With the mercury dropping to near single digit figures this morning, the desert was indeed a cool place to be.

After a slightly extended safety briefing, the Basic training 2 convoy  headed off into the dunes near the meeting point to do what they came here to do, drive! And that’s exactly what they did, for about 5 minutes, before our sweeper was called to action to rescue a car that was perfectly bellied on a small dune.

Almost immediately after the quick  and seemingly effortless rescue, the convoy was plunged into a technical area with a series of straight crests, high descends and multiple short steep drops. Surprisingly, there wasn’t a single stuck in this area. The group exhibited excellent convoy discipline and razor sharp focus. The deadening radio silence was only interrupted by the lead and second lead cautioning the group about obstacles that they were going to encounter.

All that focus and tension earned the convoy a well deserved break. We used this as an opportunity to prepare the group for what lay ahead, and then set off at a slightly higher pace in an area with larger, gently sloping dunes.  During  this leg of the drive convoy discipline started to fade a little. There were large gaps in the convoy which our sweeper and second lead  managed quite well, but it was still not great.

Upon arrival at the location for the side sloping lesson one of the Fellas announced that his car had a coolant leak. After an unsuccessful attempt at locating the source of the leak, the car was safely escorted out of the desert by our sweeper, while the rest of the convoy continued to practice side sloping.

Side Sloping in high gear was handled very well by the entire convoy, however, low gear driving is where the wheels fell off the proverbial bus. After many “second” tries the group kind of got the hang of low gear driving, but they will definitely benefit from more practice.

By the time we were done with the side sloping lesson, we were properly behind schedule. So we charted a course for the exit with a few surprises thrown in just to keep the convoy on their toes.

Today’s drive lacked the kind of flow that Desert Fellas drives have become famous for. Having said that, Basic training 2 is a big step up from Basic training 1, and it was designed to reveal areas for improvement and reinforcement. I wish this group well with the rest of their basic training and look forward to catching up with them on drive 6.

Thanks for your support on today’s trip Zoubeir (SW) and Martin (SL). You guys really kept things rolling along nicely.