New Stars of 2020 - Trip Report

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Phoenix
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Please post 2020 Drive trip reports here.
Adventurous League of Mountains, Oceans and Sand Thrills
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Tomvanhouten
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Hi All,

what a great day it was! First of all thanks to the whole organisation making it possible to do this! Very impressed by the professional guidance, safety and skills of this group.

We are definitely hooked after this day and are looking forward to the next possibility.

Our day started with a warm welcome of some of the crew, as we were quite early. After having the briefing and line-up done, the day progressed kind of embarrassing getting stuck on a crest after nearly five minutes, but hey someone has to be the first... ;)

A bit later on, got some feeling for it and dared to push the car a bit more, where i could notice that the sweaty hands were becoming more and more dry, until Agalon put in some beautiful and steep descends, which were fantastic to do (as a first timer off course).

The day ended just after Fossil rock on the tarmac, where at the gas station we found that a new and bigger compressor would be an absolute necessity..amateur..

Anyway, a great day! After washing the car and getting the sand out from my self, I feel like I can't wait till the next one!

Thanks and hopefully see you all soon again
johno1521
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All,

Thank you for an amazing experience. Today was my first off road adventure.

Well actually, last year I took my then new F150 (LWB) into the desert off of Al Qudra road and got stuck on my first dune. That drive lasted less than 15 seconds but as I had a car full of friends, they have never forgotten and I have been the butt of the joke ever since.
XD

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My goal for today was to make it to the second dune. That would have been a 100% improvement.

Field Report:

Started the day at home scrambling to find my radios only to find both batteries dead. Fortunately they charge fast and can be charged whilst driving. As I had never used the radio I thought it best to bring the manual along.

I arrives at the meeting point at exactly 13.30. It took me 30min to deflate. I defiantly need to buy a deflation tool!

After an excellent briefing from @Scorpio I was assigned to Convoy 2. After getting in line I circled to the back as I did not have a flag. A must for next drive!

Convoy 2's lead (sorry....bad with names) gave a small brief at which time I tried and failed to tune my radio. Another member tried to help me tune my radio and after conferring with some of the other marshals we still could not get it tuned. Not to worry though, I had the manual with me, right.

I jumped back into the car and we took off into the desert.

As someone got suck right out of the gate I had a moment to quickly read the trusty radio manual. The manual was about as useful as AC in Jeep Wrangler with the roof and doors open in August. Ok lets forget about the radio for today and just enjoy the drive.

Approaching dune no.1......mentally preparing myself to get stuck......give it some gas......over the crest and down the other side. SUCCESS!!! At this very early point in the drive I had already accomplished my goal of not getting stuck on the first dune.....again.

Dune no. 2, no issues. Dune no. 3, no problem.

Well I am glad to report that I made it through the day without any problems and really enjoyed myself. Somewhere along the drive I even figured out how to tune the radio. (Kenwood TK-UV3 comes with pre-installed "channels" and has a reset option buried deep in the menu).


Looking forward to next weeks drive.

Johno
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Scorpio
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Hello Everyone,

Welcome to Almost4x4 have a nice day .

The weather was just perfect and we had an amazing afternoon with many new faces. As per the plan, first we had the briefing on the off-roading basics followed by the convoy formation for the drive.

Three convoys were made to conduct the drive and I was leading the first convoy, second convoy was lead by @Agalon and third by @presa. We had with us our two of the Founders @zico and @ALKHATIB who joined two of the convoys for supervision and guidance. We had @Barish and @Rashidjass who were floating around to keep a constant watch on the convoys.

We had an enjoyable drive and did some fast runs, straight crests, climbs & drops on the way thumbsup . We found a lot of tourists in that area and we re-routed ourselves to keep everyone safe. Climbing the fossil rock was awesome and we enjoyed some nice scenery from the top. Just after @Agalon convoy climbed the fossil rock, we started our journey down and after some soft sand areas we reached the tarmac and ended the drive at the fuel station. Great drive everyone and I hope you enjoyed your time thumbsup .

