Almost4x4

Posted: **Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:01 pm**

Hi everyone,

Please allow me to share with you some thoughts and feelings regarding the GNFD just in case you missed it and hesitating whether to join it next year.

I will start with the summary so no need to keep on reading if you don’t have the time: BEST DRIVE EVER!

Now, the details…

1) The engagement: Late November I received a message from Giorgio inviting me to the drive and I did not hesitate for a second and confirmed my attendance on the spot…I am not used to receive this kind of invitations and I was very grateful for that.

2) The feedback: I discussed with a few people trying to gather some information and the general feedback was: “it will be boring, not worth it”, “there will be a full bunch of i***** doing stupid things”

, etc. As such, my expectations were low but still, I wanted to give it a chance

3) The arrival: We showed up around 7:30am on Saturday, did the registration, collected the goodies, food etc and joined the rest of the Almost Team for breakfast. There were hundreds (around 800 or 900) of drivers doing the same thing, but I have not got the feeling of a crowed place and everything was well organized. Strong breakfast surrounded by Almost’s Marshals, Co-pilots and participants…very good atmosphere and nice food.

4) The drive:
Starting point: Participants were dispatched by batches, don’t know, maybe 40 or 50 cars each keeping some time/distance between them. Media everywhere and all the Marshals parked on the side road waiting for the organization to give us the go ahead. I saw Shamsi proudly driving car No.0 which it was “abandoned” after the first check point…most likely Mando claimed her throne.

The “carnage”: Once we were requested to leave, we headed the first section of the track and I saw nobody…I though, “this should be too easy as everybody manage to keep on going” but after a few small dunes, I saw in the horizon, dozens of cars getting stuck, second tries…amazing picture

. We started to help people, but we did not even know from where to start with…at one moment, we got inside a bowl and saw 3 or 4 cars stuck seeking for assistance so one by one we took them all out. In a particular case, we helped the same car 3 times in a row. People without deflating, panic in passengers faces

, lost drivers looking for some guidance “where is the good track? There is plenty of them”, drivers saying “just give a pull and I will manage, I know how to drive” and saw the same guy getting stuck in the next dune

, plenty of cars doing exactly the opposite there were supposed to to…after some recoveries, Giorgio decided to move forward and you know what? In the next chain of dunes, same thing: another set of 30-40 cars having problems…so again the rope did its work.

The tranquilly: After the first 5-10 km, the drive went smoothly with some more recoveries here and there but nothing compare with the initial section. We did around 12 or 13 recoveries in total with rope, maybe more because I lost the count when reaching 10, including a Marshal from another Club

, a huge RAM truck with a frontal differential broken needed to be taken out to the road, countless advices on second tries and minor stacks, traffic management when cars getting stuck in the danger zone, diversion of tracks when the original one was completely chewed up etc…it was a full day working out without gym.

The fun: @giorgio took some time for showing me how the advance level looks like and believe me, it has nothing to do with whatever I have done or witnessed so far: It was like a roller coaster with tons of adrenaline, good fun and joy. We teamed up with @rapailo for complementing the fun and said before, it was the best experience off road ever. I will never forget that.

5) The Conclusion: GNFD is great, very well organized, beautiful scenery, hundreds of enthusiastic sharing the same feeling, amazing track’s selection with easy tracks always available, familiar atmosphere…and plenty of recoveries. Next year I will try to participate with my wife and some friends. 100% recommendable.

Finally, I would like to make a public recognition to all the Almost’s Marshals who has spent a lot of time and efforts in the preparation of the drive knowing that they have played a key role on the event’s success. A special mention to @alshamsi_m who is the “soul” of the event and you can notice that since the first minute and @giorgio , for being so kind inviting and giving me the best possible off road experience.

And I almost forgot, the best way to confirm that Almost 4x4 is the best off-road club in the UAE is by having a look at some other Clubs’ performance…can you imagine a Marshal recovering a stuck car on a flat area with a winch?

It happened in front of our eyes.

See you next year in the GNFD!

Carlos

Posted: **Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:44 pm**

You did an amazing job. I know that it was not easy but it worth every drop of sweat Job well done See you there next year

CARLOSS wrote: Mon Mar 07, 2022 12:01 pm Hi everyone,

Please allow me to share with you some thoughts and feelings regarding the GNFD just in case you missed it and hesitating whether to join it next year.

I will start with the summary so no need to keep on reading if you don’t have the time: BEST DRIVE EVER!

Now, the details…

1) The engagement: Late November I received a message from Giorgio inviting me to the drive and I did not hesitate for a second and confirmed my attendance on the spot…I am not used to receive this kind of invitations and I was very grateful for that.

