Thanks to all the organizers for the long day. It was truly nice to see a new part of the desert I have not yet been to. Its so often the same areas but yesterday it was fantastic with nice sand, trees and rock formations, not to mention excellent weather!
For me, this is what it's all about, not how fast you can floor it up a large dune, but rather to adventure and escape, seeing what this beautiful country and plant have to offer and appreciating the nature we have left.
After all the greatness the end was a little crazy as we left the Super Bowl area and headed towards Al Badayer we encountered a "hundred" people trying to leave at the same time and it turned into chaos inside one of the neighbouring bowls on our way out... The leaders all pitched in to try and get everyone out safely... it was impossible to control all of the traffic.
I found this to be a great experience as to learning how to deal with that situation.
This drive has re-kindled my passion to get out more!
Cheers
It was a great ride full of surprises and challenges :)
Thanks to all organized and participated. The landscape on the route was amazing and the ride was fun till the big bowl. Unfortunately this time I couldn't take much photos. I was considering to shoot a video but my mounting kit has failed so I could only bring back some good old memories as a souvenir :)
After the great show at the big bowl it was a different story. It was amazing to see how a "regular" bowl can turn into a death trap when a lot of cars fill it and no one has space to move :)). At that point we separated from the group and head to the nearest road because it was getting dark. Then things get even more interesting. We lost the leading car and my efforts to catch it end up with a pop out :) No worries, I fixed it easily since we got the best training how to handle it thanks to our Marshals. Tire was fixed but I was feeling something was wrong about my car and I got stuck just minutes after. Damn!:pissed off: I forgot to switch on the 4WD system after fixing the tire :)) . Thanks to our fellow members they pulled me out and then we started our night driving in the dark :). After an adventurous drive we found some +5 on the way and get out of the sand safely.
So you will never know what to expect any given day in the desert and a regular drive can suddenly turn into an adventure
This was my first time we (with @Solmaz) attended to a drive with a responsibility. This is a chance you get when you upgrade and i can tell you this does not make a newbie drive any easier.
We were in 5+ convoy led by @alshamsi_m and sweeped by @salhinai. Us, @MOMO and @Mark B were distributed inside the convoy, responsible from the fellow newbies in front of us. As a first time, i can tell you it was a big stress and a totally new experience which makes a newbie drive also well worth to join. Watching over the other cars, responding in situations and making sure you are doing it safe and sound, connecting the convoy sometimes etc... Also the feeling that you are putting in some effort for the club is nothing small.
I had some confusions here and there, probably due to lack of experience but tried my best for sure.
And the part after the super bowl. I can say my life passed in front of my eyes. On the point where we needed to connect the convoy, we found ourselves in a bowl where there was a chaos inside. I was in a point that i need to have some turns inside to get out, some of us avoided in the beginning, some of us entered unfortunately. There were buggys and cars coming from everywhere, going inside and making things worse etc. We were the only organized group around and i think our marshals and advanced members handled everything very well. I just heard there was one small accident but not sure about it. Hope nothing serious. Anyway all of us were out of the desert safe and sound in the end with all happy faces.
I want to share my 2 cents on my observation during the drive. One thing is very important and it will make it easier for everybody. Please protect your position in the convoy at all times unless otherwise instructed by marshals. Know the car in front and back and always keep the line up. This will avoid small chaotic situations during stop and starts and make it easier for the rescue cars and sweeper to know that everybody is there, safe and no one is left behind. Otherwise, it creates a confusion on who is where, how many cars ahead etc. Personally i also learned on what to do regarding the convoy stance and hope i will do better next time.
All in all it was a very joyful ride so thanks to everybody for making this happen... See you all in sand soon again...
Cheers...
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 11:15 am
by Orsomucca
Amazing first newbie drive for me.
Due to my previous offroad experience alshamsi moved me in the 5+ (thanks) and i joined the trip.
Very nice drive with some technical passages (steep dunes, side cresting) and few fast tracks.
I started to feel confidend ad enjoyed the drive, even if not being used to big convoys I failed a couple of side cresting and had to try twice.
