Red Dunes

[CARLOSS]

Hello everyone!

“Red Dunes” drive was very beautiful because it covered several areas with a bit of everything: small dunes, tracks, drops, soft sand, camels and even trees! We were supposed to cover +20km but my GPS recorded around 57km which it is great for a -5 level. Starting from Al Badayer, crossing Bid Red, Fossil rock, 2 Dec cafeteria etc and finishing close to Milehah.

But let’s start from the beginning: The drive for me started around noon time with some friends (@Laarni , Ehab, Orlansev and @brett ) coming from the previous drive so we needed to refill our stomachs with some delicious Indian food. After lunch, we spent some quality time sharing stories and discussing about mods around 100m from the meeting point. Great time!

Once in the meeting point, a few newbies did not show up meaning for more fun for the ones attending. We, intermediates, were distributed in the convoy between 2 newbies with @alshamsi_m leading, @orlantsev and @Solmaz floating and @Ehab as second lead.

The convoy performed well, at least in the front, with a few stucks and second tries which is normal…still, my rope was expecting to do some more work but, we will wait for the next chance.

All in all, we spend a wonderful afternoon/evening in the desert thanks to Almost!

See you soon

Carlos

[drvillo]

Thank you everyone for yesterday's drive. I only managed to take one lame video of the last drop, which probably means I was too busy having fun.

Special mention to those who quickly gathered to deinflate my tyres at the very beginning. I've now learnt I need to add a good 20% on the reading of my pressure gauge to get it about right .
Alarm is now set for Mondays 5:57pm GST. See you next time!

[PedroLeal]

Hello Almosters,

Before I start with the trip report itself, I'll start by telling a story that happened to me on my way to the meeting point.

I had planned to go early, reach the location ahead of time, find a shadow nearby and have my lunch.
Left home, and took a shortcut path behind my community that takes me to Qudra road without having to do a 20 min U-turn.
This shortcut crosses a desert area, mostly with compacted sand, but with some patches of soft sand.
My wife was asking me why I was driving so faaast, and I said to her I did'n put transmission in 4H.
Usually I do it quite often on 4WD without deflating, but this time I decided to do it using 2WD only. Why? Because so!
Of course there was a section with soft sand and a small ditch that I had to slow down... I think I don't have to tell the rest...
Air down, shovel and traction boards out, a few digging later and we were on the move again.
The problem is that the time we lost on digging and inflating again destroyed our "lunch under a shadow" plan!
However it was a good warmup for the drive!

We arrived to the meeting location on time, and shortly all the "gang" was there.
@alshamsi_m called for the attendance and defined the convoy order.
The drive had a good mix of small dunes, sand tracks, and a few drops.
The pace was not bad for a fresh newbie drive, with just a few second tries and a recovery.
We had the opportunity to observe @CARLOSS on how to recover a lexus!
Reaching to Al Faya area, we had a good surprise! We could experience a nice drop, after being briefed by @alshamsi_m on how to control our car and avoid fish-tailing.
We reached meliha area to end the drive and watch the sunset while having some karak, coffee and cookies kindly provided by @alshamsi_m.
This is one of my favourite aspects of the Almost drives by the way!

Thank you to all marshals, intermediate supporters and newbies for making this drive to happen.
I'm so happy and proud of starting to belong to Almost4x4 family, which is making me go and check the app every day to lookout for the next drive!

See you soon in the sand!

Pedro

[brett]

Dear Almosters,

The afternoon drive was intended for 5- Newbies. We arrived very early after our large Rice and Chicken, Mutton platter lunch, so we parked up near by the meeting point and @CARLOSS set about erecting a shade tarp between our cars. sitting and chatting about past drives and relaxing, some funny stories for sure @Laarni @Ehab yes @Tomvanhouten you were surely missed all day.

We proceeded over to the official meeting point and the enthusiastic drivers started to appear. One particular driver was so excited to join the drive he had turned up at the meeting point on Saturday afternoon !! only to realise he was a day early !

@alshamsi_m gave the briefing and convoy positions were assigned. This time with @Ehab in second lead. Intermediates, advanced and even marshalls were present to keep the watchful eyes on the newbies. A huge thank you to you all. Almost4x4 is only possible due to the dedication of the Founders, Marshalls, Advanced Drivers, Intermediates, Media and Crew who tirelessly volunteer their time and energy for the enjoyment and development of our Members. @alshamsi_m @Solmaz @Agalon @orlantsev @Jasper @CARLOSS @AndreAJ @Laarni and a warm welcome back to @Johanna. Apologies if i missed anyone.

It was a lovely drive at a nice pace on a reasonably easy track for the development of the Newbies. There were a few second tries and I think just one recovery of a hapless gravity situation for the Lexus. An introduction to "The Drop" technique was an added bonus for the newcomers. The drive came to an end all too soon as the sun was setting while we enjoyed the Karak and Cookies.

After the drive it was obvious this new batch are becoming addicted to the Dunes and the unique qualities that being a member of the Almoxt4x4 family brings to everyone involved.

[Aksoy]

Hi Almosters,

My excitement increased with reaching to the meeting point and starting the preparations since I was a passenger for a while and I was fixing the flags and inflating the tires but this time I had to deflate the tires via pin remover ....... which I didn't tried this technique before.

This seems like a task that needs to be executed diligently: You need to make sure that the pin does not fly while removing it with the sudden pressure coming out of the tire and keep measuring regularly the rapidly deflating tire until you reach the pressure level you want and make sure you don't drop the pin and fix it back gently without breaking it ... Mission accomplished

After the briefing the drive started and we had tackled many different type of obstacles during the drive and went through different types of terrain including small dunes, mid size dunes, climbs, small rocks looks like coffee beans, trees , birds, camels amazing rock formations and red colored sand , big drops etc. and I loved it!

The drive was smooth and had a good flow which I had fun.

At the end of the drive we enjoyed the delicious karak , coffee and cookies shared by @alshamsi_m

Thanks to all organized , supported and participated this nice trip and see you next time.

[Ehab]

Very nice track followed by the founder, amazing scenery and lot if learnings for the newbies. Crest to flat and drops was the main focus.
I was delighted to drive behind the founder as second lead while trying to capture as many footage as possible.

Enjoy watching