Report: GPS HUNT Vol 8.0 Event

[FidoDido]

It was amazing day, can’t find the words to describe it.

We all met at the Basecamp before time, 7 teams 12 Marshalls, all were excited and ready for hunting.

After the briefing, all the team started their plan for the hunt and all moved from the basecamp at 10:00AM.

22 flags were set across 80 Sq Km. More than 75km of driving on 6 hours. with some missing flags all the teams reached to the points. Thanks to team 3 for collecting most of the Cones and balls.

All team leaders led exceptionally well followed by the drivers.

Special thanks to all marshals and explorers who supported the event.


Team leaders please post your team trip report in this forum.

[FALCON]

TEAM 2

Supporting Marshal:
Salah Shalaan

Lead:
FALCON_83
Rene


After the announcement of the groups, I created WhatsApp group for our team members We got introduced to each other and had some plans for the GPS hunt trip

On 22-FEB-2019 Friday morning we all reach @ 07:40 to ADNOC meeting point from there we went directly to the BaseCamp it was around 25 minutes drive.

After we reached the BaseCamp we had a quick briefing and we deflated the tires

Around 9:00 Marshal Amr FIDODIDO start the briefing and he distributed the waypoints , we decided our route to the waypoints and input the coordinates, we started our journey at 10:00 .

Convey order as follow

***FALCON_83 Lead
**Charlie was my second lead
*Ammar was 3rd car
***Rene was sweeper
*****Salah Shalaan Support marshal

We decided to start the waypoints as follow

R,D,Q,B,J,A,M,L,K,O,I,H,G,F,E,S,C,Y,W,Z,N & P



After around 1 hour driving and collecting the flags code from there
***Rene took the lead And I was sweeping for another waypoints where he did great lead. then I take the lead again

In between we stopped for prayer , coffee & smoke breaks

We drove around 75KM , We reached all the waypoints out of 22 codes we missed some code because of the flag was missing .

We went through high straight cresting with some stuck and I was one of them , recovery handled quickly and in safe way.
Few second tries but overall all the team was doing very well and we reached back to the BaseCamp at 03:35 PM .

We ended up with a BBQ and we cooked some food we had some chitchat and fun with a nice family and kids playing around .

Special thanks to our support Marshal (Salah Shalaan) for his help and the advice.

Actually this is my first GPS Hunt trip
It’s completely different when You lead a convoy and the drivers have to follow my track
I got used to follow the marshals track so it was easy because the marshals always have to use a safe track for us but to make your own track and to make sure it's suitable for everyone really I have to think twice before doing anything
(MARSHALS YOU ARE DOING A GREAT JOB THANK YOU )
I learned a lots of things and I took the responsibility for my team we went and returned Back safe and everybody enjoyed .

Thank you All for organizing such amazing day.

Hope to see all of you soon in the sand with a big smile as usual

Thanks for everyone

[bisho]

Thanks all for make it lovely and successful

[MissoBisho]

Thank you Amr for preparing such an event. We all enjoyed it. Special thanks to all the supporting Marshals, experts, explorers and the organizing team. Well done everyone, all the teams did a great job

[irfpk]

Thanks Amr for a very well organized GPS hunt 2019. Behind the seen efforts put up by organizers are praiseworthy. All participants have put up a great show. Thanks Marshals for your great support to make this event successful.

[Tariq905]

Thanks Amr for the very well organized event. We really enjoyed every moment. Thanks all for the amazing BBQ, Sajeyeh and kunafa.



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[kman]

TEAM 4 REPORT

We all met at Sweihan wedding hall on time, except SBAHI who did not show up. We left towards base camp in a convoy and made it on time. After the detailed briefing by marshal FidoDido, Ajesh (Billet) and I set to enter the coordinates into our nav systems, while the rest of the team focused on the strategy.

At 10am sharm we left towards our first target with Ajesh (Billet) as my second lead, followed by Mohamed (Matulian) and Marie (PeggyPj1) with marshal Georges supervising the convoy from the back.

