The Duners

[Loca]

Dear Almosters,

I'll be quick to write my report for today drive as in a few hours I'm catching an airplane which is taking me on the other side of our (flat) world ... sadly I'll stay far from the Desert for 2 week-ends and I know I'll feelsick for that TT TT

There were many Almosters at the meeting point this morning as the plan was to arrange 2 convoys, one for 10 drives and below, the other for 10+. Our Marshals showed their generosity again and welcomed the waiting list. This made the two convoys longer than usual thumbsup

[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] took the lead of the 10- while [mention]Solmaz[/mention] did lead the 10+. I was car n.6 behind [mention]thiago[/mention] and ahead [mention]Bu Zayed[/mention]

The rain fallen in the last few days made the sand very hard but below the top layer the sand was very soft and passage of the cars was forming deep tracks. [mention]Solmaz[/mention] warned us about the higher risk of pop out and roll over due to such conditions slow

This is not my first drive with Marshal [mention]Solmaz[/mention] and .. I love the way she leads in love
She draws beautiful lines on the sand which result in fast drives with constant speed. She is a natural, her drive is never hesitant: it's always smooth and light thumbsup

I was enjoying the drive so much that my focus started fading a bit and excessive excitement took over ... and here comes the lesson I learned today: in a tall dune we were supposed to climb sideway and reach almost the edge but still staying on the same side. I think the crazy side of me whistled in my ear: "show them what you can do ..". I did approach the dune too fast, I rode the edge of the dune and I steered down. I was too fast, I had to break and the back of my car started some crazy horse fishtail .. [mention]Solmaz[/mention] at the radio immediately called me back to reality: "Loca come here please .." sick She nicely but firmly explained what I should have done to keep my drive safe. She said "I know what you can do" that clearly meant "don't show off and keep learning in full safety". Thank you [mention]Solmaz[/mention], it was an important lesson for me you're kidding, right

Worth to mention what happened during one of the most technical passages. We're crossing a series of tricky dunes and suddenly we heard the voice of [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] giving a prod to one of us ... we started to look at the sky wtfsmilie and then around us and we found him standing on the back trunk of his Hilux on top of a dune 50 meters far and silently watching at our convoy ... panic moment brigade.baka-wolf.com

Apart from the crazy horse moment and the silent patrolling of our Founder, I had a 2nd try and a lot of fun. I'll remember this drive for the next two weeks I'll have to stay far from the sand

We completed the drive after approx 50Kms. We had many 2nd tries and at least 3 pop-outs which means it was not a walk in the park .. not at all grin

Thanks to ...
[mention]Abu Jimmy[/mention] for the organization of this drive
[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for dedicating all of his week ends to setup fun to us
[mention]Solmaz[/mention] for the lead and the lesson.

Thanks to the Advanced and the Intermediate who supported the drive today. Particular mention to [mention]Bu Zayed[/mention] for the advices on how to deal with tracks.

Dear friends, that's all for this drive. I'll miss you. Looking forward to meeting you soon

Take care and stay safe

[Dauntless]

Hello Almosters. Really enjoyed the ride with the rest of the Duners. Thank you [mention]Shamsi[/mention] for your patience in teaching me how to manoever my car and helping me recover it when I bellied on top of the dune brains...! . Thank you [mention]Barish[/mention] and [mention]Agalon[/mention] for the recovery and guidance. My lesson today was how to fix a pop out thumbsup Looking forward to my next ride

[alshamsi_m]

Good morning everyone


I had a great camp the night before so I was coming with excellent mood. The drive started with easy dunes till all the members showed confidence then I raised the level a little bit up to show our members the practice side of what they got last week in the C.M drive.

@Gabor , @Agalon & @Barish did a great job in rescue and guidance..... Thanks gentlemen .

The drive was supposed to be for 2 hours but it got extended for many reasons. I gave the members the choice to leave early but no one showed interest to leave , @Taco's wife said " we came together, we leave together ".

No one left behind, this one of the motos of Almost4x4.

Thank you all for the great morning I had with you too.

Till next time, stay safe and see you soon.

Cheers

[hatemelmohandes]

Hello awesome Almosters4x4:
Yesterday was indeed an awesome ride. I had two of my kids (total 4) riding with me, before I start, as my kids grow up, they become teen independent and we lose the same touch that we had before. Off road put us together as the adventure is a common lovely hobby for the family. We started with two convoys, mine was lead by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention]. I drive a land cruiser, so but heavier than others, however deflated to 10PSI after some good advise from more expert drivers. In the beginning we had some glitch that the car in front of me broke down, this is why you always need to keep 20 meters distance as this is moderate for safety and keeping the convoy still in tact. Great respect to the club that they never leave anyone behind and the car was towed to safety. Our Marshall [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] tought us importnat interesting things such as how to face and climb a steep dune without hitting its wall and damage your car, we took our first pop out lesson during the ride and lastly “if you got an approval from you wife to drive her 4x4 in the desert, that means she will ask you for a new car, so don’t get excited Psmiley”. Honestly, I enjoyed all the time with the group, the way they structure the ride and the discipline to be a better safe driver. Thanks to our Marshall, our rescue team and everyone made this ride fun yesterday.

[Foxtrot]

No sweeping - no sweat!

When I was told I’d be the sweeper on this drive I thought I’d have my work cut out for the morning, but no chance! This is how you rate a drive - every time any of the vehicles got stuck, flying marshals appeared from nowhere and rescued effortlessly and quickly. Thanks to @Gabor @Agalon, @Barish, I had absolutely nothing to sweep other than my floor mats when I got back home! (And of course unpack all the camping equipment from the night before and sweep out all that sand).

The camp the night before of course was super relaxed with great food all round and perfect weather! A great start to the week-end after a stormy week!

