Don't look up ...

[David]

Drive in Nahil, starting near the park & petrol station as usual. Foggy conditions that made the journey there challenging and delayed the start of the drive.

2 convoys, Presa took care of the intermediates while Shamsi lead the Newbie +10 supported by Solmaz, Ehab, Carlos, Rooies and myself.

Great fun and very interesting drive that I would divide in 2 parts. First we visited an area that was highly technical, big dunes for that type of terrain, soft sand, bushes, not a lot of space ... very challenging conditions and as expected a few rescues, second tries, ... in this type of terrain you need to be clinical with your lines and momentum as any mistake will make the full convoy to have to stop in areas that normally are small for several cars.

The 2nd area with big arches and climbs, fast paced and cleaner dunes. The main issue in this area seemed to be the distance between cars (too big sometimes) and not carrying enough momentum in some of the climbs.

Overall Shamsi did a fantastic job at pushing the 10+ safely out of their comfort zone, that is the place where you normally learn the most.

Personally I enjoyed the drive greatly, loads of things happening that kept everyone entertained.

Thank you Presa for organizing the drive, Shamsi and Solmaz for making the 2nd convoy possible and everyone else that attended.

See you on the sand soon.

[Spyda]

Foggy drive to the meeting point delayed our start slightly, Presa took the intermediates and our 10+ led by the guvnor Shamsi with Ehab as 2nd lead.

The convoy started in a very tricky area which soon had quite a few stucks and 2nd trys. Carlos and David kept very busy rescueing people. I joked to Shamsi that he was trying to beat his friday the 13th record .

We cleared that area which was just the warm up and to give space to the intermediate convoy to groove. After this technical area Shamsi set off like a rocket pushing the pace in fast safari style with some straight cresting,arches,big climbs and few side crests with flat tops.

Towards the end of the drive i misjudged a switch on a fairly flattened crest and ended up having to reverse into a bowl make a loop and come back for a 2nd try. Cleared the obstacle 2nd time no worries but beat myself up a bit about it as we had conquered much harder obstacles in this drive. Momentary lapse of concentration, slightly too much angle on approach rookie mistake!. All part of the learning process in this journey and stopped me from having my first drive with no stucks or 2nd trys not that its a bad thing as we learn from our mistakes. It takes is one small mistake and the desert punishes you heavily.

Thanks to Presa for arranging the drive, Shamsi for the amazing lead. Supporting marshall Solmaz with the Advanced crew David, Carlos, Rooies and Ehab.

Great morning in the sand and eager as always for the next chapter..........

[KIMOz]

Hi All

Started the action from home when i came out of the garage and found dense fog… while driving to the Nahil, I recalled my morning drives in Salalah and opened to window to enjoy the cold mist.

I had to deflate couple of meters before than the meeting point as the car decided to rest on a small crest ;) before the meeting point.

After arriving to the meeting point, we had our briefing by @presa and @alshamsi_m . There were 2 convoys; one for 10+ Newbies led by @alshamsi_m supported by @Solmaz and Advance drivers. The second convoy (our convoy) was dedicated for intermediate drivers and led by @presa We had great fun during the drive. We drive through big to medium dune and enjoys the engine sounds as most of the drive was on the 1st to 2nd gear. We had some technical areas and some soft balconies too. My passenger was super excited during the drive specially while we were climbing the big dunes.
There were couple of second trys and one. Popout in the convoy that was repaired in couple of minutes.

Thanks @presa for organizing the event and all friends for the Fun.

Cheers and See you in Sand
KIMOz

[CARLOSS]

Hi Everyone!

Nahil used to be, is and will be only of my favourite areas within +1hr range from Dubai as it gives the opportunity to explore different types of terrains and adjust the level up from CM till upper interm. And not too much visited by others which is always good!

As described above, there were 2 convoys and thanks God because one convoy with so many people would have made the drive very “long” . I was assigned with the +10 Newbies which was really good fun. Rescue team was very busy at the beginning and little less in the second part.

