Welcome to the Jungle V

Post Reply
User avatar
Daggerfall
Marshal
Marshal
Posts: 341
Joined: Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:23 am
Has thanked: 163 times
Been thanked: 142 times

Hi Almosters,

The weather is getting hot and these days are the last ones we can still enjoy relatively bearable weather at desert in the afternoons with beautiful scene and sunset.

This was a technical drive at an area where the dunes come in many different shapes and forms and full of surprises. The sand was soft and due to hot weather the tire pressures went up immediately 2-3 psi within 10 minutes and we started hearing many calls for second tries on the radio.

The challenges were not loosing the track, trying to keep climbing without any hesitation through bowls, balconies ,slip faces all the way to the top like a mountaineer, avoiding surprise ditches and finally dealing with other convoys around when we came close to Super Bowl area. That is why we call the drive " Welcome to the Jungle " grin

I believe everyone had learned new things from this drive and enjoyed it.

Thanks to [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] , [mention]Scorpio[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] for the amazing support to keep the convoy together and kept them moving brigade.baka-wolf.com (They did the hard work actually!)

And thanks to all joined

See you next time!
" I feel the need, the need for Speed " cool

Drives Black FJ " VF-1 Valkyrie " , Mob: 050 725 09 31
User avatar
Mabubaker
Marshal
Marshal
Posts: 86
Joined: Tue Sep 12, 2017 8:21 am
Location: Abu Dhabi
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 146 times
Contact:

Hello Almosters,
Although its a 2 hours drive to reach this area from my place in AUH, but I still like the way going there as I pass through Sweihan, Omani borders area then straight from AUH border to Sharjah's.
For me, after the Cresting Mania lead with [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and the old inters, I thought this drive will be a bit relaxing with the new inters! Guess what! I was totally wrong,,, [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] took us into a very agressive terrain mixture of high/low dunes, sharp crests and technical areas. This has translated for the several second tries and several popouts.
That was how Jungle welcomes people [emoji856]

Almost half time of the drive, and I started to see monkeys coming out of every dune, jumping and crossing our convoy,, [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] said this is part of the game.. So I decided to cope with them,,[emoji204][emoji204][emoji205][emoji205] That monkey's convoy was lead by green Cherokee.

After sometime, the same Cherokee guy was setting on top of one of the high crests, thinking that he can run away with his sins, [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] side crested the same crest and found this guy on his bare legs holding the camera a couple of meters ahead of Valkyrie. The guy was running backwards to survive [emoji23][emoji23][emoji23] I am confident he won't cross our convoy again.

Finally, thanks [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] for organizing such an amazing trip,,, thanks [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] for taking care of the safety of the convoy, and thanks [mention]Scorpio[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] for the support.

I can see the passion and the talent of the newly upgraded inters, I am really happy as its it gonna be a lot of funnnn

Thanks,
M Abubaker

Sent from my SM-N960F using Tapatalk
kareem.alameldin
Advance
Advance
Posts: 49
Joined: Thu Dec 14, 2017 1:01 pm
Location: Dubai

Daggerfall decided to slap us on the face, or at least that's how i felt, it's a reminder that there is still a lot to learn,

Being a second lead gives me a front seat in a driving class, makes me always excited to be called second lead, and to my luck, most of it was behind Daggerfall, I remember the first time I was second lead behind him and saw him side crest, the first thing i thought of was how could he do it so slow?!! i guess it messed me up a bit because i always tried to copy his style, i hope one day i can do a side crest that looks that elegant and smooth, enough sucking up, back to the report!!

The sand was soft and the area was really technical that there can be no hesitation in how to tackle any obstacle or the momentum will be lost immediately and it means a second try, the first 15-30 minutes was on the high dunes before heading to the technical area where Daggerfall exposed his evil intentions of putting everyone in trouble,

right before the end, riding on a crest the car dug and slid a bit to find a bush on the left tires track, avoided the hit with the front tire going upward to hit it with the back tire and voila! a popout with the back tire, a perfect record of popouts in the FJ is ruined! thanks Daggerfall!

the only downside to this trip that it wasn't in one of the areas that qualifies for Hells Bells drive, have to be sidelined! the envy i feel dark mood

Thanks everyone who lead and supported this drive, we appreciate your efforts and talents!
User avatar
Scorpio
Marshal
Marshal
Posts: 221
Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 12:05 pm
Location: Dubai
Has thanked: 275 times
Been thanked: 167 times

Hello All,

After finishing the morning newbie drive and having mandi in Madam (yea, we found a mandi place there and the meal was really nice :) ), me, [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] started moving to the afternoon drive meeting point. As expected, we were one hour early than the meeting time and there was no one around. So, I decided to take a power nap (of late, I have started to take a short sleep 2 z Z before the second drive of the day and I must say that I am finding it helpful to recharge my batteries grin ) before the Inter drive.

