Desert Gazing - Hold my tea

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David
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Al Faqaa to Al Qudra night drive, what a fantastic track that was!!!, very very happy I made it to it, I was a bit tired after a long week but worth every second of it!!!

Big convoy, 22 cars in total if not mistaken, starting almost from the point where my intermediate exam did, Shamsi leading, Kimoz got the job of flying (literally) as second lead, Gabor sweeping, the rest of the support team in between the newbies, I was 5th in the convoy.

Booy and Giorgio floating around, after around 30min of drive I noticed a black FJ floating on the left towards the front of the convoy, first thought, wow, yes, black FJs are everywhere ... it was Presa, having an additional Marshal around came handy to be honest, I think that we all felt a bit sorry he had to drive all the way back to AD after we finished, great commitment to the Club.

I think that we are all familiar with the area, I love it day or night, it was not easy as a newbie drive, the "no sidecresting" rule in newbie drives makes you having to go straight at the crests and do some big climbs at speed. Furthermore, wait for the clear from the car ahead, by the time you do your climb no car in front to be seen so you have to pay good attention to the tracks, the cars ahead of me did well on this.

I decided to drive with the SatNav on, I do have "a few" waypoints marked around there, it was 11:45PM and we were around 500m from where we started the Intermediate drive with Presa in Al Faqaa, yes, almost "at the beginning", very clear it was going to be long night ...

We made progress on the flats towards Al Qudra where we stopped for a little break when the most important question of the night came up, easy or hard track out???, I absolutely love the spirit of the "regulars" in this batch of newbies, they come to play and to learn, I think they would only go home either when the car breaks, runs out of petrol or leading car gets tired, always happy for new challenges, the answer was obvious and the leading car delivered, that final section is tricky, sand is soft, dunes are sharp, climbs steep, the convoy got what it wanted and you could probably tell by the smiles in their faces by the end of the drive.

In a large convoy driving at night very difficult to know what is happening other than around your position but in general terms there is no doubt that all the drives the +10 have been doing lately are paying off, I had in front of me Lara & Flor, great work girls, even some small night sidecresting that Shamsi had no option but to do in order to cross some obstacles, you should be very proud of yourselves!!!. Behind me I could also see that Stephan was very comfortable as well as Carlos and Adam with 2 of the Monteros. Fair play to those more towards the back, I was 5th and in some sections the sand was already a mess by the time I had to cross so I can only imagine what it would be for those at the end ...

Drive finished just after 3AM very close to the MP for the last CM drives, one hour of sitting and chitchatting with friends before making it home tired but happy for a fantastic drive. Thank you Shamsi, Booy and Presa for the drive.

See you on the sand soon.
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alshamsi_m
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Hello Everyone

Finally, we came to the end of the Desert Gazing series for Ramadan 2021. We always have 4 drives in Ramadan for our newbies, which are constructed to build the ability to get more comfortable for the night drives in the higher levels. Unfortunately, we had the chance to have 3 only which made more pressure on the designing team.

You have to understand that all these night drives are tailor-made for newbies to drive in the dark which is above their rank so we have to make it in a way that is FUN & SAFE which is not an easy job. For example the last drive took more than 500 km of scouting to deliver the final route !!!
So dear newbie please don't consider yourself INTERMEDIATES after Ramadan :yarr:


In the previous drives, we had small convoys to run fast but this drive was designed to be mega since it the grand finally of Ramadan 2021 and we needed all the marshals together especially because we were taking the newbies in the CLOSED SECTION you're kidding, right Also, the time for this drive was longer than usual where we drove from 9:30 pm until 3 am the next day grin well we had some enthused members who were asking until sunrise :yarr: .

The drive came to the end and you can see the happy faces for the new achievement, the food was nice and the chit chats were even better. At 4 AM we had to call it off so people can reach home safely and get some sleep.

It was another wonderful adventure with you this Ramadan too and looking forward to see next Ramadan.

Best Regards
Shamsi
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello Everyone,

The last night drive during Ramadan and it was a good one!

After having two drives which slowly but surely increased the level during the dark, this drive was more like: Let's drive in the dunes and have fun!
I was positioned behind @Rathica , which is always a pleasure, as she manages to keep the flow.

As mentioned above, a large convoy with a lot of support and eager newbies, great experience is ensured!

Thank you @presa @Booy and @alshamsi_m for the efforts again and all the support @KIMOz @David @mpodroid @Rathica @alex @Johanna @Gabor @giorgio

It is a pity that the night drives are over for now, but also looking forward to the daylight again.

Thanks and see you soon,

Tom
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giorgio
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Hold my Tea:

The organizer and lead car delivered a Two in One drive. What does this mean? Someone could say that 2 convoys drove 2 tracks which also means that one convoy drove 4 tracks, but enough with the numbers.

