Welcome to the Jungle III

[Daggerfall]

Hi Almosters,

The weather was hot when we met at 15:30 but we didn't feel (At least I didnt brigade.baka-wolf.com ) too hot during the drive and enjoy the perfect visibility and amazing scenery of the desert during the afternoon.

After a small briefing, we started rolling and attacked the nearest big dune group and immediately started to hear some members calling for second tries in the radio. I love this area because of its unique, unpredictable nature and irregular form of the dunes combined with soft sand (Not a Liwa soft) immediately exposes your weak points during the drive.

I observed the members who went through our complete training system and developed different skills at the different type of drives and terrain immediately separated themselves from the group positively. It's like skipping the leg day in the gym grin . You might need that technical driving skill just after you crest a big dune and enter into a ditch &small bowl to survive or tackling obstacles on the 30-degree wall at the top side of a big dune and try to go one after another to keep your car on the track and don't fall down.

We had some technical problems but we tackled them immediately and some members had to leave during the drive. Thanks to our chief [mention]Yoghybear[/mention] , [mention]Agalon[/mention] [mention]Barish[/mention] and [mention]JockJKU[/mention] they took them out safely and we kept driving. That's the benefit of having surrounded by a great support during our drives. We kept driving and finished the drive at the target point without any problem while tackling all those issues at the same time.

Despite all those problems I believe we had "some moments" we had fun and adrenaline grin

In addition to the names I mentioned above thanks to [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for being our guardian angel during the drive and [mention]Abu Odai[/mention] and [mention]giorgio[/mention] for performing well as second leads and all our members joined and helped us tackling those issues we had during the drive.

See you on the next drive

[giorgio]

Welcome to the Jungle, and what a jungle it is.

My second intermediate drive and the best for me so far.

The day as [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] mentioned on his report was a very hot one but that did not stop any of the participants been early at the meeting point and ready to go.

At this trip I had [mention]Johanna[/mention] as a passenger and we both enjoyed the challenging drive.

The terrain was very different than other places that I have driven so far. The dunes were big and close to each other (in many occasions I lost orientation of the direction of coming and going) with soft sand in many places. We had big climbs followed by side cresting to bowls, and in many cases straight to drops. To be honest I was more focused in driving than recording the details of the landscape as I am still driving under the influence of surviving mode.

Scarlett had a brand new suspension system installed and that was the test drive to evaluate the new set up. I was very happy to realize that it was an investment that was well worth it. the car's performance exited my expectations and I believe that I finally have a car that with the right driver can deliver an unforgettable driving experience.

I kept mental notes of my weak points ( as [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] mentioned) which to be fair is more than a hand full and I will have to start working on improving them one at a time.

I would like to thank all the support team and the organizer for taking the time and putting all the efforts (even in a day as hot as that one) to provide us with such beautiful drive.

Specially thank you to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for showing me how the jeeps should approach a climb ( this is a jeep thing when you follow the FJ's) After 2 failed tries and after seen the correct line that [mention]JockJKU[/mention] drafted I was able to complete the crest in a very simple and efficient way.


It was another great drive from Almost 4x4 and proud to say that I was there too.

Until next time take care and drive safe

[Raja]

Hello Everyone

as the title of the Drive itself says welcome to jungle. its really a jungle of sharp crest and small ditches while you climb up or down right.

this was my first intermediate drive and the important thing that i got to learn is to keep the right momentum and right approach while you enter and exit a crest because i realize that its not like a normal area where when you exit and you have to go down straight but some areas we have to tackle the bowls or struggle to go higher and cross the next crest. one of the area was very critical for me where there was a small ditch while climbing up which was enough to break the speed if you pass straight through it then struggle hard to do a crest and on the other side right through a bowl then go down. i had around 3 tries to tackle this area and finally i managed to do it.

this drive was no doubt worth driving to learn new skills as you go higher level. thank you all the advance drivers marshals and explorer for helping us. thanks to Daggerfall for organizing this drive for us.

see you all again in sand.

[JockJKU]

Afternoon All!

This was indeed a hot afternoon, starting off in Madam which has the potential to be a really great area!

I really like the "crest, bowl, crest", "crest, climb, crest" combinations that these dunes have on offer! These combinations totally make a big difference from Newbie to Inter level - at newbie level it is crest, drop, lots of time till the next one, at Inter it's a different ball game, they come thick and fast and reactions are paramount here in order to see the track and see if you need to floor it to climb to the next one without losing momentum, or if you can drop then go up, etc etc.

We hit the sand and immediately hit some issues on the first couple of climbs, i think the soft sand caught a few people out and tyre pressures were incorrect. It took us a while to get moving with any kind of flow.

Next obstacle was a climb on an arch up and over a cone, to a crest on the other side of the cone - a lack of distance and communication caused a couple of vehicles stuck on a nasty angle on a sidewall above the cone, with nowhere to go but down! Really not ideal in that size of deep cone.

We then started hitting the Mechanical issues - and as much as i hate to say it, it was a bad day for Jeepers!! First one started staling for no apparent reason, another over heated and has never done so before, one got the same ETC warning light that puts the Jeep into idle, as i had for months, and another one lost power on a climb without reason! 3 out of the 4 had to leave for the road at different points in the drive. A sad day for Jeeps.

I agree with Daggerfall that the difference in technique is clear to see, between those that drive with Almost, all the time, and those that "skip leg day" - this drive and this area made it very noticeable.

All in all, a very eventful but enjoyable afternoon in the desert!! Great track, great lead, great support, great area and some beautiful moments with some great combinations of crests!!

Till next time,

Jock

[nabil_k]

Hello everyone ,

After the briefing from [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for this area, sure i had imagine some figure of the dunes, but when we start the drive i never expect to see such high dunes with very sharp tops in both side , i did some 3rd try but in each try i was really enjoy the drive in the wall of high bowel dune after that i call [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] to show the track as the last half of the convoy began by [mention]Gabor[/mention] all we miss the track. The area was in some places (high, sharp, soft, technical ) all mixed together at the same time OSMILEY , the surprise/ pressurize factor is activated from the first dune and continue to the last moment.
Thanks to [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for organizing this amazing drive it was first time for me in this area.
Thanks to all marshals [mention]Yoghybear[/mention], [mention]Rashidjass[/mention], advance [mention]JockJKU[/mention] , [mention]Agalon[/mention], [mention]Barish[/mention] for supporting the drive.

see you all well next drive.

[Barish]

It was another hot day but always good to drive in the afternoon in this season..it has been quite long time that i had not been to an int drive as far as i remember..it helped us to remove the stain a bit..

One Jeep decided to have rest and myself and agalon together with yoghybear led him to exit; we decided to go back to catch the convoy however i noticed that i have performance loss in my Jeep and temp guage was climbing to last quarter...we stopped, checked every single piece under the hood but unfortunately seems that my Jeep was also tired and wanted to rest...I found a bed for my Jeep and allowed him to sleep a little..Anyways, my brakeline was damaged, pushing the tire to brake and thats why the engine was overheating. Proud to see that my engine is cleared from the court on the overheating case.

Thanks to agalon and daggerfall acompanying me to the nearest hotel for my Jeep to sleep and also thanks to yoghybear for the spare coolant..

Dont forget; if you change, change via improving. If not, dont change..!

Barish