Gulf News Fun Drive on 13th & 14th of January ‘2012.
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After a long awaited year…finally the Liwa experience was done…Gulf news as usual had really organised the event successfully…Myself, Ashok and Sreekumar met our “Dubai Offroaders” team at Mafraq Hotel parking where we started the route…..Thanseer was leading us followed by Ashok, myself, Sreekumar & G. Kumar….We all reached at the deflating point and thanks to G.Kumar for helping me out for the configuration of my phone……Once we kicked off the 1st checkpoint (Bridgestone), we had a long route of 74kms through the rough sand…and then we waited at the 2nd checkpoint where Thanseer and Sreekumar had to re-fuel their vehicles and after that we all were following each other through all the other check-points….My pajero ran out of fuel in the middle of the desert and thanks to our entire team to give me full support in re-fueling my vehicle….special thanks to Thanseer and Sreekumar for the extra fuel they were carrying with them…..we all experienced the steepest dunes ever seen. Ashok and myself were stuck at one place but managed to come out of it quickly….Thanseer’s vehicle was getting heated up…but we all managed to reach the petrol station at the 5th check point and had to wait in the long queue for more than a hour to get our tanks full…..Then we all followed the road to reach the camp..and since we reached a bit late…couldnt get the tents….and managed to put up our own tent to spend the night…..Next day early morning after having the breakfast …..drove back to Dubai (myself and Ashok) by road……but i should really admit one thing…..I managed to clear the entire Liwa desert only b’coz of the experience I had with our Dubai Offroaders Group in our previous drives……Thanks a ton to Thanseer and all the other guys to support each other as a team……
Hi guys,
Please find some of the photos of GNFD…..
Ganesh has already posted a brief summary of the event above. I will make it a little more detailed.
As planned, we (Ahmed Pervez, Thanseer & myself) started at 5:55 am from the meeting point (ADNOC, Ghantoot) in a convoy to Mafraq Hotel. Reached Mafraq hotel participants parking by 06;45am. Checking registration process was quick and smooth.
After breakfast and collecting goody bag, water packets, lunch boxes we have lined up for departure. We have waited for a while at the parking since we couldn’t find a way out to the flag off point as GNFD participants were still enjoying their breakfast….. 😉
Finally we (Thanseer & myself) managed to cross the flag off point (with a little offroading) at around 8:15 am. We joined the Dubai Offroaders team (Ashok, Sreekumar, Ganesh) who have been waiting for us on the main road.
We were quite a small convoy of 5 cars led by Thanseer followed by Ashok, Ganesh, Sreekumar & myself. Don’t know what happened with the other 5 Dubai Offroader members, confirmed to be in the convoy.
Thanks a lot Thanseer for the lead. I have participated in GNFD for couple of years, but this year was quite different for me as I could enjoy the drive more since you took the responsibility of laying the safe way. Thereby our task was minimized just to stay on your track. :thanks:
Section 1 – Mafraq Hotel to Off Road start (29.5Kms) was on tarmac to reach the deflation point and then proceeded to Checkpoint 1 – Bridgestone.
Section 2 – Offroad start to White Sands Junction (75.3 Kms) was completely on gravel plain. At the beginning there was a very small stretch of sand track (don’t know whether we can call it as dunes) for about 1.5 Kms. Could notice many other participants struggling to overcome. We reached the Checkpoint 2 – AXA by 10.05am.
😮 My Xterra was drinking fuel and the same with Sreekumar’s Wrangler. We intelligent guys never had an extra can of fuel as well…. :)) Thanseer, myself and Sreekumar decided to take fuel from the ADNOC tanker for which we had to spend 1.45 hrs in queue. Never expected the situation to be this worse!!! 😮
Section 3 – White Sand Junction to Dead Coach Gatch (32.7 Kms) was on mainly on sand track with few dunes, plain terrain and up downs. We have been flying in this session to coverup the time we lost for filling fuel. I didn’t see any vehicle overtaking our convey and infact we have been overtaking everybody to reach the Checkpoint 3 – United Arab Bank.
