Bowls & Crests

[Ehab]

Bowls and crests, first intermediate trip in this year winter season, morning trip with breezy start, 6 marshals and more than 15 drivers and 2 advanced in Sweihan crowded area which require special skillset to go through.

We had a lot of fun and good amount of learning from the Club Founder to safely rescue a car which was in a difficult and complicated situation.

Enjoy watching

[osman]

Hello fellow drivers,

I missed so many intermediate drives due to my travels, only with one exception which I had re-route to a tyre shop instead of the meeting point few weeks ago. My last int drive was first of April for collecting the GPS game flags and the last marshal led convoy style drive was in January. I did not even realize I had such a big gap before writing this report!

Giorgio split the group into two convoys and I was in Scorpio's convoy with Al Shamsi floating, Ehab being the second lead. As usual, Al Shamsi was everywhere, helping us if there is a need and rooms to improve.

As soon as we started to move, I realized how much I missed the intermediate drives and needless to say how much of a rust I had. The rusty part already showed itself with far more than usual second tries and sweaty hands at times.

I am crossing my fingers that I will not miss any more int drives while I am away as there are a few more travel plans.

Thanks Giorgio for arranging the drive, Scorpio for the great lead and Al Shamsi for the great support.

[ImranFJ]

Hello Everyone,

What a beautiful morning drive in Sweihan with a great number of drivers and marshals. We had a nice briefing complimented by the nice weather.

We were split into two even convoys due to the good number of intermediates that joined. I had the pleasure of being @Giorgio ’s second lead along with the great support of @Rapailo and @Rashidjass.

The drive was called bowls and crests but as we kept driving all I could think of was drift & and switch Many unexpected U-turns and drifts (safe ones )on dunes which needed good momentum was a great test of a skill we don’t usually test. It was absolutely lovely, the flow was great, we drove without overtaking but there were only a couple of second tries which didn't affect the flow.

Driving in this area has started to remind me of Al Badayer. So many tracks and convoys around that, almost lost the track a couple of times but we kept a good distance between cars to know our tracks.

Thanks as always to the Marshals and support for making these events memorable! Looking forward to the upcoming thrills

[orlantsev]

Hello all,

it was a good timing for me to join, before I disappear for few weeks.

I had to pick a passenger who just recently moved to Dubai so had to wake up before 5 am. On the way, while passing the Sweihan he asked me if we were going up those dunes :)

Weather was lovely in the morning. I was assigned to @scorpio's convoy which consisted "older" intermediates. @alshamsi_m was floating. I told him that it had been a very long time since I was at the convoy led by him especially in higher level drives. Hopefully I passed the message across :)

Overall the pace was good, and second tries were not causing much delay. At around 9.30 we had a break with usual karak, coffee and cookies. During the break we discussed that in current very commercial environment it is so unusual to have something for free. This is what Almost 4x4 is about. Many passengers and joiners think they would be asked for payment, or assume that if it is free than the experience would be sub-standard. None of this cold be less true.

It appears that @mpodroid was not satisfied with the duration of the break as shortly after he decided to call for another one. The car was stuck in a V ditch. alshamsi_m orchestrated the recovery in which the car was pulled horizontally while being anchored from another side.

All in all another great day!

[CARLOSS]

Hi everyone!

Another drive another trip report accompanied by my second morning’s coffee.

This one, Bowls & Crests, was organized by Master of Dunes Giorgio who decided to split the members in 2 convoys: One for the less experienced and another for the more. I was allocated in the second led by Tailor of the Dunes Scorpio seconded by Master of Masters Shamsi, with my bro Ehab taking the second lead and me, self-appointed as sweeper.

Some may know that Scorpio has a refund policy: “Should you not be satisfied with the drive you will get your money back” (LOL)…but so far nobody requested for one because he knows how to squeeze every single dune to make it fun and safe. Even with complicated terrains (tracks everywhere) he managed to get the convoy challenged all the time.

And mentioned before, I was at the back (again) witnessing the convoy’s performance and enjoying the scenery & beautiful morning. The good thing of being the sweeper is that you see from time to time someone’s else mistakes, learn from them and normally apply the right momentum and angle after that (LOL)…it is like copying exams!

All went well as expected with members playing safe and having fun…even a member became creative by making an improvised shelter by means of a car…huge credit!. And talking about credit, our Founder gave us another master class…the lesson of the day was: “Recovery from the side”…I am still speechless 2 days after. Incredible mastery!

But there was no “fairy-tale ending” because I finished the drive with tears in my eyes when I saw the convoy bypassing “old lady” from the North side…it was already late I guess, so we have “another” unfinished business there!

Looking forward for the big dunes & full day drives to come! See you in the EIB.

Carlos

[Petr]

I retired my old and well-serving Red Riding Hood JKU Jeep and switched to my new silver JK (one of the last one produced before the new JL line). My first desert drive was last weekend with newbie dive and it looked my Silver Bullet loves desert and the desert loves him, now I was looking forward to test it in the higher level.

As there were two convoys on the day, Giorgio suggested I join the "younger" intermediates as a sweeper where I can accomodate my level upwards or downwards while I am geting a grip over the new car. The drive was smooth and easy going, with only few second tries happening during the whole morning that was interrupted only by one pop-out. It gave me a chance to watch the behavior of the car without any stress, so let me share some observations.

Obviously there were some differences from the JKU experience - driving on the ridge of a dune for longer time was less stable than in JKU. It had a tendency to slide on sides. On the other hand if I did slide off, I could sometimes get back, which is impossible with JKU. Another (expected) difference was the climbing power - as the JK has the same engine as JKU but a lighter body, it has an apparent advantage. Anyway I was expecting slightly more than the Silver Bullet showed, so I went to check the air filter that I haven't seen since the purchase of the car. I found it was black, with some dead wasps bodies hanging there, I guess since the previous winter. I suspect this throttled the power a good bit. Anyway, we didn't do any really challenging climbs that day so I could not see the real limits yet.

I look forward to the next inter drive to test the full potential. Thanks Giorgio for the "test" drive, opportunity, Rashid, Rapailo and Mahmoodyasin for support and my fellow intermediates for the company.

See you soon in sand!

[nidal78]

Hello Almosters

First of all I would like to thank Giorgio for organizing this beautiful drive
For me I like morning drives, the weather, the sun rise, the peace in the desert but I have always an issue of sleeping early in the night before the drive and I think this is something I must work on it because it seems like it was affecting my performance in some parts of the drive as Marshals told me, so I promised them to work on sleeping issue in the upcoming drives
Over all the drive was very nice and the flow was very good ( we finished half an hour before ending time)we had very few second tries and one pop out, we didn’t do a big climbs or a big bowls but the drive was a very good training session of switching, riding ridges and drifting
Finally I want to thank Giorgio again for organizing and leading this wonderful drive, our marshals Rashid and Rapailo for their support and guidance
Mahmoud yasin for his efforts, and to all my fellows who did great
Till next time be safe and see you soon on sand