Gravity

[Iqsaan]

I arrived on Day2 at 7:05am and met Dave , Hangting & Hailun.

The campers arrived about ten minutes later... It was an amazing sight to see so many cars assembled for this drive (Almost 40 !)

The chit chat continued until Caprihorse 'summoned' us all for the briefing ... with the now familiar sound of his whistle.
The group was separated into two convoys :-
Convoy1 was for club members with Althahab at point , Zico ,Al Khatib,Abu Jimmy managing the convoy and Caprihorse bringing up the rear.
Convoy2 was the newbie convoy lead by Abu Salem and Hockey as sweep... Strawb & Desert Lizard were in for support.
For the intermediates , it was training day and we were in charge of recoveries in the newbie convoy ...

There was a pop-out within the first five minutes and during the break to repair this , I noticed the side wall of my tyre was cut and with the help of the others intermediates we had the tyre changed in no time ( Thanks Bu Shahid & Hockey for your help)
Thereafter the convoy proceeded at a brisk pace and Bu Salem kept the route exciting with intermittent side sloping ... this was a perfect drive for the newbies to hone their skills and built confident.
The entire convoy drove well and most of us intermediates didn't get to use our ropes as we only had two MDG victims:patapon:
Unfortunately , all good things must come to an end:TT TT: , and we exited the sand at 10:15am.

Thanks to Caprihorse for organising this event and to all the marshals for their valuable support
Thanks Bu Salem for the Eidiah :grin:
Thanks to my fellow Almosters for the good company.
Congratulations to all the Club Members on achieving the first star.

See you all next weekend , In Sha Allah

[Dave]

Another great start to my Friday thanks to the ALMOST4X4 club. I woke early to be at the meet point outside Faqah at 7am sharp. The drive itself along the E66 watching the sun rise, a couple of hot air balloons passing over head and seeing the racing camels being taken out for their early morning exercise was almost satisfactory enough to make the 5.30am alarm clock worth while!

I have not been to this area before but first impressions were good. Endless sand dunes and a mix of large trees and camel farms scattered about the place. Best of all far enough out of the city not to be pestered by a convoy of tour company Land Cruisers. Which also left the sand pretty much untouched except for the odd camel trail!

I am still fairly new to the ''family'' however it is nice now to start to see some familiar smiling faces and beefed up cars. By 7.30am there must have been over 30 4x4's gathered around for the mornings brief. Two drives, CM's and Newbies with the recently upgraded intermediates acting as support for the Newbie drive. I set off with the Newbie convoy led by Al Shamsi.

Few problems, technical or otherwise today as the drive was not too demanding. The weather was great so a/c off and window down to take in all the views. We mixed the ''safari'' style with a few direct drops over the sharper edges of the dunes but the intermediates were only required to practice their rescue skills once or twice if that. As usual we managed to stick to our intended duration of driving and could hear the familiar ''GO FAST'' over the radio as we headed back to our start point.

All in all, a great day enjoyed by all (except maybe one or two cases of car sickness!) and before we knew it the drive was over and it was time to go home. As usual, great organisation by all the Marshals and everyone got to go home with car and driver in one piece. Always a good finish to any desert drive.

Thank you organisers and Newbies for another successful drive. Hope we do it again soon.

[Arminjune]

anyone know the name of the couple with mercedes, lady from ukraine, man from Turkey?
I have there water still with me and I can not drink it. I'm not kidding,
its one of those expensive waters that even if you reply and say forget about it, I can't.
all I need to know there nick name so I can bring it to them for next trip.

Thank you

[brandonjh4]

Thanks Marshals for the wonderful trip. My initial plan was to come across to the camp, spend some time and head back, but then decided to pitch the tent and stay the night. Thanks Bu Salem for the much needed coffee and also with setting up the tent . My wife and the kids slept in the tent while, i slept in the back of the SUV, only to be woken up late at night, so we could trade places owing to the cold. Then there was the beautiful sunrise in the morning. I managed to take a nice pic of the sunrise with (i believe it was Strawbs Jeep) in the foreground.

Hey Mubz, we never finished our discussion about the Nissan's by the way!

Thanks again and look forward to the next trip. In the interim, am working hard on finding myself a desert only toy.