As David said, improvements are to be made on momentum and proper distance, but this is part of the training program so pls do not be disappointed if you don’t still master this. It will come with more practice and following Marshals instructions. And linked to the latter and even though I am neither a Marshal nor pretending to be one (not getting paid for it ), I would allow myself to emphasize on the following observations from last weekend:

- Whenever/wherever you get stuck, especially on a wall, pls keep calm and wait for instructions. Inside the car it might seem that you are about to fall or something and some people tend to react instinctively but from the outside, it normally looks much better, and more experienced drivers will help you out. This is for your own safety.
- Pls carefully listen to your radio (sometimes distracted by music or passenger chitchat). If you are instructed to “Stop” that means that you should put your car in P position & hand break on and wait for further instructions.
- After that, pls follow the given instructions: i.e. Turning or “Steering right” means you should steer from the driver seat side to the passenger seat one (clockwise). Left is the opposite. Jokes apart , marshals or deputies’ instructions will be given as if the guy is driving your car so, please don’t do the opposite believing that this is what he/she sees from him/her position (sometimes just in front of your car).

Thanks @presa , @alshamsi_m and @Solmaz for the drives and my dear support fellas. And the rest of the convoy for showing up and refreshing us all with cold watermelon! Credit goes to Mustafa.

See you soon.
Carlos

[osman]

Hello All,

This was my second drive back-to-back weekends from yet another gap, and needless to say I was quite excited. Reaching to the meeting point was a foggy drive, starting from home. But the air cleared up within half an hour of the announced starting time. Since we had more intermediate drivers than the newbies, marshals dedicated an intermediate convoy on a newbie drive. Thank you @presa , @Solmaz and @alshamsi_m to make it happen.

9 car intermediate convoy was led by @presa and I was the 9th car as sweeper. We started with relatively small and technical dunes with lots of vegetation and later had bigger dunes to enjoy and get some of us challenged. One quick fix pop-out spiced-up the drive, a bit later we met the newbie convoy and enjoyed @Moustafa's cold watermelon. Thank you!!

I had more than average second tries due to not having enough momentum and one of them caused me getting far behind. Somehow, I must have hit the gearstick and it moved to the second gear which cost me to abort the climb almost at the top. Then while I was circling to gain a momentum I found out it was not the engine giving-up power but the driver being clumsy!

I think we all enjoyed the drive very much, including playing the frequency switch game too. Thank you @presa for giving us such a nice morning and memorable drive.

[ahmed77moharem]

Heavy foggy day with a huge number of cars split into 2 convoys! The intermediate convoy was led by @presa, and our 10+ Newbies convoy by @alshamsi_m, supported by @Solmaz and the advance team.
Briefing done, then we were off! The first half? Technical terrain, big dunes, soft sand – some struggles for sure!
The second half? High speed, big arches, and awesome switches! Amazing and challenging trip! Huge thanks to marshals @presa, @alshamsi_m, @Solmaz, and the rescue team @Caloss, @David, @Ehab, and @Rooies!
See you soon in the sand!

[Rooies]

My first drive in a very long time.

Thank you @presa for adding a second convoy & allowing me to play with. It was a very foggy drive to the meeting point. I met up with @Lenny & we continued to the meeting point. @kimoz was the first casualty for the day before the meeting point, got crested, but @osman helped him out quickly.
We met at meeting point, was nice seeing everybody after a long time, lotsa new faces, but the greetings always stays warm. I requested @presa to put me in the back to sweep because I have not driven i a very long time. We had @Solmaz , @David, @CARLOSS as support.
@alshamsi_m was leading the convoy.

The first area was a bit technical & there were a few stucks & second tries. The support team did an awesome job in recovering the cars. The second area was "flatter" & faster. There were a couple of stucks & second tries, but overall the convoy ran fairly good. We stopped for watermelon & then continued on again. I go the chance to do a big climb which was good for my confidence . We headed out the area & towards the end of the drive.

Overall it was a good drive, not to many stucks, radio comms was good & here & there following distance was either to small or to big.

Thank you @presa for making the drive, @alshamsi_m for leading the drive & the support team.

Till we meet in the sand again, stay safe.

Greetings
Rooies

[alshamsi_m]

Hello Everyone

I was supposed to take off from off-roading this weekend , then I was asked to give support since we have a big group of members joining then suddenly I have to lead one convoy ... Things escalated fast

Although, the day started foggy, it was really so beautiful to watch the fog over the dunes so while the rescue team was busy doing the rescue ... I was enjoying the view

The Second part was the main part where the marshals are trying to give more stress on the newbies to stay sharp and focus and I think they all did well.

At the end I would like to thank @presa for organizing and @Solmaz for being the guardian angle of the newbies

Till the next time. Keep the sand flying

Cheers
Shamsi