It was a hot afternoon and 15 min before the meeting time I woke up and saw [mention]Rooies[/mention] and [mention]Johanna[/mention] coming. We sat under the shade to chit chat while waiting for everyone else to arrive. [mention]Daggerfall[/mention], gave the necessary briefing and advised about the convoy order with [mention]kareem.alameldin[/mention] being the 2nd lead and Johanna being the sweeper. Singh, Rashidjass and I were to float around the convoy.

The drive was amazing and I must say that Daggerfall brought everyone out of their comfort zones. There were high climbs on soft sand dunes followed by side crests, jumping from one bowl to the other by side cresting then climbing then again side cresting. There were technical areas as well in between; this area is known for such a combo of high dunes and small technical areas. Getting the calls of 2nd tries, pop-outs, stuck cars showed that the drive was challenging and offered a learning platform to everyone to improve skills and get ready for higher level drives yuush . Daggerfall crafted the track that took us to Super Bowl and then to Iftar Bowl before the exit and the drive was really enjoyable.

The proper radio communication and keeping the right distance between you and the front car could have been better in this drive. Keep working on the areas that you think need improvement and keep polishing your skills and you will definitely see improvement in your drives and in your reflexes. I hope you had a good time and enjoyed your afternoon in the jungle :lol: :lol:.

I would like to thank Daggerfall for arranging this drive and Rashidjass for his guidance and Singh for the great support.

Hope to see you in the sand soon in Ramadan.

Cheers!
Scorpio
+971 55 5804488
Drives a grey FJ 'Everest'
The race for excellence has no finish line!
User avatar
Jasper
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 52
Joined: Fri Jun 02, 2017 3:02 pm
Has thanked: 112 times
Been thanked: 83 times

Hello everyone!

I was looking forward to this intermediate drive as a driver since I was lucky enough to be a passenger before on the same level. I thought to myself if I can do this level of a drive and here I am now. The past drives and learnings really helped a lot in terms of confidence and technique.

[mention]Daggerfall[/mention] took us to the big climbs and technical areas. The sand is very soft and easily you can lose traction. The weather is hot and the tire pressure went up immediately so we need to re-check and deflate. It gets even worse as I’m in the middle of the convoy, following [mention]jose[/mention] with his beautiful blue jeep, and the sand gets eaten up by the KO2s grin

There were big climbs and awesome side crest that we were doing on the highest parts of the dunes. Climbing is tricky as there were many tracks in the area. As I am about to do my climb [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] advised on the radio to select part of the climb where there were no tracks and it was an easy climb. Thanks for that thumbsup

The area is popular so we get to crisscross with other convoys. It’s easy to lose the track in this area and thanks to [mention]Rashidjass[/mention], [mention]Scorpio[/mention] and [mention]SINGH[/mention] for keeping us in the convoy and [mention]Johanna[/mention] sweeping and of course to our leader [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] in creating the path for us to enjoy.

It was an amazing afternoon drive and I’ve enjoyed it very much. Looking forward for the future drives. Take care and see you in the sand.

Jasper
User avatar
Johanna
Golden Member
Golden Member
Posts: 192
Joined: Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:04 pm
Location: Dubai
Has thanked: 1 time

Hi all,

Ramadan Mubarak

it has been a while that a drove in Al Madam area, I think the last time I have been in the area I was passenger with [mention]giorgio[/mention]. I remember that drive clearly, it was Giorgios first inter drive and I was not allowed to speak or move Psmiley

Now it was my turn to drive the same track. [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] started without any warming up, climbing the first high dune he could find.
I was assigned as sweeper, [mention]SINGH[/mention], [mention]Scorpio[/mention] and [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] floating around. First part of the drive was moderate to high dunes, followed by a technical second part until we reached the familiar Badayer area with its high dunes and amazing bowles.
From the back I had a fantastic view on the convoy, tackling the dunes. @Rashidjass made some nice videos from this perspective

Usually Marshals say that you learn the skills when you drive in the front, but in the back you learn to survive. After this drive, I cant agree more.

I tried to make sure that I am always the last car of the convoy, so I had to watch carefully what is happening in front of me, so in case of second tries I usually wait until everyone made it. So I had to make sure not to get in trouble myself if the car(s) in front of me struggle. In addition to that I did my best to inform the leading car immediately to wait in case of second tries, but I assume that the high dunes were blocking the signal sometimes.

So we end up several times in loosing the convoy, as there are so many tracks in the area and if you cannot see the car in front of you you are lost.
The floaters had to reconnect the convoy couple of times, thanks guys.

Another survival skill you learn at the back is dealing with messed up tracks. The sand is soft, some dunes are already messed up by all the offroad enthusiats in this area and it does not get better if 12 cars in front of you use the same track.
So beside the usual pedal-to-the metal technique in addition to AC switch off at some climbs, I had to use fresh tracks to get the car all the way up. Using fresh tracks may force you to adjust approach angle and speed, so you have to evaluate this quickly to stay safe.

As last car you usually never have a break, as soon as you reach the rest of the convoy, its time to move again XD

Especially in the Badayer area around Iftar and Super Bowl you have to expect traffic. So it happend that we had some strangers in the convoy or some drivers cutting our path, so you have to be extra careful and keep an eye on them too.


