strawb for letting me have that fun too. I tried to not to push too much after that to the end of the drive and brought my jeep home safely. Today will be a garage day and i hope we can get it ready for Liwa in this short time... Otherwise i will attend to this most awaited event as a passenger.

Obviously understood that being intermediate demands more from you and your car. This drive showed us all as that is the intention. As a result all of us finished the drive in Badayer, with tired yet happy faces.
@alfalasi was our sweeper, i met him first time and i should say i liked his calm style. Thanks for the assistance.

One more time, thanks for the invitation and the great drive.

See you on sand next time.

enjoyed reading the experience guys..

This drive was really good. It began with a naughty warm up from the start point heading fossil rock. Beginning of the drive was very slow as we all were struggling. After crossing fossil rock, we were driving slow pace with few stucks so we had a small briefing from Strawb who invited us to drive and behave like intermediate covering safety, communication and driving skills. So no more need to say "clear" after each crest :005:, flag poles are visible indicators and we can stop nose down on top of the dune in case a second car is at the bottom. So this sounds good, as result the drive took another level and adrenaline raised last but not least we rounded all the sharp crests of that area, with Strawb of course . We head then south west toward 2nd december grocery, and continued to al Badayer.

I had the opportunity to drive behind almost all the drivers of our convoy, and what I remember is that what ever the car is, the driver driving style is what we see mostly. And sometimes it is tricky to drive behind someone because you need to adjust another distance and response time while following the track.

I was driving with 7 PSI on my tires and was concerned about pop out thinking of Dave during the first part of the drive. But lucky finished the drive without pop out.

The most funny part for me is after the briefing of Strawb about driving as intermediate, right after it I got stuck on a small "pile of sand" as mentioned by Caprihorse on my facebook page where i uploaded the picture. The paparazzi stuck ? I guess it was a moment of revenge for the ones who grabbed their phones and cameras :playingsmiley: I think I will never forget this little moment.

Well, I loved this trip track and hope we can do it more often.

Cheers all,

PS; my video post will be either before or after Liwa depending on available time.


[IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/attachment. ... 2233&stc=1[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/attachment. ... 2234&stc=1[/IMG][IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/attachment. ... 2235&stc=1[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.almost4x4.com/vb/attachment. ... 2236&stc=1[/IMG]

This will be my first trip report :) so please ignore all the unrelated emotional "girlish" parts :)

First of all, thanks a lot to all our marshals for the invitation :) We were invited both (me and [MENTION=8759]jcncurtis[/MENTION]) so after a small discussion I convinced him to drive :) So I was expecting to be a passenger, however at the second half :):):):):):):) [MENTION=1864]strawb[/MENTION] gave me the chance too :) To be very honest I was very very very afraid cause the first part was full of suffering :) the sand was too soft!!! :) But I guess I was so lucky to finish the drive without any problem (I guess most of us know that I am the queen of the pop-outs, so I was 100% sure that I would have pop-out but guess whaatttt??? I didn't have!):)

The drive was full of challenging crosses and a perfect roller coaster part :)

Once again I would like to thank all the marshals and organizers of the event. But a big big special thanks to [MENTION=1864]strawb[/MENTION] for giving the chance for me to drive as well. Also thanks a lot to [MENTION=1657]Rashidjass[/MENTION] (hope your car is fine now) and to [MENTION=1936]alfalasi[/MENTION] for his patience. It is always a great pleasure to be part of this family!

Cheers!

Tuba

[CENTER]Let`s listen to some classic music watching PART1 of Catch me if you can XII

part2 will be edited and uploaded after coming Liwa trip

[video=youtube;EqEEjkIkyh8][/video][/CENTER]