Almost4x4

Hello everyone!

Perhaps I'll start the trip report with a description of a tough battle, I'm not afraid of this word, for a place in the convoy. Many members had to cancel themselves in favor of new members, myself included. That is to say, the battle between Newbeis and Oldbeis But as always, friendship won thanks to our marshals and @alshamsi_m . Everyone was included, despite the fact that @Tom , if I'm not mistaken, registered three times.

The event started from Dark Camp in Al Qudra area on Thursday at 8:30pm with a friendly camping, campfire, barbecue, and a short bonus course on using the Garmin Montana navigation. And as the master @alshamsi_m went deeper, you should have seen my and @Flor eyes they became larger and larger. @CARLOSS looked much more confident. In any case, nobody said it would be easy.

Having previously looked at the weather forecast, which foreshadowed a thick fog starting at 11.30pm, we left the campsite at 11pm. The morning was also very foggy, and since this time it was not the convoy who arrived at the campsite, but the campsite should have been on time at the meeting point. So there was not even time for morning coffee . The thick fog allowed to delay the start of the drive, but not for long. The insidious plan of @Agalon was to practice the necessary distance between the cars of 20 meters, which is very important in conditions of dense fog, otherwise you will simply get lost. As is implied, all members were subdivided into Newbeis and Oldbeis convoys. I belonged to the second team, headed by @alshamsi_m . And here's another surprise for us, our convoy was not accompanied by any support and rescue team. That was another new lesson- Team work. @alshamsi_m was leading, second lead was @CARLOSS , seems, he wanted to make a video, and immediately fell into the place of the second lead. Then @Flor , then me, followed by @Tom , @Laarni , @Adrian , @brett , @NahorJP ,@dorudoru @piotr and @James as a sweeper. I have to admit that @James is incredibly responsible and does a great job in this role.

The track was quite intense and contained several tricky climbs, on which one we could practice repeatedly. Of course, it didn't go without stacks, second tries and popouts.

The last part of the drive gave us the chance to enjoy safari style at speed. The convoy returned safe and sound. I hope it didn't seem to me, but in my opinion Nova Stella allowed us, the participants, to somehow become much closer and more united, so the idea of ​@alshamsi_m about that Team - work was crowned with success.

Thank you so much for a great time, new experience and positive emotions.

Looking forward for the next time

Viktoriia

Hello everybody!

Last week started a bit disappointing as there were no scheduled drives for newbies +10 so I was seeing myself “stuck” at home taking care of my kids while my wife was potentially driving. I did not want to take or at least trying to take any -5 drives’ seats as they were the ones supposed to take them however, everything changed when I realized that a new oldbies groups was created

I should recognize that I was frustrated and even thought: “If I am not finally accepted, I will hide myself close to the meeting point and as soon as I see the convoy moving I will jump on it and try not to be discovered”

Finally, the “marshal force was with me” and I was accepted in the last minute.

We camped with the family the night before and received a master class from Shami about how to deal with Garmin Montana GPS…the most complicated device I have ever seen . I always believe that programming a VHS video tape for recording in the 80’s at one specific time was , but I was completely mistaken! Thanks @alshamsi_m for that.

I woke up earlier than expected with some water drops hitting in my forehead…it was raining inside the tent but only over my head! The rest was dry…not a good signal.

Before 8am I saw Shamsi approaching our tend saying hello and doing some strange things (TOP SECRET stuff)… maybe a sort of ceremony before the drive never seen by a newbie. In fact, I was temped to make a video but I was afraid of the consequences …by the way, again mistaken as I was named as second lead because of that…I can’t imagine what would it be happen if video taken and shared

As @Viktoriia said, no support on our drive apart from ourselves working as a Team. Thanks to @Tom , @Adrian , @piotr and amazing @James for taking care of us.

The drive was in a few words MAGNIFICENT! Plenty of fun, adrenaline, Team spirit, technical areas, safari style…etc. By far the most exciting drive since Liwa so thanks again @alshamsi_m for organizing and leading us on that.

Finally, special thanks to my two little passengers cheering me all the time and my lovely wife @Flor for organizing the camping and support during the drive.

Lessons learned:
- Be quiet when not admitted at the first time
- Do not fight gravity…as usual, easy to say but hard to implement
- Be careful with Jimny’s…looks little but stronger than rocks…I saw @Viktoriia making zero mistakes…amazing driver you are @Viktoriia

See you in sand soon
Carlos

Hello everyone,

as already described above, the registration process, was kind of chaos-like.
We took our chances, having too much drives to register and this lead to led me to registering three times indeed. First, I wanted to make place for people who actually had the right to register and instead of being in a convoy, just wait on the waiting list. Then the warning came, that we would have been removed later in the evening, so ok remove again. After this, the marshall's decided to give it a go, with shuffling around the people as more help came to the rescue, ok, register again....
In the end, a slight leakage on my front differential, made me decide not to take the risk, so removed myself again . This issue got fixed very quickly.