Everything went smoothly and we reached the superbowl to see the sand rails. What shocked me is the absolute lack of safety precautions of most of the peoples driving there. This was even more clear when everibody (us included) decided to left at the same time: while we were proceeding in convoys other cars not from the club joined the line making impossible for us to follow the others. as said, we got stuck in a super-busy bowl. Finally after few difficulties we reached the road and went back home.
my "newbie"comments and what I learned during the trip
- I agree with Agalon, the importance of keeping the position is important. whenever we start everybody was running to the front (is there a prize for the first who finish?) and even during the trip, if you miss a passage while trying again the other cars were overtaking you, with the risk of hitting each other. I understand that the bigger is the convoy the more complicated it is, but keeping the order is always useful. Some radio check during the trip will be worth being done (for example each member can say at the radio the nickname and the position in convoy, ie 1 XXXX; 2 YYYY; 3 ORSOMUCCA etc)
- importance of keeping the right distance: if you are 20 m far from the car in front of you are confident and you can avoid accidents or quick maneuvering that can be dangerous. Also driving with somebody tailgating you is not nice and you don't feel safe
- regardless how good and responsible we in the club are, if you get in a busy situation with other ineducated or irresponsible drivers you are putting yourself in danger. so AVOID BUSY LOCATIONS and try to get our before the peek time
thanks for the nice trip
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 3:16 pm
by hendreb
Thanks for a great drive and the excellent action photo of my Pajero below.
Learning more and more how to compensate for my stupid gearbox everytime we go out.
Completely agree with the rest on sticking to your position in the convoy, but would also add the we all need to be a bit more consistant and prompt in calling out second attempts.
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 3:38 pm
by Agalon
[quote=hendreb;41030]Thanks for a great drive and the excellent action photo of my Pajero below.
Learning more and more how to compensate for my stupid gearbox everytime we go out.
Completely agree with the rest on sticking to your position in the convoy, but would also add the we all need to be a bit more consistant and prompt in calling out second attempts.[/quote]
I will give you a heads up, you will hear many jokes about Pajero don't worry :) I remember one time we were talking with @Hockey about my Pajero (R.I.P.). He said, it is too intelligent to use in desert. We don't want intelligent cars that decide instead of the drivers :like:. In any case i believe that knowing your car and being in control of the throttle is an important skill for Pajero (just my 2 cents as a previous owner). As always mentioned, it's the driver mostly, not the car.
Cheers...
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2015 5:38 pm
by momo
Fellow members, it was a great pleasure to drive with you. I was happy to see more buddies with :048: FJ Cruisers :048: @Hassanz @Desert BAT @KIMOz @orlantsev @adventure motox @salhinai and more...(There was an orange FJ Cruiser with us too...)
A missed driving technique in this drive results in the second rounds to be chaotic and results in positions swaps; I saw few drivers following blindly the car in front which was doing a second round, as result 3 to 4 cars were found many times in a bowl. The technique to avoid this is to watch two cars ahead instead of one, so in case the car in front of you missed the track, you still have correct track visualization and you can stop and wait the front car to do the second try or if it is too late for you to stop just keep going till you reach flat ground and wait your buddies to get back their proper position.
All in all we managed well, I was totally new for the Intermediate with Newbies experience. And I can say that it is a responsibility to practice and to learn. I am still watching my (non edited) videos to learn from it. I had to re-connect convoy twice, the first time I succeed to get out from the danger zone and climbed a bit in higher terrain to try to see the first part of our convoy, thanks @Agalon for giving me the clock direction. @Hassanz reached me at that time, he had the convoy in sight and went further and assisted me to reconnect. Team work :cool: :048:
The second connection was under desert traffic and was not that easy for some. We were at the back of the convoy, I think one of my intermediate buddy was behind me while many cars in front of me went in a bowl following each others because they lost the track, I managed to over take to avoid stacking all cars in and climbed higher terrain to be visible. I driven slowly trying to get the correct direction over the radio. I expected I was slow enough that everybody behind recovered and followed me. Once I crossed @ALKHATIB convoy (which was on hold) I looked in the mirror, no one behind me :022::033: :redbullsmiley: Next time I will look in the mirror earlier and we need to communicate more over radio. Lesson learned.
