Catch Me If You Can - 25/01/19

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Miracles do happen no matter what anyone says and yes I believe in them.

CATCH ME IF YOU CAN – This drive could not have been named more appropriately because the “IF” in the name is no joke. I don’t care who you are or how many drives you have done before with the club or out of the club but every single one of us newbies was having these same exact thoughts in the first 10 to 20 minutes of the drive “S**T !! S**T !! S**T !!... TOO FAST !! TOO FAST !! … NO!! NO!! NO!!... WHERE THE **** IS THE TRACK !!? WHERE DID HE GO !!!?? WAIT WHAT !?!? OOOHHHH SHIII******!!! STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP !!! … DIIIIIIIIITCH !!!!!!.... COME ON !!! COME ON !!!... FIND THE GRIP !! FIND THE GRIP !!... PLEASE DON’T FISH TAIL !!! PLEASE DON’T FISH TAIL!!!...”

The whole time after the invitations went out no one talked about it on the club chat, of course there must have been a lot of private chat and messages going back and forth but for some reason no one talked about it in public.

I camped the night before in the same area but was about 1 km away from everyone else since I had my boss and everyone from work to camp with me. They had been after me whole weak asking me to take them in the desert for a barbecue night what I did not realise was that none of them decided to stay for the night and around 2:30 AM they all decided to pack up and leave. So that meant that I had to take them back to the road safely, by the time we finished the whole thing it was 2:50 AM. Then I drove to our camp site and saw [mention]Abu Jimmy[/mention] , [mention]mohannad[/mention] and a few others by the fire. I sat with them for a while and went to bed around 3:15 AM properly exhausted only to wake up after 4 hours and catch a glimpse of Shamsi and Booy leaving camp for the meeting point. I reached the meeting point in a hurry, got the car ready and then we were divided in into 2 convoys. One convoy I think was more than 20 drives with a few of the drivers having around 15 drives and the other convoy having drivers who had around 10 drives or less. I am not sure about these details because I was still very sleepy and could barely understand what was going on. That’s why when it was asked who has more than 20 drives I did not raise my hand because it took me much longer to register what was asked. I was that sleepy.

Any ways our convoy was the 20 or so drive convoy lead by [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] with [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] and [mention]Solmaz[/mention] at the end of the convoy.

Our drive could be divided into three parts.


First Part – Starting Point to Fossil Rock

Without any sort of warm up we start and going over the first, second or third small size dune I was wide awake just because of the speed and angles Shamsi took over them. There was a weird noise coming from the engine bay but only when I slowed down or stopped, when I accelerated the sound went away I didn’t get any time to check what the sound was or even think about what it could be because everything was happening so fast. It was not long before you could see every one’s break lights going crazy as we tried to stay away from ditches or slowdown and then floored it to catch up and keep the convoy moving, we reached Capri Land shortly and it was all going smooth when someone had a second try and all hell broke loose! People were driving in circles while some were taking second tries and third tries while the marshals were there but surprisingly all very quiet and just keeping us in check if someone did anything unsafe but otherwise they were very quiet. I guess they were just watching how we behave, somehow [mention]osman[/mention] , [mention]Kals[/mention] , [mention]kareem.alameldin[/mention] and I got out of that mess but it was one hell of a soft sand area where pretty much the whole area was extremely soft sand with no grip at all and all uphill but surprisingly not that steep. Just inclined enough to get you stuck and do second tries if you did not have enough momentum. I tried the first time and didn’t have enough momentum just like all the drivers before me so I turned back all the way down and floored it but still had just enough momentum to barely make it to the other side which to my surprise was still soft sand but leaning toward the right by a very small degree while we were trying to climb up towards left all the way to the top of fossil rock. The whole time Outlaw climbed up he barely had enough grip to make it up while fish tailing. Although I was fully prepared to turn downwards if anything felt unsafe and do the whole run again but Outlaw made it to the top without causing any trouble. Just in case you are wondering what my tyre pressure was, I was driving on 10 PSI.

Ones I reached the top of Fossil rock and caught up with others who made it there before me, we got out of our cars and started to talk about what we just went through, everyone had this energy of “WOOH!!! I can’t believe how soft the sand in that last run was”. Turns out that everyone did the same fishtailing and dodging rocks while going up. In all this excitement I had forgotten about the weird noise but as soon as I heard it again from Outlaw’s engine bay I rushed to open the bonnet and there it was, The Miracle.

