Super Stars CM Drive

[Asad]

Hello everyone,

My name is Asad and i always had love for desert driving and adventure sports. The reason i had got myself a Wrangler was primarily for offroading. The club member drive was my first experience on desert and it was Amazing, all thanks to the members organizing at such professional level and booy to assist me in the technicalities. I learned a lot of techniques and safety measure to apply while offroading during the drive with the Convoy. I will try to arrange the equipments soon and try to join in as much of the drives i can.

-Asad

[Phoenix]

Hello everyone,

My name is Asad and i always had love for desert driving and adventure sports. The reason i had got myself a Wrangler was primarily for offroading. The club member drive was my first experience on desert and it was Amazing, all thanks to the members organizing at such professional level and booy to assist me in the technicalities. I learned a lot of techniques and safety measure to apply while offroading during the drive with the Convoy. I will try to arrange the equipments soon and try to join in as much of the drives i can.

-Asad

Hey [mention]Asadwrangler[/mention],

Welcome to the family, I shifted your post from New Member Introduction to the Trip Reports section since all the reports are posted here.

Congratulations on your Jeep and your first drive!! get the tools and get your first star. Now the real fun begins grin

See you in the sand.

[Scorpio]

Hello Everyone,

The CM drive is always like a fresh breath of air. It feels great to meet with new faces and make new friends thumbsup .

In this CM drive, we had a big group of people who were welcomed to the Almost4x4 family. After the morning chit-chat, we had the detailed briefing on off-roading basics by [mention]Booy[/mention]. Marshals made 4 convoys and distributed the new members; and all the Intermediates and Advance drivers were also assigned to those 4 convoys for rescue and support. I was sweeping one of the convoy which was led by [mention]Daggerfall[/mention].

We had a nice drive and it was a mix of some flat runs, climbs, drops on different sized dunes. The convoy performed well generally and we had some second tries and crested cars that added to the fun and learning. Daggerfall crafted a good track for the convoy to enjoy and the apt drive level for safe learning.

I would like to thank all the Inters for their superb support during the drive and would like to welcome all the club members to Almost4x4 family.

Hope you are completing your off-roading tools for Marshals inspection and congratulations to those who have completed it and have become a newbie already thumbsup .

Thank you for driving with Almost4x4 and hope to see you soon in the sand….

Cheers!

[Youssef.Abdelhady]

Dear Almosters,

It is always a cheerful sight to see so many new members who are excited and equally nervous for their first drive with the club. Hoping to see all of you again in future drives. thumbsup

Our convoy drove smoothly with minimal issues. We had a few stucks which gave me the opportunity to practice rescue skills. ORLY

Near the end of the trip, one of the drivers experienced an issue with his 4x4 and had to continue the rest of the drive on 2Wheel drive. It was amusing to watch him drift on every turn. XD

Overall it was a great trip and looking forward to the next one. in love


See you all soon. pacman

[Preggy]

Hi everyone,
I’ve been eagerly awaiting my first drive with Almost 4x4 for the past 4 months, and I finally got my chance on 22/03/2019. It was truly encouraging to see so many first timers gathered in anticipation of the adventure that awaited them. Our convoy was led by [mention]rashid[/mention] . The drive was well paced for new drivers and offered just enough excitement to wet ones appetite for off roading. I had 2 second attempts which improved my skill in determining the momentum required to clear obstacles of different texture and gradient. The advice given by [mention]baris[/mention] was invaluable. Thanks for the lessons, I can’t wait for the next drive.

[Taco]

Hello everyone!

I am -as usual and as with everything- quite late with my report but here it goes.

This was my first real off-road experience. I found Almost 4x4 completely by chance and I consider myself extremely lucky for doing so!

I spent a good amount of time reading the forums before deciding to join this wonderful group and show up at my first drive. From the first moment I started reading the forums I was pleasantly surprized to see how well organized and structured this club was.

I arrived at the meeting point thinking I'm early and there were already a huge number of cars & people in what seemed to be a friendly environment.

After I put on my flag and aired down I went to say hi to a grup of people who were surrounding some members with Almost 4x4 tshirts. We showed up together with my wife and were quite hesitant introducing ourselves to a large group of people but everyone was very welcoming and we didn't feel odd among this lovely group.

There was a brief intruduction at the beginning by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] followed by the drivers being separated into groups and we were put into the convoy led by [mention]JockJKU[/mention]. We moved from the meeting point just a bit into the desert where we lined up behind the convoy marshalls. At this point we were given a very detailed and informative training by [mention]Booy[/mention] where he explained some basic rules and critical things to do -and to not do- during the drive. There was a very heavy emphasis on safety during this training which I really appreciated.

After the training, we moved to our cars and had a brief overview of what to expect during the drive explained by our marshall [mention]JockJKU[/mention]. We were told which frequency to use on our radios and were also introduced to our support team, [mention]Phoenix[/mention] and [mention]Petr[/mention]. The convoy order was created, who will drive in which position and shortly after we set off to our first adventure!

I was I think 3rd or 4th car in the convoy and was quite anxious this being my first time in the desert. We started off easy and simple but from the beginning had a few stucks and re-tries in the convoy ahead of me but this gave me a good chance to learn some important lessons and the opportunity to better understand certain things.

We slowly increased the pace, but absolutely not too much, still keeping safety as the first priority. We had a few serious looking climbs and a massive drop which was extremely thrilling for a first timer but as we kept driving I started feeling more and more confident. I have to admit though, I was filled with adrenaline all time time, especially when seeing people get stuck ahead of me which caused me to worry a bit too much about how to tackle these challenges but at the end I was able to manage without any second tries or getting stuck. That being said, I did lose the track once and took a stupid decision and turned back BIG MISTAKE!!!. Nothing happened, no danger was created by my mistake but valuable lesson learned, if in doubt for any reason STOP AND RADIO FOR INSTRUCTIONS!.

We came across some camels on the way, which did give us a bit of a photo-op and my wife being a wildlife maniac did enjoy the opportunity to take some nice photos while I was working hard to keep myself together trying to avoid an encounter with the camels :)

We ended the drive at the Fossil Rock with a nice long but easy climb, where I think I was a bit too heavy on the gas pedal and had a very bumpy ride till the peak. The view from the top was stunning and it was a very pleasant finish to a wonderful drive.

After this stop we slowly moved down the mountain(?) and were back on the asphalt shortly thereafter. We drove to a very close petrol station and aired back up where I had the chance to chat for a while with the more experienced members for a while and although these were casual discussions, I still managed to learn a few things (Never miss an opportunity to learn!).

Unfortunately I cannot remember the names of everyone I met but special thanks to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for setting the pace wonderfully, [mention]Phoenix[/mention] and [mention]Petr[/mention] for their support and guidance while we were overcoming some of the obstacles, [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for creating such a welcoming environment and letting us feel relaxed from the very beginning, [mention]Booy[/mention] for the important training he delivered, [mention]Johanna[/mention] for her welcoming smile as she was the first person we actually said hi to, [mention]Barish[/mention] for saying hi when he realized we too were Turkish and [mention]Abu Jimmy[/mention] for his recommendations at the end of the drive on how to secure stuff in the cargo hold :)

I knew before the end of the drive that we were going to come back and already had started looking forward to completing my gear, earning my Newbie star and joining the first upcoming drive.

Thank you all once again for the wonderful experience on the sand!