Almost4x4

A Very good day everyone...i might be the last to arrive at the camp but at least im the first one to make the trip report ..

its really late now coming home from the camp and the drive...but my excitement from the drive is way to overwhelming that i cant sleep yet...so i decided to write a report instead....

it all started with me since the registration day..i was still at the meeting at work when the registration begins so i were not able to register on time..and as i expected the convoy and the waiting list is full, finally on wednesday i was able to register myself on the waiting list , and watever happen after that till the camp night...its a history that will never gonna be forgotten...

drive day: after having breakfast from the night camp, we have been lined up and i was 3rd in the convoy, the drive started smoothly for everyone except me since most of all my drives im always kinda tense at the beginning of the drive and having a husband next to me made me a bit stiff, so i decided to kick him out. Luckily shamsi took him in, otherwise it would have been a long walk home ...and i want him to be more comfy and entertained..

as the drive continues we all witness the wonders of liwa, the beautiful dunes with its hot but lovely weather, everyone including me has a couple of second try and some stocks for others, even so..i can tell that everyone is having fun, but at some point 2 cars has to leave us, one has technical issue and one is...well i dont know actually, i just hope they get home safely, moving on
we encounter different types of driving style and techniques that im sure everyone learned and appreciates,

this drive is very much appreciated all thanks to the responsible people who managed to accommodate us all @alshamsi_m hats off to you from the bottom of my heart for making it possible for me join the drive thank you thank you @Booy thank you very much for taking care of all of us...BTW your really look cute with BIG RED @presa thank you for all the support, effort and time, and for taking care of my husband and to the rescue and support team@Mabubaker @Petr @rapailo @Youssef.Abdelhady thank you very much for your effort and time looking after us and to all the participants @Viktoriia thank you for the cheering and comfort @James thank you for the food and for taking the ditch before us @Claude @dorudoru @CARLOSS @brett @AdamW @jayslens @jeepers76 @NahorJP @osman and @piotr

thank you guys for joining..hope to see u more in all the coming drives

Long awaited trip which was worth every single moments
Reaching the camp was not without fun to start with. Indeed when you do not know that the barriers blocking the roads your GPS is telling you to take open up automatically when you get close enough, you try to find another way...to cut it short we ended up taking some interesting detours...before discovering that the barriers would open automatically .
We finally arrived around 22H30 leaving us with plenty of time to cook, star gaze and chat

After a good night of sleep, we gathered for the breakfast, briefing by @alshamsi_m and convoy formation. Priority being given to the Liwa newbies and the women drivers : I am car number 4, between @Laarni and @dorudoru.

We start with some small dunes but I can already feel that the sand is not as usual and for the first time ever, feel like I actually need to deflate again during our second mini break. The initial 12 PSI which became 13/14 were making the car less easy to manœuvre. Back to 12 PSI and the FJ was back to its usual performance (aka ).

As mentioned by @Laarni , our convoy was quite early amputated by two cars. Hope both went back safe and that the issues will be fixed fast and easy.

Being at the front of the convoy, I had the pleasure to see @Booy coming in and out in front of me flying around in Bigred which windshield was customized to allow him to see through

We had our fair share of regular adventures with even some bumpers deciding to change shape or to separate from the car, but our Marshals and advanced support crew made sure we were always safe and rescued :) it was a wonderful drive in great scenery : Just love it.
I can only think of when I will be having the opportunity to go back!!!

Here is a link to a video Laurent (my copilot) did which is a nice summary of our trip.

https://www.relive.cc/view/vNOPrEGVP2q

Thank you to all @alshamsi_m @Booy , @presa , @Mabubaker @Petr @rapailo @Youssef.Abdelhady @osman @NahorJP @Viktoriia @Laarni @CARLOSS @brett @James @AdamW @dorudoru @piotr @jeepers76 @jayslens

And apologize if I missed someone!

Really? Me stuck for words… but what can I say, how to translate the Milky Way night camp and all-day drive into a trip report… not an easy task as the entire event, thanks to@alshamsi_m was a great success and a lot of fun especially as second lead.

