24 August 2012 – Marathon Drive

First of all my sincere thanks to all the participants (Phase I & Phase II) for joining this extraordinary drive which was not possible to complete without fitness of the vehicle as well as the driver. Such drives can complete only the real Offroaders with sportsman spirit.

Little bit about the drive;

Phase I

Thanseer (Lead), Saif, Chris, Krishnan, Amjed, Andy & Abdulla (Sweep)

As scheduled we met at the Emarat Petrol station at 05:45AM and 06:00AM move towards the starting point. The drive started at 06:30AM. God was so impressed with us so he was pouring holy sand to us how the holy water pouring in holy places. With the grace of God we completed the Phase I without any major issues. The drive pace was set to the fast level to cover the long distance. Due to the summer heat, less activities in the desert and new sand formation due to the ongoing wind the drive was a little bit challenging. Everywhere new dunes with sharp ridges even in the middle of the track which made more challenge to some of our participants.

When we reached Al Faya, there was a sand movie playing on the slope face of the Faya climb. That was an amazing scene to watch it. The sand was moving like how the artist’s paint brush moves on the canvas. So we watched that movie for ten minutes then headed towards our destination. To avoid boring of the track drive I was leading them on cross cutting of the track which made little spices to the drive.

Until crossing the pink rock we were up to our schedule. After crossing pink rock we had a small stuck up but in a dangerous position. We recovered him safely with the help of our Super Man – Dune Rider – and his navigator. Everybody was ready to start the convoy but, again, the same car, same driver, same place, same position got stuck. After we recover him, we headed to Badayer where Ahmed Bhai with Irfan, Ganesh and Gerry were waiting for us for the Phase II.

Phase II

Thanseer (Lead), Ahmed with Irfan, Saif, Gerry, Amjed, Ganesh and Abdulla (Sweep)

We started Phase II after a short break so we could refill our enduring energy. The drive was planned for tricky areas and most of the area we were driving in first time. As Ganesh penned his report in details, there is nothing more than that to add. Most of the areas the sand was so soft and God was continually pouring the sand to his worshippers which added more challenge to this drive.

Hats off to Irfan bringing his brand new LX 570 to this challenging terrain. Until we had a problem with Gerry’s car the drive was in full pace. To fix the problem in Gerry’s car we spent more than one hour and getting out my car from a small bowl interrupted our set pace and we fell behind our schedule. Again our superman – Dune Rider – appeared in both situations. Once again Thanks a ton to Abdulla for the support. Then we decided to exit Shwaib which was near to us instead of Al Faqa. By 04:00PM we reached Adnoc Petrol Station in Shwaib and filled the tank and returned to the home.

You can count this drive as a small preparation for LIWA. The difficulties which you had faced were less than 25% of the Liwa terrain.

Thank you all for joining this drive and continuously spending 9 hours in the desert with your sportsman spirit. It made this a wonderful drive which everybody did beyond the expectation. This drive will remain as a memorable and eventful drive in Dubai Offroaders history.

Yess Tushar, You really missed it… 🙁 The drive was a kind of your taste…

Why not… This season let us fill the desert with Dubai Offroaders Trip…. 🙂