Part 1 – Full Day Marathon Drive on Friday, 08/03/2013
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:thanks: to Ganesh for a great morning drive :ymapplause: and having me as your ‘second lead ‘… I had loads of fun through those tricky crests and bowls … They say that if you’re pulled out with your own rope it does not count as a stuck … so I pretty much still have a clean slate 😀 😀 😀
:thanks: to Musbah,Zarir for the support
:thanks: to my new offroading friends for the good company
quote Rein:Marathon drive Part#1
Ashok’s convoy: Approx. 48kms and 4 hours of high charged driving fun from Lasaili to Al Faqaa
A big thanks to all the Marshals, Task force members and all the senior members for organisation an excellent drive for us all. :thanks:
All of us met in the morning at the meeting point, exchanged greetings and then headed off to the deflation point at Lasaili. We hit the dunes at 8:40 hrs from drove thru the excellent choice of track that passed through tricky bowls, crests, side cresting, side slopes and exited at Al Faqaa where we all proceeded to the ADNOC petrol station.
I lost the count of each dunes, bowls, slopes…we traversed. Once again it has been a pleasure of driving with Ashok, especially when trying to keep up the pace he sets so that I could watch & learn from him the navigation skills he displays.
A big thanks to Robinson, Brian and Firoz for keeping us all together. :ymapplause:Rein’s report above is the first of a new trend including maps and elevation logs…truly wonderful, it’s sort of in Tandem with Hamza’s new look DO 😀 , good work both.
Wow what a day, what an evening…with the dawn cometh reason 😀
:thanks: go to Kumar & Ganesh for overall organisation of the day’s events, :thanks: go to the Marshall’s of the TASK FORCE, for this great JUST FOR FUN day in the dunes (D2).
:thanks: go to Ahmad for having the idea that makes this whole thing come together ^:)^
thanks go to Hamza for giving us this tool to work with :-BDPART ONE
Morning drive
Individual :thanks: from me go to Marshall’s Ashok & Robinson.As Rein said above Ashok put up a good challenge with his nicely crafted lead \:D/ . Rein did an excellent job at 2nd lead, keeping the troops in touch with the man in the hot seat 😉 :ymapplause:
Following the mass gathering at Eppco we split convoy and took to the tarmac wending our way over to the flats of Lisaili. Deflation point achieved the fun started, a spirited plunge into short technical dunes set the style. For some this was a gentle wake up call to pay attention.
The fun continued with an early cresting or 2, however as folk became accustomed to the idea that this could require lots more focus than less advanced drives, everyone settled into a good rhythm punctuated only by the technical requirements of the odd pop-out!
Firoztv & Sophie and Nikki & I played musical support, between middle and rear convoy, where the Winchman, who encouraged all from his vantage as Sweep, keep the group in order :thanks: for the motivation Robinson
I’d like to take this opportunity to record these observations:-
Bubban: my compliments to your overall approach and handling of these tricky dunes, :ymapplause: superbe mon ami net amélioration, continue comme ça.
