Morning Drive – AL FAQA 11/02 Saturday

Kumar and Ashok thanx for ur reconfirmatiohN The Drve is on. PLease dont forget to bring ur gear specially RADIO

SEE U GUYS IN MORNING

TRIP REPORT

All three (Me, Ashok and Kumar)of us Met at EPPCO on Al Ain Road on time. And started our journey towards Deflation Point in Al Faqa witout any delay,

We reached at deflation appoint around 7.20 immediately deflated the tyres, and got ready to hit the Dunes, well not actually hit them, but to conquer them by smartly maneuvering our way through Ridges, Side Slopes, Narrow alleys and Some smallest and some Biggest dunes. With Ashok in the Middle and Kumar at Sweep.

We started and immediately picked the pace, I saw both the follow drivers seemed quite competent in handling their ride, so I ditched the plan to follow the tracks until the big dunes and immediately steered towards right into those small pocket like dunes

The Beginning was very technical, maneuvering in those small dunes with sudden soft patches was sheer technique and I am glad Ashok followed my path quite comfortably despite his limited experience, and Kumar was like a champ having an eye on both me and Ashok and easily following the marks. We conquered the small dunes very quickly, may be with in half an hour, without any stuck, these small dunes are basically night mare for even experience offroaders, but the guys did a brilliant job, then we head towards the Medium Dunes, as the Dune size started increasing the frequency of soft patched also started increasing. But the convoy (hehehehehe) kept moving at the same pace it developed right from the beginning.

At this point I decided to let both the drives have the Addictive taste of some longest steepest side slopping, and some time it was like a sea-saw between opposite sides of two dunes, were used to climb of one side went down and in same motion climb the side of other dune. I really Enjoyed that, I am sure both you guys had also enjoyed,

We were continuously enjoying the looooong side slopes with our rides spraying the sand over the rigs upto the point that sand started entering in form the Driver side windows. While the car is sliding towards passenger side. Ashok and Kumar I hope now you guys have an idea on how to Do the Side Slopping with out Spraying the sand and how to do it when you want to spray the sand. Its all about momentum, but you need to be very careful in attempting this, because you need to slow down you speed and try to keep the car against gravity to make the sand fly, which infact is very dangerous and not advisable at all.

At this spot I saw a Mouth watering razor sharp ridge which is atleast 400-450 meter long (Guys please correct me if am wrong, this was the ridge just before we tried to climb up where Ashok’ Chassis rested on a bush mount and u pulled him) It was a great thrill for every one particularly for me, since this is a longest Ridge riding I did in my small offroading experience, It was great the tyres were hanging on both side of ridge, barely touching the sand to get little traction and the belly was cutting the ridge straight along the length of the Dune, It really tested the skills to keep the car straight on the ridge, but the main reason I guess was the pace with which we started cutting this ridge and it kept us moving despite very little traction from sides of dune

Then I tried to climb further high, there we get refusals for Ashok and then Kumar, and while reversing back Ashok manage to climb on a Small Bush Mound (Can be seen in Photograph). Uptil this time were a head of our planned time, I think it was 9:15 and we have already covered around 25-30 kms. And I started thinking to extend the drive till sweihan via desert. But Ahhh, my plans were just remained Plans. As I was over a Large Dune and I saw Down there a very Narrow Alley between the dunes, then a drop and the again a long climb, this was the ultimate landscape for an offroader, and went for it, buttttttt. To My surprise the Sand in that Short Alley was ssooooooooooo Soft than I felt as if I have entered in Deep Mud or some thing, The Car didn’t move the way I wanted and Ulitmately I rested with my Bumber Burreid and Bent deep inside the Sdie wall of one dune and rear opposite rear wheel in the air, with rest of the car sitting on the sand, tried to self recover but didn’t budge and inch, then all the warriors (only three) came in to help, we started shoveling pushing, jerking, putting wood under tyres but the car was being the stubbornness of all and didn’t want to move an inch, The asked Ashok to bring his car at front to pull me, but as soon as his car touched the Side Slope tight above me, sand immediately gave his place and instead of Pushing hard Ahsok Stopped. Offcourse you can guess the result, He also found him self hanged on a side slop with softest of sand. Now we had left with only one more Pawn, So I decided not move him and again tried to take the car out by our self, Eventually after long hard work, and analyzing and consulting with each other, we decided to bring our third Pawn into the action, we asked Kumar to reverse to the Slope of other dune, then tied three ropes together and tried to straighten the back of my car. Kumar gave an very measured jerk I did not felt much jerk inside my car and the back got straightened, but still the sad was so soft that the card refuse to move forward, at this time I got Ashok and his friend to push me and came out of this tricky spot , wend down from the side of the dune instead of dropping in fornt and then climbed up. Now Ashok who was hanging on side like a Mango (heheheh) on tree, pushed his car and followed my path the get out of that tricky situation, but instead of clearing the next dune all the way he stopped at a flat surface, and got bogged in, now again our rescue man Kumar came to his help, pulled him out, took a turn and then he got bogged in on the flat surface, any how I pulled him out with Ashok’s Car, and continued our Journey,

By this time it was already 10.15, so we decided to gradually head towards the exit. I tried to Conquer some last remaining Big Dunes, but soon realized that the sand is very soft there, hence instead of moving ahead tried to take dunes with long sloped and gradually headed towards Exit.

We hit the tarmacs at 11.00, inflated our cars had some chit chat and left for home at 11.30. I went straight to the Washing station got my car cleaned and finally reached home at 1.30

I am sure Both You guys Enjoyed the Drive as Much as I did, and I did enjoy it a lot.

I would definitely like to Drive with you guys again.