Meet & Greet Camp 2021

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brett
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Dear Members,

This annual event is one of the most popular events in the allmost4x4 calendar. as it includes the first overnight camping event for the season, and the BBQ competition.

I had taken the day off work and wanted to arrive at the camping spot early to set up the banners - chill out and watch the sunset before the crowds arrived. Not to get a head start on the BBQ competition Psmiley as was suggested by some.

Following the GPS track I had been given i deflated and set off opening and closing the gate so as not to let the camels out !. The verbal instruction given - just follow the track its easy, you will be fine ! well I am glad it was still light as there were a couple of interesting straight crests and drops to tackle before I managed land on the pin ! those who came after sunset certainly had a harder time reaching the spot with a few recoveries required.

I set up the banners to mark the spot - by the way I missed the sunset as there was too much cloud.

The event itself was nothing short of amazing we had more than 40 people in attendance - even some members from another club who were welcomed to enjoy the almost4x4 family hospitality.

Almost4x4 family has a diverse mix of cultures and ethnic backgrounds, and this was on display with the various cuisines being prepared - Polish Goulash of lamb and cabbage, kebabs, grilled fish, traditional burgers, fresh smoked salmon, New Zealand Beef and Venison even managed to be supplied to the desert, and the local desert delicacies you name it - someone was cooking it and sharing it with everyone.

The judges had a difficult job as there were only 3 - official challengers for the title, so fortunately there were no real winners or losers - just a fun challenge. I am really looking forward to the event next year and I Truly hope more people but their hand up to take part in the challenge. For the record, my chef days are over so I will be putting my hand up to judge not to compete.

the night was filled with laughter, stories and marshmallows' around the camp fires and family fun. It was so cool to see all the children running around freely and playing with each other.

Eventually the event was drawing to a close and people started heading off to build there temporary nest for the night. Some decided sit chatting all night around the fire.
My wife and I found a nice quite spot and pitched our tent. sitting out in the sand for a further 30min in the peace and tranquility. it was an amazing night sky. finally about 1am we hit our sleeping bags with the alarm set for 6am !

We were awake before 6 to a beautiful sunrise - packed our tent and drove the short distance back to the main area where we were greeted with fresh coffee. once the stragglers came over we headed off for the next adventure - The morning drive.

I have not named anyone directly in this report as my thanks is to EVERYONE who organized and took part in this amazing ALMOST4X4 event
Until the next Adventure

Brett
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello everyone,

I was looking forward to this event, as it is the first camp this year and these events truly relax me.

After a very busy week, dragging around Gamora from shop to shop, arranging stuff so it could be completed and having some nice under the belt punches of the boss, I was up to relax. Phone rang a few times (leave it, it is Thursday evening!).

Not 100% sure, we could make it on time at the MP, my wife and me pushed it, with Big Red behaving very well, we arrived on time, deflated, flagged up and chit chatted with the others. Great to see that these events pull in so many.

Once at the camp spot, the event started up quite quickly and we were surprised to learn, all got a goody bag from one of the sponsors, which is highly appreciated! Thank you very much!

The food was absolutely outstanding and I am glad jury tasking is not for me; wouldn't have been able to choose. Great job to the competitors!

'Sleeping time' arrived pretty soon for us, as the busy week had taken its toll and driving off, we found a nice and quite spot for some time. Until other people decided to put up camp 30m from us, we woke up and moved. Good lesson for next time.

Waking up in the desert is always so fantastic, majestic, relaxing and beautiful! Forget about the sleep you missed, brush your teeth, wash up and make some coffee and breakfast. Time flew passed and soon we had to move for the morning drive.

Thank you all for this fantastic event once more and so looking forward to the next one!

Tom
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giorgio
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The fun begun from the night before where we all gathered like every year to open the camping season with the meet and great event.
This is one of the most popular events as we all gather together to compete in cooking and enjoy good food with good company under the stars.
The evening was wonderful with the kids playground set in the middle of a huge circle, the bone fire which in the beginning was standing alone ended up at the end to be the shelter for may guests.
Cooking stations were placed on the outer ring with the chefs cooking a variety of foods. All though we had a competition with a winner it worth mentioning that the competition had a set of criteria but that does not mean that on an individual case a burger of a participant was not better than the burger served by the winner (as an example).

The evening went quick and I had to depart back home just to drive back the next morning for the All star drive.
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presa
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Hi Almosters we had a great evening event with 2021´s Meat & Greet :)

The event was blasted by a nice weather, and very good food!

I was blessed by trying so many different cuisine due to the great effort from the challengers and other participants.

Due to my personal preference, I was luck to sit close to @brett and enjoy it!

Beef, deer, smoked salmon, burger, slow cook lamb & vegetables, kebab... there were many different food for everyone, thank you all for all the effort!
BlueX
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What an amazing night it was to open the camping season and marvelous food.