Similarly Thomas, it was really nice to watch you handling the side-sloping bowls with greater ease and making that lithe machine of yours perform 🙂
Shabeer, you are doing just great, it’s truly instructive what you do with your little buggy 😀
Wasi my friend, you’ve a tiger in your tank, no really…. maybe just a tiny bit too much power occasionally. If willpower had anything to do with our :drive: ‘s you’d be flying mate 😀Ashok brought us all to the ADNOC @ Al Faqaa, where some goodbyes were said, some personal needs were catered for and , for the lucky few, shade was available 😀
:thanks: to all participants in this :drive: JUST FOR FUNPart Two
This is a far more complex story and I’ll continue under Ganesh’s post on this topic 😀
Part 2
Please read on via Ganesh’s post on this topic 😀
quote brianj:quote Rein:This is a far more complex story and I’ll continue under Ganesh’s post on this topic 😀😮 😮
Brian : You had aptly placed your comments and its true but trust me , it helped me , personally, to tweak my learning curve. It also taught how the Marshals and seniors handled such situations which would otherwise drive anyone to the brink of panic.B-) B-) B-)
It also gave the opportunity in terms of leisure time during the drive to interact with fellow off roaders 😀 , mini :ymparty:
Hello DO & MEO
It was yet again a fantastic day out with over 30 cars and 3 convoys in the morning :drive: . We all met at the Gas station and proceeded to the entry point in Lisaili. On route we witnessed groups of race Camels being put through their paces 😮 and also witnessed horse men readying their rides for the endurance desert hacking @-) . The silent bikers on the newly paved bike track and the wonderful weather all spoke of a great day ahead. :ymparty:
After deflation we grouped for a quick briefing from Kumar and the convoy was split. Ashok took the lead on the first convoy :thanks: with Rein keeping the herd at number two :thanks: . The initial part of the drive was mostly short twisty technical dunes that I have in the past referred to as the Doldrums, which gave us ample time to practice our moves. Apart from the random cresting and pop out which was dealt with really quickly the drive was well paced and we moved to higher dunes closer to Faqqa :ymdevil: .The track chosen by Ashok was great ensuring that we were both challenged and at the same time maintaining the convoy pace :thanks: :thanks: . Being out front I could only see Shabeer and Rein of which Rein had the job of looking after the herd which he did with great flair and Shabeer your accomplishment with that little wagon of yours is one of sheer determination and will power. I can only imagine what you can accomplish inside a Patrol or FJ :ymapplause: :ymapplause: .
Brian you have a good eye :ymhug: and as you rightly stated the side sloping with the cresting I found a lot easier as this was my maiden drive with the K&N performance filter under the hood. I know a lot of guys out there would challenge this but trust me the improved throttle response from the K&N’s on a 3 litre mitsu makes a world of a difference. Now the only thing that I will have to address especially with summer almost upon us is the drain in torque when the a/c is switched on :ymsigh: :-w :-w and so I am looking at headers and catback for the fix. Any advice or experience on this will be greatly appreciated.
So as the War cry goes out yet again “ SEE YOU IN THE SAND” :ymapplause: :ymcowboy: :-B
A full enthusiastic and beautiful morning crowd at the Eppco Petrol station on E66 at 7.30 am. Over 30+ cars gathered and left for deflation in Lisaili… Arrival of Zarir was nice to see too :ymhug: ….He was the sweep with Musbah in my convoy…
At the deflation point, after the drive briefing done by Kumar, all three convoys grouped seperately and started their drive….Nice to see very new faces joining the club with lots of regular drivers too… 🙂
I had Iqsaan as the second car followed by others…. The drive plan was a fewbee++ level and everyone were ready for it to challenge the soft and tiny dunes and pockets…
Iqsaan had to struggle a bit today….but nevertheless he must have defenitely gained confidence in tackling the crests by now…. He had nearly 4 crests… 😮
The area was very very soft in which I had also sunk one time, thanks to Musbah to winch me out after a couple of attempts…. :thanks:
I think each one of the convoy experienced some great challenge to test their skills in the softest patches and drive through the small dunes and tricky pockets…
We stopped sometimes for a nice photo session too….in between the rocks and also one time where we saw a group of camels standing in a very disciplined convoy position…where we also met Ashok’s convoy passing by….had some nice chat and both the convoys took their own way towards the destination….
I was trying my best to reach our final destination Adnoc pump before 12.30 pm so that our Muslim brothers can offer their Juma prayers…
But the area was getting too bad for some drivers, trying plenty of attempts to cross a dune and at one point David Jeep had some issue with the steering getting stuck and the task was cleared with great help from our sweep team – Zarir and Musbah ……Thanks guys… :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:
The other two convoys had reached Adnoc on time and were ready for the 2nd part – The afternoon drive….I reached the point only by 2.30pm where the entire convoy had hardly any time left for getting refreshed for the next drive…..but as we say the craziness in this business never lets us down….so everyone was again ready on their wheels for the second part…..
Thank you guys for joining this drive and also for a great company…. I hope everyone enjoyed it thoroughly though it was a lengthy one….
