Crocodile Lake 4.0
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Kals
- Intermediate
- Posts: 25
- Joined: Fri Apr 22, 2016 11:58 pm
Good Morning Everyone,
After a long weekend, i though I should do justice to this trip and write a quick trip report.
The drive was an early morning one, and since I didn't camp it was an early wake up call for me to get my sleep deprived self to AD. I agreed with Dahshan the day before that we will drive together, to make the 166km journey a bit more bearable, but the genius left a bit earlier and lived closer to AD, hence only managed to catch up to him when we were entering AD itself. hidden
Once we got close to the meeting point, we found poor youssef doing a recovery and himself getting recovered. Later on we met with all the campers and the weather was absolutely beautiful.
The drive itself was a mixture of faced paced hill climbs and technical challenges, there were no major issues, with the exception of a couple of crested cars and the FJs demonstrated their crawling skills out of sticky situations.
We closed our drive at the crocodile lake, but found no crocs, with the exception of the ones Abu Salem was wearing.
As always major thanks to all the organisers and support crew, looking forward to seeing you all soon!
After a long weekend, i though I should do justice to this trip and write a quick trip report.
The drive was an early morning one, and since I didn't camp it was an early wake up call for me to get my sleep deprived self to AD. I agreed with Dahshan the day before that we will drive together, to make the 166km journey a bit more bearable, but the genius left a bit earlier and lived closer to AD, hence only managed to catch up to him when we were entering AD itself. hidden
Once we got close to the meeting point, we found poor youssef doing a recovery and himself getting recovered. Later on we met with all the campers and the weather was absolutely beautiful.
The drive itself was a mixture of faced paced hill climbs and technical challenges, there were no major issues, with the exception of a couple of crested cars and the FJs demonstrated their crawling skills out of sticky situations.
We closed our drive at the crocodile lake, but found no crocs, with the exception of the ones Abu Salem was wearing.
As always major thanks to all the organisers and support crew, looking forward to seeing you all soon!
Truck driver
Oversized man child
Red GMC aka The Juggernaut
Oversized man child
Red GMC aka The Juggernaut
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Phoenix
- Crew
- Posts: 383
- Joined: Sat Oct 21, 2017 11:59 pm
- Has thanked: 50 times
- Been thanked: 9 times
- Contact:
Crocodile Lake 4.0
Exactly as The Wise One said
Yes I did enjoy Outlaw’s company, he behaved very well and surprised me with his 1st gear’s performance.
Since Thursday was the last working day for the month, it was crazy load of work in the office. I finished by 10pm, rearranged the equipment in the car and grabbed myself a burger before leaving for camp.
By 11pm I was on my way to the camp, no hurrying up this time as I drove on 100kmph and reached camp site by 1:30am, no drama from Outlaw yet. Ok so that was a good sign. abubaker was the only near the fire and everyone had gone to bed. Then we were joined by a friend of his, my apologies for not recalling his name but he drove a properly modified Black Xterra. I was so tired due to the long day that I ditched the tent and slept outside on the bed below the stars. Thanks [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] , I am falling I love with sleeping under the star. I don’t remember when was the last time I had such a comfortable and sound sleep, I woke up at 8 am and realized that I’m late.
Rushed to meet and greet everyone and get outlaw ready, joined the driver’s meeting and barely remembered any of it. It takes me a long time to come to my senses if I haven’t taken my morning coffee. [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] gave us our convoy positions and I just nodded without even hearing or understanding to what he said my position will be. Somehow I ended up behind [mention]Abu Odai[/mention] and I couldn’t have asked for a better position because after missing EIB and a few other mishaps with Outlaw I was a bit nervous about his performance and about my own driving. I did get crested in the first 10 minutes of the drive. Being all nervous and paranoid of what might happen, after being rescued by [mention]Solmaz[/mention] I calmed myself down and kept driving with full concentration and not before long I was back in the groove !!!
