Al Khatim - Far away from Home
Posted: Sat Jul 17, 2021 12:49 pm
Dear Almosters
Thank you to @alshamsi_m and @giorgio for setting up this drive.
The drive area was true to the title “far from home” in the Al Ain – Abu Dhabi Sweihan area. With the current COVID situation a valid PCR/DPI test and vaccination is required to cross the border – so my co-pilot and I with Negative test results and full vaccination in hand, headed off to the meeting point. We crossed the border and eventually arrived at the meeting point, a little later than the others who were already assembled. We deflated and had the usual chit chat before the briefing.
As was promised by @alshamsi_m the weather was nasty ! Hot wind with sand flying in every direction !. The briefing was simple – we would drive 75km but in various terrain types within approx 3.5 Drive hrs. Sounds simple enough.
Off we headed with @alshamsi_m leading @Tomvanhouten in 2nd lead and every one else behind @James in his favorite position sweeping up the rear of the convoy. Well it wasn’t long before the radio call came “pop out” at the back, that was fixed then again “pop out” then again “pop out” we had travelled less than 6km and had 3 pop outs needless to say the time was quickly being eaten up with fixing pop outs 1.5hrs into the drive and only 6km covered.
The terrain was different to what a lot of us have encountered before – it looked easy enough ! But it was anything but easy. The sand was super soft and with out the right momentum – Too slow you were stuck all 4 wheels spinning and sinking into the sand even on level terrain, add an incline to that and bingo lots and lots of 2nd tries ! The time was ticking by and still we had not covered more than 20km !
At this point I should give a shout out to our ever present guardians – Thank you to @giorgio , @Rashidjass , @optimus @Scorpio – your patience, guidance and at time tolerance with the convoy is amazing we (well at least I) greatly appreciate everything you do for us.
So finally we are making some decent progress we reach the flat area, as we approached a farm we were greeted by a smiling and waving local farmer on a quad bike – he was moving his herd of camels – the must have been more than 100 of the beasts. They were running along the fence line at a brisk pace, it appeared they were challenging us to a race ! Then it happened the camels managed to completely split our convoy in half !. In the front half we continued with the camels to our right, they kept up the pace. The back half of the convoy had veered to the left and were now running almost parallel to the front half, eventually the camels were happy to head off away from us and the convoy reconnected.
Final Score Camels 1, Almost4x4 0, they won
After regrouping someone @AdamW suggested to @alshamsi_m lets have some fun. Well we all know what happens when the founder is presented with a statement like that ! The next 10 -15 min was amazing with some high speed climbs and arches what a rush ! But as fate would have it we had more 2nd tries and pop out, the light was fading and we headed out to the road. Only 40km of the intended track was completed, but it was still a pleasurable afternoon in the dunes.
While inflating for the long drive home we had the pleasure of a freshly cut watermelon thanks to @Rashidjass
@Tomvanhouten proved his skills are not with a knife, inflicting an injury on a particular person – who should not have had his hand there in the first place. But with the assistance of our resident medic (my co-pilot) out came the magic medical supplies and bandaids were administered.
On the long drive home I had the time to reflect on the days events – some will certainly become the stuff of campfire legends, but for now my takeaways are
- We are all in this for the experience and development of our skills. Some learn quickly, some take longer. Tolerance and Patience are also learnable skills.
- The challenges that look the easiest are sometimes the most difficult.
- Camels are pretty fast ! Not very smart !, but they are fast ! Camels 1 – Almost 4x4 convoy 0.
- It’s about the journey and camaraderie, its not a race, it is a safe learning experience.
- It is probably safer to cut the watermelon at home before the drive
@Tomvanhouten
- Driving even in small dunes at 20psi creates a new and interesting challenge for a newbie !
Till the next time – hopefully “closer to home”
Brett
Wasp VII
Thank you to @alshamsi_m and @giorgio for setting up this drive.