We had a small convoy from Dubai, met @AdamW on the way driving through the farms who then had his first role as sweep, met @osman at the deflating point and then made our way to the camp… a little confusion around the direction but supported by the Wasp (AKA Brett) @brett made to the camp spot as the first settlers so really wondered if it was the spot so a fair amount of checking GPS coordinates to be sure. Dug the fire pit with @AdamW, stacked the wood, marked ourselves as 10 out of 10, lit the fire while @brett and Imee who brought the entire kitchen, board games, sausages, burgers, forgot the … forgot the …. nothing as it was all there so a real thanks to @brett and Imee for managing to get so much into a 2 door Wasp. @dorudoru & Emma in their new FJ…… made a full-on Veggie dinner, very interesting to watch and very well done by Emma with all of the comments around how to cook, no need, looked dish delish… @osman made and offered everyone a taste of Turkey with a traditional skewer, humus and bread.

Great camp fire chatter but it all started with @osman and @Mabubaker talking about selling the cloud (IT Cloud storage) and the local meaning of crazy….. @rapailo kept us all very much entertained with @Mabubaker …. How many fish do you want….? 10 dollars’ worth… sold … where are the fish… in the sea….

And @piotr 's minor surgical procedure with scalpel, lights and extraction tool for the splinter or mini-Swiss army knife. I stayed up well past my normal 9:30 bed time so felt proud but at the same time understood I would pay for it. A late arrival of the last few Almost family members that were worth waiting for as the chatter carried on with so much humor and laughter….

Magnificent drive day, lots of excited chatter when we stopped, great support from @Booy, @Youssef.Abdelhady , @Mabubaker , @presa and @rapailo and even though he was not there, thanks to @Rooies for the sand goggles, am sure I was not a pretty sight wearing them but they sure kept the sand out of my eyes. Even saying that, I am still rubbing sand out of my eyes and pouring it out of my ears.

I got stuck in the LC a couple of times but managed to get out other than the pull by @alshamsi_m , thank you. Without momentum, she just buries herself in the soft sand. There was a lot of comments about the soft sand, then @alshamsi_m mentioned OK, lets go to the soft sand….

I started out as sweep but was then asked to be second lead supported by @Viktoriia, and loved every second, what a thrill. You push but still have to try to keep the distance and the momentum going in the LC, thank you for that @alshamsi_m.

Great company from all involved, @alshamsi_m, @Tomvanhouten & @Laarni , @Claude , @Viktoriia , @NahorJP , @brett & Imee, @piotr, @Petr, @CARLOSS, @jeepers76, who had to depart a little early (standard Jeeps issues), @Mabubaker and @Booy, not to forget the champion @rapailo way at the back.

I understand most are sitting reminiscing and waiting for the next opportunity to be part of another great adventure with the Almost family, so until we meet again, stay safe, stay positively negative and do not leave the cloth in the air filter intake pipe when you blow out the filter… makes all sorts of dashboard lights come on. You have been warned. A few tools from the back of the LC, a twist or two with some piping removed by me and the object was extracted successfully.

Until the next time.

We headed off from Dubai around 330pm Thursday, meeting up with @James at the Jebel Ali petrol station. We decided to turn on our radios so we could communicate along the way, for unknown reasons in the area the radios would not work ?
So off we went at a leisurely pace. At the border I showed the officer my EID and Alhosn App – he asked how your day going I said its fine with that he waved us on. My wife (Imee) was very disappointed she had her EID and App open to show the officer and he did not even glance her way ! she had been so excited to show off her “E” status in the App.

We trundled along and arrived at the last fuel stop around 5pm, I filled up the 2 additional jerry cans meaning I was now carrying an additional 40ltr of fuel, James had to make a business teams call so we waited here about 15 to 20min. in the meantime @AdamW turned up so we headed of as a convoy of 3 (radios now working). The long straight section of highway to the entrance was brand new and deserted. Then out of nowhere a white Jeep flew past us like a jet fighter !

Arriving at the entrance waypoint the gate opened as we approached, I knew this would happen automatically
As we proceeded down the dirt road kicking up clouds of dust, we were surprised to see many many cars parked on the side of the road and then 200m into the sand groups of people sitting around campfires. Apparently, there to star gaze.