Section 4 +5 – Dead Coach to Red Sign to White GT Cut off (57 Kms). This session was quite a challenging for the novice and experienced drivers with tricky dunes, steep slopes and soft (spoiled) sand. We could see many mishaps – burned, overturned, head on crash in dunes. :-s Getting struck in sand was a common sight in this section. Marshals might have had a tough task for this section. We never had any hiccups other than a short break to recover Ashok and Thanseer’s recovery support for another GNFD participant. We have been flying rest of the section trying to beat the clock by reaching the Nescafe checkpoint before 2.30pm. In this race, Thanseer’s vehicle was getting heated up. But we all managed to reach the checkpoint sharp in time and could obtain route notes for Section 6 to 9. :ymapplause: The convoy that just arrived behind to us was denied access to Section 6 by the marshals.
Ganesh and Sreekumar were running out of fuel and we had two choices – 1) End the drive and go to ADNOC , Hammem via tarmac which is 33 Kms far 2) Continue the drive (Section 6) in dunes & sand track and reach ADNOC Hammed which is 35 Kms far. After few minutes of calculations for mileage, fuel stock, 2 wheel & 4 wheel drive options we decided to opt for 2nd option.
Section 6 – White GT to Hameem (35 Kms). This was the most interesting section of the drive with tricky soft sand climbs, down slopes, double drops, triple drops, and steep climbs. 🙂 Sreekumar’s Wrangler was initially not in a mood to move due to high tyre pressure and was a good performer later. We reached the Motorola checkpoint by 4.20pm and proceeded to ADNOC Hameem.
Sorry for those guys who arrived at the checkpoint which their bumpers tied on roof. 🙁
Were shocked to see the very long queue but had no other choice than to join the waiting list. This waiting period was not so boring as the one in the morning since all were engaged in getting fresh, having lunch and inflating tyres. Finally we succeeded in obtaining fuel by 6pm. For the first time after being in UAE for a very long period, felt that fuel is very precious!!! 😮
Thanseer went further and had fuel from ADNOC Tharwaniyyah which is on the way to Tal Moreeb. Since it was dark by the time we could come out of ADNOC Hameem, we had to drop sections 7 & 8 and proceeded directly to Section 9 by tarmac to Tal Moreeb Campsite. We reached the campsite by 7.15pm and were welcomed by GN hospitality and entertainments.
Due to some personal commitments, I couldn’t stay at the campsite. After a brief break and dinner, drove 385 Kms back to home at Ajman.
Thanks Thanseer for the lead and thank you guys for being a great team :thanks: .
Few pictures to follow
Thank you Ganesh & Kumar for your detailed reports.
It was a great time for all the team members, special thanks to Thanseer for the guidance and lead.
Regards
Dear Friends, Uploaded few pictures of Gulf News Fun Drive 2012.
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10150535197692356&type=1
Thanks G.Kumar for the very detailed report. Looks like you had alor of fun.
It s indeed a grat experience… Well done!Cheers
Khalil
Thanks G. Kumar for the excellent and quite detailed report, very nice. This drive was indeed quite tough for the unsuspecting novices and we Marshals had more work to do than what is required normally.
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience as I had for the past 14 years that I have been involved with Gulf News Fun Drive.
I acually never attended a single Fun Drive as a Participant !!!
I consider 2 persons to be my leaders and Guru in the desert, Fraser Martin was the one who introduced me to the sand in 1997 and Jum Ali Khan has been my Guru who taught me the finer nuances of driving in the desert.
Already there is detailed report like live and there is nothing more than that to add. Thanks to G.Kumar for the nice write up and happy to hear that you peoples enjoyed the drive.
I must highlight something that I enjoyed more than GNFD. Mr. Ajay, Mr. Ahmed and myself, we visited 2 degree confluences on Saturday drive. Thanks to Mr. Ajay and Mr. Ahmed sharing some knowledge to me. After some challenging and tricky drive we reached the first Degree Confluence 23°N 54°E. After spending some time there we start moving towards the next Degree Confluence. The drive was like formula one drive on dirt track. Approximately after 2 hours drive we reached second Degree Confluence 24°N 55°E. We spent some time there, removed some photographs and headed towards our home.
There are total 11 Degree Confluences in UAE territory in which 10 are already visited by adventurers. The one which left is middle of the sea. Not yet recorded anybody’s visit there. I will try to visit all these Degree Confluences in future.
