Almost4x4

Hello Everyone

We had a grand tour today in Area53, and I promised them a memorable drive What I love about early morning drives is that you are almost alone in the desert which is amazing without the hassle of the cowboys jumping around your convoy

The plan was to drive 26 km or finish 2 hours but we just completed 10 km and drove for 3 hours . It was a very good training day to obtain better skills in the big dunes area which showed our newbies what type of adventure is coming ahead and don't let your guard at any time

We finished the drive with big smiles on MOST of the faces and relief on others but all in all it was another sucessful event so thanks for all the newbies who joined and thanks to the intermediates who supported us.

Special thanks to @brett and @osman who worked harder than the others!!

Till next time, keep the sand flying

Cheers
Shamsi

Dear Almosters

Golden Dunes Sunrise was another 4am wake up alarm for me.
I arrived in plenty of time to deflate and mingle with the excited newbies.

@alshamsi_m arrived and conducted the briefing it was going to be a drive through some of the bigger dunes to give the newbies a taste of what was to come in their learning journey

I was placed at 2nd Lead, which is a very familiar convoy position form me.
We set off with no floating marshal, however we had @osman, @Aljamhi @AhmadHasan spread through out the convoy for support and @bobpavan sweeping.

@alshamsi_m was on fine form and certainly picked some challenging lines for the newbies. as 2nd lead there were several sections where as I completed the line, I thought to myself - this will be a challenge for the newbies, and sure enough we encountered may sections that tested the resolve of the drivers, with 2nd tries, stucks and even a popout towards the end - so our newbies got to experience first hand how to fix a popout

@alshamsi_m report said we only finished 10km of the track - however my GPS recorded a track of 23.25km with a duration of 2hr 46min - maybe I drove around in circles ??

Anyway the drive came to an end with everyone reaching the inflation point - there were a few duct taped bumpers, due to one very nasty section where i called on the radio - watchout for the ditch, and watch out for 2nd ditch and again watch the 3rd ditch !
The third ditch was very nasty and it appeared out of nowhere catching many drivers out.

So at the inflation point there were smiles and with some drivers a sense of relife that it was over.
Hang in there guys (and girls) as your skill develop the memory of this drive will fade and you will realize the dunes may have been higher than you expected but it was "just another drive"

Hi guys,

First time driving in the desert at sunrise time but also first time in Al Badayer area.
When getting close to the location and passing all the offroad sports and adventure shops on the road, I just realised that Al Badayer area looks a very popular place for offroading.

Only a few rides with the club but when arriving on site we start to get used to the usual rituals: deflation, flag on, couple of handshakes as we start to know each others and we are all set for @alshamsi_m briefing. The promise is clear, we onboard almost for a guided tour in an amazing area

Just the time to line-up and the adventure starts. We had to pass first along a military zone where we got nicely informed by the marshal "don't get stuck close to the area if you don't want to receive bullets! ". That sets the scene for the morning

No more than 5 min later the sunrise revealed the beauty of the area, casting a golden glow over the desert.

In a nutshell, my top 3 learnings from this amazing drive:

- Nice pop-out, thank you to the Pajero driver for allowing most of us to learn from that experience. Now I better understand why I carry-out out my heavy 3T jack at the back of the truck, definitely mandatory!!

- Trucks don't like steep ditches, I believe clearance at the front of the car and skid plates worth the investment to save original bumpers

- We had a chance to stop at some point to let the intermediate levels to express themselves over big dunes. Thank you guys very good teasing for newbies to reach step by step that level.

Thanks to the marshall and support team for another insightful drive!

This was my 2nd early morning drive with the Club, I was so excited to back to Al Badayer dunes as it was great fun in previous week at same zone.
All arrived on time and we were ready to explore next level of challenge, @alshamsi_m introduced the location as "Area 53" which refers to military camp nearby.
Convoy aligned in order, leaded by @alshamsi_m and @osman and started on 6:52 AM. However, upon driving for 200 m I dropped my flag !!! Adjacent to military camp shooting range … lucky me fire has been seized as salute to ALMOST convoy.
Drive resumed with high spirits and open eyes to enjoy fabulous weather and amazing views, which quickly turned into caution as marshals decided to strengthen our skills through carefully selected tracks full of technical challenges.
As newbies we exploited the chance to learn more about driving techniques and marshals didn’t save an effort to teach us about each and every detail.
Eventually we reached high dunes, the intermediate level team got chance for free style ride, hopefully you enjoyed guys.
As we were approaching one famous landmark "love treehouse" we experienced pop-out situation, and it was really good chance for live demonstration and professional training on how to deal effectively with it and to get out safely.
The drive extended over 3 hours span, but it was pretty quick and .
Would like to thank all the team @AhmadHasan a@bobpavan @Aljamhi @brett for such support during this drive and looking forward for next one, till then be safe with love.

Hello Almosters Family,

I was back on the sand after two months in an area where we did not drive in recent times. First thing I felt was I missed the dunes. If someone told me that in my first months in Dubai, I would told him he was joking.

The drive was very pleasant but at the same time challenging enough to learn some skills. If nobody had second tries, got stuck, crested, pulled or even having pop-outs mean the drive is very easy and did not challenge the convoy. The drives like 5- or 5+ are the ones to figure out which plastic parts of the cars are optional and give an idea about what sort of protection and re-enforcement to work on before it is too late.

Thanks @alshamsi_m for the organization and lead.

Hoping to drive together again soon.

Hello Almosters,

It was a great day for off roading, we gathered around 6:15AM and almost everyone reached on time and we started off the drive.

The terrain was great for the drive, not much tracks on the sand.

We did faced some delays in the drive due to couple of 2nd tried and 1 tyre popout, and as Brett mentioned we couldnt do the whole planned drive.

However, we did climed some of the dunes which was a great experience and Mr. Shamsi and Brett did trained us of how to repair the tyre pop out.

Special thank to @S.ALSHAMSI and @brett for the pop out training and @osman for the recovery pull out. Also great applause for the rest of the support team.

Looking forward for more drives soon.