Other than this, I enjoyed the drive. It was relaxing to sit before the sunset watching the show in the super bowl. We should do it more often if we finish a drive near that area.
Regards to all fellow members and looking forward to read your reports.
[video=youtube;um9QYq03Vew][/video]
Posted: Mon Feb 09, 2015 11:53 am
by Alyasi
keep going MOMO
Posted: Fri Feb 13, 2015 6:40 pm
by Hassanz
Apologies for the late report but couldn't find a better time than now to write my report and the other reason I'm writing this post is I got encouraged by [MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] post of giving a true feedback of each trip we participate.
So this trip was lucky to attend to as I was NOT working that Friday. Me and my ride were out of shape due to a long gap in our drives. It was great to meet old friends [MENTION=3146]pradodxb[/MENTION] [MENTION=8670]yasser[/MENTION] and others. Good to see so many FJs around - gave me some ideas how can I upgrade mine. Few kms after from start point my car stopped giving sign of "check Engine" and started losing power but after couple of resets from my OBD reader we were all set. The problem was very simple, I gave my car for servicing like usual they must have cleaned the air filter but it was not properly in place this time. I have the TRD airfilter which requires almost opening of the whole kit in order to clean the filter.I noticed this while cleaning my car at the service station. I wish only if I would have popped my hood I would have avoided several stoppages and me harsh to my ride.
Anyways in the middle of trip we encountered a Maniac who was show offing with his FJ, it came to a point where he broke in our convoy and missing a bumper to bumper collision with me [MENTION=8670]yasser[/MENTION] is witness to this incident. It was amazing until then they were no stucks and everything was smooth. So continuing on our trip when we took our break [MENTION=1510]sham[/MENTION]si_m noticed I didn't have my flag pole so he asked me to be in the back of the convoy which was fair enough. The reason was I had to get the flag pole fixed as I didn't see it possible for me joining any of the Friday drives due to work - I kept the work pending.
While being easy on my ride (due to the check engine problem), I was able to take on most obstacles with no stucks or second tries Alhumdulilah (thank God) . I think the whole crew drove well with very minimum stucks. The exciting moment was when we were heading out back to the road after seeing the monster climbing the sand hills. Everyone was scattered around and specially at the bowl where most members had to wait until the bowl get clear.
Which I suppose was the most wise decision taken by [MENTION=3080]Agalon[/MENTION] not to get anyone in the bowl until it is clear. After a while everyone was out of the mess, we had the experience to drive in the night. Saw [MENTION=8718]MOMO[/MENTION]'s awesome light setup which made me jealous. And there was a orange FJ which got disconnected from the convoy for whom rescue team was sent out all thanks to [MENTION=1946]Mazaaj[/MENTION] who was leading the rescue. We ended the trip and inflated ourselves avoiding the chaos in AlBadayer, again good call by our marshals. (no sugar coating, appreciating decision making and leadership )
So what I would like to share from this trip , 1 quotes 1 advice to myself and 1 suggestion
quote:
[MENTION=27]alshamsi_m[/MENTION] with the reference to the maniac driving FJ "....there are only 2 possibilities when u drive like this either you're young or have a girlfriend on ur side who you're trying to impress"
Advice:
Do simple the maintenance check on ur car, ur car is NOT completely dumb when she says CHECK ENGINE. check it
Suggestion:
I love the desert for it's soul reason that is "Isolation" from the city life. When I see the offroad tracks and the whole city in the desert it just make me mad. Its sad how human presence destroy nature but I would love we would go into more isolated areas. It's even good for our cars when we avoid those bumpy road tracks left by others. Enjoy peace and calm drive. That's just me what I think in my prospective.
In the end Thank you everyone for making this Lucky Friday a experience to remember