The Star Fish Dunes III

Mohanad
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I said it many times and i will say it again .. we need more drives in Al Wagan .. its such a beautiful area and the sand is so great. Everybody loves this area and its so much fun to drive there.

I will leave the details for [mention]giorgio[/mention] and for [mention]Scorpio[/mention] as they both write detailed reports.

I think you all saw some of the videos posted by our member which will give you an excellent i sight about the drive.

I must say that this drive felt like an intermediate drive in many parts of it. Well done to all the newbies for the great drive.

Ok .. i know .. im not good in reports..

Yallah bye
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Hola Almosters!

WHAT A DRIVE !!!

Thank you very much [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] .


After the usual shot of signature espresso, Bu Salem sketched the drive and briefed about it. The importance of distance and speed were explained so the convoy could freely flow and move like a train. [mention]Scorpio[/mention] was assigned the 2nd lead, [mention]Mohanad[/mention] was sweeping, [mention]Booy[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] were floating around the convoy. Inters - [mention]giorgio[/mention] , [mention]Raja[/mention] and [mention]Issa[/mention] were placed within the convoy until Issa had a technical glitch with his jeep, he then supported by being Booy’s Pax. Thank you all for supporting and ensuring our safety. It was because of you guys and of course the lead Marshall that we had so much fun.

The points explained in the briefing were well noted by the team and actually the convoy flowed like train. The high climbs, arch’s, Side walls, drops, the speed and everything we did was just fantastic. Thanks again [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] the drive today couldn’t have been more better than this. It was one of a kind!!

I can write a long one however I shall leave the remaining details to my other friends!

One more thing before I close - a HUGE RESPECT to all our lead Marshall’s. Today I realized how hard and difficult and dangerous it can be for the leading cars to choose a track best suited for a convoy.
Last edited by optimus on Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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bouaaaaah
Mohanad wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:25 pm I said it many times and i will say it again .. we need more drives in Al Wagan .. its such a beautiful area and the sand is so great. Everybody loves this area and its so much fun to drive there.

I will leave the details for @giorgio and for @Scorpio as they both write detailed reports.

I think you all saw some of the videos posted by our member which will give you an excellent i sight about the drive.

I must say that this drive felt like an intermediate drive in many parts of it. Well done to all the newbies for the great drive.

Ok .. i know .. im not good in reports..

Yallah bye
You call this report? Better call it preview
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Hi all,

I was looking forward to this drive the entire week.
[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention], [mention]Booy[/mention], [mention]optimus[/mention], [mention]Mabubaker[/mention] and me arrived the camp site in Al Wagan at around 8.30 and when I got out of the caar I immediatley got hypnotized by the beauty of the night sky. It was a dark night, so even the milky way was visible. in love
I went to bed early at around 12 as it was a long day and I slept like a baby (thanks to this incredible comfy sleeping bag) until the alarm woke me up at 7 am. 

