O Solo Mio trip report
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caprihorse
- Golden Member
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2010 1:23 am
- Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
- Been thanked: 3 times
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Guys, don't be shy, write something, what is more descriptive... :010:
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Mazaaj
- Golden Member
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Wed Feb 15, 2012 11:45 pm
Another great trip with almost4x4..
On Thursday night I left home a bit late and I met the mini convoy (Khatib, Hamdan, Bu Hamdan, Lamboo & Omar) in Dubai/Al Ain Road. We decided to search for some wood in Al Ain and we took like 2 hours and half :010:. Al Ain map was totally wiped with blue eye track on my gps :029:. Later on we found some and they guy asked for triple price..anyway when we reached the camp we found out the guys already brought enough wood :036: We had some nice chitchat while gathering around the fire and enjoying hamdan's karak.
Around 2 am I decided to go have some sleep and my tent was close to the rest of the guys this time..after half an hour i heard someone is walking around the tents and coughing and it was Alfalasi trying to get an invitation to a tent (since he 4got his tent) but sadly all the tents where calm specificaly at that time :039:.
In the morning the rest of the group joined us and we prepared for the trip. As most of you know there was 5 mins between each challenger and my name wasn't in the first patch. So I decided to go for toilet break and at that time Capri stopped me and asked me for my destination. I was like I’m going toilet for 10 mins (I didn’t say 1 min as I didn’t want to go deep in details:030:). He suddenly smiled a weird smile (devilish one) and he said its ur turn GO!!! I don’t want to go further deep in details but it was the best practice you could do for "working under pressure"!.
I was almost not focusing in driving as I was dancing in the car because of all the fresh and virgin dunes I was watching. It’s not easy to find fresh dunes these days there are a lot of invaders specially in albadayer & madam area :055:
The dunes were really tricky but it can be figured out just after 5 mins driving. The weather was amazing and I extremely enjoyed driving.
Everyone did really great job specially the new intermediates and I'm really proud of you guys.
The rest of the of trip has been described by the rest of the guys already.
Thank you almost4x4 for believing in us by giving us such an opportunity and thank you for the all efforts.
Thank you almosters
On Thursday night I left home a bit late and I met the mini convoy (Khatib, Hamdan, Bu Hamdan, Lamboo & Omar) in Dubai/Al Ain Road. We decided to search for some wood in Al Ain and we took like 2 hours and half :010:. Al Ain map was totally wiped with blue eye track on my gps :029:. Later on we found some and they guy asked for triple price..anyway when we reached the camp we found out the guys already brought enough wood :036: We had some nice chitchat while gathering around the fire and enjoying hamdan's karak.
Around 2 am I decided to go have some sleep and my tent was close to the rest of the guys this time..after half an hour i heard someone is walking around the tents and coughing and it was Alfalasi trying to get an invitation to a tent (since he 4got his tent) but sadly all the tents where calm specificaly at that time :039:.
In the morning the rest of the group joined us and we prepared for the trip. As most of you know there was 5 mins between each challenger and my name wasn't in the first patch. So I decided to go for toilet break and at that time Capri stopped me and asked me for my destination. I was like I’m going toilet for 10 mins (I didn’t say 1 min as I didn’t want to go deep in details:030:). He suddenly smiled a weird smile (devilish one) and he said its ur turn GO!!! I don’t want to go further deep in details but it was the best practice you could do for "working under pressure"!.
I was almost not focusing in driving as I was dancing in the car because of all the fresh and virgin dunes I was watching. It’s not easy to find fresh dunes these days there are a lot of invaders specially in albadayer & madam area :055:
The dunes were really tricky but it can be figured out just after 5 mins driving. The weather was amazing and I extremely enjoyed driving.
Everyone did really great job specially the new intermediates and I'm really proud of you guys.
The rest of the of trip has been described by the rest of the guys already.
Thank you almost4x4 for believing in us by giving us such an opportunity and thank you for the all efforts.
Thank you almosters
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Arminjune
- Advance
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2011 8:18 pm
- Has thanked: 1 time
- Been thanked: 20 times
ok time to report you guys.
last post was short and sweet from me because I was driving :P
this is different post, you figure out what is true, what is lie.
it was around 6pm I got a call from an FJ rider, blease blease wait for me (in french accent) so I couldn't resist the accent and I waited. and had a great drive to camp site.
when we got close to camp site, I realized we are being chased by police "hello hello, identify your self." so I manages to speed up to 60km and ditch them in highway. then I found out it was Sarookh on radio. I wanted to make chicken soup out of him, but end of the day, he is my truck brother. we laughed about it.
I got to see Fadi after long time with his new jeep, it was great, and had good night talk with all. best Karak ever, thanks hamdan, and more friends came when night got longer.