2) The feedback: I discussed with a few people trying to gather some information and the general feedback was: “it will be boring, not worth it”, “there will be a full bunch of i***** doing stupid things” , etc. As such, my expectations were low but still, I wanted to give it a chance

3) The arrival: We showed up around 7:30am on Saturday, did the registration, collected the goodies, food etc and joined the rest of the Almost Team for breakfast. There were hundreds (around 800 or 900) of drivers doing the same thing, but I have not got the feeling of a crowed place and everything was well organized. Strong breakfast surrounded by Almost’s Marshals, Co-pilots and participants…very good atmosphere and nice food.

4) The drive:
Starting point: Participants were dispatched by batches, don’t know, maybe 40 or 50 cars each keeping some time/distance between them. Media everywhere and all the Marshals parked on the side road waiting for the organization to give us the go ahead. I saw Shamsi proudly driving car No.0 which it was “abandoned” after the first check point…most likely Mando claimed her throne.

The “carnage”: Once we were requested to leave, we headed the first section of the track and I saw nobody…I though, “this should be too easy as everybody manage to keep on going” but after a few small dunes, I saw in the horizon, dozens of cars getting stuck, second tries…amazing picture . We started to help people, but we did not even know from where to start with…at one moment, we got inside a bowl and saw 3 or 4 cars stuck seeking for assistance so one by one we took them all out. In a particular case, we helped the same car 3 times in a row. People without deflating, panic in passengers faces , lost drivers looking for some guidance “where is the good track? There is plenty of them”, drivers saying “just give a pull and I will manage, I know how to drive” and saw the same guy getting stuck in the next dune , plenty of cars doing exactly the opposite there were supposed to to…after some recoveries, Giorgio decided to move forward and you know what? In the next chain of dunes, same thing: another set of 30-40 cars having problems…so again the rope did its work.

The tranquilly: After the first 5-10 km, the drive went smoothly with some more recoveries here and there but nothing compare with the initial section. We did around 12 or 13 recoveries in total with rope, maybe more because I lost the count when reaching 10, including a Marshal from another Club , a huge RAM truck with a frontal differential broken needed to be taken out to the road, countless advices on second tries and minor stacks, traffic management when cars getting stuck in the danger zone, diversion of tracks when the original one was completely chewed up etc…it was a full day working out without gym.

The fun: @giorgio took some time for showing me how the advance level looks like and believe me, it has nothing to do with whatever I have done or witnessed so far: It was like a roller coaster with tons of adrenaline, good fun and joy. We teamed up with Rappailo for complementing the fun and said before, it was the best experience off road ever. I will never forget that.

5) The Conclusion: GNFD is great, very well organized, beautiful scenery, hundreds of enthusiastic sharing the same feeling, amazing track’s selection with easy tracks always available, familiar atmosphere…and plenty of recoveries. Next year I will try to participate with my wife and some friends. 100% recommendable.

Finally, I would like to make a public recognition to all the Almost’s Marshals who has spent a lot of time and efforts in the preparation of the drive knowing that they have played a key role on the event’s success. A special mention to @alshamsi_m who is the “soul” of the event and you can notice that since the first minute and @giorgio , for being so kind inviting and giving me the best possible off road experience.

And I almost forgot, the best way to confirm that Almost 4x4 is the best off-road club in the UAE is by having a look at some other Clubs’ performance…can you imagine a Marshal recovering a stuck car on a flat area with a winch? It happened in front of our eyes.

See you next year in the GNFD!

Carlos

Posted: **Mon Mar 07, 2022 3:36 pm**

Hello Everyone!

Perhaps I'll start from the very beginning. My off-road adventures has begun with GNFD in 2015. At that moment, I had the honor to be present in the role of Co-Marshal of @alshamsi_m , without having the slightest idea about off-roading. Therefore, having received an invitation to the GNFD in 2022, I could not wait and literally counted the minutes. At the same time, I studied the entire history of this event since its inception in 1986, red hundreds of reviews from participants, where they complained that this event was very primitive and simple.

And here it is karma!!!

This year the route did not leave anyone without being in a situation or more

Initially, I was supposed to enjoy the passenger seat, but at the last moment everything changed and I got the honor of driving car N 2 from check point 1 to check point 2, as the street bumper of the leading car N 0 slightly did not match the driving skills of our legendary @alshamsi_m

I must admit that I was incredibly stressed to see the driving ability and the possibilities of this huge number of participants, not counting our proud Almosters of course. The official cars and the media in the full sense of the word were ready to jump on top of me, they crossed each other and myself without any respect for security and distance. I miraculously avoided an accident, with all the participants squealing with delight.
Yes, it is not an easy job of being a woman

Finally, this nightmare finished, as the official part of the convoy stopped for some pictures, and we had to continue to lead the rest of the convoy followed to checkpoint 2, where @alshamsi_m took his rightful place as the leading car N 2.