[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] explained to us in the briefing what to expect from the drive: high climbs, big arches and some nice bowls to play in, including "the stadium". The convoy left on time and the area revealed its majestic beauty as soon as we left the camp site.
The first part was meant to be a warming up, but after a few hundred metres we were already surrounded by huge dunes.
As I am not a friend of heights of any kind, I started to feel nervous, even if the maneuvers werent difficult or tricky.
My nervosity got company from dizziness and I had the feeling my mind is playing tricks on me, I lost orientation and the ability to measure and judge the situation. It felt like my brain couldnt properly process what my eyes saw.  wtfsmilie
The result was a proper panick attack and I decided not to continue the drive. TT TT
So we parked my car in the flat and I took Bu Salems passenger seat. The next half an hour I wasnt really aware of the drive, as I tried to calm myself down and not to hate myself too much for aborting the drive.
After I recovered control of my feelings, I started to enjoy the. But as I did no get back the full ability to properly understand my surroundings, I had some serious "oh $%&" situations, even if I was supposed to drive it by myself, a very strange feeling. My mind played tricks on me all the time. Up looked like down, flat looked like steep and no idea about the angles. Thats why I cannot tell much about the track, I simply dont remember it (correctly) so I will leave this to the others.
But some of Bu Salems "get ready girl" (followed by increase of music volume) maneuvers are worth to be mentioned.  ORLY
It was already close to the end of the drive, we were approaching "the stadium" Bu Salem told everyone to wait and went to scout (or play?). We made a round in the first bowl and side crest to the stadium, which is most pobably the biggest bowl I have ever seen. We drove high up the wall,  following the shape of the dune, going down to gain momentum just to drive the same round again, but this time in an even higher line. 
Wow. Just wow, pretty strong G-forces there. redbullsmiley
Only later when we watched all the other inter and advanced drivers I fully understood what we drove there. Seems my brain seriously gets confused when it has to deal with heights.
scared
It looked so cool how the drivers played in there and I felt super sad while watching the others. 
Another situation I might not forget: We got stuck while doing a sharp side crest. I just looked to my side, it was steep, I looked to the other side, even steeper. So I decided to stay in the car (not moving, barely breathing) and wait for further instructions. Bu Salem went out of the car, walked around it, came to my side and helped me out of the car saying: "We are surprisingly safe!"  wtfsmilie
After the play time in the stadium we were heading back to flat grounds and civilization, when I suddenly felt a hard hit and a strong pain in my chest. I also noticed a scream (my own) some strange smell and high frequent beep in my ear. ouch...it hurts
I took me a few seconds to realize the we fell into a ditch, hard nose dive and the air bags poped out!
I guess I had a shock for a few minutes, this was a new experience for me (and one time is enough)
. But after I discovered that neither Bu Salem or me have injuries I switched from shock-mode back to normal. 
Even if I did not drive by myself I was totally exhausted as it was an eventfull drive for me with lots of emotions involved. 

Thanks you [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for taking me and of course everyone involved in this remarkable weekend. 

See you soon in the sand. But on smaller dunes. have a nice day
BR, Johanna

If it excites you and scares you at the same time, it probably means you should do it.
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giorgio wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 9:32 pm bouaaaaah
Mohanad wrote: Sat Feb 09, 2019 8:25 pm I said it many times and i will say it again .. we need more drives in Al Wagan .. its such a beautiful area and the sand is so great. Everybody loves this area and its so much fun to drive there.

I will leave the details for @giorgio and for @Scorpio as they both write detailed reports.

I think you all saw some of the videos posted by our member which will give you an excellent i sight about the drive.

I must say that this drive felt like an intermediate drive in many parts of it. Well done to all the newbies for the great drive.

Ok .. i know .. im not good in reports..

Yallah bye
You call this report? Better call it preview
I write a review and you write a novel .. we need to make balance in the reports..
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Star Fish Dunes III

This is a drive that the newbies who attend will remember it for a very long time.
To take things from the beginning like always on the long distance drives there is a camp the night before. My original plan was to join early morning but at Friday night around 7 pm the plan changed and I got the green light (from the higher management) to camp.
In my way to the camp (3hours +) I met [mention]Rooies[/mention] (somewhere before Al Ain) and we drove together to the campsite.
When we arrived around 11:20 pm we only found [mention]James[/mention] and [mention]Mabubaker[/mention] sitting around the fire. I join them and we stayed until 1 am chatting about different topics.
The night was cold and I am sure that during the early morning hours the temperature drop somewhere around 5-8 degrees.
The morning found all of us packing, cooking, with the morning drivers arriving to join in and go through the morning rituals (coffee, BF offerings etc.,)
The briefing process and selection of the convoy order was quick and to the point. I don’t want to get in to details but pretty much our Organizer and lead [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] promised to all of us that this will not be just a simple Newbie drive. So we did not drive all that distance for nothing.