I lost my blanket so I asked Geni to bring me hers since she was flying that morning. and when she left, I went to bed, and realized the blanket is small for me :-S I managed to get 2 hours sleep. and when I woke up I couldn't feel my ------- --- -- ------.
in the morning I herd my name to be first, so that was exiting. first, with fresh dunes and no guid no help no nothing. it must be my lucky day. and it was.
at first, I thought oh no, this is boring, and not challenging. reasons: I enjoy watching the car in-front of me, and watching stucks and challenges. two when others lead they find nice and challenging roots. I was like I will probably take easy roots and in my head think I'm doing wow.
then after few minutes of driving I got to my first challenge. gate blocked by desert ganges.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1155[/ATTACH]
it took me about 5 to 10 min to convince them to move away.
off to next check point and found some nice dunes, then I sow bu Ahmad and Rami looking for marshals for some nice hand shake. but no one was there. and we all got curios if we missed them or they are at next point. so me try to look for them around the dunes. and the dunes found me in V shape ditch. dig dig dig. no hope. I almost made a dune beside my car from digging. after 7 hours, Mazaaj spotted me, and I was like thank god its only him. and while I was digging to get to hook point, I keep hearing him laughing. I kept wondering why, after 2 hours I manages to hook it, and what did I see, Mr paparazzi on top taking pics. and he had no mercy. he always gets me when I'm not ready, no make up on!!!
finally got to hand shake point. and after that I face some awesome dunes, the root I took was almost fresh and amazing.
fast forward to gas station. we went to eat, and if you notice in previous picture, I'm not in it, thats because Mazaaj got me with his tennis racket. and he was going for Nasser. look at the pic and you see what I mean :P
in short:
Awesome drive, thx
:D
last post was short and sweet from me because I was driving :P
this is different post, you figure out what is true, what is lie.
it was around 6pm I got a call from an FJ rider, blease blease wait for me (in french accent) so I couldn't resist the accent and I waited. and had a great drive to camp site.
when we got close to camp site, I realized we are being chased by police "hello hello, identify your self." so I manages to speed up to 60km and ditch them in highway. then I found out it was Sarookh on radio. I wanted to make chicken soup out of him, but end of the day, he is my truck brother. we laughed about it.
I got to see Fadi after long time with his new jeep, it was great, and had good night talk with all. best Karak ever, thanks hamdan, and more friends came when night got longer.
I lost my blanket so I asked Geni to bring me hers since she was flying that morning. and when she left, I went to bed, and realized the blanket is small for me :-S I managed to get 2 hours sleep. and when I woke up I couldn't feel my ------- --- -- ------.
in the morning I herd my name to be first, so that was exiting. first, with fresh dunes and no guid no help no nothing. it must be my lucky day. and it was.
at first, I thought oh no, this is boring, and not challenging. reasons: I enjoy watching the car in-front of me, and watching stucks and challenges. two when others lead they find nice and challenging roots. I was like I will probably take easy roots and in my head think I'm doing wow.
then after few minutes of driving I got to my first challenge. gate blocked by desert ganges.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1155[/ATTACH]
it took me about 5 to 10 min to convince them to move away.
off to next check point and found some nice dunes, then I sow bu Ahmad and Rami looking for marshals for some nice hand shake. but no one was there. and we all got curios if we missed them or they are at next point. so me try to look for them around the dunes. and the dunes found me in V shape ditch. dig dig dig. no hope. I almost made a dune beside my car from digging. after 7 hours, Mazaaj spotted me, and I was like thank god its only him. and while I was digging to get to hook point, I keep hearing him laughing. I kept wondering why, after 2 hours I manages to hook it, and what did I see, Mr paparazzi on top taking pics. and he had no mercy. he always gets me when I'm not ready, no make up on!!!
finally got to hand shake point. and after that I face some awesome dunes, the root I took was almost fresh and amazing.
fast forward to gas station. we went to eat, and if you notice in previous picture, I'm not in it, thats because Mazaaj got me with his tennis racket. and he was going for Nasser. look at the pic and you see what I mean :P
in short:
Awesome drive, thx
:D
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strawb
- Golden Member
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Sun Jan 22, 2012 3:03 pm
the solo trip from alain to sweihan was definitely an adventure to develop "balls of steel" for the true offroader ........ get your waypoints and drive ......... no tracks.... no co-pilot ...... just me, my xj and my montana ...... the dunes were all fresh and its just so tempting to crash each dune i felt achievable to do so ....... it was a true test of awareness and risk anticipation ...... if you get stuck ..... you dont have a buddy to help and pull you out ........ you truly get a feel of how to develop your reaction time as well as dune assessment .....
that area from alain to sweihan is as majestic as liwa in a smaller scale ..... a good fair share of deep bowls with a spice of the egg basket in lissaili as well .....
all in all it was an outing to remember .....
thanks to the founders, marshal, explorers and fellow drivers who joined in this adventure .....
see you guys this friday
keep the sand flying
that area from alain to sweihan is as majestic as liwa in a smaller scale ..... a good fair share of deep bowls with a spice of the egg basket in lissaili as well .....
all in all it was an outing to remember .....
thanks to the founders, marshal, explorers and fellow drivers who joined in this adventure .....
see you guys this friday
keep the sand flying
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Paul
- Advance
- Posts: 0
- Joined: Mon Jan 02, 2012 5:40 pm
- Location: Dubai
Hi guys
Sorry for the delay in getting a report it..... Been busy at work. I am now in Venice, Italy in a hotel finally with some time to spare. The pizza place only opens in a few hours!!!!