The rod that keeps the bonnet open, the rod that you pull up and stick beneath the bonnet to keep it up had somehow come out of its socket and found its way exactly between the Right Camshaft Sprocket and the Left Camshaft Sprocket. Missing both of them by millimeters and resting on the Thermostat Housing. Because of the angle it had wedged itself into that tiny cramped area, every time I slowed down or stopped the rod would lean and rest on the timing belt and make that weird noise and every time I accelerated it would tilt a few millimeters away from the timing belt. All of this was happening before we reached Capri Land, while we went through all those second tries and all the way up to fossil rock while flooring and dodging some rocks on the way up to the top. Somehow the rod kept itself in that spot without bouncing or slipping into one of the camshaft sprockets and damaging them or getting tangled into the timing belt and ripping or tearing the belt, eventually killing the engine and ending up with some seriously expensive consequences. Miraculously it didn’t do any of that and stayed in that spot hanging on the angle all the way from Capri land to the top of Fossil Rock.

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I switched off the engine and [mention]Kals[/mention] carefully pulled the rod out. Soon the rest of the convoy joined us and we started to move down from the other side of Fossil Rock but just then Kals got himself into quite a tricky situation which was literally the actual proverb “Stuck between a rock and a hard place” but with a pop out as a cherry on top followed by Kareem in the exact same proverb / situation. By the time they were trying to sort out the situation under the guidance of Daggerfall, me and a few other drivers had already followed Shamsi down fossil rock on the other side and then drove back up around it and joined the rescue team. Slowly and very precautiously under the supervision of Daggerfall and Shamsi we got Juggy and Silverback out of the rock and hard place, then got cracking on to the drive again.

Second Part – Fossil Rock to The 2nd Pop Out

The second part of the drive was fast paced as the size of the dunes got bigger and bigger. We started making bigger arches and doing mini versions of side crests, in the beginning I struggled a bit but after getting the hang of it I calmed down and started processing everything in a calm manner. I kept reiterating the drive to myself, floor it, gain momentum, climb from the side ride the arch, go up the crest follow the track to the other side. And on and on and on. Since the convoy order kept changing so it’s hard to recall what happened to whom but at one point there was a small dune but a sharp one and we had to go straight up to it and cross to the other side head on. One car went up, didn’t have enough momentum and did a second try and crossed it with a bit of front wheel air time. Second car went up didn’t have enough momentum so did a second try and crossed it with a bit amount of front wheel air time. By this time Daggerfall mentioned on the radio “no flying” so I took a cautious approach with higher speed to have enough momentum but was well prepared to ease of the accelerator at that sweet spot where you are just about to cross and you let go just a tiny little bit off the accelerator that you don’t fly off but you still have enough momentum and torque that you drive over smoothly. Seeing both the cars more powerful than Outlaw trying to make it in 2 tries I gave Outlaw a bit more juice than usual and still he struggled to find the grip and momentum as the climb had already been chewed up. I felt that I am not going to make it as I could feel the momentum just drop and that “fighting gravity” sensation was just about to creep up on me. I decided that Outlaw won’t be able to make it so I too need to do a second try with more juice, the moment I had this thought. Outlaw went berserk and out of nowhere found traction and I too went over the crest with a bit of front wheel air time.

It was like, ok here we go, floor it. Get close to the climb, now ease of a bit because it’s not that big of a dune, crap no traction, losing momentum, floor it floor it, ok never mind its useless let’s do a second t…. GRIP!! GRIP!! GRIP!! and we are on the other side. What hell was THAT!!?!?! and Daggerfall goes on the radio “no flying means no flying”… sorry Daggerfall.

I am guessing by now we had a pretty good idea of what our cars can do so the convoy started moving faster again and the speed started picking up and then we had the 2nd pop out of the drive.

Third Part – The 2nd Pop Out to The End

By the time we fixed the second pop out we could see Rashid’s convoy sneaking up behind us and we rushed back into our cars and stormed out of there to gain some distance between us and them. We kept changing the convoy order and I kept waiting for my turn to be second lead for Shamsi as by now I had gained somewhat confidence in my driving and in Outlaw’s capabilities. The time came when the second lead changed from Kareem to [mention]optimus[/mention] and I was the third car but by the time my turn came to become second lead the drive was already over as we reached the top of the dune where we finished the drive.

As always it was an amazing experience, something I will not forget for a very long time. On separate occasions Daggerfall and Abu Jimmy asked me how the drive was and after I replied to both of them, surprisingly both of them had the same comment “Good, you are learning. There will be better and faster drives to come”.

Miracles do happen no matter what anyone says and yes I believe in them.

If you are not improving then what is the point of your change?

