Trip Report: almost4x4 Thrilling Solo – 28 July 2011
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caprihorse
- Golden Member
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2010 1:23 am
- Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
- Been thanked: 3 times
- Contact:
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We all know A53 very well, as we are driving this area frequently, but how a little change in trip planning can make the situation completely different.
Members received coordinates on Thursday afternoon, of a meeting point in A53, deep in the desert. The task was to come alone at requested time between 21:30 and 22:00, to the meeting point. Along with Advanced drivers were invited also Intermediate+ drivers, to show their skills.
Many drivers from all groups did not realize how far it is from the main road and were struggling to come on time. The point only form Al Badayer was 44 minutes of drive (measured by 2 Marshals earlier)…
This thrilling solo drive showed how big is a difference, if somebody is driving in the convoy or completely solo. In convoy you can rely on following the track of the buddies in front of you, driving solo it is your own decision making in various situations and single responsibility.
The area is much known to all, with small sharp dunes and many ditches, relatively easy to drive during the daylight, but in the night it can turn to be a nightmare. Many of the drivers were surprised and caught in situation, where they lost the traction and were hanging on the top of the edge with all 4 wheels freely rotating in the air.
Nissans, who arrived first to the meeting point, comfortably opened their chairs on the top of the high peak dune and were watching headlights coming from different directions one by one and having contact with the drivers over the radio.
“Identify yourself driver coming from 12 o’clock to the target.”
“Its’ me ‘nickname.’
After few minutes, watching in short distance geysers of sand (what a view), it is coming voice from radio:
“I’m stuck…”
“Wait, somebody will come soon and rescue you.”
Many drivers were cruising around the meeting point trying to find the way up. Even one driver, not having opened his radio, passed by 10 meters, where were other already arrived cars and went off, to get stuck at another bowl, a bit far away.
Marshals navigated remaining drivers to the best access route, to climb challenging meeting point.
At 22:25 almost all drivers arrived to the meeting point, except one driver, enjoying silent night and stars and waiting for the rescue 1.5 km away from the target. After a while, he welcomed the whole convoy of 19 cars with smiling face.
As we were now complete, we started night drive at 22:46 on the level of advanced route, led by AlKhatib. The drivers did very well, except some cases, where were not held appropriate distance between the cars, which resulted in additional circles, exploring new territory alone in the darkness or lost traction with typical rotating wheels in the air. As of course not to forget about some pop-outs, which were quickly resolved.
Some funny situations arrived, when we saw Bu Salem educating other members how to make circles at some steep places in his ‘Mini Me’ and screaming into the radio – ‘Sorry guys, my car is too weak :038:’.
With coming time, the focus of the drivers and their judgment went down, lost of traction and pop-outs did increase, so we headed to Al Badayer, where we arrived at 1:39. Majority of the convoy left back home, with their memories remembering this trip forever.
Nine last almost4x4 notorious ‘Mohicans’ headed to Pink Rock, to have additional advanced experience led by Hamdan, to discuss this night event and spend the night in the desert. Without any non standard event we had about one hour of excellent night driving experience.
Wake up in the morning at 6:30 and again 1 hour drive, without a single stop or additional circles for exploring a new territory, brought us back to Al Badayer, to enjoy joint breakfast and karak.
Lessons Learned
Is there anything else, which you would like to share with us, whether it is your own experience or Lessons Learned? Don’t be shy and share with others.
We all know A53 very well, as we are driving this area frequently, but how a little change in trip planning can make the situation completely different.
Members received coordinates on Thursday afternoon, of a meeting point in A53, deep in the desert. The task was to come alone at requested time between 21:30 and 22:00, to the meeting point. Along with Advanced drivers were invited also Intermediate+ drivers, to show their skills.
Many drivers from all groups did not realize how far it is from the main road and were struggling to come on time. The point only form Al Badayer was 44 minutes of drive (measured by 2 Marshals earlier)…
This thrilling solo drive showed how big is a difference, if somebody is driving in the convoy or completely solo. In convoy you can rely on following the track of the buddies in front of you, driving solo it is your own decision making in various situations and single responsibility.
The area is much known to all, with small sharp dunes and many ditches, relatively easy to drive during the daylight, but in the night it can turn to be a nightmare. Many of the drivers were surprised and caught in situation, where they lost the traction and were hanging on the top of the edge with all 4 wheels freely rotating in the air.
Nissans, who arrived first to the meeting point, comfortably opened their chairs on the top of the high peak dune and were watching headlights coming from different directions one by one and having contact with the drivers over the radio.
“Identify yourself driver coming from 12 o’clock to the target.”