The convoy with [mention]Scorpio[/mention] as a second lead me [mention]Johanna[/mention] [mention]Issa[/mention] and [mention]raza[/mention] in the middle of the convoy and [mention]Mohanad[/mention] as a sweeper took off for a new adventure.
[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] selected a nearby area ( which he saw during BF) and assigned it as our warm up practice field and the drive started on a moderate paste on a midsize dunes.

As always the beginning was slow but with no incidents and delays from the newbies, rather the delays came from the Intermediates where technical problems (drivers and cars) forced us to lose in the first 20 min 2 cars, (read [mention]Johanna[/mention] for farther details).
The drive continued and the driving paste increased the convoy enter a state of mind mode that it was flowing, like a river no mistake no second tries, just pure adrenaline rash and awesome performance from everybody including the passengers.
The dunes got bigger and bigger and the driving style change to safari arching every tall dune in our path, from one side to the opposite side to the opposite side again and again. A beautiful harmonic well composed symphony of exhaust pipe music was sounding in the empty and dead quite desert singing WE ARE THE ALMOST FAMILY AND WE ROCK.
All was going amazingly great until the unexpected happened, as we were finishing a nice big arch mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] called us to stop and have a snack. (You were all expecting here to read something else).
Some sick passengers, some cars and drivers and some hungry stomachs welcome the sort break and off we went again for more amazing driving.

From my position in the convoy I could see { [mention]James[/mention] ( you did awesome my friend) [mention]thiago[/mention] and [mention]optimus[/mention] ( I am sure that on this drive if anything else you got the concept of proper distance and the benefits of it) } and they were putting their best performance.
The time was passing and we came to the famous Stadium bowl. There the newbies got to enjoy lunch watching the intermediates and advance playing.
The bowl as [mention]Johanna[/mention] mentioned in her report was huge. From some google earth measurements that I took (this is approx. so don’t jump on me) it looks like 136 meters on the base 310 meters on the top around 103 meters high (on it’s highest point and around 65 meters on the lower with 33 degrees slope and approximately 900 meters of a perimeter run . So you can imagine the size of that monster.
First to take a run was [mention]SINGH[/mention] followed by [mention]Scorpio[/mention] then [mention]Issa[/mention] then mention]Booy[/mention] and then me.
Waiting on the starting line looking at this monster it felt great. I had visited that area more than a year ago as a passenger and I remember saying to myself One day I will be here and I will not be sitting watching the older drivers doing this I will be the driver that others will be watching at so for the newbies that have the same feeling I have to tell you this, stick with driving and practicing and the day that you will be doing this is not that far out.
So I took off for my run and for the length of the time that took me to complete the circle (successfully I would like to point out here) I felt that it was only me my car and the Monster on a loving affair that felt like a lifelong experience.
Worth mentioning here and I would like to thank [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for recommending to me to put Coopers ( great recommendation) that baby stuck on the wall like a Nash car on the Daytona track.
The play time continued when suddenly [mention]SINGH[/mention] approached me and asked if he can borrow Scarlett. So after my consent he took her and OHHH MEEEEN.
This guy went crazy, after his first circle he exited the bowl and he took off I remember saying to the spectators THIS IS IT THIS GY TOOK OFF AND HIS NOT PLANNING TO BRING THE CAR BACK HE IS HITTING THE ROAD BACK TO DUBAI (luckily his FJ was still there so worse come to worse I have a ride back home). So to continue my story [mention]SINGH[/mention] disappeared and we all (mostly me) were wondering where he is going, when [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] said HE WILL DO THE CREST. In deed my friends out of nowhere and after a few moments of silence with the crowed looking on an empty bowl [mention]SINGH[/mention] appears from the back side of the highest point of the bowl cresting on our side. This was a great moment for the JEEP family ( I wish you were there Jeepers to see Scarlett) and as proud as I was I could not, not admit the reality. The skills of my jeep excide the skills of it’s owner.