Deflate waypoint reached and there was the low flying jet (white Jeep) with @osama now we were a convoy of 4 heading into the darkness with James leading the way. I was tracking our progress in a direct line to the 2nd waypoint, James was following google – I was saying go to your 9 o’clock, now go to your 11 o’clock etc until we hit the 2nd waypoint. James then decided as I was barking directions maybe better if I lead, my first attempt at leading in in the Dark !! the area was flat and firm so fortunately no worries of getting stuck. I hit the camp spot waypoint dead on and came to a stop, luckily for me there was a rather steep drop 100m from the waypoint marker that would have been a surprise had I driven further. Imee is asking are you sure this is the spot ? as the place was deserted and we had been expecting @jeepers76 to be there as he had mentioned he was planning to leave Dubai at noon. The 4 of us conferred and agreed it was the correct co-ordinance.

James and Osman set about making the campfire, I got the grill started and Imee pitched our Tent. Soon after @jeepers76 and @NahorJP arrived and also started to set up camp. As newbies we did not know that typically everyone sits around the fire and cooks’ chats etc then at bedtime they drive off in different directions and set up their tents in the distance only to reconverge around the campfire in the morning. So our little village was nicknamed Asia !

As the evening progressed more and more people arrived the was lots of chatter and food passed around for sharing. Was great to hear many stories of passed drives etc.

Oh it was the Milky Way drive ? apparently, we went to bed too early to see the actual magnificence of the Milky Way, but it was 12:30 already and I knew we had a long day ahead of us. Being so close to the campfire we could hear the chatter in the background it was like falling asleep with the TV on @Mabubaker your son is quite a chatter box

Rising early at 6am we quickly set about making our morning tea and coffee and breaking camp as I needed to carefully repack the back of the Wasp exactly the same way I had done when loading in Dubai – strapping everything down.

Eventually everyone turned up around the now extinguished campfire, coffee, Arabic coffee, karak tea, pastries, croissants passed around, the customary roll call, convoy positions assigned and a short briefing from @alshamsi_m .

The drive was amazing, the scenery, the dunes, the colour of the sand. Unfortunately early into the drive @jeepers76 broke something and had to limp out of the dunes to head home. Later after a particularly bumpy patch @Yousef passenger started to throw up so he had to head out to the road. We had started off the morning with 20 vehicles now we were down to 18.

There were a number of 2nd and 3rd tries and stucks that required a pull to get out. I managed to get well stuck in the bottom of a drop. Waiting patiently after trying to self-recover I was successfully pulled out in no time and back on my way. By now I was following @Mabubaker it was really beneficial for me to follow him – observing his line, speed, angle of attack and general driving style, watch and learn ! the guidance from the advanced and intermediate drivers is priceless to a Newbie like me.

At the beginning of the drive I was a little apprehensive, with a dose of self-doubt thrown in for good measure, however the J-Wasp had a new set of rubber fitted (I won't name the brand) the handling was certainly different in the new shoes, and once I got the feel of them, I was impressed with the handling. A smoother ride on the bitumen was an added bonus. Due to the constant start stop for 2nd tries and pulls it was announced that we would not stop for lunch, so it was a matter of grabbing a bite to eat while driving or during the many times we had to hold the convoy.

Another highlight of the day was watching @Booy zipping around in the “Boy Toy” Big Red once he sorted out the restricted vision problem – dark tint strip scraped off the upper portion of the windscreen.

Towards the end of the drive we encountered one of my favourite activities (so far) a “Bowl” I was about the 6th car to enter and I heard over the radio “make a new track” I happily entered the bowl at a good speed with plenty of momentum climbing maybe 2m above the track already made. What I eventually realized was @alshamsi_m was actually shouting “DON’T make a new track !” opps! I did not hear the Don’t part. Apologies for not following instructions. During one of the recovery operations many of us headed to lower ground (out of the sandstorm) to refuel. I added one 10L jerry can. Then by the time we reached the main road I was again running on the smell of an oily rag.