This night drive under clear skies and light breeze found the drivers prepared for the drive or at least that is what they thought.

The lead car made it very clear from the beginning that if you don't have your shi#$%^& together you ain't coming out from the desert.

The 22 car long convoy was like a train hard to move but also hard to stop, the drivers had to be on alert mode all the time as after each dune it was unpredictable of what is coming next. Radio communication was a must, keeping little more distance than the usual it was the key (most of the drivers got that quite early) short and long straight climbs were demanding forcing the drivers to constantly have to adjust their throttle to avoid jumping ( i saw so many jumps in one drive that I have not seen in the 4 years that I am with the club).

With @alshamsi_m on the nose of the convoy and @Gabor on the tail, every couple of newbies and intermediate and myself with @Booy floating, the convoy was well equipped to handle everything. Well at least that is what I thought until the drive started and the rescue operations started popping up on the radio like fresh mushrooms after the rain. It was like a gift from above when suddenly @presa showed up out or nowhere like the knight on a black horse offering an extra hand which was well needed.

The term " The front part of the convoy teaches you technique and the back survival" could have not been more self-explanatory and obvious in this drive.

The drivers at the front of this convoy have no idea what the drivers from the middle and to the back had to deal with so if I am to say to all drivers good job for making it to the finish line I would have to congratulation twice the drivers from @Johanna and back for their perseverance, hard work and dedication to complete the drive. Well done boys and girls that was not easy to manage but you did it.

I was very impressed with the fact that we did not have any pop out (strange
but true). the assisted recoveries were on the light side but second tries and self recoveries were more that I could count.

This drive came as a closer to the Ramadan night drives series and it sealed the season with one of the drives that will have plenty camp fire stories.


To close my report I would like to thank the lead car and rescue team for all their efforts as well as the drivers for their accomplishment to successfully complete this challenge.

Looking forward to see you all again soon.
Till next time drive safe.
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jayslens
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Dear Almosters,

What a drive it was! Special thank you @alshamsi_m and to all our dear marshals, advance and intermediates for designing, supporting and putting in their efforts for organizing this drive and keeping us safe. At the same time guiding and directing us.

At the beginning I thought we would be split in two convoys but to my surprise we were put in one with @alshamsi_m leading us. Then he started placing the cars with all three Pajeros in the start of the convoy I did get little tensed as to what we would be facing. We started and I saw quite a few nightcrawlers. The terrain overall was challenging especially in the night it is even more challenging compared to the previous two night drives. Soft sands, technical dunes you just had to be on focus alert at all times.

My performance wasn't the best at all..got stuck (lost the count now) many second tries and in between I got lost and it was quite a bit of a pressure as I had so many cars following me. But this where the challenges come and this is how we learn.

I never thought we would actually be driving till 3AM because the event mentioned it till 12AM Psmiley in between in the the closed section I had lost my focus as I was starting to feel sleepy and tired but in the end I survived and my dear Mitsybae survived as well.

It was great to meet some members whom I have not met previously have a nice day

Special thank you to @giorgio @Rathica @Alexandar @Booy @presa for rescuing me several times and keep my spirit levels high!

"All the crazy sh*t I did tonight..those will be the best memories for me."" (David Guetta ft Kid Cudi) cool

See you all very soon!
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CARLOSS
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Hello everyone!

After two night drives I would say, nice and easy, I was not expecting this huge challenge on the “hold my tea” drive. By the way, impossible to hold anything as I was most of the time jumping and flying a bit OSMILEY

When I heard in the briefing “we will be making between sixty five and eighty something km” I said to myself: “It is going to be impossible to get this done in less than 3 hours” and I was not mistaken cool as we finished around 3am 2 z Z

The drive itself was a impressive combination of technical areas with very soft sand, safari style, straight cresting and many more…including some fast drive on tracks in which I could not see anything :yarr: , only a big white curtain in front of me and when trying to switch off my off-road lights...surprise! the switch was not working and needed to keep them on the hole drive dark mood

Apart for this little technical issue, the drive itself went well for me with a couple of second tries and one stuck on the top of a crest: I said later on to my wife: “I believe that since drive no.5 or 6 I have not crested but that night I made one and believed it was because of Presa watching me playingsmiley I clearly remember the last one, previous one I mean, in Liwa (I believe) while he was also watching me on the top of the dune (and rescuing me afterwards). So, it is your fault, @presa Psmiley

I should recognize that at the end of the drive I was very very tired so I feel proud of myself not making stupid mistakes in the last 10 or 20 min drive before leaving the closed section. have a nice day

All in all, nice memories are collected and saved in my mental Almost 4x4 folder for ever.