See you in the sand.
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Petr
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Excellent report [mention]Phoenix[/mention], it felt as if I was there!
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Youssef.Abdelhady
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Phoenix wrote: Sun Jan 27, 2019 12:08 am
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN – This drive could not have been named more appropriately because the “IF” in the name is no joke. I don’t care who you are or how many drives you have done before with the club or out of the club but every single one of us newbies was having these same exact thoughts in the first 10 to 20 minutes of the drive “S**T !! S**T !! S**T !!... TOO FAST !! TOO FAST !! … NO!! NO!! NO!!... WHERE THE **** IS THE TRACK !!? WHERE DID HE GO !!!?? WAIT WHAT !?!? OOOHHHH SHIII******!!! STOP!!! STOP!!! STOP !!! … DIIIIIIIIITCH !!!!!!.... COME ON !!! COME ON !!!... FIND THE GRIP !! FIND THE GRIP !!... PLEASE DON’T FISH TAIL !!! PLEASE DON’T FISH TAIL!!!...”
Thats probably the funniest thing I've read in a trip report. XD XD XD
Wait till you see the Inter exam redbullsmiley
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kriskian
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After a 2 month forced sabbatical from the sand due to family commitments the invitation to drive over the weekend seemed like a blessing in disguise.

All excited and charged up I reached the start point, deflated and got ready for the drive, we were divided into two groups and informed that this is not a test but a regular drive in which we will put thru our paces on high speed with some cresting and the second lead will change thru out the drive.

The drive started towards fossils rock and within 5 mins we had our first stuck as drivers did not maintain enough distance and when the car in front got stuck the following car driver had to overtake as he did not have enough distance or time to stop safely.

After being reminded to maintain distance we got back in line and moved towards the base of fossil rock the sand was so loose and had so many tracks that it was very difficult to figure out which was the right path to take we again had a couple of second tries and this is where we suffered our first casualty, unfortunately, the CAR was not able to move out from low gear and had to leave the convoy.

We all gathered up and were again instructed to maintain distance as this was the root cause why instead of one car multiple cars were getting stuck and having second tries

We reached the top of Fossil rock but did not cross over as we had some runners coming up the hill, we took the easy way down and around this is where we had our first Popout it was a tricky spot everyone pitched in and the popout was fixed in no time.

We started to move over to even more difficult terrain where the chance of popout where higher due to the angle and speed of descent over the dune this is when the second popout happened and after fixing the popout we drove on to the end point where we all caught up for some Karak and chit chat.

At the endpoint we were given the option to leave or follow Al Shamsi, it was a good extension to the drive, fast-paced over the flatlands and with some good climbs to end the drive.

Some things that we should all remember

1. Safety over Pride, having second tries is not an issue but having too many indicates otherwise
2. Maintain distance keep a maximum of two car distance, too much distance and you might lose the car and track
3. Follow the track without making changes irrespective of what you might think it is not safe to make this decision unless asked too
4. Never overtake the car in front of you until asked too it can lead to unwanted accidents in the desert
kriskian,
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Serkan
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Hello Everyone,

I decided to not write anything after reading [mention]Phoenix[/mention] ‘s trip report thumbsup

Have a nice week cool

Regards
SeRkAN
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giorgio
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Serkan wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:37 pm Hello Everyone,

I decided to not write anything after reading @Phoenix ‘s trip report thumbsup

Have a nice week cool

Regards
SeRkAN
Although i have to admit that @phoenix report is very nice one (as always) the aim of writing a report is for all members to write their point of you and experience for the drive. I will suggest that you think it over and you will see that you had much more to say that you can imagine. We are looking forward to hear your experiences.

See you soon
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Serkan
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giorgio wrote: Tue Jan 29, 2019 7:35 am
Serkan wrote: Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:37 pm Hello Everyone,

I decided to not write anything after reading @Phoenix ‘s trip report thumbsup

Have a nice week cool

Regards
SeRkAN
Although i have to admit that @phoenix report is very nice one (as always) the aim of writing a report is for all members to write their point of you and experience for the drive. I will suggest that you think it over and you will see that you had much more to say that you can imagine. We are looking forward to hear your experiences.

See you soon
Exactly, I agree with you...However all the other member reports were good as well...@phoenix's report expressed my feelings.

Regards
SeRkAn
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Hi Almosters,

We had great fun on Friday...

These days are the best days of offroading where you are experiencing many things for the first time. So just be patient, learn from your mistakes, stay safe and enjoy the journey :)

Here below some photos :

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... a7394ba9b5

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... a7394ba9b5
" I feel the need, the need for Speed " cool

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