Towards the end of the drive we parked up and watched the last of the convoy descend down through a gully in the dune to a plateau then to the final steep long drop. Then we sat, chatted had coffee and passed around “milky way” chocolates while watching the intermediates “play” freestyle, something for us Newbies to aim towards being able to do as we progress.

A few more dunes and drops as the sun was setting then a fast paced drive on the flat track out to the main road.

Inflate, I also added another 10L jerry can, said our goodbyes and the long journey home lay ahead of us. I got about 15km down the road and realised one tire had dropped to 10psi ! I pulled over and set up the compressor, @NahorJP stopped to help out, thanks that was greatly appreciated. We realised the valve had failed so a quick replacement (an essential spare to carry) arrived at the petrol station and filled up the once again almost empty little J-wasp.

Finally off the minor road and onto E11 below Abu Dhabi in that section the posted limit is 160 so I dialled up 140 on the cruise control and the km flew by. Finally reaching home at 10pm, 13hrs after starting the drive.

My take aways from this drive
- A good night’s sleep is worth more than seeing the Milky Way.
- I say this after every drive, but Observe, listen, and learn !
- Your ego will only get in the way of your development as a driver.
- Check you heard the radio instructions correctly the difference between “Don’t make a new track” and “Make a new track” is significant !

Last but by no means least a huge thank you to our mentors @alshamsi_m and the marshals, rescue and support crews for your patience and perseverance in sometimes very trying situations.

And all who took part in a fantastic day in the dunes, sorry if i am missing anyone !.
@alshamsi_m
@Booy
@presa
@Mabubaker
@rapailo
@AdamW
@osman
@jeepers76
@James
@piotr
@Viktoriia
@dorudoru
@Youssef.Abdelhady
@Claude
@Laarni
@jayslens
@CARLOSS



Until next time

Brett
J-Wasp

Hi Almosters, what a great drive on western region!

I live about 1h from the meeting point, so I decided to sleep at my bed and reach the meeting point early morning.

The day started at 5am with my daughter waking me up! Was a good move since I had plenty time to prepare some coffee and drive slowly to meeting point, which I reach by 7h30, where most of the drivers were already awake and having breakfast.

At the briefing around 5-6 declared that was their first time in the area, so they were favored by being in the front of the convoy, while the others were at the back.

We had four experienced support team with @Mabubaker , @Petr , @rapailo and @Youssef.Abdelhady, while myself and @Booy were floating.

The drive was at a great track, starting from Razeen and finishing in the direction of Hameen, covering around 140km.

Convoy did well, with a few stuck and 2nd tries, but was noticeable that the drivers were less careful with radio and distance at the afternoon, maybe by tiredness or by being distracted on the beautiful dunes in the region.

As many noticed @alshamsi_m did a great job choosing a track capable of challenging the drivers, without putting too much pressure on them, since there were a very large area to be covered within a single day.

Hello Everybody!

Liwa is special and always different so you never know what is going to happen. And this is part of its magic.

The week started with a move in the horizon exactly on Thursday the 11th…what a coincidence, isn’t it? I did not want to go because of that and the post-move syndrome by my lovely wife (@Flor pushed me to join and I finally did it!

Once the move finished, I took my car and drove till the camping spot. I was not expecting to join a charity drive , but it seems it was (at least for me) as I will be supporting the AD traffic authorities in the near future (I did not remember how picky AD radars are ). A couple of things in between, the first one driving inside the farms after the last petrol station (not sure at that time whether the GPS was working well ) and the way between the deflating point and the camp sport was a bit of a challenge as it was my first time on my own in the desert and at night. But everything went well.

Very nice company at the camping site having plenty of fun with @rapailo stories.

After a nice but short sleep time & serious breakfast I was ready to go. At that time the weather was fantastic but after temperature reached over 30C we jumped into a windy scenario with sand flying everywhere. No lunch time break

The drive itself was fantastic as expected. Beautiful red color everywhere, nice size dunes and good flow with some normal interruptions. I was at the back of the convoy with the rest of the oldbies and noticed the difference between driving on flesh tracks or spoiled ones

Coming from a disaster previous weekend my performance was not super but acceptable, I would say, so quite happy about that. A couple of second tries for being too much close to the car in front of me (my bad) and also a couple of recoveries. The last one very stupid from my end as it was at the end of the drive and lost of the focus and got stuck.