I spent Thursday morning in a hotel in Tunis, with my laptop and Garmin GPS loading the route and BirdsEye Map. I got home from my fight at about 01:00 on Friday morning, packed the recovery gear, flag pole, radio etc, etc into the Jeep and went upstairs for a shower and a sleep. I had set the alarm for 5:30, but didn't need it. I woke up at 5:00 all excited for the 'O Solo Mio' challenge.....
My solo ( or lead ) driving experience has been limited to the 'Egg Basket challenge' and one or two private 'baby drives' and 'barbecue trips'.....
So now it's a Solo 20km drive. OK, I am sure I can do it. All I need is to concentrate, remember the basic rules and do what Almost4x4 has been teaching me for the past year. Easy!!!
The point of the exercise was to get to Sweihan safely and to practice solo driving. The route would be as easy or hard as you made it. My plan was to look for an easy route..... It would get hard enough very easily and quickly without me trying to make it hard......
The most noticible addition I needed to add to my dune reading and driving skills was to keep looking ahead for a route that's going more or less in the correct direction, while doing the normal close in manoeuvring. If you are not careful, you tend to go wondering off, up a dead-end valley or towards impossible slopes or just off in the wrong direction. This may sound rather obvious, but when in a convoy, you just follow the leaders and only concern yourself with the close in ditches, crests, ghosts and paparazzi.....
The second thing I noticed is how my route varied from Clubman to Newbie to Newbie+ to Intermediate to Intermediate+ and back again very quickly. The experience of our marshals and lead drivers must be outstanding to be able to keep an Newbie drive at Newbie level and an Intermediate drive at Intermediate level etc, etc. If a Newbie drive gets too hard, it could be dangerous and if an Intermediate drive is easy, the guys will get bored and complain about the lack of challenge.
I loved every second of the drive and hope we can do this more often. It was a great learning experience. It was 'artificial solo' in some way, because you know there is help at the other end of the radio..... So you can focus on having fun and gaining new skills, without having to get concerned about getting stuck and having to fight off the Sweihan ghosts on your own.......
Thanks you to the entire Almost4x4 team.
Regards
Paul
Sorry for the delay in getting a report it..... Been busy at work. I am now in Venice, Italy in a hotel finally with some time to spare. The pizza place only opens in a few hours!!!!
I spent Thursday morning in a hotel in Tunis, with my laptop and Garmin GPS loading the route and BirdsEye Map. I got home from my fight at about 01:00 on Friday morning, packed the recovery gear, flag pole, radio etc, etc into the Jeep and went upstairs for a shower and a sleep. I had set the alarm for 5:30, but didn't need it. I woke up at 5:00 all excited for the 'O Solo Mio' challenge.....
My solo ( or lead ) driving experience has been limited to the 'Egg Basket challenge' and one or two private 'baby drives' and 'barbecue trips'.....
So now it's a Solo 20km drive. OK, I am sure I can do it. All I need is to concentrate, remember the basic rules and do what Almost4x4 has been teaching me for the past year. Easy!!!
The point of the exercise was to get to Sweihan safely and to practice solo driving. The route would be as easy or hard as you made it. My plan was to look for an easy route..... It would get hard enough very easily and quickly without me trying to make it hard......
The most noticible addition I needed to add to my dune reading and driving skills was to keep looking ahead for a route that's going more or less in the correct direction, while doing the normal close in manoeuvring. If you are not careful, you tend to go wondering off, up a dead-end valley or towards impossible slopes or just off in the wrong direction. This may sound rather obvious, but when in a convoy, you just follow the leaders and only concern yourself with the close in ditches, crests, ghosts and paparazzi.....
The second thing I noticed is how my route varied from Clubman to Newbie to Newbie+ to Intermediate to Intermediate+ and back again very quickly. The experience of our marshals and lead drivers must be outstanding to be able to keep an Newbie drive at Newbie level and an Intermediate drive at Intermediate level etc, etc. If a Newbie drive gets too hard, it could be dangerous and if an Intermediate drive is easy, the guys will get bored and complain about the lack of challenge.
I loved every second of the drive and hope we can do this more often. It was a great learning experience. It was 'artificial solo' in some way, because you know there is help at the other end of the radio..... So you can focus on having fun and gaining new skills, without having to get concerned about getting stuck and having to fight off the Sweihan ghosts on your own.......
Thanks you to the entire Almost4x4 team.
Regards
Paul
