Addicted To That Rush - 2022

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Sorin
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Greetings everyone,

After a beautiful & chilled night road-trip thru Al Ain and down to Umm Al Zumool road, I managed to reach the meeting point around 5:40 AM, needless to say, I didn’t find anyone there ORLY

Shortly after arriving, I was joined by @Jasper and soon the rest of the crew started to arrive.

Some of us have never driven in Bu Tais before, myself included, so the expectations were high along with the fear grin
@Solmaz instructed us to follow the “Last man standing” rule & play it safe while we tackle the bigger chains of dunes.

The beauty, sharpness and size of these dunes began to manifest itself and the adrenaline level increased rapidly. High speed sidecresting from giant bowl to giant bowl was definitely the highlight of this drive and I enjoyed it very much.

We visited the famous Bu Tais tree dune and took a small break under the shade of the palm trees and attempted to collect some dates. @Petr was set on reaching the dates in a certain way but that’s a story for the next camp-fire gathering thumbsup

Next highlight was the starfish dune and a particular side of it where we all had multiple second tries until we eventually learned how to use 4L 4th gear grin

We headed for the exit shortly after and concluded a morning drive that left us all wanting to come back and do a full day drive in the area.

Many, many thanks to the organizer @Solmaz, really amazing drive and track. Thank you as well to our support @giorgio , @optimus and @Rashidjass



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Last edited by Sorin on Mon Jun 13, 2022 9:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Tomvanhouten
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Hello everyone,

Waking up at 2am and getting towards Bu Tais around 3, was a challenge by itself. Once arrived deflated, chilled and had a look around. The area looked beautiful and challenging, let's see what can be done!

Starting off, the convoy flow was not brilliant, with multiple stops, due to different reasons. This was widely spread over the radio with; Keep moving guys!
Anyway after some convoy shuffles, it went a bit better, but still not up to spec and I had the feeling, we were missing some beautiful dunes along the way (time is time, so straight line it was brigade.baka-wolf.com )
Think we definitely have some unfinished business in this area pacman

Thank you @Solmaz @Rashidjass @optimus and @giorgio

Hopefully see you all next week

Tom
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giorgio
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Hi everyone,

This intermediate drive was set 2H30min away from our regular playgrounds. An early start at 3am is something that pro Covid days was a regular thing but since then a lot of things have changed and it was not an easy thing to do.

The selected area is a beautiful area with big sharp dunes that gives the opportunity to the drivers to enjoy fast pace driving with multiple combo crests.

The drivers were a little intimidated in the beginning and we have a slow pace drive with multiple delays.

The secret in this type of dunes is to keep a bigger distance to ensure an uninterrupted flow of the convoy. In this level we should not be stopping waiting for the car in front of us to move before we follow. If this is the case then definitely you are doing something wrong.

Last time we drove in that area we had a couple of cars out so this time it was not any different. 2 cars did not finish the drive and I was one of them.

Closing my report I would like to thank @Solmaz for organizing the drive and all the support team @rashid and @optimus for all the support and rescue to the road.

Until next time drive safely.
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Solmaz
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Hi everyone,

The plan for this saturday changed after we had a brief chat about good old days with @Daggerfall. I still remember the excitement we felt the first time we saw Bu Tais and I wanted to share this experience with our intermediates before the summer hits with its full force.

We were both lucky and unlucky on the drive day; lucky because there was not one track in sight and we had all the dunes to ourselves, unlucky because "summer" hit us just a day before our drive. :eyes_on_fire:

But let me start from the beginning...
Since it was really hot and humid a day before, there was no chance for a camp, so we all started our day hours before sunrise. Successfully passing through world's highest speed bumps and many sneaky speed cams on my way, I was already feeling pumped up and ready for the drive.

Everyone arrived on time (some very close to the deadline!) and we hit the dunes after a quick briefing. Extremely soft sand and tricky terrain created some new challenges and we had a lot of second tries mostly due to the distance as @giorgio mentioned.

Just few minutes into the drive we had our first stuck and technical issue, so we had to take the car out. A little later we had a tricky pop-out, followed by another tecnical issue and a lost car created some more unexpected delays but at least convoy was having a blast (and some snacks) at "Bahamas" during this time so I guess it was fun in a different way. blank

After the long break it took a little while to find our footing again but in the end we hit most of my target points, touched a starfish dune and enjoyed some high adrenaline sidecrests. We left a lot of amazing bowls and crests untouched due to the time constraints, which leaves us with an unfinished business and I intend to take care of it soon. cool

Every issue we had along the way was handled with great team spirit so I would like to thank everyone for that. A special thanks to @giorgio , @Rashidjass and @optimus for your amazing support. And another one to the members who went to join the afternoon drive after a really challenging one.

See you all in sand.
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Jasper
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Hello everyone!

