Through the tunnels

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Tekton
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Hello everyone,

First of all I would like to thank [mention]Booy[/mention] for inviting me to the drive.

I arrive at meeting point 15:55 due to very heavy rain, the highways were blocked and speed slow to less than 50kph, meanwhile called [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] and notified him regarding condition so the convoy would not leave and appreciate for patience.

[mention]Booy[/mention] was leading convoy and i was honored to be 2nd lead for the first time, it was very nice experience especially when we had situation that i had to take convoy 15m to the left i felt important person at the time :D...

Entire drive was fun and relaxing until the last end where i believe half of convoy was stuck in bowl and dune after the bowl :D so we had nice brake accept [mention]Johanna[/mention] she did the most rescue and awarded for chief rescue Marshal of the drive :D...

Over all there was nothing serious everyone seams enjoyed the drive, after the drive some people stayed little longer so we had nice chit chat...

Thanks to [mention]Booy[/mention] for organizing the drive, [mention]alshamsi[/mention] [mention]Daggerfall[/mention] [mention]Agalon[/mention] [mention]Johanna[/mention] [mention]mahesh_bmj[/mention] [mention]Petr[/mention] [mention]Thiago[/mention] [mention]Defragmantor[/mention] for all kind of supports during the drive!!

Thanks once again,
Almost4x4 - Tekton
Tekton
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Petr
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Hello All,

[mention]Booy[/mention] selected an interesting area with a lot of trees and the sand was sprinkled with a rainstorm just before the drive. I took the role of the convoy photographer, so will let the picture talk instead this time.

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Johanna
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Hi everyone,

After I came back from the morning intermediate drive, I just had 2 hours at home to get ready again for our afternoon drive.
As I was afraid to fall asleep on my couch, I left early and reached the meeting point at 3pm. When I left home, I saw a wall of dark clouds coming from Al Ain direction towards Dubai O_O

Just shortly after I reached the meeting point, the wind picked up a speed and I started to rain heavily out of a sudden. I have never seen this in the summer before OSMILEY

We had a big Convoy of 20 cars, lead by [mention]Booy[/mention] with [mention]Agalon[/mention] and [mention]alshamsi_m[/mention] (in his Jimny) as support, as well as couple of inter drivers inside the convoy.

The area is lovely, with trees around and a special light after the rain and we could enjoy a beautiful country side drive, with technical areas and flat areas in between. The whole drive was very smooth with no stucks and only very few second tries.

Towards the end of the drive we reached a technical area with a few sharp straight crests in a row. And all of the sudden we had several stucks and second tries. I did 3 rescues within 15 minutes, thanks guys for the opportunity. And dont worry if you get stuck, its part of the learning curve and a chance for inters to train rescues. So at the end its a win/win situation and we all learned something Psmiley

We finished the drive at around 7pm, and I stayed around one more hour chit chatting about the eventful day.

I was very happy to see [mention]Phoenix[/mention] at the meeting point. He came to chit chat with us, enjoyed the rain and went home again when we started the drive.
It was good to see you man, hope to see you more often again soon grin

Thank you everyone it was a great drive, see you all soon. have a nice day
BR, Johanna

If it excites you and scares you at the same time, it probably means you should do it.
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Booy
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Hello everyone,

What a pleasant surprise we got with a rainy start.

I was hoping to do some water crossings since part of the planned drive was through wadis, but the dry, hot sand soaked up the water so quickly, and we did not even see one water puddle in the desert.

It was a nice relaxing Friday afternoon drive through UAQ, RAK and we ended up in Sharjah. Nice and relaxing, until we crossed the last chain of dunes just before the end point. This is where the stuck fest started with cars sitting on crests everywhere you looked. Off course, we cannot keep it too relaxing :) There is absolutely no shame in getting crested. Much better than using too much speed, flying and damaging your vehicle.

Thank you everyone who joined and supported the drive.

See you in the sand - the sooner the better.

