Squid Game 11/11/23

[David]

Amazing drive, Um Al Zumoul never disappoints, not better place for offroading.

Camping night before in the same location as used for Falcons, morning conditions were good and there we went, 6+1 in the convoy, Scorpio and Rashid floating around and Mabubaker leading the convoy, what a fantastic job he did, in an area that is as complicated as it gets he put together an outstanding performance.

Convoy, as expected, struggled more in the morning than in the afternoon but overall the fact that all cars and drivers finished the day in perfect condition shows how seriously everybody took the drive. It doesn't get any better, small convoys, drivers who want to push and test themselves and their cars but that understand safety always comes first, the most demanding dunes and a great Marshall that was feeling "playful".

Of course there were some massive climbs but for me, as usual (I guess the jeeper inside me) the most enjoyable the succession of switches in big connecting bowls, one sector in the afternoon was just so so good I can not get it out of my head, no bushes, perfect bowl formations, no surprises after the crests ... pure gold.

Great to test the cars close to their limit, very interesting to see how different set ups work better or worst in different type of dunes, similar with the Low/High gear selection, I only needed to use 4L in one climb almost at the end of the drive but no doubt interesting practice and setting myself the "homework" of getting more familiar with 4L driving, a good skill to have.

As usual the drive ended too soon, I think that seeing so much petrol still in the tank somehow is something I am still not used to!!!

Big big thank you to everyone involved in the drive, drivers for taking it seriously when needed but still laughing and joking when the right time, Rashid and Scorpio for looking after us and their constructive feedback and Mabubaker for such a great lead, he was the one taking the most risks and no doubt most of the credit should go to him!!!

See you on the sand soon!!!

[orlantsev]

Drives in Umm Zummul are becoming a good tradition. We visited last April when the weather was already on a hotter side.

This drive was published for intermediates 10+. Believe me you do not want to be in that area if you are not ready or have not driven in a long time.

I figured there was no difference between sitting in and awaiting in Abu Dhabi or waiting at the camp, so I left early and reached the camp around 5.30 pm, set up the tent, started fire and grilled chicken. The signal was not good at the bottom of the bowl, so I was only getting messages sporadically.

Deep in the desert the silence is so intense. At one time I heard the car coming, but the sound stopped. Then again, but still no car. I even checked the camp location to make sure I was in the right place.

By 9.30 pm last wood had been consumed by the flames, but still no people. At which point I decided to call it a day. By the time I reached back to the tent @david and @dorudoru came with more wood, and informed that one car had a mechanical problem on the way to campsite and it was being assisted. They left the wood, and I re-started the fire with the charcoal which was still alive.

I slept well until 4am, at which time the wind picked up and made lots of noise, so rest of the night the sleep was disturbed.

All drivers except 2 eventually came at night, so we all gathered for breakfast and started the drive just before 9. Umm Zummul is made of long narrow chains separated by sabkhas. Unlike before when the focus was on just one chain, this time we switched chains several times.

As soon as the drive started my engine light came on. It has not occurred in long time since the sensor replacement. I am still not sure if it affects the car performance. During the day the car felt a bit heavy. The long bowl combinations were ok, but on straight steep climbs the engine power was just lost before even reaching 70% of the climb. 4H, 4L – did not matter. So that was a bummer, but despite that the drive was very enjoyable.

All in all it was a great flow with just 2 recoveries (from memory), one cut tire, and few second tries which were not impacting the flow. Rashid’s car retired early, but since it is a normal occurrence in any drive, it does not count

At around 5 pm some of us headed towards the exit. I was a bit low on fuel and did not want to take everybody’s short time before the sunset to empty the jerry can. Some went to do a bit more play in the chain closest to the exit. It was a great lead by @mabubacker, and wonderful company from all.

[Mabubaker]

Big boys were demanding for a challenging but fun drive, so what would be a better than having it as in Um Zummul combined with a camp night?

While driving towards the campsite, I found the gang of three David, Carlos and Doru so we drove in a convoy,,, on the firs dune towards the camp I heard a scary metal noise. As we started the investigation and isolating the issues we came to a conclusion that my 4x4 is damaged. Mainly because noise was coming only with 4x4 engaged. Accordingly, I decided to call it off and go back home...