The play time came to an end and we all took the road back to the exit point. But as always it is never over until it is over. Bad luck hit the lead car where a nasty ditch brought the drive to a halt for a good 30 min but thankfully we overcome the obstacle and we all drove out as a team and safe.

Thank you all drivers and organizers for the wonderful drive and I am looking forward for more adventures to come.
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Hello Everyone,

I missed to attend the camp before the drive unfortunately and drove in the morning to the camp site with [mention]SINGH[/mention] and [mention]Raja[/mention]. It was long and sleepy drive that I started at 4am but all that gloominess was changed to glitter when I stepped in the sand in love

I reached the camp at 8am sharp and was welcomed by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] coffee :P . The campers were sitting chilled as if there is no drive – for one moment I was confused :lol: . At 0830, Bu Salem started the briefing with he drive plan. Part 1 of warm-up, Part 2 of technical and if you survived then Part 3 of big dunes. PLEASE BE ADVISED THAT IN THIS AREA THE SIZE OF THE DUNES ARE DIFFERENT THAN THE DUNES IN BADAYER; FOR YOUR EASY REFERENCE ‘THE BIG OF BADAYER IS SMALL OF THIS AREA – this was the 1st sign from Bu Salem as to what to expect in this drive’. He also mentioned that he also thought of cancelling the newbie drive and have an Inter drive after looking at those dunes – this was the 2nd sign from him. After the briefing, the Bu Salem told the convoy order; he was to lead the drive. And although it was a newbie drive (and I was expecting that one of the Inters would be the 2nd lead) but I was assigned as the 2nd lead; this was the 3rd sign from Bu Salem. Even after so many signs no newbie surrendered and everybody was just ready for the drive – daredevils newbies thumbsup.

We started rolling as per the plan and the convoy was advised to keep bigger distance in order to allow themselves to do arches on the walls uninterruptedly. After the first half a hour, [mention]Johanna[/mention] dropped her car out of desert (read her report to find out why?) and became Bu Salem passenger. The area was so amazing having huge dunes, big walls, crispy crests that you do not want to leave them untouched. I heard Bu Salem saying that ‘I wanna do the crest, I wanna do the crest yaeh am not durnk ’ but he was somehow trying to control himself and making big arches and keeping the convoy pace faster than a typical newbie drive. Those walls and crests were so tempting that I forced myself NOT to look at them to help control myself. At one point in time during the drive, I was about to say that CAN WE ABORT THE NEWBIE DRIVE, ESCORT THEM OUT OF THE DESERT AND KICK OFF THE FUN LEVEL arr. …sorry guys but the area made me greedy :lol: :lol:

After driving for another half an hour, [mention]Issa[/mention] jeep also had some mechanical issue and he was also escorted out of the desert and afterwards he became [mention]Booy[/mention] passenger. Upon dropping Issa jeep outside when we started moving back, we heard [mention]mohannad[/mention] saying that his car is not working wtfsmilie. But fortunately, after some checking he was told to try starting it again while everyone else was ready to throw sand on it, if required – ask mohannad why ORLY grin ? The FJ came back to life. Driving back to connect with the convoy who was left waiting in the middle of the desert was fun as Bu Salem suddenly changed the level to Intermediate; because it was Mohannad, Singh, Booy and myself behind him now. There was no need for so many escort cars actually but we all just wanted to drive on those crests even if it is an escort drive arr. :twisted:

Well, the second part of the drive was technical and just before the end of this part my passenger got sick brains...! and Bu Salem allowed me to go to the sweep position and Singh was assigned as the 2nd lead. The last part of the drive was very interesting and allowed me to play a little by being at the end of the convoy. Worthy to mention is the big bowl where Advance and Inters were allowed to burn some fuel and while others were offered a live show to watch on fire - to find out the size of the bowl please read [mention]giorgio[/mention] report.

We had some amazing time there and then we started to move to the exit point to end the drive. Sometimes, big and dangerous looking dunes and sharp steep crests don’t do anything and one small ditch in the middle of nowhere causes the damage. Unfortunately for Optimus that it went into that ditch but fortunately that everyone stayed safe. The issue was managed nicely and we exited the desert after sorting it out. Thanks to all supported!

