Stellar Beginnings

User avatar
Booy
Golden Member
Golden Member
Posts: 258
Joined: Sat Jun 13, 2015 12:55 pm
Location: Dubai
Has thanked: 3 times
Been thanked: 1 time

Hello everyone,

It was great being back in the sand again after spending a few weeks in my home country for New Year.

Nice to have met all the new faces who joined our family on the CM drive the weekend before, and showing their interest by joining their first Newbie drive. Welcome to each and every new member, and we will certainly spend a lot more time together in the future. It is a wonderful journey of making new friends, learning about the desert and having fun driving.

Our convoy consisted mostly of new members who just got their newbie stars, therefore it was time to introduce safe climbing of dunes and cresting at a safe speed, without flying. The area provided enough technical dunes for everyone to practise this skill.

Due to a change in final destination because a ranger asked us to leave the area (this was a first, as we have driven there many many times before) we also got to experience some flat terrain where we drove fast rally style. It was a nice flat road, and we could push the cars to the max and enjoy high speed desert driving in a safe manner.

Thank you for everyone who joined the vent, and for all the support from intermediates and advance.

Keep driving, keep having fun, and see you soon in the sand.

Regards,

Booy
@Booy

Blue FJ Cruiser, with an Atlas on the door
Adrian
Newbie
Newbie
Posts: 18
Joined: Thu Apr 20, 2017 10:00 pm

Hi Everyone,
I just want to say a big thank you to all of the organisers, marshalls etc. for giving up their time to give all us new starters another wonderful trip out into the desert. This was my first trip since the CM drive and I was a little surprised that it was more challenging than I had expected - which was great of course. As on the CM drive, the marshalls were really helpful and patient and gave a nice talk about some of the more important practices to follow in the convoy and made a point that if you never get stuck then you're not really testing out your skills and discovering what is possible and what is not so you must not be concerned about looking stupid - everyone gets stuck sometime or other. It is human nature to not want to look stupid, especially in a large group, but I was made to feel more relaxed knowing that the convoy leaders are actually expecting such occurrences. And of course they dealt with stuck vehicles in a very nice manner.
I even saw a gazelle at one point which I was not expecting at all. I also wasn't expecting to be driving at over 120 kph in the desert!
Can't wait for my next trip.
Adrian
Post Reply