Solo Bats 10.0 090422

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David
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A drive I had been looking for for several reasons, after some time in Spain during the kids school break very keen to get wheels on the sand plus I had missed Solo Bats 9.0 due to a water pump leak.

Since Solo Bats 9.0 I had been driving at night as much as possible and always leading or going solo so I knew I was well prepared, I volunteered to go 1st but as I try to put the route to my 1st point my SatNav starts playing up, I panicked as it looked I had lost all my waypoints, not only the Solo Bats ones if not all of the points that I had been marking over the years ... luckily only a glitch with the search option (of course it worked perfectly today morning without having to do anything to it ...) and the points still in the map so once sorted time to go in 4th position.

I had not been to Badayer for a very long time, an area I used to love and visit very regularly, even though it was a night drive I was quickly reminded why, tracks everywhere, busy even at night and now on top of all of it the tracks from the seismic surveyors ...

Drive started really well, windows down and solo at night, the way I like it, I made good and easy progress with a decent flow and lines, somewhere between point 3 & 4 my main desert lights stopped working ... very annoyed as it completely changes the drive for you, I am very happy with my set up for lights, I feel extremely comfortable driving with them, remove them and it is a different story, visibility becomes very very limited, mainly sideways so you end up having to go more in a straight line than what I would like to in order to stay safe.

I still continued, it was not ideal and as enjoyable as I would have liked to but I still felt safe enough to continue, around points 5 & 6 I remembered Abu Baker & Shamsi's words, be careful, a mess there full of seismic tracks, great, hope I see them before I feel them ... :you_re_kidding_right:

Reached the final point to meet there all the other Solo Bats that had left before me, soon afterwards the remaining Solo Bat reached plus advanced drivers so we waited for the convoy while looking at the other (mainly crazy) convoys driving around, very often seeing how other people drive I am surprised there are not more accidents in the desert ...

Once the main convoy reached us we made our way out and stayed at the petrol station waiting for the recovery for one of the cars in the drive with some mechanical problem while enjoying the company of friends and the delicious food shared (thank you guys)

Finally to thank everyone who attended the drive for making it possible, the Marshalls and founder for organizing it, advanced, interm and my fellow solo bats.

See you on the sand soon.
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CARLOSS
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Hello everyone!

I was honored to be invited to Solo Bats 10 drive even though I did not qualify for that so first of all, thanks to @Mabubaker for organizing and @alshamsi_m for taking us in your convoy.

Coming from newbies’ night drives I did not know what to expect so it was the typical drive in which you don’t know what it is about to happen…this time not too much adrenaline because I was not a challenger but still, the beauty of the “new” was there…

Senior Interm were dispatched every 5 min with a couple of advanced drivers in the middle and baby interm waited until the end to join Shamis convoy. And then, the fun started! blank

Albadayer, as mentioned by David, was a bit of a mess between the usual tracks, some other convoys doing crazy things whut and soil investigations’ trenches all over the place. But still, our amazing founder managed to give us an outstanding drive only disturbed by a few second tries and one stuck, a long as I remember.

Congratulations to @osman who became Marshal wtfsmilie for around 20 min that night…this is only a teaser but whole story only available on the next camping fire.

And also, special recognition to @Solmaz who is the famous lady marshal in all UAE thumbsup …even in the dark she was spotted and called by a former Almoster driving in another convoy.

To be honest with you, the best part of the drive was when it finished…don’t get me wrong Psmiley , the drive was brilliant with tons of fun but the improvised gathering at the petrol station with plenty of food and deserts brought by some was superb! Special recognition to @dorudoru and @osman who shared home-made burek, and @Rashidjass and @Mabubaker for the desserts…I am in love with the burek cheese one! thumbsup

Thanks a lot again Mabubaker, Alshamsi, @rapailo , @Agalon , Solmaz, Rashid, @SINGH , @Abu Odai and @Mahmoodyasin for taking care of us. And my mates for joining and sharing.

See you in Solo Bats 11.0…anytime soon.
Carlos
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osman
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What a great night!

Although the name of the drive is "solo bats", we were in "herd pigeons" bunch intermediates as we did not have qualifying number of intermediate drives to fly solo. Thanks to @Mabubaker to arrange another drive for the enthusiastic intermediates and @alshamsi_m to lead that great drive we had.

