Sweihan Advanced Junior Drive
It was a beautiful afternoon in the Sweihan Desert. Everyone was on time and ready for our 2:30pm start time. Everyone was fit and ready to drive, so began the safety briefing.
We briefed the safety rules, driver standards, and the plan for the afternoon. We set the convoy order and lined up for our radio check. All was good and off we went.
We started on some tall tunes to get to the part of the desert we needed to get to and the soft sand was quickly giving the less experienced drivers some difficulty. We had multiple second tries and stopped to discuss gear selections and 4H ir 4L. One vehicle might have had kill switch issues affecting their performance.
It wasn’t long and we were moving again and soon the convoy was making beautiful arcs on the sweeping side slopes. We then had to do a bit of climbing which went well, but again the soft sand required multiple second tries. It was great training and we worked through the issues.
We crossed the ketch towards Old Lady dune and side sloped for about 7 km before entering a technical area. At this point we had another Mechanical issue on a vehicle that we couldn’t resolve and Chef had to take them to the ketch since the drive would not have been possible for the vehicle had no power. The rest of the convoy & support team drove to Negrah and took a break. A few offroaders played on the dune for a bit.
We began our trek out it it was really uneventful. When surfed our way back towards the exit point, entered a technical area and enjoyed the tight turns. Remember to watch your safety distance when in the technical areas, very important. We had one stuck on a straight crest about 10 minutes before finish time. The sweeper had them off the crest quickly and we exited the desert almost on time.
Thank you everyone for joining me and thank you so very much Chef Marc, Rathica 2nd lead, and Preggy sweeper. See you next time.
10 comments on Sweihan Advanced Junior Drive
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What a delightful day as we drove in sweihan after eons. The juniors performed reasonably well only need better radio communication. The negrah hill was the icing on the cake as few offroaders (guilty as charged) had some time to play on the high dunes with loads of bumps. The entire convoy was flowing at good pace on the side slopes. Yes the sand was extra soft so made it challenging for few fellas. It was honor driving with you mike seeing you after ages in the sand. Sweepers did a great job mentoring the experienced fellas and the newbies. Wish we had more time in sweihan as its quite far away from home (those staying in dxb). Didnt see jager out in the sand for long, missed his k9 presence being the DF mascot. Until next time and pray for a miraculous cure for the ongoing sh!t, godspeed to you all.
Sweihan is a unique area that has all kinds of challenges that require high concentration and powerful cars in a perfect condition.
Unfortunately, this was not my day and i couldn’t complete the drive due to weak fuel pump which appears in low end RPMs when you put the engine under load like ascending hills and side slopes with soft sand, and you need to build a good momentum in order to approach the challenge with not less than 4k RPM to avoid the loos of power and stalling, but at the technical area it was not easy to build that momentum, so i had to ask Mike to let me pull out from the drive so to do not ruin everybody else joy with the track.
Yes, it’s part of the game and always there will be a next week.
However, I’ve enjoyed my time with some good people.
Thanks Mike for the support, you are really like a big brother. Thanks Rathica for the second lead, it was a pleasure seeing you today. Thanks Preggy for looking after all of us. And thanks Chef for escorted me to safe spot outside the desert.
It was a tough call, but you made the right decision. At some stage in the game every off-roader no matter how experienced will end a drive prematurely due to car issues. Cars like all mechanical devices can fail without warning. The trip leader asks about the condition of vehicles before the drive to ensure that we do not take existing problems into the desert that can compromise convoy safety, but this does not guarantee that there will be no failures during the trip. The best decision whenever you encounter a problem that cannot be easily fixed is to exit to safety. Hope your fuel pump is repaired/replaced soon.
Hope the VW is on the mend!!
A wonderful afternoon! Good weather, fantastic people and excellent pace with straight creating And side sloping Coupled with some high climbs. After the warm up. Drivers got in touch with their vehicles and there was a nice groove. A few second tries – and some drivers still needing to work out maintaining the correct safety distance while establishing and maintaining momentum to get them through the challenges.
Beautiful lines set out by @Mike. With fantastic sweeper support by @Preggy and encouragement and support by @ChefMarc
👑🚙
Great drive in Sweihan 😍thank u Mike for organizing te drive.
Amazing drive of the weekend.
Thank you Marc & Preggy for the guidance & support 👍
& thank you all Fellas for the awesome drive 😍
This area is quickly becoming a favorite amongst Fellas of all drive levels. The drive started with some high climbs on soft sand and it caught some of our Advanced Juniors (AJ’s) off guard. Throughout their journey with Fellas they have heard the leader’s mantra “I want to hear your engine scream” but didn’t realize how important it was until today. For most of the drive the convoy was able to maintain an amazing pace that would have made any by stander green with envy. The convoy seemed to snake effortlessly up, down and around dunes.
But every now and then the convoy would slow down completely to cross a tricky obstacle and all the wheels would fall off the proverbial bus.
For some reason whenever the convoy slowed down, following distance was forgotten. As a result, the convoy had to back up on a few occasions to create a safe approach for a second try. Remember that 4-5 cars is the minimum following distance. This is the distance to be used in technical areas where the convoy is moving slowly.
All you have to do is take care of the distance between you and the car in front of you everything else will fall into place.
Thanks for an awesome drive Mike. I’m loving this area more and more with every drive. Rathica, it was good to hear you on the Desert Fellas frequency. Great second lead. Knowing that Marc was watching over everything was a great comfort. See you all in the sand real soon.
Great trip Mike, thanks to you & the rest of the team for making it happen.
Always great to drive in Sweihan -its an amazing place to unleash the true power of your 4X4 on those beautiful big Dunes.
Enjoyed the arches & side slopes and watching the seasoned drivers challenge Nagrah.
Samir hope your car gets well soon
See you all on the next one
Awesome trip Mike and good to see you back with the Jeep in flying form Rathica, thanks for trip support!!
Love this area! Actually started my group off-roading in this Sweihan. I can safely say the experience with DFs is on another level entirely!! Still fun to watch the chaos at Negrah though!
I really enjoyed the fast high side sloping and the technical area was a nice test. Laura hasn’t been out with me in a while and really enjoyed the trip too. Unfortunately with about 10 mins left she uttered the unthinkable “I think this is the first time I haven’t seen anyone get stuck”… Thanks for the recovery Preggy!
Great ride Cooper con , good lead in different area then normal. Love to explore more . Rathica thank you for tip on the battery , We checked the car and readings did not show any direct causes replacing ithe battery seems to have solved the issue