Melon Smuggling

[yasir]

We all reached on time at 6:30am and after briefing we start flying at 6:45am.
This was a challenging drive from Lisalli to AL Faqa with high speed rally style drive and cresting of sharp dunes. We had many stucks and second attempts but managed to reach our final destination on time at around 10:15am and eat the Melons that we managed to smuggle.
Thanks all for the drive and sweet melons.

[Sacha]

Wow! I think Yasir wins the award for fastest trip report!

Fun drive today. Very interesting and diverse track. My son was especially excited about the number of gazelles we spotted today. The sand was very soft and the dunes were very tight and technical. Very challenging for those of with longer wheel bases and heavy tyres! On that note I have a set of 35"x17" Cooper STT's for sale:). Other than that is was a nice morning capped with some delicious (smuggled!) Mellon.

[Adnan]

Very nice time out today morning with very nice company enjoyed every bit.
Thank you Bu Salem amazing lead and Suhail in sweep and all fellow drivers who did great fun trip.

[bombays]

We all met on time.It was pretty cool and was excited as never done this route earlier. We all had a great start. We were briefed by bu salem that since based on the theme we need to be as fast as possible. Started with small but technical dunes with very soft sand. gradually moved to challenging softer dunes. Enjoyed it as i have never ever been driving so fast in desert. crossed lisaili and moved towards faqaa, now dunes were more interesting and heard on radio " now the fun part begins " indeed was fun as the pace was amazing. after a few stucks and re tries we managed to end it on time. we enjoyed our smuggled melon under the shade of tree. I learnt a new recovery technic today and experienced safety , which is paramount in our club. thank you yoghy for being our angel second lead. Bu salem to design and lead the marvelous drive. all advance members and fellow members. Thanks sweep and Team Almost to make this drive wonderful.

[Zorro]

Well, 5 trip reports in less than 24 hours. that only means one thing; it was a fun morning.
I'm gonna make it short, as i see everything has already been said in the above reports and don't want to repeat the same things over and over.
Lisaili to Faqa is a great track, speed and technical at the same time, and the sand is just amazing in certain areas, just like powder. And there i learned something new....never take ur car to do polish few days before driving there, all the powder sand sticks to the plastic parts on the JK, and JKs have a loot of plastic.
Anyway, it was great fun, and will now be looking to see Fida's Great video....great mainly because i was in front of him the whole time, and partly because of the good drive :015:
Thanks Bu Salem for the lead!

Se you all next weekend!!

[Bu-Shahid]

As expected, the trip was great following Bu Salem in such area which offers everything you like, the number of participant shows that clearly.
I was happy to do the same track again with such great company.
Thank you Bu Salem for arranging the trip and the interesting lead, Thank you Suhail for the sweep and thank you all for the great company.
the melon under the tree at the end was great.

My record...note: the red track is this trip track and the yellow is the one from last year.

[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106 ... ggling.png[/IMG]


[IMG]https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/106 ... ggling.jpg[/IMG]

[fida]

Thank you guys for such great reports. More has been already described and I would like to add few things.
1-As you have experienced, soft sand and sharp dunes, the key to drive in this kind of terrain is to be 100% alert on throughout the drive, you will be caught by Madam desert ghost if you are enjoying chit chats with your co-passenger.

2- Another observation i had, that few of our drivers were slowing down half way on the crest, this could be fatal and resulting a horrible stuck or role over if someone panic. The key to have successful side crest is to approach the crest with enough momentum, then drive 2 to 3 meters on top of crest while gaining full control and balance then cross the crest with enough speed while pointing your tyres downward.

Overall, it was a drive mix of almost everything. Sharp angles on small technical dunes, straight crests, a lot of side crest and side sloping and of course, high speed Sabkha drives where I was driving 140k at one point. I would like to thank all the participants and particularly, Bu Salem, Yoghy and Suhail for a great lead, 2nd lead and sweep. Bu Shahid for fabulous suggestion of having Melon under the tree and all who brought nice melons. It was fantastic treat.

The video editing department is been transferred to My son Imran and he has already started working on this. So hopefully, Soon it should be posted.

[alshamsi_m]

Hi Everyone

The idea for this drive came from few facts :
1. It is the last week of the hottest month of the year " August ".
2. If you have something like a melon sitting in your car while doing such a drive like this, which means that all your stuff are secure in the car " Safety aspect ".:like:
3. We are planning to increase the social activities for our club this year, So there is nothing better than a cool melon during hot weather to make people gather up. :in love:

I would like to thank Yoghybear for the support to make this drive happens. Also Suhail gave a very good example of a senior member who is ready to help when needed. I would like to say Sorry for Musa Hassouneh & elena if I gave you hard time, musa : You are a great drive " hat off for you ".

All in all, it was another happy day for Almost4x4 family in the desert.

Till next time, God bless you and stay safe.

Best Regards

[Suhail]

Another signature lead by Bu Salem..


It is always nice to catch up with the almost family.
The drive went good with some stucks and retry, and the area was super nice and good for SWB :)
loved the rally part with high speed.


All in all.. a great package deal - a fulfilling drive and an enjoyable day spent with friends.


Thanks Yoghybear for the support.
Thanks Adnan, Musa, Arminejune, Fida, Bu Shahid with his lovely princess, Hockey, Zorro, Aemi, Sacha, ginger, bombays, Yasir, Melfi, margarita and elena for the good company.


See you all next time ISA.

[admin]

Dear [MENTION=2551]ginger[/MENTION]

Sincere apologies for deleting your post. There were 4 copies of your posts so I marked 3 for deletion but all were gone :X3:. I don't know why ??

Regards