This is the first time for me to drive in this area and I think for few others as well. Waking up 3am and driving 2.5 hours to the meeting point was a drive on its own 😊
I arrived 2nd to @Sorin in the meeting point and soon the rest of the drivers arrive. After the briefing by @Solmaz, we started with a wake up / shake up maneuvers from our leader and the first casualty car needs to be escorted out. Few minutes into the drive we had a tricky stuck and pop outs. You can’t compare this area to any other area we had driven before. It’s a mix of different dunes formations but I can say we had a blast going through and around them. I got stuck twice. The first one self-recovered and second needed assistance to be pulled out. Both scenario was due to not having enough speed and right angle. Sand was very soft on top of the crest and pulls you down. The visibility adds to the challenge due to the sun's position. We had a great time in the “Bahamas” where we waited for the rest of the cars to arrive. A lot of second tries were there as well especially the practice on 4L 4th gear trying to cross a starfish dune. We tried multiple times and all of us were able to cross safely.

On the drive back home felt the car started shaking. I thought the tarmac was just bumpy but to my surprise my rear left tire started to get torn apart. Slowly decreased my speed and was able to pull over on the shoulder. I thought to myself the challenge of the day is not yet over! Decision time – call for recovery or fix it myself. Decided to fix it myself. Pulled out the jack and board and my jack can’t lift the car high enough to be able to change the tire. Luckily @Solmaz was just passing by and saw me and she stopped. She lent me a bigger jack and was able to change the tire. Thanks again @Solmaz for helping even under 45 deg heat.

Great morning and a lot of memories and stories to tell. Thanks to all those who came and to our support team @giorgio, @optimus and @Rashidjass for keeping us safe.

See you guys all soon! Take care!
Jasper
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Petr
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I was super happy that, after some glitches with my failed attempt to register, I was able to join thanks to a last minute drop and very kind @Solmaz heads-up. Waking up at 3 am was a price I was very happy to pay, as I still feel the hunger for inter drives, after my a whole year fasting in KSA. I don't remember bein ever in this area, which doesn't mean it didn't happen yaeh am not durnk, just my memory doesn't help sometimes, buit it was fantastic, as @Sorin demonstrated on the google maps screenshot.

Yes we had many stops, so the flow was not as it could be, but you have to be patient with FJs grin. One stop was very pleasant though - in a tiny oasis with date palms, where we had to wait for @Solmaz to return from her inspection of one failed FJ ehm ehm. One wisdom says "idleness is the mother of all ideas". It doesn't say good or bad, but mine was not of the smartest one, so from the idea to bring dates to the team we ended in a situation where @Ehab had to come to help save my (jeep) face redbullsmiley.

As @Tomvanhouten rightly mentioned, we left some unfinished business there, so ready for another short night soon.

Many thanks @Solmaz for all the effort to bringing us there, @giorgio, @Rashidjass and @optimus to keeping an eagle eye on us.
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Rooies
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It was a long time since I did an Inter drive & was really looking forward to it. On the way to the meeting point I saw @Tomvanhouten & @Laarni turning in at the gate. I tried to catch them but the road & hard tires did not allow it.

We got to the meeting point, met @Sorin & @Jasper there. We did the normal drills as more drivers joined us.

The briefing was short & to the point by @Solmaz & after that we were off.

The going was a bit bumpy in the beginning (Cobwebs on my side have a nice day ), not long & we lost @Lenny due to a technical issue. We regrouped & were off again, the sand was soft especially on the walls. I did loose the track & unfortunately @Tomvanhouten & the rest of the convoy followed me, Sorry guys thumbsup .

There was only one pop out for the day & everybody helped to get it fixed, while fixing it uncle @giorgio did a little dance for us thumbsup (entertainment in the desert).

We moved to the Bahamas where we waited for a while ("lost" some people). There were no cocktails at the Bahamas but only dates. How we got to the or tried to get to them is a story for another day.

We got to a nice big dune which tested our skills....4H or 4L... Spme got it right the first time, some like me had a few more tries, but in the end we all crossed & that is what matters.

It started getting hot & the wind started pumping. Then @Solmaz made the call it's time to go, the drive was done. As mentioned by some drivers already, "We have unfinished business in that area"

Thank you @Solmaz for arranging the drive, Uncle @giorgio , @Rashidjass & @optimus for keeping an eye on us. Thank you also to my fellow drivers for a nice drive & all the banter in between.

Till we meet again, stay safe.

Greetings
Rooies
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Hi almosters
First time in Bu Tais, huge dunes which require high technical capabilities to reach to which Solmaz did not spare any effort going through most pf them. She started the drive mentioning that we can safely overtake which is something i love to do but unfortunately we had to stop many times due to multiple issues resulting the escort and recovery of few cars.
One of the dunes we had to spend almost one hour due to the difficult maneuver required. It was only doable with low gear which is first time for me on high speed but it was amazing how the car act on low gear. The drive was done with a big smile and high doze if adrenaline.

Enjoy watching



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dorudoru
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I know that I am following way behind the schedule. However didn't want to pass this trip without any report.

Bu Tais promises amazing drives and it definitely worth to drive that distance to enjoy the lovely dunes. At that moment, maybe we couldn't enjoy the area to the most due to lots of issues ( technical, distrupted convoy order, stucks, second tries etc.). Thus we should sharpen our skills and come back to finish the undone business.

I can see the excitement of my fellows, I hope soon is sooner than expected @Solmaz !

Enjoy the video, and see you in the sand.

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