I feel like that I achieved something and thanks to my Montana 650, which I believe far far ahead of 276c.
quote j3r3miah:quote Desert King:There are total 11 Degree Confluences in UAE territory in which 10 are already visited by adventurers. The one which left is middle of the sea. Not yet recorded anybody’s visit there. I will try to visit all these Degree Confluences in future.Thank you Satwinder for the link. Quite interesting. Let us make Degree Confluence Team 😉
Thanks Satwinder…
Some of our reported visits listed on the same site….http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=16594
http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=15971
http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=15970
Indeed this is a chellenging proposition and something to give us a purpose of sorts rather than just driving around… 😀
There was an article too in the National News paper on our last Confluence point visit in 2009,
To the nth degree by John Henzell.Full report as follows,
http://www.thenational.ae/lifestyle/to-the-nth-degree?pageCount=0
I would like to appreciate the Marshals of Dubaioffroaders for their encouragement and lead support extended to me without which I could not have completed the recently organized fun drive by Gulf News successfully.
Especially, Marshals Mr. Ali Batrol, Mr.Tushar Surve, Mr.Sam,Mr.Tanseer, Mr.Salim Khan and Our Satwinder Singh Ji deserves special Thanks for their expertise offered to us.
My group members Mr.Ashok, Mr.Ganesh & Mr. G.Kumar also extend their support to me for that I am very much obliged to them as well.
quote Ahmed Pervez:Some of our reported visits listed on the same site….http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=16594
http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=15971
http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=15970
Indeed this is a chellenging proposition and something to give us a purpose of sorts rather than just driving around… 😀
Adaab arz hai Huzoor. :thanks:
the impromptu Confluence Point Trip was really worth the 3 mundane trips to Dubai that I made over three consecutive weekends in relation to the GNFD. Participating in GNFD has its own charm, but nothing comares to when you have to chalk out your tracks and test your navigational skills to areas that you haven’t been before. Moreover what can be a better place to test your driving and navigation skill than in Liwa.
I really enjoyed leading the drive to the two confluence points on the 14th January and more so, the “F1 pace” :drive: to the second confuence point, as Thanseer has described in an earlier post. we were indeed running against the daylight. I wish the 2 cars had not turned back from the deflation point and we had done the confluence visit in a big group.
Anyway, our visit to 23N 54E is already up on the Degree Confluence website, you can see it at http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=18196. I will get the second one posted in next couple of days.
BTW, another historical Confluence visit that I did with the Dubai Offroaders team in 2009 is posted at http://confluence.org/confluence.php?visitid=15807.
That’s correct…I just regret not being able to access 23N 53E….but yes the challenge posed by the Dunes while accessing 23N 54E was really nice and exciting…
I guess now we should just organize a Liwa trip in Feb. 2012 covering the Confluence points… 😕
Either driving along the latitude 23N… covering the southernmost 3 points….
or driving along the latitude 24N…covering the 4 points that fall within UAE…
or maybe we criss cross over 2 days and cover all 7?
:yesss:
kya kehte’n hai’n Ajay Bhai? 😉
quote Ahmed Pervez:I guess now we should just organize a Liwa trip in Feb. 2012 covering the Confluence points… 😕
Either driving along the latitude 23N… covering the southernmost 3 points….
or driving along the latitude 24N…covering the 4 points that fall within UAE…
or maybe we criss cross over 2 days and cover all 7?
:yesss:
kya kehte’n hai’n Ajay Bhai? 😉out of the 10 points in UAE, three are on water, I have been to the remaining 7. of which I could manage to reach ground zero on five locations. I could not finish the remaining 2 due these locations being inside high security compunds.
Now regarding your proposal to do all these points in one trip, I not sure whether this can be done. the three points on the Lat 23 itself will take a minimum 2 days expedition or probably 3 days also, depending upon how we chalk out our route. Since I have successfully done all these three points on Lat 23, I have no hesitation in saying that this sector probably is the toughest of the UAE desert.
regarding the 4 points on Lat 24, one point is on water and 2 🙁 are in high security areas, so we are left with one point only. that we can do it while going to or coming back from Lat 23. the fifth possible point on the Lat 25 can also be covered easily. However, the whole thing will become a 3 night camp tour, which is possible only during Eid breaks. We therefore need to split the program
Anyway, lets explore the idea further and work out something 😕
another idea : let’s hire a boat to do 2 of the three points on water. the third one near RAK is very close to the disputed islands so is not advisable to be around, else the Iranian navy :ymdevil: will pick us up.
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