More than 40 vehicles participating was outstanding; witnessing amazing setup of every vehicle be it roof top tents or racks or suspensions or bumpers... treat for eyes

Kids enjoyed to the most of their energies with various sand games

Yes driving into desert was a first time for us and it was fun. We did had couple of recoveries as well and the recovery crew was amazingly quick in their efforts to recover the crested vehicles

Icing on the cake were goodie bags distributed by 4wheel for Profender and Amada Xtreme for all the participants as well top 3 Chefs.

Video will be posted on our channel very soon, kindly do subscribe / follow for regular updates
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Nabeel
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It was my 1st participation on this most awaited gathering. Yes and was great to see so many smiling happy faces together.... have a nice day .... the scent of BBQ giving even more reasons to smile.

It was great atmosphere.... Wanted to take my family too, however the my elder one going thru her exam preps she, mom and the little one was not able to join. I was accompanied with by son though...

Had plans to leave office early on, but to my misfortune some urgent work jumped in and then later had to rush back home....get all the stuff in the car and rush to reach the meeting point. Got there by 0805 PM. deflated and later on after a quick briefing by Al Shamsi moved to the sitting area. The BBQ competitors and some of the early members had already got there and set the place up. After settling down... Al Shamsi did a greet to everyone while the meats had started cooking....
All of the members were gifted with a lovely kit from our sponsors 4wheel & profender.... That was a nice surprise and great generosity from the sponsors and ALMOST 4x4...

It was nice to see the different types of BBQ and live cooking of luqmat.... Kids enjoying their time in the sand... and the nice weather....

Had retired back to the tent a bit late by 0100 AM... and was up by 0515 AM....to catch up the lovely desert morning....!

These are events that makes you release all the stress accumulated over the week and make to ready for the coming days.... Appreciate the efforts of the organizers, sponsors, the participants and each and everyone in this happy family
Ehab
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Hi almosters, first time for me to attend this very famous event, Meat and Greet and it was an amazing social event.
PM was sent with detailed coordinates for entrance, multiple waypoints and the camping area for newbies with more than 10 trips, hmmm, i decided to head to the camp area early to practice using Garmin gps, a lot of knowledge gained in the past 9 months with Almost4x4, then why not. Easy track with a need to cross 2 small dunes, arrived to the camp 3 hours ahead of the event start date, both Brett and Rade were already there enjoying the nice breeze and the view.
Few hours and then almosters and sponsors started joining us, by 9 pm, more than 40 cars and at least 100 people, many are cooking their traditional food, few are grilling delicious meat and others making smoked salmon, that was amazing. 4 competitors were trying hard to show all of their capabilities, all were taking it serious and the results were amazing.

Kids were also busy digging in the sand and playing football, they did not want to leave nor have a nap at all, everyone enjoyed it and i am glad i was part of it.

Thanks to alshamsi and the rest of the crew for making this a successful event, thanks to the sponsors who made sure every almoster had a gift.

Enjoy the video

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piotr
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Going out for camps with the Club is always so much fun - and this time the fun was shared among the father and son :) Father got his share of catch-ups (and even managed to try so of the delicious dishes the Challengers prepared - so thank you!) and son got his time playing with other kids on the sand!

The lead-up to the camp was quite hectic, with me finishing work past 6pm it did not leave much time to prepare gears - I decided to skip the cooking part and ate dinner at home. We managed to arrive at the meeting point JUST in time to catch @alshamsi_m forming the convoy to take us all to the camp. The drive turned out a bit more challenging than anticipated (I guess that is the night making everything more difficult), but finally we arrived at the campsite only to see the cooking has already started!

Given I was not involved in any food preparation I had plenty of time to talk, roam around and play football with the kids - oh man, that group was ferocious! The Oldbies put up a fight, but we lost handsomely ;)

At midnight is was time to call it a day, after setting up tent it took us no time to fall asleep. The night temperature turned out to be perfect for camping - not too cold, not too hot - so we woke up refreshed just on time to watch the sunrise.

Thank you @alshamsi_m for organizing such a nice even, again! :)

Piotr
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alshamsi_m
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Hello Everyone

Finally, the camping season has arrived, I got to sleep in the tent which was dreaming of for so many months yaeh am not durnk .

The Meat & Greet is an event that is very close to my heart but since my stomach is French you're kidding, right I was intrested in the GREET part which main highlight of the night !! We had so many kids digging holes until it was dangerous for the senior citizens to walk around grin The family-friendly atmosphere and was in every corner of the camp , you visit any part of the area and you will get treated with food or sweets thumbsup

Almost4x4 is your second family and that was the spirit of that camp. Looking forward to see you around the fire in the next open camp soon.

Cheers
Shamsi
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