It all felt like a drama...

Anyway the next day was amazing!
Being able to help others finally is a great feeling.

I think the drive, was a great exercise for everyone and I hope more are to come in these uncertain times.

Thank you @alshamsi_m and @Agalon for your flexibility.

Thank you drivers for accepting us

Hopefully see you soon

Tom

Good Morning Almosters,

What a great day we had Friday !!
but let me start by acknowledging the support and dedication of Al Shamsi and the Marshals who selflessly gave their time to satisfy the hunger of the newbies and as it turns out the newly named Oldies. The dedication of these people makes it possible for us to take part and hone our skills under their watchful eye keeping us as safe as is possible in the desert.

For those who attended the camp - hats off to you, it must have been quite a cold damp night. Although the bonus was apparently the Garmin GPS lesson from Al Shamsi (i need that as it is a complicated item of essential equipment to understand).

I left home in JLT at 7am thinking plenty of time to reach the meeting point - the Fog was SO thick with visibility reduced to about 50m in places. almost missed the Petrol station as it was not visible from the highway, thanks to Waze we found it. i gassed up with 2 or 3 Marshals but there was still about 25km to reach the turn off point.

At the Turn off there were a large number of Almosters (and others) deflating their tyres, so i joined in, only to be advised by the marshals that deflating wasn't necessary until reaching the meeting point. but as i had already done 2 tyres i decided to continue deflation.

Finally making it to the meeting point just before 830 ! but due to the fog the briefing, roll call etc was slightly delayed.

The oldbies were immediately separated from the main group of Newbies and instructed to gather up over to the left. to which we all quickly complied.

Once Al Shamsi finished with the Newbie Briefing he joined the Oldbies - informing us there would be no marshals or advanced drivers accompanying us. we would have to work as a team and learn some new skills if pop outs or recovery was required.

Seems Yellow was the preferred colour choice for our group with 2 little yellow jeeps and even a yellow FJ ! plus we had "Big Red" the Jimmy (it can truely go anywhere) well done @Victoria.

Off we went into the mist ! first stop 200m in @Laarni needed some help with a seatbelt clip. off we went again ! Al Shamsi was twisting through the dunes at a brisk pace.

First obstacle a medium sized dune with a high arch and left turn at the end, many of us had 2 or even 3 attempts to complete that little test. Al Shamsi gave us all a quick lesson on what we were doing wrong.

Next obstacle was actually rather similar to the first, this one had a dip at the end then another slight hump to negotiate in order to clear the obstacle, again a number of 2nd attempts by almost everyone, there was a lot of excitement watching from the safe location of the few drivers behind me. One jeep (no names) managed a fantastic 2nd attempt with plenty of pace, good line, and the a slight miscalculation on the speed at the top. he flew over the hump landing on the other side of the small hump. i watched it again on video and admittedly he didn't really launch that high but it was impressive.

The rest of the drive was brisk and reasonable uneventful, except our master of popouts - but these breaks allowed us the opportunity to catch our breath, learn some recovery and tyre skills and probably more importantly time with the group to exchange stories and really start to bond. was it the drive was it the weather or was it simply the fact we have all now been on a number of drives together and are feeling more comfortable in the company of the group. whatever it was it made for a great atmosphere.

The Hill Climb was a highlight - words of encouragement over the radio as each driver lined up - "floor it, keep going floor it" most of us managed that on first attempt.

The final set of dunes required a lot of calm controlled driving. at one point I lost the car in front of me after waiting for him to "clear" up i went over the crest - saw the rest of the convoy waiting in the distance, saw a "wet set" of tracks and presumed that was the line to the group. unbeknown to me at the time the set of dry tracks on the straight line down was the actual track. so off i went along the sweeping track at a reasonable pace half way across the radio goes hot with Al Shamsi shouting - Brett wrong track, wrong track ! it was too late to change my line by then but i managed to join the group without incident. where we gathered together again to chat, share coffee, cookies, non french croissants, and even some NZ Apples. one hapless Jeep driver had become stuck (possibly due to the still pumping adrenaline from the earlier un scheduled flight he took). Thanks Tom for unsticking him. so he was good to go to complete the rest of the obstacle - wait no he had managed to get stuck on a precarious angle in the location he had been recovered to. So Tom went back again and completed a second recovery. Said Jeep then joined the rest of the group and James, David and Carlos. a few minutes more "bonding" then off we headed (it was getting close to 12noon

The last section was basically flat and fast paced without further incident. we reached the exit point, reinflated, shared stories before going on our separate ways.

