Trip Report Advanced (No Wait Expert) in Wagan (No Wait Al Qou'a) 29-FEB

[loefflmj1]

Trip: Wagan (No Wait Last Minute Change to Al Qou’a)
Marshal Support: Thomas and Francis

Lead Trip Organizer: Mark Loeffler
Track Lead: Marshal Francis
Expert Drivers: Serkan
Convoy Order Varied

All met on time at Wagan ADNOC with a pit stop for Karak tea beforehand. Although this trip was planned for Wagan with deflation point and waypoints already established, the group decided to change location to Al Qou’a based on Francis’s knowledge of a military area and fences that would disrupt the flow. Marshal Petro confirmed this a day prior as well. And I had concerns for the abundance of bushes in that area as well. So with decision made, we were off to the tower about 10-15 km west of Al Qou’a towards Razeem. After deflation and safety briefing, we headed to the dunes. After some warming up, we got into a flow. We had a couple of stucks and a popout, as well as one sudden engine stall due to low fuel late in the trip. This is a lesson learned for all of us to keep an eye on fuel level. Other than that, the trip was very smooth. We broke for a nice shady rest and lunch.

The best part of the trip was after lunch where we all essentially kept up the pace for extended periods and performed some high speed side cresting and hill climbs to side crests. Al Qou’a immediately became my favorite set of dunes. Its almost perfect there. Endless large bowls with great shape and rounded bottoms for smooth fast fun. Hardly any sharp angles at all. It will be hard to go back to Sweihan or Khazna now knowing this place exists. Picture the Khazna large bowls, now imagine sets of these one after another over and over again, now imagine staying on the tops of them side cresting from one to the next to the next, that’s Al Qou’a. We didn’t just “do” bowls, we flowed along the tops of them like the wind. Only one other group out there spotted late in drive. We had the place to ourselves and we took advantage. We all drove at a high skill level and proved ourselves quite competent.

Thank you Marshal Thomas and Francis. Amazing day, no doubt a highlight of the season. Great film footage from Thomas and Serkan, thank you both for documenting to date in my opinion the best drive. Thank you Serkan for coming, I’m sure you would agree. At about 3:15pm, we mutually knew it was time to go and so we did, heading west until the fence that runs north-south and from there exited a gate and inflated. This trip was intense but safe. Great job everyone. Can’t wait to return.

Mark Loeffler

[tompa-bjorka]

Amazing area and drive. Dunes were high, pace was fast - we all had a blast. Right decision to move to Al Qoua, will be coming back to this area again and again.

[KomSer]

Mark,

First of all thanks a lot arranging this amazing trip. It was really wonderful for each and every aspect.

We all met at Wagan and started to the amazing day with Breakfast who has been arranged by Francis and did some strategic plans for the trip while changing the location from Wagan to AL Aqoua. Later on we headed to the telephone tower and entered to the desert. This location is completely consisting of bowls where located next to each other. We were doing side cresting in one bowl and switching to the other bowl and then repeat to the previous. The adrenaline level was always on high during all the day. In this location I had the chance to observe the performance of the shocks!!!
after a few hours we gave a lunch break under the shadow of one tree and my awning ... Thomas cooked spaghetti and we had some sandwiches. when we finished the lunch we again went back to dunes having high adrenaline.

Francis had really very good track, Thomas supported the drive in very good way...

I have always suspecting some issues on my fuel consumption. We bought our fuels before we started to the trip. Around 15:00 hours, my fuel finished but Mark had still a quarter tank of fuel. When I noticed that fuel indication got on during climbing to Dune, I just planned to refill during our break but unfortunately the engine suddenly stopped due to the low level of fuel since the remaining fuel in the tank goes up and down and fuel pump couldn’t take it to the engine. I tried to refill on the slope but the fuel didn’t move to the tank, I guess it’s a kind of safety protection. Then I moved the vehicle to the flat area and refilled the tank with my Jerry can (10 lt) We decided to finish the drive and went out from desert.

I had another problem, the issue was, there was no any fuel station for another 60 km and I managed to run the vehicle for another 60 km with 10 lt of fuel. It was a bit nightmare since it's a truck road, no much vehicle movement and its desert but finally I managed it while driving with 60km/h

Thanks for the amazing day again and looking forward for the further trips

Regards

[Francis]

It was indeed a good trip. Thank you all for joining until next time