Regards,

Booy
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Adrian
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Dear All,
This was my tenth drive with the club and my first opportunity to try out my new tyres (Kumho Roadventure AT51) as were recommended by Alshamsi. Unfortunately I didn’t get off to a good start. Rain had started just before arriving at the meeting point and I was getting a little bit wet deflating and then made a rookie mistake on the last tyre. Maybe because I was rushing to get back in the car out of the rain which was getting heavier, I mustn’t have screwed the valve back in properly and when I unscrewed the EZ deflator the valve fell on the sand and by the time I got it back in the pressure was down to a few PSI. So now I had to get out the compressor and just then the rain started lashing down. I had to retreat into the car with the bonnet open and the compressor connected and sat on the sand. After 10 minutes sheltering inside the car it was still lashing it down and I was thinking I was going to have to complete the inflation despite the storm because it was getting close to starting time. Anyway the rain finally eased off and I reflated hoping nobody had noticed but there were too many prying eyes around to get away with it!
About 10 minutes into the dive I heard a knocking sound coming from my front left wheel and feared a serious transmission problem. Turned out to be a piece of material stuck to the tyre and flapping about. Phew what a relief.
The drive itself was quite a relaxed one along mostly flat areas with the occasional challenging steep dunes. As others have mentioned, at the end of the drive there were some particularly challenging dunes and a few stuck cars but I managed them much more easily than previous drives because of the new tyres.
Thanks again to all the marshalls, intermediates etc. for giving up your valuable time so that us Newbies can learn from you and have a great day out at the same time. Once again I was really impressed with the patience you all show to those drivers who get stuck or have second tries, so that they don’t get stressed and then go airborne on the next crest.
I’m looking forward to being able to join 10+ drives now.
Adrian
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Booy
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5 trip reports from a 20 car convoy...
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Saeed FJ
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Booy wrote: Mon Jun 24, 2019 5:50 pm 5 trip reports from a 20 car convoy...
That’s sad
Love to read and know what happen each drive
I will give them a hint which they need it
Upgrading to intermediate required to be active in the forum
https://almost4x4.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=126

Looking forward to see the other report
Abu Madi
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Congratulations [mention]Adrian[/mention] on your big tenth. This was only my fifth drive, mostly because my wife and I shared the same car and we could not drive in the same convoy. That is all about to change since we now each have our own off-road wheels.
This was my first drive in the FJ since taking delivery from the dealership. The car felt a little sluggish and disconnected from the road on my way to the meeting point so I had no idea what to expect on the sand. To my surprise the stock suspension felt amazing on the sand and it soaked up the irregularities beautifully. [mention]Booy[/mention] could not have chosen a better route for my maiden voyage. There was ample opportunity to connect with the car on the flat terrain, but the technical bit caught me completely off guard. I got crested twice on the same dune and was effortlessly recovered by [mention]Johanna[/mention] .
Despite numerous reassurances from the marshals that getting stuck is part of the learning experience, I can’t help feeling like I’m ruining the drive for everyone else when it happens to me.
Well I do feel like I know the car better now and future drives should be without similar incident.
Thanks for the opportunity to explore and experience a part of the UAE that I would not otherwise have discovered.
Ride or Die🚙
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Palavarp wrote: Wed Jun 26, 2019 9:08 pm
Despite numerous reassurances from the marshals that getting stuck is part of the learning experience, I can’t help feeling like I’m ruining the drive for everyone else when it happens to me.
Well I do feel like I know the car better now and future drives should be without similar incident.
Hey [mention]Palavarp[/mention],

Nice report. On the contrary to what you mentioned above and in support of what the marshalls say and also I believe I say this on behalf of all the intermediates, advance and marshalls that IT IS MUCH BETTER TO GET STUCK THAN TO FLY.

Everyone gets stuck now and then whenever we drive off road, it really is part of the fun because then we plan a rescue and get to execute the plan. It helps us learn and have fun. I am sure everyone will agree on the fact that pulling out a stuck car is far better than rescuing a broken car that flew then landed and damaged itself.

Whenever you are not certain about a climb or a dune then just study the car in front of you and take it sloww and easy. If you get stuck then simply do a second try or let the inters rescue you. We enjoy doing that 😁, slowly and steadily you will learn your car's behaviour in different situations and it will become a second habit to manoeuvre it. This is how we all went through the learning curve.

Glad you are enjoying driving with us.

See you on the sand.
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Johanna
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Hi [mention]Palavarp[/mention],

please dont worry when you get stuck or when you need several tries.
When we face difficulties it means we are learning and I assure you it happens in all levels.

And it was your first drive in the FJ, so take it easy on yourself. And support team is always happy to help thumbsup

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.
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