What a Day !! thanks again to Al Shamsi and the Marshals, Advanced and intermediate drivers for giving up their time and energy to make this drive happen.

Main highlights for me -
Popouts fixed like an experienced F1 pit crew
Jeeps (Shouldn't) but can fly for short distances
The Hill Climb was awesome fun
The Comeradiery and bonding

hopefully the Covid restrictions will soon be eased and we can look forward to more fun in the Dunes
until next Time
Brett
J Wasp

Nova Stellas

What a great start to the day, lost in the desert in fog, lucky that I found the camp site, had a quick coffee and we all made our way to the meeting point for the safety briefing following @alshamsi_m in the convoy.



We must also thank the organizer of the trip, thank you @Agalon .... and the creator of the Oldbies Group, not sure where this came from but understood when we met, there was a fair bit of grey hair in the group, this puts us into a bracket of our own, an understanding of life and waiting for some adrenaline and excitement.

A real pleasure to see all the smiling eyes as mouths were covered, but as you know eyes never lie. Great turnout for the Almost family, a big push for compliance with the social distancing and wearing of the masks so much appreciated with the implementation of the respected rules. Great to see we have a fashionista amongst us with @Viktoriia matching tangerine trousers to her camp chair.

Our convoy briefing was all about responsibility @alshamsi_m, a very precise and to the point briefing, much appreciated….. we are here and we are as one, no Advanced or Marshall support, you could see the excitement but yet panic at the same time, we will look after ourselves… too many smiles to imagine.

Followed by a real great choice of the chosen path so much appreciated and thank you to @alshamsi_m, second lead @CARLOSS then…. supported by @Tomvanhouten in the middle and even more fun with the first sort of, not so but slightly challenging dune….

After a brief bit of technical dunes, @alshamsi_m found a nice little safe but challenging dune… down you go to follow gravity if you do not make it along around and over…. not sure who did not make it the first time and was to ask, should I just go straight over now… @alshamsi_m with the most determined voice ever… no follow the track, you need to learn… second attempt and it was over the dune…. Not to say in the LC, it took me three attempts and a real hump of the bump to get the memento going, but such fun.



It was a brilliant day as the fog cleared and we went closer to the sky, higher and wider with the dunes, a few interesting moments, great support from @Tomvanhouten and @piotr, really don’t like to mention the stuck guys, but you know who you were, Jeep… and popout123…. Both of you really showed your true colors, stayed focused and managed the day in your stride, makes a real understanding of personalities, positive attributes and realization of challenges on the way. Also, great to see the transformation into Big Red @Viktoriia.

We had a fantastic break with shared compliant healthy snacks and then made our way down and to the road, a few really great kilometers of charged minds to the final meeting point.

Time to inflate your tires, have a minute for a farewell for this week and a little advise to be offered and or taken or not …..

This was an interesting one, I had noticed a couple of vehicles lacking power when it really should have been there, so I asked, how many drives have you had, various very proud numbers, which is great… and then asked have you ever cleaned your air filter? Air filter cleaned?... what do you mean.. I asked that all pictures of what was found in there to be shared!

Another great experience with all, a real pleasure to share and be part of the Almost family….

Stay safe, stay focused and have fun in the week ahead!

The track:



The Dark Camp

Thank you to@alshamsi_m for making the arrangements….. arrived late at the camp, followed the GPS waypoints in the message so was great. Was wonderful to be outside under the stars with good company, chef @Laarni on hand with a dish delish salad and@Tomvanhouten for the homemade Dutch-Indonesian sauce. Great conversation with a sit around the fire later before bed.

A great experience and one to be revisited time and time again. Thank you to all at the camp.

Hello Almosters


To start of, thank you to @Agalon and all the other marshals and support crew who came together to organize this drive. Without them we would not be able to have such an amazing offroad drive. I sincerely apologize for not being able to mention everyone by name since I am still in the process of learning everyone's name, for now I will make do by mentioning your car .

