Hello Almosters,
this was my second drive of the day.
The area was Nahil, and it was my 3rd time driving in this area, 2 of them as part of the "Cool Stars" series.
I like this area a lot because it offers a large variety of different tracks depending on the drive level.
The weather was burning hot, and being familiar with the meeting location, I knew that there are no trees to find a shadow, so I found a small shadow close to a public park disting no more than 500m apart, and I deflated and mounted the flag there, and then moved to the meeting point to find already some members there.
With all drivers ready, the organizer marshal
@Barish welcomed everyone, called the attendance, briefed about the drive and set the convoy order.
The initial idea was to have a 3.5h drive and try to reach Nagrah dune. The drive would be exceptionally longer than the usual 3h drives due to the long distance to cover and because the drive level had to match the 5- level of some fresh newbies.
The convoy was led by
@alshamsi_m, I took the 2nd lead duties, and behind we had the 5-, the 5+ and the 10+ with the interm
@dorudoru sweeping and making sure no one was left behind. Rescue and support was in charge of
@Tomvanhouten,
@mpodroid and
@Sostick. Ensuring the safety of the convoy we had
@Barish as floating marshal.
We started the drive in a moderate/fast pace because the initial section was quite flat, with some climbs and a few drops.
The area was beautiful with no tracks at all, and surrounded by amazing dunes and crests. In one of the dunes, Bu Salem started to climb one of the dunes, but quickly turned down making a small arch, then went on the radio and said: "Pedro, this was so tempting!..."
We then reached an area with some long climbs, which may have caused the first and only victim of the drive. Due to overheating issues, we had to escort a driver out to a gatch road to leave the drive early.
On a faster pace, we returned to the same area we were before to reach "The Climb" of the drive!
"Pedro, don't come...", I heard on the radio. Then
@alshamsi_m continued: "If we do this well, we may spend the entire afternoon here. If we don't, we may not be able to get out of here, ever!"
Off he went and said: "you need to floor it and follow my tracks stricly".
It was a quite steep and long climb, with a left turn with some soft patches before starting the descent and closing the loop.
While I was dealing with the soft patches up there, I then realized the meaning of the words "... we may not be able to get out of here, ever!".
One by one, and with some 2nd tries, most of the drivers did it and had fun!
Due to the delays we have faced, marshals decided to change the plans for the remaining drive. There was no time to go to Nagrah anymore, but there was still time to cover some beautiful areas in Nahil on the other side of the power lines.
I knew exactly what area it was... I had been there 2 times before, both with drives led by
@optimus and it ends in a big bowl where only interms are allowed to play, and this time was no different!...
So there we were, the newbies, standing aligned and watching the interms drawing beautiful arches on that bowl, and making us dream about it. That is why I name that dune as "The dream bowl"!
From there, we headed back to the drive starting point as the sun was about to set.
It was a beautiful drive, meant to be a 5- level, but when Bu Salem is leading, we never really know!
By the time I'm writing this report, I already know that I've been upgraded to the Intermediate level, which makes this my last drive as a Newbie.
I want to take this opportunity to give an advice to my fellow newbies: come to the drives to have fun, but mostly come to learn. Learn from your own mistakes by understanding what you did wrong and from Marshal's feedback. Trust the marshals, they are there for you!
I'll see you soon in the sand!
Pedro