“Its’ me ‘nickname.’
After few minutes, watching in short distance geysers of sand (what a view), it is coming voice from radio:
“I’m stuck…”
“Wait, somebody will come soon and rescue you.”
Many drivers were cruising around the meeting point trying to find the way up. Even one driver, not having opened his radio, passed by 10 meters, where were other already arrived cars and went off, to get stuck at another bowl, a bit far away.
Marshals navigated remaining drivers to the best access route, to climb challenging meeting point.
At 22:25 almost all drivers arrived to the meeting point, except one driver, enjoying silent night and stars and waiting for the rescue 1.5 km away from the target. After a while, he welcomed the whole convoy of 19 cars with smiling face.
As we were now complete, we started night drive at 22:46 on the level of advanced route, led by AlKhatib. The drivers did very well, except some cases, where were not held appropriate distance between the cars, which resulted in additional circles, exploring new territory alone in the darkness or lost traction with typical rotating wheels in the air. As of course not to forget about some pop-outs, which were quickly resolved.
Some funny situations arrived, when we saw Bu Salem educating other members how to make circles at some steep places in his ‘Mini Me’ and screaming into the radio – ‘Sorry guys, my car is too weak :038:’.
With coming time, the focus of the drivers and their judgment went down, lost of traction and pop-outs did increase, so we headed to Al Badayer, where we arrived at 1:39. Majority of the convoy left back home, with their memories remembering this trip forever.
Nine last almost4x4 notorious ‘Mohicans’ headed to Pink Rock, to have additional advanced experience led by Hamdan, to discuss this night event and spend the night in the desert. Without any non standard event we had about one hour of excellent night driving experience.
Wake up in the morning at 6:30 and again 1 hour drive, without a single stop or additional circles for exploring a new territory, brought us back to Al Badayer, to enjoy joint breakfast and karak.
Lessons Learned
- If you feel as experienced driver during the day, during the night drive it is completely a different experience
- If you are used to drive in the convoy, it is completely different to drive on your own
- Know your navigation system
- Keep distance
Is there anything else, which you would like to share with us, whether it is your own experience or Lessons Learned? Don’t be shy and share with others.
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Ask Jeeves [Bot]
- Bots
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Thu May 24, 2018 6:57 pm
man it is great. I liked the idea, also I enjoyed your report.
What a day.. once I stared the drive from al Refada area between the dunes I was thrilled and flooded with adrenaline.. I had to stop every time to check what is around me and behind the dunes so I can take the right decision. finally I felt good when I saw a flash light from top of the dunes and the sound in my radio " hello we can see you come towards the flash light".
Lessons learned:
1. Driving at night completely different from the normal drive.
2. Driving alone is very difficult if you don't have the track saved in your GPS.
3. Learned new technique to fix the pop out if the air leaks from both sides of the tire ( Thanks to Faisal ).
4. First time to drive alone at night in the desert, So I learn how to stay calm and drive carefully with extra caution.
5. Easy to lose the sense of direction so keep watching the compass.
6. Must must have extra lights for night drive.
It was new experience.. Thanks to all Marshals for the nice trip and thanks to Al Katib for the nice track.
Lessons learned:
1. Driving at night completely different from the normal drive.
2. Driving alone is very difficult if you don't have the track saved in your GPS.
3. Learned new technique to fix the pop out if the air leaks from both sides of the tire ( Thanks to Faisal ).
4. First time to drive alone at night in the desert, So I learn how to stay calm and drive carefully with extra caution.
5. Easy to lose the sense of direction so keep watching the compass.
6. Must must have extra lights for night drive.
It was new experience.. Thanks to all Marshals for the nice trip and thanks to Al Katib for the nice track.
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Abu Jimmy
- Marshal
- Posts: 135
- Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 5:54 pm
- Location: Sharjah
- Has thanked: 1 time
- Been thanked: 2 times
An amaizing trip , with lots of new experience , and it was truly a thrilling solo ,followed by an excellent track led by al khatib and hamdan , the joy and fun was limitless,
i have calculated the distance i covered and it was around 75 km in one night only , isnt that realy a pure offroading fun..!!!
Many thanks for the organizers for this great idea ,which we benefit the most .and special thanks to al khatib and hamdan for the wonderful track.
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..
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i have calculated the distance i covered and it was around 75 km in one night only , isnt that realy a pure offroading fun..!!!
Many thanks for the organizers for this great idea ,which we benefit the most .and special thanks to al khatib and hamdan for the wonderful track.
...
..
.
What goes around , comes around .
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Desert King
- Intermediate
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2011 9:33 am
WoooooW….!!! What a Great Drive !!!