Thanks to @abu jimmy for organising and @alshamsi_m for an entertaining evening and morning drive. As usual many lessons were learnt and it is always wonderful to experience the generous sharing of advice, help and food (and cookies of course also - thank you!)!

Looking forward already to the next drive!

Regards,
Sven

[Thiago]

[mention]Solmaz[/mention] THANK YOU thumbsup . It was a very good tracks full of challenges and I really enjoy it. It was a proper 10+ drive and we had to prove that we can really do it. I had a couple of second tries and I learn the importance of keep longer distance.
I had a great time for sure.
Thank you everyone that make this possible, you guys are stars.
See you next time

[Bu Zayed]

Amazing weather + amazing sand + amazing people = A lot of fun

This is how I define this drive as it was amazing one.

It was so nice to see new members who decided to take their offroad experience to the next level.

We met on time chit chat and then we were placed in two convoys, one for 5- and one for 10+, one with [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] and one with [mention]Solmaz[/mention]. I was placed with [mention]Solmaz[/mention] to help with the rescue. Solmaz decided to help members to practice side cresting and they did a great job actually handling hard dunes mixed with soft and hard sand. The sand was wet when we started the drive, but as the sun became hotter the sand started to dry up. The drive was smooth with nice track designed by Solmaz.

I had so much fun in that drive and thanks to [mention]Solmaz[/mention] for being considered and helped me inflate my tires faster so that I can make it for Friday prayer.

Thanks all Marshals for your efforts in organizing drives.

Thanks everyone who helped with the rescue in this drive and I hope everyone had fun. Till next time.
:-)

[Willie Viljoen]

Hallo Everyone,

Thank you very much for the Organizers, The Marshals, and The more gifted drivers, i.e. Advance & Intermediate drivers who always supported us strugglers, but we getting their with everyone's advice and the patients from the Marshalls.

Thank you Solmaz. It was a very good tracks full of challenges and I really enjoy it. It was a proper 10+ drive and we had to prove that we can really do it. I had all in this drive, a stuck on a relative easy dune, three second tries and a pop out. Thank you Solmaz for your patience right at the end of the drive and all the help that I got from the Supporting Crew. It was a pointer to get into the desert more often than once a month. You so easily forget the skills.

Talking of skills, then I wanted to thank Solmaz for the skillful way in which she lead the convoy every time. Thank you for all the helpers I can't remember names but you were great guys! Thank you

I had a great time for sure.

Thank you everyone that made the drive possible, we appreciate all Management efforts. Thank you Gents and Ladies

See you next time

[aminemac]

Hi everyone !
I will keep it short
I joined the drive from the night camp where I enjoyed good food, company and few hours of sleep in the nature .
I enjoyed every part of the drive (except the incident at the beginning) and learned A lot of important points:
- Always follow the track of the marshals unless they say otherwise.
- Better get stuck than fly over or damage your car.
- Keep safe distance and wait for the driver in front of you to say it’s clear over the radio.
- With team work we can always make it .

Thank you all !

[DustnGlory]

The Duners:

This was a nice morning drive with really good weather. I reached the meeting point around 7:30 to find others already deflating and getting ready. After some chit chat it was time to gather around. Thanks [mention]Abu Jimmy[/mention] for allowing the waiting list guys join the drive – seeing the PM message was a pleasant surprise blank The group was divided in 2 with the first convoy headed by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] and supported by [mention]Gabor[/mention] , [mention]Agalon[/mention] and [mention]Barish[/mention] . I was part of the second convoy for 10+ headed by [mention]Solmaz[/mention] and supported by [mention]Bu Zayed[/mention] , [mention]jose[/mention] and [mention]Petr[/mention] sweeping. During the briefing [mention]Solmaz[/mention] reminded us the general safety rule ‘Do Not Fight Gravity’ and emphasized that rule takes special precedence in this drive since the sand is wet and hard on the top. The plan for the day was to practice side cresting.
The initial part of the drive was easy but being a long convoy we had to keep stopping in between to correct the distance from the car in front. I believe we managed to scare some camels and even a fox during this part. 45 minutes into the drive and I hear our lead on the radio ‘Ok guys that was the warm up. Let’s start driving now!’ ORLY We came to a nice tall dune and did an arch on the wall and then [mention]Solmaz[/mention] goes ‘So you now know how much speed you need to reach the top. Let’s cross this dune’. And off she goes with everyone else in tow. And then the fun truly began. We had a good variety of scenarios on this drive – technical dunes eggs in basket style, lot of side crests graduating from small to higher dunes and really nice climbs. Everyone performed well and after the warm up the drivers started getting into the flow with enough distance between them. Radio communication was also good this time with specially [mention]Rooies[/mention] calling out every ditch on the way. We stopped in between for a quick break and continued again. Around 11 we suddenly hear [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] on the radio and there he is on top of a dune watching over us ninja . Funny part is the moment he surfaced we had our first pop out. While fixing the pop out everyone was reflecting the fact that this was the first pop out we had and [mention]Solmaz[/mention] was saying she had expected more given the condition of the sand. Well,.. when the lead marshal gives us an awesome track, her wish is our command… lol. We had pop out No. 2 within the next 20 minutes and pop out No. 3 a little while later pacman . By this time the sun was getting hotter and the sand softer. The drive had become so interesting that [mention]Solmaz[/mention] asked if we can extend the drive for another half hour. Of course! And off we went up and down and across more dunes. Finally we reached the end point in Al Qudra and after inflating said our goodbyes to one another. I think the first convoy was still playing as we didn’t see anyone at the end point.
Thank you Organizer, Lead Marshal, Founder, Intermediates, Advance and fellow Newbies for another awesome day in the sand. Keep smiling…