Lessons learned:

- Always try to join Liwa trips even though you may be (in theory) overqualified for that (higher number of drives). Liwa is always challenging.
- Keep enough distance with the car in front of view as you will get in trouble sooner or later
- Keep focus all the time even it is hard. Last minute mistakes are the worst ones.
- Do not bring couscous salads inside the 'cool box' unless you appreciate having couscous spread out in all your food and beverages.

Special thanks to @alshamsi_m for making this outstanding drive, to our marshals @presa and @Booy for their wise advices, and the supporting team for keeping us safe (@Mabubaker , @Petr , @rapailo and @Youssef.Abdelhady

And thanks also to the rest of off-road family for being so kind with me @AdamW , @osman , @jeepers76 , @James , @piotr , @Viktoriia , @dorudoru , @Claude , @Laarni , @Tomvanhouten , @jayslens , @Umer and @brett (Sorry if I have forgotten somebody).

See you in sand soon

Carlos

Hello,

My intention was to reach the camp site a good time before the sunset to enjoy the nice views and the tranquillity. But after more than 24 hours passed, I did not have the PCR result and decided to do DPI at the border - Al Faya Road - and try my chance. Having a 20-30 minutes distraction, I was cleared to go. By the time I reach the gate it was almost dark. Half way into the deflation, @James , @brett and @AdamW arrived and then we hit to the camping spot together and setup the "infrastructure".

We cooked, chat and eat while the rest of the team kept coming. @Booy arrived a bit late and I offered him my cold and chewy meat with my best sales skills but for some reason he did not take, I wonder why...

I brought my camera to take some night shots but but I was lazy while around the camp fire, and more importantly we could not sight the milky way as we expected to see (I think it would have become visible towards the morning). I said goodnight after 1:30 and pitched my tent, then tried to take few experimental shots of the night sky any way. By the time I went to bed was after 3 but I still could not sleep and received my PCR result SMS at 3:30! Glad that I did not wait and did the DPI.

After having a late night sleep, I opened my eyes at 7:40 with panic as I thought I was late. I quickly packed the sleeping stuff and drove to the camping location, seeing everyone are still having the breakfast, I relaxed a bit, boiled some water for tea and ate the sandwich, packed-up the car and be ready on time. Needed to fix the rattling BBQ on the first stop of the convoy during a stuck.

This was the drive that we saw @alshamsi_m's three cars at the same time on the same drive. The drive had technical areas, steep descents, soft sands, bowls, etc. I think everybody did really well, no one faced a real issue or risk. The strong wind made the assisted recoveries and fixing pop-outs challenging. @alshamsi_m mentioned in the briefing that this drive was an endurance drive and the flying sand in the air was one of the component of that endurance test. But for me the biggest challenge is driving back home. I think @dorudoru & Emma made a really good decision to camp one more night and drive fresh on the next day.

Here is the brief from the GPS:
Started 8:40AM
Finished 6:40PM
Moving Time 5 Hours
Distance 132.5Km
Average Speed 26.8Km/Hr
Max Speed 94.2Km/Hr

I also added some pictures to below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I like to thank to the founder and the marshals for the great lead and eagle eyes; advanced and intermediate team for the great support. Every single drive bonds us more as one great club.

osman wrote: Mon Mar 15, 2021 5:38 pm
I also added some pictures to below:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

Nice photos Osman!

Hello Everyone

This drive was long-awaited since it is LIWA & the end of the winter season. Also, the positive feedback about our drives and how we manage them gave a very high demand on this event.
I had a convoy of 21 cars which was quite a big challenge but with our support team and the constraint we made on the drivers , made it manageable. The design for the drive was 164 km or leaving before sunset whichever comes first. We did 138 km which was nice

I had a very smooth drive in the front but the rescue team was the real hero who made this drive successful so thank you all.

Looking forward to seeing you soon
Shamsi