After changing the gearbox this was the first drive with some good climbs and wall runs where I used the 1st gear. I guess the previous gearbox did not perform to its full potential because my oh my I never knew the first gear had so much power and could be stretched up to such high speeds. The drive went smoothly and without any drama. The terrain had some soft sand patches in very unexpected areas due to which at one point I had to turn down a climb or risk rolling over, I simply did not have enough momentum and realized that the sand is too soft to continue so I just turned down and then radioed in to the car behind me not to follow my path and about 5 seconds later I was back on track. I was so nervous and worried about every single sound Outlaw made, every time he reacted in an odd way, every time he took a hard hit at the suspensions, I was just trying to drive as cautiously and slowly as possible.
We reached one of the lakes and gathered around it for some good times. I contemplated on the whole drive we just did which involved cresting and over shooting a climb but then correcting at the last moment, some heavy hits to the suspension, wall runs, good decent height of climbs, fish tailing etc. It was a full package drive and still there I was with a can of coke in my hand enjoying a cigarette leaning on Outlaw next to a lake with my family members. Yup I did seem to enjoy the car, thank you The Wise One for allowing me to enjoy my car.
Thank you to Rashid bhai for arranging the drive and all other behind the scenes members.
Thank you [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for calling me to check on me. That one phone call made me really feel like family.
Thank you [mention]AMounir[/mention] for scaring the crap out of me when at one point your flag casted its shadow on my windscreen in such a way that it gave the perfect illusion of smoke coming out from underneath the bonnet and I almost had a stroke.
Just like [mention]Barish[/mention] says, change is better if its improvement… or something like that. I don’t know he always says something about change and improvement which is good.
See you in the sand.
Exactly as The Wise One said
Yes I did enjoy Outlaw’s company, he behaved very well and surprised me with his 1st gear’s performance.
Since Thursday was the last working day for the month, it was crazy load of work in the office. I finished by 10pm, rearranged the equipment in the car and grabbed myself a burger before leaving for camp.
By 11pm I was on my way to the camp, no hurrying up this time as I drove on 100kmph and reached camp site by 1:30am, no drama from Outlaw yet. Ok so that was a good sign. abubaker was the only near the fire and everyone had gone to bed. Then we were joined by a friend of his, my apologies for not recalling his name but he drove a properly modified Black Xterra. I was so tired due to the long day that I ditched the tent and slept outside on the bed below the stars. Thanks [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] , I am falling I love with sleeping under the star. I don’t remember when was the last time I had such a comfortable and sound sleep, I woke up at 8 am and realized that I’m late.
Rushed to meet and greet everyone and get outlaw ready, joined the driver’s meeting and barely remembered any of it. It takes me a long time to come to my senses if I haven’t taken my morning coffee. [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] gave us our convoy positions and I just nodded without even hearing or understanding to what he said my position will be. Somehow I ended up behind [mention]Abu Odai[/mention] and I couldn’t have asked for a better position because after missing EIB and a few other mishaps with Outlaw I was a bit nervous about his performance and about my own driving. I did get crested in the first 10 minutes of the drive. Being all nervous and paranoid of what might happen, after being rescued by [mention]Solmaz[/mention] I calmed myself down and kept driving with full concentration and not before long I was back in the groove !!!
After changing the gearbox this was the first drive with some good climbs and wall runs where I used the 1st gear. I guess the previous gearbox did not perform to its full potential because my oh my I never knew the first gear had so much power and could be stretched up to such high speeds. The drive went smoothly and without any drama. The terrain had some soft sand patches in very unexpected areas due to which at one point I had to turn down a climb or risk rolling over, I simply did not have enough momentum and realized that the sand is too soft to continue so I just turned down and then radioed in to the car behind me not to follow my path and about 5 seconds later I was back on track. I was so nervous and worried about every single sound Outlaw made, every time he reacted in an odd way, every time he took a hard hit at the suspensions, I was just trying to drive as cautiously and slowly as possible.
We reached one of the lakes and gathered around it for some good times. I contemplated on the whole drive we just did which involved cresting and over shooting a climb but then correcting at the last moment, some heavy hits to the suspension, wall runs, good decent height of climbs, fish tailing etc. It was a full package drive and still there I was with a can of coke in my hand enjoying a cigarette leaning on Outlaw next to a lake with my family members. Yup I did seem to enjoy the car, thank you The Wise One for allowing me to enjoy my car.