First of all my sincere thanks to the marshals for organizing such a wonderful drive and the members to joining this challenging event.
I received the coordinate @04:00 PM and prepared my own way to reach the meeting point. I am well aware of driving at night in desert without extra lights. It will be a nightmare. Since I don’t have additional lights, I decided to choose a shortest route through the dunes to reach the meeting point though the total distance to the meeting point from Al Badayer was little lengthy.
From Al Badayer I drove towards Madam and took the track to Iftar Bowl. After crossing the farms area, before Iftar Bowl I turned right towards the meeting point which I believe the shortest drive through the small dunes in this area. This area got small dunes but all tricky. The dunes height is lesser than your vehicle’s height but you will be trapped. But any way I enjoyed driving so.
Before reaching the meeting point - where I can see the lights are going around, upwards and downwards - I decided to demonstrate some lessons, such as, what are the consequences of Driving in desert at night alone without enough lights? So I parked my car top of a ridge and sent message to Capri. Then Capri sent a team led by only and one and only Al Khatib with his team. When he was approaching to me I felt like the sun is rising from in between the dunes. Then Al Khatib demonstrated how to remove a parked car on top of the ridge at night. After removing my car from there one of my friends took the practical session of the same demonstration at same ridge. After that we move to a safer place and wait for the other members to join. Finally everybody joined and Mr. Bu Salem just stops beside me and asking on radio “Where is Desert King? Did you people meet him?”
We started drive around 10:30 PM led by Al Khatib. When we started the drive one of my head light went off. I check for the fuse and loose connection but, unfortunately couldn’t rectify anything. I was driving with a single light. When you are driving in a convoy at night, if you have only one light, it is OK! But when you are driving alone at night you require enough light to avoid nightmares.
The drive was awesome. The track which Al Khatib was chosen was fantastic. Really enjoyed the drive. Especially the stretch just before reaching to Al Badayer. Once we reached Al Badayer, I left the convoy with some of other members and heads to home. When I touched the tarmac the light which was went off in desert surprisingly back in action again.
I have a small request to the marshals to organize the similar drive on ‘day time’ so that the peoples like me who got only one or half light even they can enjoy.
Once again I really appreciate the people whose brain worked behind this idea. I like this concept.
Looking ahead for more & more such drives.
Thank you all…
First of all my sincere thanks to the marshals for organizing such a wonderful drive and the members to joining this challenging event.
I received the coordinate @04:00 PM and prepared my own way to reach the meeting point. I am well aware of driving at night in desert without extra lights. It will be a nightmare. Since I don’t have additional lights, I decided to choose a shortest route through the dunes to reach the meeting point though the total distance to the meeting point from Al Badayer was little lengthy.
From Al Badayer I drove towards Madam and took the track to Iftar Bowl. After crossing the farms area, before Iftar Bowl I turned right towards the meeting point which I believe the shortest drive through the small dunes in this area. This area got small dunes but all tricky. The dunes height is lesser than your vehicle’s height but you will be trapped. But any way I enjoyed driving so.
Before reaching the meeting point - where I can see the lights are going around, upwards and downwards - I decided to demonstrate some lessons, such as, what are the consequences of Driving in desert at night alone without enough lights? So I parked my car top of a ridge and sent message to Capri. Then Capri sent a team led by only and one and only Al Khatib with his team. When he was approaching to me I felt like the sun is rising from in between the dunes. Then Al Khatib demonstrated how to remove a parked car on top of the ridge at night. After removing my car from there one of my friends took the practical session of the same demonstration at same ridge. After that we move to a safer place and wait for the other members to join. Finally everybody joined and Mr. Bu Salem just stops beside me and asking on radio “Where is Desert King? Did you people meet him?”
We started drive around 10:30 PM led by Al Khatib. When we started the drive one of my head light went off. I check for the fuse and loose connection but, unfortunately couldn’t rectify anything. I was driving with a single light. When you are driving in a convoy at night, if you have only one light, it is OK! But when you are driving alone at night you require enough light to avoid nightmares.
The drive was awesome. The track which Al Khatib was chosen was fantastic. Really enjoyed the drive. Especially the stretch just before reaching to Al Badayer. Once we reached Al Badayer, I left the convoy with some of other members and heads to home. When I touched the tarmac the light which was went off in desert surprisingly back in action again.
I have a small request to the marshals to organize the similar drive on ‘day time’ so that the peoples like me who got only one or half light even they can enjoy.
Once again I really appreciate the people whose brain worked behind this idea. I like this concept.
Looking ahead for more & more such drives.
Thank you all…