So, all in all, we had 2 sick passengers, 2 cars dropped out of the desert, 1 FJ was almost dropped but saved and 1 FJ had this issue at the end in this drive but all was managed professionally and amicably. This was only possible because of the guidance of our leaders and the support of our amazing members who we call the second family. Love you all and hope to see you soon in the sand..

Cheers 8-)
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I believe the first order of the day is to thank all those who make the drives possible as I understand the commitment but also the fire inside that engulfs the emotion for more adrenaline filled adventure. [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention]

It is difficult to put pen to paper to describe the event other than a phenomenal trip. I arrived late in the evening after downloading and following the GPS coordinates published so was in fact my first solo drive at night into the desert and darkness, standard full beam lights saw all of nothing as my drive started.

A great welcome at the camp [mention]thiago[/mention] and [mention]optimus[/mention] [mention]Booy[/mention] [mention]Johanna[/mention] [mention]Mabubaker[/mention] as I asked if my lights were visible as I zigzagged around trying to find the camp only understand that you can zoom in to the map for a more detailed route.

This was my visit Al Wagan and I must say, well worth the drive to get there, especially with the overnight camp, clear skies and full view of the night stars. Great camp fire chat so thank you all. You then wake to the morning beauty, no noise pollution and the arrival of the day boarders and coffee.

The morning kicked off with the drive brief by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention], safety first, one of the reasons I believe we are all still alive, followed by a quick start straight into some very enjoyable challenging dunes in JC. She performed well over the day with only a couple of second tries as I try not to launch the girl into the sky, unlike some who prefer air time, no need to mention names, but you know who you are! [mention]optimus[/mention] (AKA Batman)

We had a few stops during the drive that I believe was fairly challenging for all as there were several recoveries of the Intermediates at the back so not sure what was going on other than they were “testing” each other’s recovery skills, each stop gave us the opportunity for a chat, to take in the complete beauty of where we were and the privilege of being part of the drive. There were some highlights on dunes, as a Newbie that we were able to tackle when you just kept going up, another opportunity to learn more about the vehicle and her capabilities and that of mine in the sand.

We had [mention]Scorpio[/mention] in recovery looking after the visitor with a few breaks.

On a technical note, I had another pop out so have been looking at the pattern and noticed they occur after I deflate for the second time once the drive is underway.

My usual camera skills were in full force as the now [mention]giorgio[/mention] "Giorgio Gonzalez" made the bowl in a few seconds. There was an interesting take two as I sat talking with Giorgio and the team only to see his Jeep off and run down the dune, my initial thought was about the integrity of the hand break only to be told the [mention]SINGH[/mention] was in control, and control he was as the Jeep went flying round the bowl but not in the three second record lap time. Other videos are shared with [mention]Mohanad[/mention] spectacle to see the clean circuit in the bowl and the following discussions.

Another great active trip so we look forward to meeting again for the next drive and thanks once again to all who contributed and participated in the event.

P.S. for the curious, yes, I still have a front bumper.
Last edited by Phoenix on Sun Feb 10, 2019 2:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Enjoy the video:

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Hello Everyone

Al Wagan is a very far distance drive on road and driving to the camp is one of the most shaking trails in our camping but once you are there and you look at the surrounding and the dunes then it is a different story. in love

We did solid 6 hours drive with the edge of NEWBIE level , which meant accelerate tell the end to go UP cool Then SAFARI STYLE arches that might make you passengers dissy brigade.baka-wolf.com .

The result was HAPPY DRIVERS thumbsup . I believe that all the newbies did every well considering that some of them never seen this size of dunes so for first timers you were GREAT cool

I love this area and looking forward to drive it with the intermediates and advance NEXT WEEK killzonesmiley


Be safe , see you in the sand

Cheers
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