As with many areas in Dubai, grass and bushes have recently taken over the desert landscape – our starting point in Murquab was no different, making for some tricky navigation to seek tracks in clear sand as we embarked on our crossing towards Al Qudra.

Leaving the hot air balloons in our rear view mirrors, our warm up was just getting into a rhythm when we had a pop out to attend to. A tricky valve meant a slightly longer operation than usual but after a team effort we were soon on our way again.

After breaking through the overgrowth to reach our first play area and making several passes across the slopes here, we took the opportunity to break in front of the dune and catch up with the rest of the convoy, welcoming back some familiar faces for the new season.

The testing technical area that stood between us and our next play area was taken in our stride, covering the distance with no second tries.

On the final part of the drive towards Triple Tree we struck the gold we were searching for in the form of bigger dunes clear from bushes, and made the most of our remaining time opening up the throttle and playing on the slopes before heading to our exit point, passing by the Discovery convoy on the way.

Thanks to Malcolm for the fantastic support today. See you on the next one.