Speaking of the drive, I was part of @Agalon 's convoy. We were the newbies with less then 5 drives so a lot to learn and a lot of mistakes to make. At the initial phase of the drive we encountered a long and fairly steep hill. some drivers cleared it in the first attempt and some took multiple tries. Took me 2nd attempt to clear it (the key was momentum and bravery).
Unfortunately a screw in my flag mount came lose and my mount failed. This caused my flag to fall off. Because of this I was without a flag from then onwards (oops!). I immediately reported the issue on the radio and @Rashidjass asked me to move to the end of the convoy for safety with one of the crew members in red wrangler (sorry for not knowing your name yet) following me.

The drive had its fair bits of technical dunes, the word technical is subjective here, for the experienced drivers I am assuming it was a piece of cake. I bogged 4 times throughout the drive, self recovered twice (using low range and diff lock) and had to be pulled out the other 2 times. In all 4 scenarios I had the marshals and support crew guiding me step by step.

The second time I got stuck, I was at the crest of a hill with the car resting on its belly. Pulling me out from there was tricky since behind this hill was another hill, so we had only a few meters to work with. @Rashidjass being the amazing marshal that he is, doubled the rope to shorten its length and the gentleman in the red wrangler pulled me out.
Meanwhile this was happening @Agalon and the rest of the convoy was waiting for me to catch up. Thank you everyone and apologies for keeping you waiting.

As a result of the drive my rear bumper popped out from the right side and the front bumper took some hits. Realized the importance of underbody protection and need to either trim my bumpers or get offroad bumpers. This is next on my list now and will be done before the next drive.

Finally I would like to specially thank @Rashidjass for going out of his way and guiding me throughout the drive whenever I struggled. Also the support crew for pulling me out when I was stuck, the gentlemen in red wrangler, grey wrangler and white FJ, Thank you for all the help.

Looking forward for the next drive.

Zain
White 120 Prado

All,
Seems Oldbies-Newbies are fast to post their reports It’s Sunday, and I am already post #6 :P

Initially I actually had little hope to make it to this drive, knowing that it’s predominantly meant for the newly upgraded Newbies to get some sand KMs under their belt. But hey, worth trying anyways, I registered on the waiting list and boom-surprise! I saw a separate list branching out (thank you @alshamsi_m !!) – “Oldbies”. I felt quite old at that time indeed, with all my 8 drives

I was hoping to make it to the Dark Camp, but some family duties prevented me from doing so – so I only arrived in the morning, driving through some thick fog. Inevitably, the start of the drive was delayed, but that gave the chance to catch up with some of the campers – great time!

Second surprise came at the convoy sorting – all Oldbies to the right said @alshamsi_m – OK, fine, but where is the support? There will be no support today – Newbies will support themselves and we will all work as one team to get through this! Oh, that will be fun I thought :) So @CARLOSS was nominated as second lead, @Tomvanhouten and @Adrian as support middle of the convoy, and (third surprise) – Piotr you will sweep together with @James. Nice one @alshamsi_m, with my stock Prado, digging through the ditches made by Jeeps, at the end of the convoy… That definitely will be fun, losing my bumper or two.

And fun it was, actually (and no parts were lost!) – one can learn so much at the end of the convoy! It is indeed more difficult due to the bumpy track, but also it’s possible to see how everyone else is doing. Good learning, and a chance to adjust your driving style!

The drive itself was very enjoyable, credits to @alshamsi_m for choosing nice, but in the same challenging track. As always it started with a big boom! – innocent traverse-and-turn on a small-ish dune that almost everybody had to take on 2nd (or 3rd or 4th) try. Usual lesson from @alshamsi_m followed We then continued on through some technical areas, fixed a poput (in less than 2 seconds I would say) , done a nice climb (with some of the convoy members not believing the can actually make it), done a few recoveries and at the end quick safari-style drive towards AlQudra Road. Some of us even managed to squeeze in a short flight ;)

Overall we covered 34km and drove for 3h.

Lessons learned:
- There are always new lessons to learn
- Non-FJs and non-Jeeps can still do pretty good (at least on Newbie level)
- Tail of the convoy is fun!
- Keep your distance (yes, I know @James )
- Keep momentum and be aggressive (but not too much!)

Dark Camp & Nova Stellas (Oldbies Convoy) - Organizer @Agalon & @alshamsi_m

Nothing much i can mention how we managed to get our seats back after having the successful registration under Dark Camp day 2 which was exclusively removed for not confusing the camping registration with next day drive. but truly thankful to the organizer and our savior @alshamsi_m who decided to create another convoy for us (ie. 5+ newbie drives)

I arrived bit late at the camping site due to uncertain issue with my car tires which i got it fixed at 9pm on camping night. Headed straight to the meeting point and there was none at the meeting point (offcourse i was late) and thats when your inner instinct plays the role to find the way. Fun begin when google maps don't accept the off-road route coordinates (& it says you have reached to your desired destination without even moving a inch!) . Thanks for the location points given by @alshamsi_m on Trip forum for late comers like me, got the puzzle solved with the help of 'Gaia GPS' app. Finding my way from thick fog i somehow reached at the camp site by following the shinning rims and it happened to be white Jimny rims (@sparrow ) but by then everyone was off to bed. Said good night to the campers who was there and by following the tracks i managed to find flat surface to take halt. later in the morning i realized that i ended up sleeping on top of the dune.