The last drives gave me the opportunity to polish all my skills and knowledge I learned so far and I realized that small things can have a huge impact.

Here are three little things which made a big difference:

1. tire pressure. By just reducing pressure from 9 to 8 it made my climbing so much easier
2. Playing with the throttle: just a little play with it can keep your car on track on walls and side walls, even if my Patrol may not keep up with other cars, I make sure to reach the next crest with this technique.
3. Switching of the AC in some situations may give you the additional horses you need.

It was a great drive, I hope we come back soon.

Thanks to all and see you soon in the sand.
BR, Johanna

If it excites you and scares you at the same time, it probably means you should do it.
User avatar
SINGH
Golden Member
Golden Member
Posts: 53
Joined: Sat Jan 26, 2013 9:03 am
Has thanked: 23 times

The name of the drive was quite justified for this drive.

As there were new inters driving in their first next level drive, so they get exposed to the wild side of this level and the second was the area, which is like a Jungle in its later section.

As always, Daggerfall has not given any warm-up time to the drivers to settle down, it all started with fist gear and no time to switch to any higher gear. 5 mins into the drive and we got a first pop out. Fixed in few minutes and the convoy was good to go. Followed by another round of high climbs, few second tries at the back and decision was taken to change the track a little bit.

Before we entered the first leg of technical dunes, the second pop out break provided some time to the drivers to calm down. This area has got its charm, you look at the high dunes to start with and they make you to cross very tricky technical part of the dunes to reach to the next high dunes. You’ll find unpredictable nasty ditches and sharp short dunes. These short ditches are hard, not made up of soft sand. So it’s always advised to follow the tracks of the leading car in such an area. A slight deviation will lead you to danger.

Once we reached super bowl, one can say it was like a Sharjah traffic in middle of the desert. You can see SUV’s all around. After playing a bit in super bowl, it was decided that it’s not worth to be there with other dangerous drivers around .Daggerfall nicely negotiated through them and we were moving at a nice pace at most of the times. Thanks to the support from Rashid and Scorpio for keeping birds eye and alerting drivers at times when other cars were crossing the convoy or were moving around.

It was an another successful drive with drivers having a big smile at the end. Thanks to Daggerfall for selecting this area and presenting some nice challenges to the drivers.

Thanks to Rashid and Scorpio for being guardians to our inters and applause to all the drivers, hope you all had a nice fun.
User avatar
Rooies
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 102
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2018 3:50 pm
Has thanked: 51 times
Been thanked: 142 times

"Jungle" 2 - Rooies 0 TT TT

It was a "hot" Friday afternoon, my 2nd inter drive cool . I reached the meeting point & found [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] & [mention]Scorpio[/mention] parked on a dune, resting after the morning drive, could not make it up all the way because I have not deflated yet grin . I waked up, said hall & moved down & started deflating. The rest of the convoy joined us & did the same.

[mention]Daggerfall[/mention] called us for the briefing & explained what we will be doing the day. I was fairly back in the convoy, with [mention]Gabor[/mention] & [mention]Johanna[/mention] behind me. We started with a nice climb to get the blood pumping & my passenger went very quite very fast. grin . The going was good & it was not long before the "Jungle" struck & I had a pop out. My fellow drivers helped me & it was not long before we were back on the "road" again. For some reason I was "struggling", it just felt as things were not in place, I made silly "mistakes". The track was fairly messed up & there were a few second tries. The pace was nice & fast & we were running up, down, side crest & over the dunes. We did another climb & I missed the turn at the top & ended up in a very small bowl with no way of getting out. [mention]Gabor[/mention] came to my rescue, pulled me out & then I saw it....POP OUT #2 dark mood . I drove the dune & again my fellow drivers helped. Everybody was sitting on the dune in front of my car watching us fix the pop out hidden . We got it fixed & started of again, just before going againg [mention]Rashidjass[/mention] walked up to me & said that I must not get worked up about having to pop outs & that it happens to everybody some or other time. Can he read my mind OSMILEY

There were other convoys & cars in the area & one guy even jumped into our convoy & drove with us for a while. We stopped at a big dune & made turns to run up the dune, but again there were other cars "cutting: us off or following behind a car going up the dune. [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] made the call that we will leave the area, again the other driver jumped into our convoy, but left after a while.

There were a lot of tracks in the area & it made it difficult sometimes to stay on the right track.

It was a good drive, but I had a "bad day at the office", but it will not be a setback, it will be a learning curve.

Till we meet in the sand again, take care.

Greetings
Rooies
Nobody Gets Left Behind
User avatar
Thiago
Intermediate
Intermediate
Posts: 18
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:19 pm

Sorry for the late report but here it is.
It was the most demanding drive that I have ever been, [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] made us do a little of everything imaginable and it was awesome.
I was intimidated because i'm still a fresh intermediate but it feels like home out there.
There is so much more that I need to learn but I know that I'm in the right place to receive all the knowledge.
I'm also learning my jeep limitations and we will get there.

Thank you so much for the incredible time and opportunity to grow a little more.
Can't wait for the next one.
White JK Rubicon
Post Reply