We all gathered at the meeting point, then five bats were dispatched to the dark one after the other, with two advanced rescuers in between them. Some time later, @alshamsi_m asked to line-up and start to drive. I was the third car in the convoy. The drive was going really smooth and enjoyable with some pumped-up adrenalin at some points until we get close to the Iftar Bowl. Then there were some other convoys or people driving by themselves but all over the place, cutting your lines, etc., but still manageable. At one instance I had to slow down a bit while going around a ditch, soft and deep sand did not help me to accelerate and got stuck with an angle. Without losing a second, people from the other convoy jumped off their cars and started to talk, giving the random instructions. I let them go then @Solmaz and @Agalon helped with the counterweight and instructions so I can go back up again. But by that time, @alshamsi_m and @Ehab were already somewhere in a galaxy far far away. I drove some time but there is no sight of them. @alshamsi_m says we are here two cars, but looking around, there were too many two cars around, not sure which one is them. Then @Mabubaker rejoined me to the convoy.

We then learned that one car needed some tender love and care, @Rashidjass and @SINGH engaged for the escort. As the last part of the drive we had four climbs to the Iftar Bowl in various directions plus some climbs & descends at the back side. The expected after-drive gathering did not take place somewhere quiet on the sand, we instead finished at the petrol station. We could not have the camp fire there but we pretended we had one and kept chit-chatting & laughing until the tow-track arrived.

Thanks @Mabubaker for the organization, @alshamsi_m for yet another great lead, and our marshals @Rashidjass, @SINGH, @Solmaz, @Agalon and @rapailo and our advanced team @Mahmoodyasin and @Abu Odai. And finally, well done the bats!
Warning: Sand is addictive... and also the sea salt.
Ehab
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So the weekend continue with another night drive but this one is special. Its to test the old intermediates capabilities and allow them to apply what they have learned so far. All did it with no issues, no stucks, nothing broke and all in one piece. This shows that they were trained by the best in offroading field.

New intermediates trip was also amazing, very similar to 10+ newbie trip in the same area but much faster, faster to level if you need to do a second try, you are already lost. Very interesting and epic. We reached Iftar bowl, we climbed it from all possible directions, old intermediates were in the top waiting for us and actually enjoying the action we were doing.

We had a quick break and i noticed my camera is not there anymore, no not now, this is one of the very few night trips, i cannot lose the media files. But what to do, its extremely dark and no way to find it. Went back home in tears, not because of the camera but the files. Woke early in the morning, went through the track of last night and decided to give it a try and look for the camera next to iftar bowl. Informed media team and headed there. Shamsi called me, its 2 people job ehab, i am coming with you. We reached there around 11:30 am, i was his passenger, oh my god, this man drives. Its hot and we are both fasting but both of us has one aim, find the camera. Shamsi followed the track in reverse, if you look at the video you will notice we did many sharp drops, now imagine climbing these drops from the other side, it reminded me with F13.
One hour of searching and actually walking iftar bowl to make sure we do not miss a spot, almost lost hope, shamsi said one more spot ehab if we do not find it then we call it off, most probably someone found it and took it, but guess what, its in the spot he suspected. Yes we found the camera and it was scratchless.

Went back home, yes still i have few hours before the weekend is done, went through the media and created the below video, i hope you enjoy it.
Last but not least, almosters always say “no one left behind” i would like to add “and their belongings”

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mpodroid
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Solo Bats it's a traditional appointment in the life of the club and for intermediate: you drive solo, at night, touching 7 GPS coordinates. Challenging.

I can still remember my first Solo Bats drive, one year ago: when I almost completed my route, seeing the final point I got stuck on the very last crest, 100 meters far from my destination. Back at that time I was quite fresh intermediate.

I arrived at the meeting point quite early, setup my car with an amazing LED whip lights flag pole :-)

This year I felt much more relaxed and everything was nice and easy.

Thanks to @Mabubaker for the trip and the support team.

If you don't care where you are, you ain't lost.
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Mabubaker
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It was great to see the passion from the brave intermediates to join Solo Bats 10.0.
I did the quick briefing in the dark highlighting the rationale behind Solo Bats and the importance of considering it as a self test, to see how far you are ready to drive in the desert on your own.
Old intermediates were assigned to drive solo in the dark, dispatched in 5 min intervals with an advanced driver after each two to rescue and collect points when needed.
Fresh intermediates got the oportunity to drive in convoy style with @alshamsi_m leading.
After the drive, we had a great time chit chating with amaizing homemade turkish food, thanks @osman and @dorudoru.
Finally, thanks to advanced drivers @Mahmoodyasin and @Abu Odai for support.
Thanks Marshals and Explorers for ensuring the drivers safety and support @Rashidjass , @SINGH , @Solmaz , @Agalon , @rapailo
And Thanks to @alshamsi_m forleading the fresh inter convoy.
Thank you everyone and see you soon!
M Abubaker
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