Special thanks to Musbah and Zarir who were continously busy in rescuing and supporting the entire convoy.. :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:
The report for the second part of drive will follow soon…. :-w :-w :-w
Cheers
The track chosen by Ashok was great ensuring that we were both challenged and at the same time maintaining the convoy pace :thanks: :thanks: . Being out front I could only see Shabeer and Rein of which Rein had the job of looking after the herd which he did with great flair and Shabeer your accomplishment with that little wagon of yours is one of sheer determination and will power. I can only imagine what you can accomplish inside a Patrol or FJ :ymapplause: :ymapplause: .
Thank you my friend for your compliments.. even you too were rocking yesterday…
Missed you a lot in the afternoon drive and for BBQ there after.
I feel very comfortable and confidence while driving with you people….
:thanks: :thanks: :thanks: DO/MEO marshals for your great lead and guidance…
Excellent drive. Definitely improved my driving skills. Thanks Ganesh for a great lead. Musbah and Zarir youll did a great job at the sweep. we reached in time for the 2nd drive.
Thanks to everyone for the great company.
Its indeed a special & challenging track, We have seen the “Moon Rocks” (soon, will be updated on Google), and the Jeep got a steering stuck with the sway bar link, So what we Zarir inspected and with Musbah’s help we managed to bring the bolts (which stops steering movement) to the other side and continues the journey expecting a stuck, :ymdevil: Crossed a bump and the link got brocken, 😕 No what, Repairs..Change…. 😀 😀 , No its a jeep thing, now the steering is full free turn to any angle, Continued the journey to the phase 2 and completed it..Jeep is ready for another action….
Thank you all for the nice drive reports :thanks:
Nice line up of around 30 cars, and I was assigned the newbie convoy to explore the tricky terrain of Lisaili. Am a little surprised to see no comments or feedback from the newbie convoy 🙁
Common briefing to all followed by specific newbie briefing, we were on dunes. By then Dada and Ashok vanished with their respective fewbee and intermediate convoys.
I am sorry for you Ali for not letting you to drive since there was no tow hook on your Jeep Cherokee. No worries bro, get it fixed and we are going to have many drives :-BD
I wll say the newbie convoy was Jeepers with 2 patrols, one at lead and the other at sweep 🙂 Thank you Amjed for the excellent support and coordination at sweep :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:
To my surprise, the newbie convoy had a very smooth sailing through the tricky soft dunes of Lisaili. We could maintain good pace and more or less it was a long stuck free drive :-BD 🙂
Target was to reach ADNOC Al Faqqa before 12.30pm and almost we achieved the mission. Just before 2kms from the gate in dunes, Adil banged his cherokee while executing a steep fall, damaging radiator. Thanks alot Carl (plowboy) for your help and support in bypassing the radiator connection. It helped us to restart the car and could manage to bring it down the dunes to tracks.
Since the engine temperature was rising very quickly due to incomplete radiator fluid circulation, we switched off the engine and Amjed was assigned to tow the cherokke upto the gate, near to tarmac. We carved a very safe and easy exit to tow the cherokee effortlessly. While we were on this task, we were passed by Ashok’s intermediate convoy.
Finally we reached the destination by around 1pm, got refreshed and went on another mission with Ashok and Amjed, before the afternoon drive for identifying a good spot for BBQ and camping.
Thanks you all for joining this drive. :thanks:
Look forward to drive with you all many more :-BD 🙂 :drive:
Kumar,
No need for thanks, as some day I may be in a similar predicament! , but it is appreciated. I really enjoyed the first drives I had with DO, and loved the comradery that was shown at the BBQ after the drives 🙂 Thus far I would like to commend the marshals in picking suitable routes for the people in their convoy. It is nearly an unimaginable task, and you all do it off the cuff!
I would like to thank you all for feeling welcomed into the DO family.
Carl, aka plowboy
Dada’s Ditch is now in google maps – http://goo.gl/maps/MDts9 (It will take more days to fix there permanently)
quote DAVID:Dada’s Ditch is now in google maps – http://goo.gl/maps/MDts9 (It will take more days to fix there permanently)Not sure that’s such a friendly thing to do David 😕
quote brianj:quote DAVID:Dada’s Ditch is now in google maps – http://goo.gl/maps/MDts9 (It will take more days to fix there permanently)Not sure that’s such a friendly thing to do David 😕
We leave our foot prints for others to mark as a way point, Each trail will have some special way points, that will be named too… 😀 😀
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