Almost4x4

Hello everyone!

"You do not start a house from the roof."

To be honest, judging by the name of the drive, for some reason I was sure we would start from the foundation — which I cannot really say was the case by the end of it. I cannot even imagine what it will be like when it is time to build the roof

Initially, the drive was planned to have two convoys, 10- and 10+, but in the end, due to illnesses, many members had to withdraw. As a result, we were left with just one convoy of only 7 drivers: 2 marshals @Rashidjass and @Scorpio , 3 explorers, @David, @CARLOSS and @Ehab and 2 advanced drivers @orlantsev and @Mahmoodyasin . A true VIP experience, so to speak.

@David as the lead, @Aljamhi as second lead, and me myself as the 3rd car.

I was really looking forward to David’s lead, forgetting that sometimes you should be careful what you wish for — because wishes tend to come true, lol

What was it that I said a couple of weeks ago? That it was the most challenging drive back then for me. Now I can say exactly the same. And apparently, in our club, I will be saying this after every next drive.

Each time I step out of my comfort zone, each time I learn something new. Some things work out, some do not — but that is all part of the game.

I can say that when I am right on the crest, I feel more confident — I have learned to feel the car and to balance it.

However, at this level, where the dunes are significantly higher and the speed is much greater, finding the right momentum is a real challenge. It has to be just enough to take the crest, without overdoing the speed, because for balance, speed is not needed — quite the opposite. Because of this, I was forced to abort.

Of course, I had second attempts as well, where the momentum was not enough to take the crest.

Still a lot of things to learn and practice. Despite everything, I truly enjoyed it and am very grateful for this experience. More to come

Thank you all so much for a wonderful time. Many thanks to organizer @David for the drive, for the lead, marshals, and advanced drivers for their support, and to all the members for great company @Aljamhi,
@Kevin , @galindakis, @Preggy, @mpodroid for sweeping.

Looking forward for the next weekend
Viktoriia

Hello All,
Finally, the stars aligned for me to be able to join one of the Club's 2** drives :), so after another long period of not being able to enjoy the sand I was both very excited, and apprehensive, expecting to be quite rusty (not great in higher level drives).

Fortunately, @david promised to start light and "see how" further. Well, he did not exactly deliver on that, as the "easy" ended after first couple of dunes ;) The drive became fast paced (that only kept increasing as the time passed), going from one dune chain and area to the other. It was a mix of everything, side cresting, crest surfing, climbs, traverses - beautiful and very enjoyable path. It required a great deal of focus, and good management of momentum. Fortunately, this time I had a good "feel" of the car (which was somewhat lacking in a few earlier drives), which overall made the drive absolutely amazing. I enjoyed the flow a lot, with minimal pauses due to only a few second tries (a couple of mine included).
As @victoria said, if these are the foundations I wonder how the roof is going to look like :)

The area was very busy during the afternoon, so our floating support did their best to protect the convoy - hats off to @CARLOSS and @Ehab @orlantsev and @Mahmoodyasin

Unfortunately I had to cut my drive (slightly) short due to a mechanical issue - big thanks @Rashidjass and @Scorpio for escorting me out.

And some usual stats: 61km covered, in 2h40 (2h15 moving).

See you in the sand!

Best regards

Piotr

Afternoon interm drive in Sweihan. Not many areas not to far from Dubai we can go now for intermediate drives so we knew it was going to be busy and with tracks everywhere.

Originally 2 convoys planned but many last minute cancellations (sickness, work, car overheating on the way to the drive ...) left us only with 7 intermediates out of the original 16!!!.

My first leading intermediate drive and with a very mixed in experience convoy. Original plan was to drive East to Old Lady with a stop in the M/pick-up dune. At the end, once we reached M Dune we decided to turn around to the starting point since we could see many cars around Old Lady in the distance.

Drive divided in 2 sections:

- Eastbound. Medium paced but with constant speed, very "controlled" so we could get used to the conditions and the level of the drive. Many convoys around us at one point which made us have to re-arrange our route in order to avoid them, let them go ahead, ... many thanks to all of the supporting Marshalls/Explorers during this time as their feedback and warnings was essential. I think the convoy did very well during this section, I heard very few "2nd tries" or issues being called.

- Westbound. I do admit to love driving towards the sun, light conditions improve so much, you see the dunes and lines so clearly ... so, with better visibility and since the convoy had done really well I decided to increase the level and pace slightly, yes, more 2nd tries were called but that was expected. The main aim was to understand the pace it is required in order to keep control of the car on top of the crests, as we did more of that on this section.

Many thanks to everyone that attended the drive, specially Rashid, Scorpio, Carlos and Ehab for the invaluable support to safely take the convoy to the end of the drive.

See you on the sand soon.

Hello all,

A bit of long absence from the sand for me due to travels.

I also had a chain of bad luck in the last few drives which I could not finish due to various mechanical problems.

With family still being away I planned to join the camp and morning drive, but could not register for the morning drive support (not sure if it was app issue or I was late).

It is real pleasure to drive for me and the car in this weather. It just feels that car has more power when engine temperature is in check. Indeed, in this time of the year and in this location you will not find a single fresh sand dune. While floating danger comes form all sides ... other convoys, campers at the bottom of the dunes.

I must admit I had one "ohh shit moment". While catching up with a convoy I did a side crest on a tall dune and misjudged the shape of the crest. I ended up approaching it at 45 angle.

Thankfully, it was all good but I reminder how tricky and potentially dangerous it could be.

I noticed that a lot of the convoy 2nd tries were from not being able to ride the ridge. These are usually not dangerous if the driver goes down immediately. It is not easy especially with broken bumpy tracks, but it is an essential practice.

Finally, it was good to see some old lost souls Sorin and Mahmoud who retuned after long absence from the sand.

Have a good week all.

I wasn’t driving for very long, but even in that short time I felt quite good behind the wheel. The car was amazing and gave me a lot of confidence throughout the drive.

We encountered many convoys along the way, but despite that, we managed to enjoy the drive and keep the flow going. Toward the end of the trip, everything came together perfectly—the light was incredible, the weather was just right, and we managed to do a couple of lines that alone were worth an entire week of waiting.

A big thank you to David for leading—love your style, smooth and enjoyable.
Thanks as well to Carlos, Ehab, Rashid, Scorpio, Mahmoud, and Ortlansed for the great company and teamwork.

Looking forward to the next one.

Hi everyone!

What a wonderful afternoon we had last Saturday in the desert surrounded by good friends and enjoying an amazing weather.

The drive itself was complicated but perfectly managed by @David as the convoy was very heterogeneous and the terrain quite challenging with tracks everywhere and convoys and solo drivers here and there. Our initial expectations (getting to old lady) were not fulfilled as they area was already invaded by other convoys…next time, in summer I guess, we will get there to see how it looks like.

Our dear interm members did quite well with the normal menu of second tries but nothing major to highlight. They played safe and for sure they had a good time.

On my end, I supported the convoy by making sure that other convoys were not “biting” ours and trying to provide comfort to an old friend of us that wrongly decided to eat too much mandi at lunch time (LOL) . And I had the great honour of getting @Scorpio as my copilot for some time hoping that he wont recommend the management to remove some of my stars

See you soon and thank to all for joining and sorry for those who missed the fun
Carlos