But wait,, Rashid arrived along with Scorpio,,,, he slid under my FJ negotiating with my FJ mechanics... And pingo,, after some magic touches, he was able to fix it. You made my day bro..

We headed to the campsite as a quick night drive convoy... Had some chitchat and enjoying the stars until 12:30.

After a quick brief in the morning, we headed to explore the beauty of Um Zummol, tried different chains and we were lucky in finding amazing spots,,, massive dunes, large bowels with lots of potential.

At the beginning we had some slowness in the convoy, and I believe this was due to some drivers experiencing new things with their cars. However, because they have a strong foundation, they were able to adapt quickly and enjoy the rest of the drive.

This area deserve another visit soon,,, what do you think big boys?

Thanks for the intermediates for playing safe, well done.
Thanks Orlantsef for support.
Thanks Scorpio and the Guardian Angel Rashid for ensuring the convoy safety!

See you Soon!
MAbubaker

[David]

Big boys think how soon can soon be?????

Big boys were demanding for a challenging but fun drive, so what would be a better than having it as in Um Zummul combined with a camp night?

While driving towards the campsite, I found the gang of three David, Carlos and Doru so we drove in a convoy,,, on the firs dune towards the camp I heard a scary metal noise. As we started the investigation and isolating the issues we came to a conclusion that my 4x4 is damaged. Mainly because noise was coming only with 4x4 engaged. Accordingly, I decided to call it off and go back home...

But wait,, Rashid arrived along with Scorpio,,,, he slid under my FJ negotiating with my FJ mechanics... And pingo,, after some magic touches, he was able to fix it. You made my day bro..

We headed to the campsite as a quick night drive convoy... Had some chitchat and enjoying the stars until 12:30.

After a quick brief in the morning, we headed to explore the beauty of Um Zummol, tried different chains and we were lucky in finding amazing spots,,, massive dunes, large bowels with lots of potential.

At the beginning we had some slowness in the convoy, and I believe this was due to some drivers experiencing new things with their cars. However, because they have a strong foundation, they were able to adapt quickly and enjoy the rest of the drive.

This area deserve another visit soon,,, what do you think big boys?

Thanks for the intermediates for playing safe, well done.
Thanks Orlantsef for support.
Thanks Scorpio and the Guardian Angel Rashid for ensuring the convoy safety!

See you Soon!
MAbubaker

[CARLOSS]

Hi everyone!

Let’s start with the drive’s summary: Best drive of the season by far!!!

Now the details…Suggesting drive’s name “Squid Game”, interesting qualification’s criteria +10, amazing playground selection Umm Zummul…with these ingredients it is difficult not to make a perfect recipe specially if there is an unbelievable cook in the kitchen, “the chef of the dunes” also known as @Mabubaker !

Like a Michelin stars chef, he started to slowly cook the day since early morning: At the beginning, setting up all the kitchen tools and ingredients explaining the drive’s composition with a bit of scouting, a bit of massive dunes, a bit of soft sand transitions...After, with the execution of the plates and finally with the dessert, in an amazing set of dunes that was the best part of the day. 10 out of 10 and thousands of likes!

Mabubaker delivered a degustation menu with a bit of everything on a seamless way only spoiled from time to time with convoy interruptions due to second tries and a few stucks: All of us, with no exemption, encountered challenging situations but we all managed to survive without any victim including both personal and means because drive’s level was perfectly adjusted to the convoy’s performance…a bit more discontinued in the morning time and much better in the afternoon with a few dunes’ connections impossible to forget.

It looked like Mabubaker was on steroids on Saturday…strong & constant leadership & performance which for sure had nothing to do with his new set of Coopers tires and most likely due to the Turkish coffee he had.

An interesting drive on the personal side as I had the opportunity to play with 4L normally reserved for recovery and stuck situations. For the biggest dunes 4H was not enough therefore I ended up shifting from 4H to 4L from time to time to find the best possible car set up but it was not easy because driving in 4L requires different skills: It is not like driving all the time in 4H 1st gear with pedal to the metal reaching the “ta ta ta” magic music, it is far more challenging as you need to find the best gear within the 4L range…still, I am not a fan of it most likely because I am not used to it but anyway, it was an interesting exercise who led me to get stuck in a very “tiny” dune (see below picture)…while approaching the crest I messed up with the lever and got the car stuck in a second…by the way, thanks a lot @Scorpio for the recovery and @Rashidjass for putting my name to this dune.

