Relaxing Drive in Victoria’s Forest on Fri. 3rd of May 2013

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  • April 29, 2013 at 6:52 am #1741

    Let’s have a nice relaxing Drive in the Northern Emirates this time. This area is with some nice & soft dunes that calls for some really technical driving.
    There have been substantial rains in this past week and certain areas in the Northern emirates desert turn into a Park like Vista after the rains.
    The offroaders refer to it as Victoria’s Forest, basically a cluster of Ghaf trees with green grass and small shrubs with multicoloured flowers…it is a shockingly beautiful sight…right in the middle of desert!!!
    So let’s go and give Victoria a visit!!!

    Day and date : Friday 3rd of May ‘2013
    Drive Type : Newbee + Fewbee
    Meeting Point : Sharjah Dhaid Road.
    Meeting Point Cordinates :
    Lat/Lon hddd.mm.mmm = N25 16.623 E55 44.272
    Meeting Time : 1500 Hrs.
    Drive Start: 1515 Hrs. sharp
    Drive ends at Sunset.
    Drive Terrain: Nice views with some soft & really tricky dunes.

    Checklist:-
    a) Ensure your 4 x 4 vehicle is in perfect condition and with enough fuel.
    b) Compatible Radio is a must.
    c) Carry all necessary offroad gears, in good condition.
    d) Carry enough water / refreshments / re-hydration drinks for self & co-passenger(s).

    Please read the following and register for the drive:-
    Equipments that one needs to carry for offroading
    Rules Of The Trip
    Dubai Offroaders – Disclaimer

    April 29, 2013 at 7:10 am #26248

    Yay! First registration!

    April 30, 2013 at 5:48 am #26295

    Yay second reply – going to try out the “new car” on this one “Nellie Nissan” is retiring from dune bashing. Going to be straight out the showroom into the desert yipee can’t wait wonder whether husband will let me drive again?

    April 30, 2013 at 12:36 pm #26331

    Congratulations!!!
    That’s good news Shawna!!!
    What car did you choose for offroad adventures?

    May 1, 2013 at 3:58 pm #26383
    quote rak667:

    Yay! First registration!

    Hey Rakesh ! Good to see you back in action . Howz ur Pajero?

    May 1, 2013 at 6:52 pm #26387

    Cool drive not to be missed.
    However need to reconfirm smthg and hope to register thursday evening.

    May 2, 2013 at 8:30 am #26418

    In! :drive: :thanks:

    May 2, 2013 at 11:44 am #26420

    Still coming but boo hoo no new car yet – somebody has been using my husbands old car registration and run up loads of fines – a Russian no less – he has now been deported but we have to wait for the court to remove the fines etc against my husband before we can get our new car. Can’t wait to get my cute little FJ.

    See you Friday.

    May 3, 2013 at 12:11 pm #26437

    Well we tried to come but could not find the meeting point. Our sat nav kept trying to take us to International city. Have now discovered that the co-ordinates that they give on here do not work in GPS only on google maps so now have found a site to convert them. Never realised that not all co-ordinates are equal so to speak. Will definetley be coming next week with the correct co=ordinates in sat nav. At least we know what we have been doing wrong. Upset as really wanted to do the drive today. Hope you all had an excellent time.

    May 3, 2013 at 7:10 pm #26442

    As the drive name suggested this was a truly relaxing drive..

    Arrived at the meeting point at 3pm to once again find most of the DOers were already there.( Great punctuality :ymapplause: )
    After fifteen minutes spent greeting and chatting we were on our way to the deflation point .

    Once again we were blessed with perfect weather – the mercury at 29degrees.
    After a quick deflation , the group was split into two convoys , lead by Marshals Thanseer and Robinson.

    I was assigned to Thanseer’s convoy which comprised of :-

    Thanseer (lead)
    Myself
    Baher
    Mustafah
    Apolaris
    Rakesh
    Razik
    Justden (Dennis)
    Rein (sweep)

    The drive through Victoria’s Forest was different from any of my previous drives as the area was rich in desert vegetation and as a bonus my little son was kept thrilled with regular camel sightings …
    The terrain was relatively flat with few dunes and we maintained a swift pace to arrive on the Sharjah-Kalba road within an hour.
    We followed the road briefly until the Khatam exit , where the convoys were merged and with Thanseer as lead we proceeded to Fossil Rock ,
    The convoy regrouped at the Fossil Rock summit , enjoyed the wonderful view and we all carefully descended on the windward side one at a time .
    From the base , of the dune , it was a swift drive past Camel Rock aboard Thanseer’s express .We then followed the tracks to exit the sand at Saddlepoint at approximately 7pm.

    Another safe and enjoyable drive at a blistering pace !
    The entire group drove exceedingly well .

    :thanks: to Marshals Thanseer and Robinson for carving out a safe path.
    :thanks: to the captains Rein, Razik ,Wasi & Duncanfield for the support.
    :thanks: to all my fellow offroaders for making this another enjoyable Friday afternoon in the sand.

    May 4, 2013 at 11:20 am #26446

    Nice report Iqsaan.

    First of all, thanks to the Captains for their support. This was a Newbee & Fewbie drive, so Captains were there to help!

    The terrain was not a typical one for dune drive, but I felt it was very appropriate for newbees. We had 2 convoys and we made good effort to try to find some challenging moves for our newbees. Since we knew most of the drivers wanted to hit real dunes, we changed the plan and headed from meeting point through bushy dunes to fossil rock.

    It was a very safe drive, about 50% of the group enjoyed it and the other 50% was happy to see that 50% enjoying it! ๐Ÿ˜€

    May 4, 2013 at 6:36 pm #26455

    Good and easy realxing drive

    :thanks: to Marshals,Captians and fellow drivers.

    Dhaval

    May 5, 2013 at 6:01 am #26456
    quote Skipbj:

    Well we tried to come but could not find the meeting point. Our sat nav kept trying to take us to International city. Have now discovered that the co-ordinates that they give on here do not work in GPS only on google maps so now have found a site to convert them. Never realised that not all co-ordinates are equal so to speak. Will definetley be coming next week with the correct co=ordinates in sat nav. At least we know what we have been doing wrong. Upset as really wanted to do the drive today. Hope you all had an excellent time.

    Congrats on the choice of the FJ, we drove ours also out of the showroom and into the sand, treat it kindly, learn the rules and it will look after you ๐Ÿ˜€ It’s a very good choice.

    On the GPS coordinates front there are 3 formats USED BY all GPS’s and SOfTWARE such as Google maps and google earth. These settings’s can be changed at will in most machines or applications!

    Degrees, Minutes, seconds. and decimal seconds: this is what you learnt at school ex. N25 00, 00.00 E55 00, 00.00
    Degrees, minutes. and decimal seconds ex. N25 00.0000 E55 00.0000
    Degrees. and decimal minutes ex. N25.000000 E55.00000
    all 3 are available in Garmin GPS’s

    Conversion: 1 degree =60minutes and 1minute = 60 seconds
    Good luck and have fun

    May 5, 2013 at 1:35 pm #26477
    quote Robinson:

    It was a very safe drive, about 50% of the group enjoyed it and the other 50% was happy to see that 50% enjoying it! ๐Ÿ˜€

    Agreed Mr.Rob…. ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€ ๐Ÿ˜€

    But yes as said it was not a dune drive….but a different experience with my first follow up with ur lead… :ymapplause: :ymapplause: :ymapplause:

    :thanks: to Desert King / and rest of the DO’s.

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