Thank you to Rashid bhai for arranging the drive and all other behind the scenes members.
Thank you [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for calling me to check on me. That one phone call made me really feel like family.
Thank you [mention]AMounir[/mention] for scaring the crap out of me when at one point your flag casted its shadow on my windscreen in such a way that it gave the perfect illusion of smoke coming out from underneath the bonnet and I almost had a stroke.
Just like [mention]Barish[/mention] says, change is better if its improvement… or something like that. I don’t know he always says something about change and improvement which is good.
See you in the sand.
Adventurous League of Mountains, Oceans and Sand Thrills
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DustnGlory
- Newbie
- Posts: 56
- Joined: Sun Jan 21, 2018 8:53 am
- Location: Earth
This is my first time driving in the Abu Dhabi dunes and it was fun. I reached the campsite around 11 with [mention]optimus[/mention] and [mention]kareem.alameldin[/mention] . Since I had camped the previous night and had already aired down my tires around 1AM, I did not check them again before the drive. Well, guess what!…. I started digging as soon as we began and on checking I found 1 rear tire was 15 psi and all the others 12 psi. After quickly airing down to 10 psi, the convoy was able to continue.
The 10+ drives have a slight change in tone with higher arches. The drive itself was fast paced at times and technical in between. I was able to recover myself twice but on the last one I got stuck sort of on a ledge with no traction on my front right and rear left wheels. I should have been able to recover myself using A-Trac but missed to flip the kill switch. Lucky for me, [mention]Booy[/mention] was immediately there and took control of the Silver Surfer. He then demonstrated the perfect way to get out of that situation – with a bit of muscle from [mention]optimus[/mention] and [mention]mabubaker[/mention] – all under the watchful eyes of [mention]Solmaz[/mention] . Thank [mention]Booy[/mention] . After some more time on the dunes we reached the crocodile lake where the drive ended and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] got his drone out for warm up. After the other convoy reached and everyone had a chance to chat, Bu Salem confirmed the end of the drive and the way to reach the road.
Thank you Organizer, Founder, Marshals, Explorers, Advance and Intermediates for your time and efforts. See you in the sand soon. Until next time…
The 10+ drives have a slight change in tone with higher arches. The drive itself was fast paced at times and technical in between. I was able to recover myself twice but on the last one I got stuck sort of on a ledge with no traction on my front right and rear left wheels. I should have been able to recover myself using A-Trac but missed to flip the kill switch. Lucky for me, [mention]Booy[/mention] was immediately there and took control of the Silver Surfer. He then demonstrated the perfect way to get out of that situation – with a bit of muscle from [mention]optimus[/mention] and [mention]mabubaker[/mention] – all under the watchful eyes of [mention]Solmaz[/mention] . Thank [mention]Booy[/mention] . After some more time on the dunes we reached the crocodile lake where the drive ended and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] got his drone out for warm up. After the other convoy reached and everyone had a chance to chat, Bu Salem confirmed the end of the drive and the way to reach the road.
Thank you Organizer, Founder, Marshals, Explorers, Advance and Intermediates for your time and efforts. See you in the sand soon. Until next time…
Jithin AKA Dust'nGlory
Drives an FJ = Silver Surfer =
Drives an FJ = Silver Surfer =
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Kris_K
- Newbie
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 9:10 pm
Another great Friday spent with Almosters...
It was my first time in a convoy lead by [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] which I enjoyed.
The drive was a good lesson of keeping the correct distance with the varying drive pace and type of terrain.
Many thanks to seniors for inviting to the drive and organizing it.
See you in the sand
It was my first time in a convoy lead by [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] which I enjoyed.
The drive was a good lesson of keeping the correct distance with the varying drive pace and type of terrain.
Many thanks to seniors for inviting to the drive and organizing it.
See you in the sand
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Barish
- Marshal
- Posts: 212
- Joined: Sun Oct 19, 2014 9:54 am
- Has thanked: 18 times
- Been thanked: 50 times
It was quite early wakeup since some time and a bit long drive to the meeting point. It was 16 degrees when i reached and the breezing weather was amazing.