Even though I was part of the early leavers due to family commitments, I would have kept on driving till midnight time…it seems that the 136 km in three different dunes’ chains we made was not enough so, worthwhile to come back and make another 140km or more!

Thanks to the three Marshals present for leading and taking care of us and my mates who did a fantastic job…I cannot wait for the next full day drive in the big dunes!

See you
Carlos

[Ehab]

There are no words that can explain this trip, so decided to make a long video trying to give you a feeling how good this drive was.
Enjoy watching:

[ImranFJ]

Mabubaker decided to give us Christmas early by gifting us Umm Zummul.

As a first timer driving in this area, I was truly amazed by how “flat” it was.
The meeting time was at 8 AM so I faced the challenge of driving for around 3 hours to the meeting point. Arriving to al Quaa petrol station, I found Petr parked there so we moved together into the entrance point without deflating. We kept looking for the flattest areas to reach to the meeting point, but we ended up in a steep bowl and decided to deflate.
Around 18 KM into the desert and we finally made it just before the briefing. The area was just pure quiet. No noises at all I could almost hear my heartbeat. We had a quick briefing and started the drive with the last man standing method and had expected second tries due to the area being unpredictable and huge. After the first hour I felt the convoy including myself started to catch the right flow by getting used to keeping the right momentum before and after the crests. The area was just unbelievable, I've seen videos of this place but it does no justice to the area. You just have to go there. It is truly like visiting planet Mars.

As soon as the clock hit 11 it got a bit hot, decided to shut my windows for some AC only to realize it was only blowing hot air. So I decided to drive the whole day with the windows down, Orlantsev style. Even though the sun was pretty strong, there was a nice breeze of air while driving so I faced no issues.
We had a nice lunch break at around 12:30 to recharge and started driving again at around 1:30. Just before we started, Mabubaker told us this was just the warmup. After the lunch break, the whole convoy’s floe was much better than It was in the morning. We covered around 3 chains if I’m not wrong and I decided to call it off at 5 PM along with some other friends.

To finish this drive and put it into words to describe it, it is nearly impossible. You just had to be there. It deserves another visit soon.
Thank you for the amazing lead @Mabubaker and for the support from our dear marshals @Rashidjass @Scorpio. And Finally, thanks to all the drivers for making this event worth the while. Until Next Time!

[Petr]

Sorry for being late, my work week starts on Sundays and I haven't had a chance to write the report until now, but here it is in the end:

My wife and I had tickets for Flamenco performance the night before, so I could not come for camping and had to wake up at 4 am to make it in time for the meeting. I believed that Flamenco meant flames in Spanish so I thought it was a good prep - for the fiery drive next day and also for being with a couple of Spaniards there :D. Nevertheless, I was wrong (with the translation ;)).

At the last petrol station I met with @ImranFJ and we continuted together. Our plan to arrive without deflating was spoiled by a couple of large dunes that closed the sabkha from all sides. We deflated and arrived just in time to start the amazing day.

The size of the slopes all around was truly respectful. As @Scorpio said at the briefing, power cannot help at these dunes, you need to develop enough momentum to reach high. My new SWB Jeep has been at many intermediate level drives since I acquired it. I usually can benefit from the power of the Pentastar 3.6 engine and the lighter body, but here it didn't play a role AT ALL. Either you get the momentum, or you go for a second try, no other option. So this was a priceless experience. The revs and speed limits are different from my old Jeep, where I knew exactly what to expect, so it took some time to accomodate, but I got used to it as the day progressed. I had to adopt to the rev limitations and the car's decision when it forces to shift to a higher gear or at what speed it allows to go to gear one.

@Mabubaker did a fantastic job. He conquered all the highest slopes and prepared lovely challenges for the convoy. @Rashidjass and @Scorpio indicated what they are able to do it this environment too - the elegant loop carved by Scorpio at one of the last ridge climbs was a gentle reminder for us that there is still a "room for improvement" .

I agree with @CARLOSS, this was so far the best drive of the season, despite the competition of other stunning intermediate drives so far. I hope to be back soon!