Next day we gathered at around 8am at the meeting point with refreshing smile on everyone's face and sharing coffee with Almosters. New question raised in @alshamsi_m's mind 'are we being fooled these many years by drinking dish washing liquid instead of real COFFEE ??'

Now here is the twist - One who is hungry and wants to grab seat in every drive listed on the forum, @alshamsi_m has better plans for them. Yes! a convoy without intermediates and supporting crew. How does it sound FUN or OLDBIES?? lets begin.. with less pressure in tires and more on you!

First Technical dune to cross had free lecture coming from @alshamsi_m post to the dune crossing. Off we went for our next mission to climb straight hill with right amount of pace and zero error on that unforgiving hill. Radio went silent after 'Beg Red' (@Viktoriia & @Flor has set perfect example for us, 'offcourse its the driver and not the car') climbed the dune so calmly and followed by fJ's, paJero, Jeep's, Prado & Land Cruiser. Special request came in to do the climb one more time, but due to time constrain we had to move to our next challenge which @alshamsi_m had planned for us. This time the dune had to be crossed with side cresting with right amount of power to reach on top and cross another accompanying hump with right judgement on momentum. Most of us (including me) had to take 1 or more tries to cross one hump and immediately getting stuck on accompanying hump. My turn and i just floored it till i reach on top of the dune and i landed with the adrenaline rush ON which completely befuddled me for a moment (Got to know from others that my jeep was flying without flying gears ON).

While crossing the dunes, got a msg on radio to hold the convoy due to reattempt and i stopped on the edge of the dune soon i realized that i am stuck. called for help and @Tomvanhouten , @piotr & @James rushed to drag me out of the sand. Recovery went well, But by the time i change the gears from 4L to 4H i found myself stuck again in weird way. Poor @James stood on the edge of the jeep to transfer the CG till i was recovered again by @Tomvanhouten with the help of @piotr.

Time for technical break with some lovely refreshments shared by everyone, after small discussion we moved ahead for the safari style driving and to the end of the drive.

Amazing drive and i can still feel the Adrenaline Rush!! thanks to @alshamsi_m , @CARLOSS , @Flor , @Viktoriia , @AdrianUAE @Laarni @Tomvanhouten @brett @dorudoru @piotr @James @Abu hasnain for driving safe and working as a team. Ofcourse the credit goes to the Organizer @Agalon .

These newbie drives right after the CM drives are designed to see what gained in the CM. It is one of the important milestones in your Almost 4x4 journey. You get used to the club style, support teams, your fellow drivers and what and how your can do, and the club gets to know you as well.

The more mistakes happen in these drives, the more you will learn. The more you will learn, the more you will enjoy. Stucks are good, second tries are fine..nothing to worry.

We had a very nice and smooth track challenging also time by time for our convoy. All types of challenges are experienced. Thanks to @Scorpio

Dont forget: "Change is meaningful if you improve."

Barish

Hello everyone

I would like to thank @Agalon and the rest of the marshals who made this event a successful one .

We have a rule among the marshals that ONE marshal is not allowed to take newbies convoy without a support but can take an intermediate convoy without support if there is another convoy of the club in the same area. Just in case help needed !!!

When marshals plan a drive or a convoy it is like playing chess , you have to check your capabilities and challenges and plan the drive accordingly.

By having 4 marshals + 7 supporting members I had no doubt that I can yell for help anytime I want , So I thought of shocking the Oldbies by saying " We don't have support, We are by our own ". The look at the faces was priceless . BTW I had a plan to make whoever is more than 5 drives to take responsibility and of course they have my help " Team work " .

You have to understand that there are NO BAD DAYS in the desert " a bad day in the desert is better than a good day at work " . But sometimes the marshals get lucky, I think that I had a lucky day because I found different obstacles that could benefit the members on this level and I through them on the Oldbies .

The weather was nice so we had really enjoyable day. After the drive everyone kept chatting and it felt that no one wants to go home

Thanks all for the team spirit which gave us another memorable day.

Till next time stay safe and keep the sand flying.

Shamsi