The sand was still a bit hard in some spots due to the rain of last week and soft in some where the rain did not fall, this was quite difficult to manage the track.
All the drivers in our convoy did well and some small highlights from the drive are;
1) Dont chg the track unless told by the lead otherwise you create a risky situation fornyourself and others
2) Clearence should be supported by the car model and color or your nickname otherwise following car will never understand who is clear
Second tries and popuots were the spices of this good morning drive and thanks to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for the lead, support team for all asistance and [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for the eyes on all of us. Nice to see that number of Jeeps are increasing in our convoys:)
Keep changing if and only if you feel that you are improving.
Barish
The sand was still a bit hard in some spots due to the rain of last week and soft in some where the rain did not fall, this was quite difficult to manage the track.
All the drivers in our convoy did well and some small highlights from the drive are;
1) Dont chg the track unless told by the lead otherwise you create a risky situation fornyourself and others
2) Clearence should be supported by the car model and color or your nickname otherwise following car will never understand who is clear
Second tries and popuots were the spices of this good morning drive and thanks to [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for the lead, support team for all asistance and [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] for the eyes on all of us. Nice to see that number of Jeeps are increasing in our convoys:)
Keep changing if and only if you feel that you are improving.
Barish
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AMounir
- Intermediate
- Posts: 81
- Joined: Sun May 27, 2018 9:38 pm
Well I was supposed to camp with the group but being my son birthday Thursday's night and his wish was for me to put him to sleep reading a story … guess what I slept away myself too 
wake up at 3PM oh $h!t feeling and the urge to continue sleeping float in my head till 4PM when I shock my head and officially wake up 
Drove to the meeting point and reached there around 735 am … only to realise I have half tank only, turned around filled up and back again
It was my first drive lead by [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and 2nd drive in 10+ …. So far it is really nice and enjoyable in the sense of less stops, challenging route and more of put what we have learned before to use
I have to say I was concerned at the beginning, [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] starting the briefing by saying “Mounir will be my second lead” made my heart skip a beat for a second
I really wish to be but not my time yet 
The drive was fast paced with and required every focus power that I have to keep up and do the right thing …. At a one point we were drive on a side of a high crest and the car's back end felt moving down the slope that I had to accelerate a little to make it straight again was something new to learn, watching other cars behavior it seemed like the thing to do …. [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] took us back on this wall and down then immediately up another wall to a flat area … while going down the wall I slowed down a little which affected my momentum going up, on the way up I realized I’m losing momentum and would make it … while everyone was telling me to go down on the radio I decided to go down then following the S technique to gain momentum and up I went to the other cars … realizing that all of this was in a blink of an eye and the training we did before helping in such situations makes me appreciate the mentoring efforts clubs marshals, explores and advanced drivers are giving us … thank you
Thanks to organizers, marshals and support team for continues support and coaching
Thanks [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for your call to check up on me ... real family support right there, [mention]Booy[/mention] for the tips and insights and sorry [mention]giorgio[/mention] for not showing up I really wanted to listen to your camping stories and [mention]Phoenix[/mention] rethink what you did ... it's karma probably
Till next time
Cheers
wake up at 3PM oh $h!t feeling and the urge to continue sleeping float in my head till 4PM when I shock my head and officially wake up 
Drove to the meeting point and reached there around 735 am … only to realise I have half tank only, turned around filled up and back again
It was my first drive lead by [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and 2nd drive in 10+ …. So far it is really nice and enjoyable in the sense of less stops, challenging route and more of put what we have learned before to use
I have to say I was concerned at the beginning, [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] starting the briefing by saying “Mounir will be my second lead” made my heart skip a beat for a second
I really wish to be but not my time yet 