The drive area was true to the title “far from home” in the Al Ain – Abu Dhabi Sweihan area. With the current COVID situation a valid PCR/DPI test and vaccination is required to cross the border – so my co-pilot and I with Negative test results and full vaccination in hand, headed off to the meeting point. We crossed the border and eventually arrived at the meeting point, a little later than the others who were already assembled. We deflated and had the usual chit chat before the briefing.
As was promised by @alshamsi_m the weather was nasty ! Hot wind with sand flying in every direction !. The briefing was simple – we would drive 75km but in various terrain types within approx 3.5 Drive hrs. Sounds simple enough.
Off we headed with @alshamsi_m leading @Tomvanhouten in 2nd lead and every one else behind @James in his favorite position sweeping up the rear of the convoy. Well it wasn’t long before the radio call came “pop out” at the back, that was fixed then again “pop out” then again “pop out” we had travelled less than 6km and had 3 pop outs needless to say the time was quickly being eaten up with fixing pop outs 1.5hrs into the drive and only 6km covered.
The terrain was different to what a lot of us have encountered before – it looked easy enough ! But it was anything but easy. The sand was super soft and with out the right momentum – Too slow you were stuck all 4 wheels spinning and sinking into the sand even on level terrain, add an incline to that and bingo lots and lots of 2nd tries ! The time was ticking by and still we had not covered more than 20km !
At this point I should give a shout out to our ever present guardians – Thank you to @giorgio , @Rashidjass , @optimus @Scorpio – your patience, guidance and at time tolerance with the convoy is amazing we (well at least I) greatly appreciate everything you do for us.
So finally we are making some decent progress we reach the flat area, as we approached a farm we were greeted by a smiling and waving local farmer on a quad bike – he was moving his herd of camels – the must have been more than 100 of the beasts. They were running along the fence line at a brisk pace, it appeared they were challenging us to a race ! Then it happened the camels managed to completely split our convoy in half !. In the front half we continued with the camels to our right, they kept up the pace. The back half of the convoy had veered to the left and were now running almost parallel to the front half, eventually the camels were happy to head off away from us and the convoy reconnected.
Final Score Camels 1, Almost4x4 0, they won
After regrouping someone @AdamW suggested to @alshamsi_m lets have some fun. Well we all know what happens when the founder is presented with a statement like that ! The next 10 -15 min was amazing with some high speed climbs and arches what a rush ! But as fate would have it we had more 2nd tries and pop out, the light was fading and we headed out to the road. Only 40km of the intended track was completed, but it was still a pleasurable afternoon in the dunes.
While inflating for the long drive home we had the pleasure of a freshly cut watermelon thanks to @Rashidjass
@Tomvanhouten proved his skills are not with a knife, inflicting an injury on a particular person – who should not have had his hand there in the first place. But with the assistance of our resident medic (my co-pilot) out came the magic medical supplies and bandaids were administered.
On the long drive home I had the time to reflect on the days events – some will certainly become the stuff of campfire legends, but for now my takeaways are
- We are all in this for the experience and development of our skills. Some learn quickly, some take longer. Tolerance and Patience are also learnable skills.
- The challenges that look the easiest are sometimes the most difficult.
- Camels are pretty fast ! Not very smart !, but they are fast ! Camels 1 – Almost 4x4 convoy 0.
- It’s about the journey and camaraderie, its not a race, it is a safe learning experience.
- It is probably safer to cut the watermelon at home before the drive
@Tomvanhouten - Driving even in small dunes at 20psi creates a new and interesting challenge for a newbie !
Till the next time – hopefully “closer to home”
Brett
Wasp VII
OMG... I am now seriously delaying the convoy.... my pressure set at 12 psi (my usual drive at 11 psi) was not suiting the low profile tire that I had on my LC....
and I turned out to be a serial pop outer....!!! 
The convoy was getting seriously delayed with myself had to struggle with my heavier ride with several attempts at climbs and had to be assisted by 
)
it was really annoying to have this on that easy slope 
all of this causes a big delay in our driving plan so our leader Shamsi decided not to complete the drive for our safety due the sunlight fades and we got off the sand in swihan after driving around 41km from al khatim.
.
.
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, they splitted the convoy into 2. Good time was lost to reconnect! 