We had a very pleasant surprise in the form of another club founder who joined us at the fuel station to meet and greet with the new members; it was non-other than @alshamsi_m.

Congratulations to all those who have earned their first star and have become a newbie already 8-) ; get ready to join the ‘Twinkle Stars’ drive coming Friday so, keep an eye on the registration time.

If you have not earned your star yet but have completed the required tools, please contact one of the marshals for inspection and to get the newbie star yuush .

I would like to appreciate and thanks our Crew, Advance and Intermediate members for their great support and effort thumbsup .

It was great meeting you all and hope to see you on the next weekend on the sand..

Cheers
Scorpio
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Drives a grey FJ 'Everest'
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Phoenix
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Its always amazing to welcome new members to the family, I was very early to the meeting point after about an hour @presa, @Johanna, @Gabor and @hamzahng drove in. It was lovely meeting all of the family members again and thanx for the KFC @presa.

I was in the second convoy as sweeper + float we had the usual second tries and stucks but that is all part of the fun.

I always mention this in my reports and i will mention it again :

Don't worry if you get stuck or do multiple tries, it only means that you are playing it safe. Getting stuck and doing something in multiple tries is part of the fun.

So a big welcome to the family for all the new members, we are very excited to drive with you.

See you all on the sand.
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Mehdi
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Hello everyone, all the members of the almost 4x4, as well as to the new contenders present yesterday.

A big thank you to the staff present yesterday, firstly the organizer of the “news stars 2020-club members”.

This event has allowed us to evolve in an environment that is not ours (for some).
The pre-departure briefing helped demystify certain technical data, either for driving in convoys or crossing the dunes.
the practice was done directly on the sand just after, for our greatest pleasure.
Many thanks to the assistance, for their support!!!

Also glad to have met other club members at the service station, they will recognize themselves.
I apologize if I could ever have forgotten to thank and greet someone before turning back home.

Looking forward meeting you soon.
kind regards,
Mehdi (MZZ)
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Nabeel
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Hello everyone,

Had an amazing Friday afternoon spent out with an amazing team... Right from the briefing to the convoys to the drive everything went very well... and well coordinated and rightfully selected for the new ones on the sand... Briefing by @Scorpio was very informative and helpful, also the support by the rest of the crew was great... it never looked like we were a bunch of strangers but rather a well organized team enjoying the lovely sand... Thank you very much ALMOST4X4...!

My kit was inspected by @Rashidjass and have some shortage that I look forward to fill out soon... and join the ride as a Newbie.... thumbsup
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presa
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Hi Almoster!

Welcome to the new comers!!

I arrived early due to coming directly from the morning drive. @optimus provide us with some KFC, that I was assigned to deliver for @Phoenix ... And I even got some credits for it 🙈

I was leading convoy 3 and everyone did very well! Thank you all intermediates, advanced, Mashals and Founders for the support. The convoy was very well guard with so many stars around it!

Our objective is to prepare all of you to become offroaders, so welcome to the Almost4x4 family and notice that we have a newbie 5- drive next weekend, so get your tools check asap to get your first star and be allowed to join the drive.
Chris1101
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Hello Almosters!

My family and I had so much fun on this drive, had the chance to try out the vehicle that i have just upgraded and was happy with it.

It was very pleasant to see that the group has grown so much after just a few years! the almost4x4 family has developed and acquired very nice and professional people within the group. the big family atmosphere is so much appreciated!

Special thanks to @Phoenix , @Scorpio , for tagging us along on short notice, thank you @presa for the very nice drive.

@ALKHATIB it was very nice to see you again after several years, still cannot forget how you made me follow you on your SWB jeep that made me think that it had wings years back! XD , thanks chief!

@alshamsi_m thanks chief for having us back in the group, hope to see you in the sand soon.

Here are some photos of our big smiles!

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Kudos ALMOST4X4!
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