[Bambam]

[quote=Arminjune;28887]anyone know the name of the couple with mercedes, lady from ukraine, man from Turkey?
I have there water still with me and I can not drink it. I'm not kidding,
its one of those expensive waters that even if you reply and say forget about it, I can't.
all I need to know there nick name so I can bring it to them for next trip.

Thank you[/quote]

Her name is OxanaLu - really curious to see this water...

[Defragmantor]

I arrived at the Adnoc station for the camping trip exactly at 5:30 as I was supposed too. The drive in the desert till the camping site was great . The camps were then set up at around 8 pm and we headed over to the chit chat circle for chilling. After a while we started playing cards and apparently mubz turned out to be the real bluff master (we were playing bluff) I got really bored in between so I went for a stroll in the nearby dunes (not too far from the camp site ) once back I don't know who but I started having a laser war with a random on the dunes (pls reply to me whoever u are :p we should do this more often ) anyways we then called it a night at around 1 am . I didn't knw it would get really cold and apparently in the middle of the night I was forced to go sleep in the car since it was so cold in the tent . The morning was a sight I definitely would Remeber . It was really beautiful and the weather was the best it could get . We then started heading to the meeting point and started the newbies drive . The newbies drive today was interesting . I was chilling in the back having fun while cresting and sliding on the dunes . However all good things have to come to an end . My passenger apparently enjoyed a lil to much and started getting motion sickness . So marshals decided it would be a good idea if we drove straight and we were escorted by desert lizard to the exit point through an easier route (thanks again for the help with that ) all in all everybody got home safe and sound.A well planned trip by the Marshall's and founders

[caprihorse]

[quote=Arminjune;28887]anyone know the name of the couple with mercedes, lady from ukraine, man from Turkey?
I have there water still with me and I can not drink it. I'm not kidding,
its one of those expensive waters that even if you reply and say forget about it, I can't.
all I need to know there nick name so I can bring it to them for next trip.

Thank you[/quote]

OxanaLU

[Green Giant]

What a great drive Gravity was - my second trip out in the Green Giant and my first 'Solo' as my wife was ill in the morning and my wingman Jason was in the UK. A fantastic drive out to the start point as the sun was rising, hot air balloons enjoying an early morning flight and fellow Almosters heading to Al Faqah. An amazing number of cars and Almosters were preparing for the morning drive, and when the Chiefs shrill whistle sounded the briefing started.

Club Members were whisked away and the remaining Newbies, Intermediates were briefed by Bu Salem to prepare for a great drive. New Intermediates were to be doing any rescues as training. We set off into the amazing dunes of Al Faqah and were soon stopped by a stuck Nissan Patrol shortly followed by a pop out and Iqsan with a damaged tyre, which was quickly changed and then on our way again.

Bu Salem led the convoy in his usual impeccable way with a good mix of Safari Style, cresting and fast paced sections to keep the newbie adrenalin flowing. Without doubt the best trip so far for me with the Almost Family - well done to everyone who made this drive so good, especially the Marshals for organising and ensuring the safety and well being of all who attended. Congrats to the Club Members who turned out and for winning their first stars!

I look forward to the next trip, see you in the sands.

Some photos of the trip here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... e2b12ff1ff
And a video of Iqsan's Rescue Training: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10 ... 2301483251

[ginger]

I was in the Newbie convoy 2 , and had the thrill of driving 'number 2 position' directly behind Bu Salam. The drive was great fun with a mix of styles and quite fast in places.
There is clearly a lot of skill and experience that goes into leading a convoy; and I had a good position to view Bu Salam choosing the correct line in sand that had no previous tracks in it. It reminded me of a Red Indian 'tracker' searching out his prey!
Another great day and thanks to all the organisers.

[caprihorse]

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[TD]Statistics

Summary
Distance: 26.5 km
Area: 7.2 sq km

Time
Elapsed Time: 2:00:26
Moving Time: 1:13:20
Stopped Time: 0:47:06

Speed
Avg: 13 km/h
Avg Moving: 22 km/h
Max: 52 km/h

Elevation
Min: 168 m
Max: 219 m
Ascent: 393 m
Descent: 356 m

Black Points
chughtai
nabil_suwan
Nijay
Bomolin
Maddie
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[TD][IMG]http://www.drivingindubai.com/various/track45.jpg[/IMG][/TD]
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