The next part of the event was as pleasant as possible in the excellent company of Almosters with tea and coffee, some rescue and self-recoveries were not excluded, where I took the most responsible role ensuring safety for the stuck car, as well as for the flow of the rest of the convoy. I think I built myself some muscle in my arms by adjusting the red and green flags

In the end, when daylight was approaching sunset, we took up the position of the sweeper. And to our great surprise, on the way to the camp, we found many groups of people, who were sitting and enjoying the view without realizing that after sunset they could really get into a trouble

We also met several participants, whose poor wives were not happy with the performance of their hubbies and most of all wanted to go home as soon as possible.
And here we were not confused.@alshamsi_m took the Lexus and the men's team into his professional hands, and me and Mando in our turn, took care of the female half. Everyone left happy and satisfied

After sunset, we returned to the camp, where a huge buffet was waiting for us, but there was no longer any strength. I don't know how I got to bed, but in the process I fell asleep countless times, even in the elevator

Your tired and incredibly happy Vika

Posted: **Mon Mar 07, 2022 4:50 pm**

Good Afternoon Almost4x4 Family.

Wow what an eyeopener GNFD was

Firstly thank you to @presa for the honour and privilege of joining you for the event. the experience is hard to describe and my written words below will come nowhere close to explaining how unique an experience it was in reality.

Friday night I went to bed early with an alarm set for 3am ! I was very mindful that it was going to be a very physically demanding day.

With the excitement building I woke without the alarm at 230am ! unable to sleep more I started my day in peaceful contemplation of what lay ahead. I left to meet @KIMOz for my hitched ride the the start point. along the way we met with @James and others at the gas station, so I transferred to his car for the rest of the journey. we reached the start point with plenty of time to relax, deflate have breakfast and chit chat with the Almost4x4 marshals and members who would be driving the course. @Abu Jimmy @Daggerfall @rapailo @Scorpio @SINGH @Rashidjass @Barish @Solmaz @Agalon @Abubakar @Scorpio @optimus @rapailo
for those I have missed - sorry for that and of course a huge thank you to the one and only @alshamsi_m.

To @Rathica @KIMOz @Mohanad @James @SomayaJk @Mghoneim
and other members who joined the drive thanks for flying the Almost4x4 flag as drivers - your performance and discipline showed all others just how professional and disciplined Almost4x4 trained drivers are in the community.

From this point on it was obvious how much respect the club has within the off road community.

I got settled into the passenger seat with my pilot for the day @presa finally we were off ! with the hundreds of cars careening towards the dunes it was obvious there was going to be complete carnage !. before long 4-5km from the start point we came upon the first "mess" hundreds of cars with complete pandemonium all around - cars stuck, cars crested, cars going the wrong direction, drivers completely confused and disorientated. Marshal's (not Almost4x4) giving contradictory advice to drivers and recoveries. in reality the situation was potentially very dangerous, there were fender bender accidents with cars running into each other, hitting dunes destroying bumpers etc.

We assisted so many drivers in that first hour I lost count. Tyre pressure adjustment was also required constantly.

Later the drivers started to spread out with some opting to leave the course and return to the road, others having no choice to retire due to mechanical issues and in some cases loosing the nerve to be able to continue.

Although the participants started to spread out through the course we still came across many bottleneck areas where the obstacles posed challenges for the drivers with many 2nd third, forth attempts of more to complete the obstacles. still tyre pressure adjustments were constant. later in the day we also had a number of wheel changes to complete with shredded tyres ! unbelievable how many of the drivers were completely unprepared with no jack, no spare wheel, wrong wheel brace etc etc.

Towards the end of the day (more than 7hrs in) we started to notice fatigue setting in with many drivers which resulted in more mistakes, multiple attempts at the climbs etc. we saw so many terrified passengers (wives and children or buddies) drivers were physically and mentally exhausted, disorientated and dehydrated - again they were mostly unprepared for the desert conditions.

So my take on the experience overall was the realization of just how professional Almost4x4 founders and marshals are. The thanks and recognition received from the drivers (and their passengers) to our marshals was unprecedented,. The Marshalls had guardian angel status appearing from nowhere to help the drivers, calm their nerves and help them to gain confidence (safely).

Observations
I realised and appreciated the value of the care and attention that is given to our Club Members before their first drive with us. The safety briefing and introduction to basic driving skills, basic recovery tools to carry are invaluable - 700 + drivers heading into the dunes with not even a basic briefing was madness !.

The passion, professionalism and dedication of the almost4x4 marshals is unequaled in the 4x4 community.

I finally reached home at midnight so it was a long day, but the experience was priceless !

I am looking forward to the the possible GNFD revisited drive soon so i can experience the track from the drivers seat

Almost4x4 truly the best and most respected off-road club in the region !

Almost4x4

GNFD 2022

GNFD 2022

Re: GNFD 2022

Re: GNFD 2022

Re: GNFD 2022