I would like to express my gratitude to @alshamsi_m for organizing and leading this outstanding drive as well as the marshals @Booy , @presa , and all the supporting team @David , @KIMOz . @Johanna , @Rathica , @giorgio , @mpodroid , @alex , @Gabor

And the usual suspects too: @Laarni , @jayslens , @Flor , @Tomvanhouten @NahorJP , @James

See you in sand soon

Carlos
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presa
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Hey Almosters!!

Firstly I want to thank @alshamsi_m and @Booy for organizing this trip, since at Ramadan there are many family and other commitments...

I arrived at the drive with a few minutes after it started, but was not really sure I was at the right place... the convoy had 2km... something was different :)

With so many cars and starting at a technical area, Shamsi put a special taste on everyone that could join it!

I had to take a shortcut to join the drive, so my GPS marked over 100km offroading, so I believe that the drive was, at least, 70km, what is a great distance for a newbie convoy, as long as this one... at night!

Before 0h the leading car stop for gathering and the drivers requested that the drive was by the hard track, not the easy one... well.... everyone did great, with a few stuck and 2nd tries, as told before... the area that we were driving between 0h and 3h is an area that we drive the newbies 10+ on smaller convoys to train technical skills... not usual to have a 20+ cars convoy at night :)

Around 3am we stop driving, close to Al Qudra, and sit for around 1h where we ate delicious food, thank you for @alshamsi_m , @Gabor , @Rathica and others that took some time to prepare something to the other drivers!!

I would finish with my appreciation for The Wise One, who was working hard on the rescue and support, and Intermediates that performed rescues and assisted the convoy in times of need - including when the driver completely lost the track :)
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piotr
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Hello my fellow Almosters!
This was the 3rd (and 4th) drive of the Desert Gazing series, so the expectations going into it were set pretty high already - in particular the discussion on the chat teasing an all-night drive ;) Even though you should never trust the chat!

And I must say the drive delivered on all its promises! @alshamsi_m has taken us for quite some ride, from Al Faqua all the way to Al Qudra, including the infamous Closed Section - a terrain that would be quite challenging even during the day. Most of the track was technical, action-packed soft sand, which catered for a lot of fun, and a lot of work for the support team! We had a lot of climbs, arches, even a side crest here and there. There were also some stretches on the flats, I must say driving 80km/h with zero visibility in the dust wakes you up quite well! ;)

We had a number of stucks and second tries - all to be expected in a drive like that. I luckily avoided a popout this time - still don't know how I managed that ;) I guess driving behind @Rathica and @Tomvanhouten helped as I could follow their nice lines, despite the track being quite bumpy already (towards the back of the convoy) :)

At the end of the drive we had a great chat with shared food, looking at the waning crescent emerging on the horizon - unforgettable!

In total we drove for over 5h and covered almost 68km.

Overall I must say I loved the night-time drives, seeing all the lights moving in the dunes and long train-like convoy snaking in front creates a special visual effect. Driving through rough terrain with limited visibility also brings some Indiana-Jones type feel. It's a shame w need to wait one more year for another opportunity!

Big thanks again to @alshamsi_m for organizing and investing his free time design the track, and @Booy for his continuous calm support throughout the drive. Similar thanks go to all the Marshals and support team for making sure the drive was enjoyable and safe. See you again on the sand - the sooner the better!
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Rathica
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I was excited to be on the Hold My Tea drive which I only got on due to @alshamsi_m kind heart. The few times I drove out of the desert at night was challenging but dear @David told me how he likes to challenge his fears so I thought I should do the same.

Spirits were high at the start of the drive. I started with a mini disaster where the valve of my tyre pressure gauge dislodged in my tyre valve causing a flat tyre 😳 so it took me longer to be drive ready.

Lights ablazing, the large convoy was off. Shortly after take off, we were joined by our precious @presa to support @Booy and @giorgio floating around us to keep us safe. BTW @Booy you made Big Red fly over the dunes.

We weaved and swayed over, around and on the dunes, pausing every now and then for a recovery or two. The beginning of the drive was slow but the second half went faster.

We finally reached our destination at 3am and sat around for a quick bite and chit chat before departing for the comfort of our homes.

Thank you to the Almoster family for yet another great evening ❤️
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AdamW
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Hello all Almosters!

It's a bit delayed report, but i believe it's never to late to say thanks have a nice day

I would like to thank you to @alshamsi_m and @Booy for organizing this - and other night drives, I managed to complete all of them!

I arrived to the meeting point a bit early, and since I was alone I thought that I missed something, but luckily after couple of minutes I could see more cars on the horizon.
The drive as promised was exiting, with a lot of surprises. Few second tries, no stuck and no pop out. Again important conclusion - keep distance in technical area.
Driving behind experienced Almoster @Johanna made me more confident thumbsup

Big thanks to marshals and support team: @presa (who came out suddently form the dark), @Johanna , @Rathica , @giorgio o , @mpodroid , @David , @alex , @Gabor , @KIMOz,

and to all participants! that was amazing night.

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