The drive was fast paced with and required every focus power that I have to keep up and do the right thing …. At a one point we were drive on a side of a high crest and the car's back end felt moving down the slope that I had to accelerate a little to make it straight again was something new to learn, watching other cars behavior it seemed like the thing to do …. [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] took us back on this wall and down then immediately up another wall to a flat area … while going down the wall I slowed down a little which affected my momentum going up, on the way up I realized I’m losing momentum and would make it … while everyone was telling me to go down on the radio I decided to go down then following the S technique to gain momentum and up I went to the other cars … realizing that all of this was in a blink of an eye and the training we did before helping in such situations makes me appreciate the mentoring efforts clubs marshals, explores and advanced drivers are giving us … thank you
Thanks to organizers, marshals and support team for continues support and coaching
Thanks [mention]JockJKU[/mention] for your call to check up on me ... real family support right there, [mention]Booy[/mention] for the tips and insights and sorry [mention]giorgio[/mention] for not showing up I really wanted to listen to your camping stories and [mention]Phoenix[/mention] rethink what you did ... it's karma probably
Till next time
Cheers
@AMounir
Panthera pardus
Panthera pardus
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Mabubaker
- Marshal
- Posts: 86
- Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:21 am
- Location: Abu Dhabi
- Has thanked: 153 times
- Been thanked: 146 times
- Contact:
45 min drive was enough for me to reach the meeting point from my place in AUH. cool once I stoped at the petrol station, found [mention]JockJKU[/mention], [mention]giorgio[/mention] , [mention]thiago[/mention] and [mention]tabubaker[/mention] are already there.. While filling up the fuel [mention]giorgio[/mention] approached,,, Do you have your wood, he asked. The answer was no.. So go get wood for you and others.. ORLY
I ended up buying 4 stacks of wood from a local shop 15 aed each,, I thought it was a good deal..
Few moments later, we headed up to the camp site. [mention]Johanna[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] were already their the the fire were already up.
[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] arrived with the good quality wood and shared some tips about buying a good quality wood with live demonstration on the 15 vs 35 aed wood. thumbsup
We had a very enjoyable chit chat, [mention]thiago[/mention] showed his skills in grilling Marahamellos with his custom extended stick...
About 1:30 AM everyone went to sleep exept me enjoying the cool breez and waiting for [mention]Phoenix[/mention] and a friend if mine to arrive.
Its drive day, the sand in Khatim was different, it had a shield of solid sand, so the ride feeling was different, however, if you crack the sheild tyres will easly dig seep and won't be easy to get the needed traction to move unless you have an FJ.
[mention]Rashidjass[/mention] has taken us into different types of dunes and with the support of marshalls, advanced and inters he managed to bring us all same to the Crocodile Lake.
[mention]Rashidjass[/mention] decided to fly his drone to check on the Crocodiles, and found out that they are sleeping. So he decided not to wake them up. Well if he do they will get angry and they will eat more than 20% of the convoy which is above the acceptable percentage. Psmiley
Thankk you and see you you later alligator!
M Abubaker
I ended up buying 4 stacks of wood from a local shop 15 aed each,, I thought it was a good deal..
Few moments later, we headed up to the camp site. [mention]Johanna[/mention] and [mention]Booy[/mention] were already their the the fire were already up.
[mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] arrived with the good quality wood and shared some tips about buying a good quality wood with live demonstration on the 15 vs 35 aed wood. thumbsup
We had a very enjoyable chit chat, [mention]thiago[/mention] showed his skills in grilling Marahamellos with his custom extended stick...
About 1:30 AM everyone went to sleep exept me enjoying the cool breez and waiting for [mention]Phoenix[/mention] and a friend if mine to arrive.
Its drive day, the sand in Khatim was different, it had a shield of solid sand, so the ride feeling was different, however, if you crack the sheild tyres will easly dig seep and won't be easy to get the needed traction to move unless you have an FJ.
[mention]Rashidjass[/mention] has taken us into different types of dunes and with the support of marshalls, advanced and inters he managed to bring us all same to the Crocodile Lake.
[mention]Rashidjass[/mention] decided to fly his drone to check on the Crocodiles, and found out that they are sleeping. So he decided not to wake them up. Well if he do they will get angry and they will eat more than 20% of the convoy which is above the acceptable percentage. Psmiley
Thankk you and see you you later alligator!
M Abubaker