Things were going quite smooth and by noon we had covered a third of all the waypoints at which point we decided to take a longer lunch break. After some refreshments, calories intake, team photos and chatter, we continued west towards the next set of flags to be conquered. We had planned for Billet to take part of the lead but due to technical issues with his GPS, we continued in the same convoy order with Billet as my second lead.

We encountered some technical terrain where we all practiced second tries, getting stuck and the necessary recoveries (Thank you Billet for all the recoveries). As we were behind schedule, I then modified the track to take longer, but faster route. This allowed us to catch up and hit ALL remaining waypoints AND make it back to base camp on time.

Thank you Billet and marshal Georges for your support.
Mohamed and Marie, you guys did very well even when faced with some more technical challenges.

Last, but not least thank you to the organizers for such a lovely day in the desert!

Looking forward to driving with all of you again!

Regards,
Konstantin (Kman)

[Abdul Qadir]

Thanks Amr and all the organisers team, all supporting marshals expplorers experts and special thanks to all members who make this great event possiabel. Our team 1 nice team work.

[Georges]

Great day out. Thanks for the organizers.

Great lead from Kman and second lead from Billet in Team 4. Thanks guys.


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[Mr George]

TEAM #3 REPORT :

Support Marshal : EmDoc; Team : Alcatraz, Ronnybravo85; Lead myself. Special navigator : Chris.

For us the hunt was a multiple levels fun. First we lost a member even before the start (Mamelouk911, you missed a lot of fun!); then none of us had ever done that type of navigation; and I had absolutely no idea on how to use my GPS.

During the preparation we organized the convoy (can 4 cars be considered as a convoy??), and decided of a strategy : to go where we expect none of the other team would go, and start collecting "extra points" in that area (Lima if I remember correctly). I must say that we had an easy first hour with nobody to contest the first 7 cones and balls.

After the second flag, the roles where already well embedded : Chris and join me in my car as Navigator (his left arm always pointing in the direction of the next flag, an interesting skill!), Mohamed and found his first of many flags (the guy can see a flag at 200m, through a dune!) and Ryan was just waiting for one of us to get stucked, to jump out of his red Jeep, pull out his red sling and "decrest" the one that was a little too slow on the crest. If my counting is correct, that was 3 recoveries, including 1 Marshal, but I will give no name.

After 2 hours and something, we had completed the eastern loop, we passed by base camp again and went for the second half, drawing a big 8 in the desert.

Flag after flag, we all were more and more into the game, and my initial prudent driving .... evolved into a still prudent but quicker pace! It was funny to see the team jumping out of the cars to find the flags when we reached a point (except myself, trying to enter coordinates in my %%$#%^*!!! GPS.)

For the last 5-7 flags, we were in direct contact with another team : that was a fun (and safe) race to try to overtake a convoy that follows the same direct route as you are. Finally, to avoid a 9 cars convoy to form, we decided to go with an not direct, but quicker way. And overtook them! Yes!

And then, eventually we reached base camp, a little sad to see that only one car was there waiting for us. But also very proud to be the FIRSTS!

That was a very fun day, and very intense 5 hours of dune driving. So a HUGE thank you to the Marshals and the Club team for having organised it so perfectly. A special personal thanks to FidoDido who chased me till I signed up for it : you were right, I had a lot of fun.

And of course, a big big thank you to Michael whose presence behind us was very reassuring and allowed us to purely enjoy the driving and the game. And who was kind enough to consider the (2, very rare and very small) side cresting we did (only because it was the safest way, of course) as "Newbie + + +"

That it for us!

Ryan, Mohamed, Chris, Stephane.
AKA "Team #3"
AKA "The bests" , because it was not a competition, BUT WE WON!!!!

[PHARAOH]

Thanks FidoDido for arranging this successful event, it was really fun organizing & attending it.
Another wonderful day with AD4x4 Family!

Thanks to all the members who signed up for the GPS Hunt, and made it a day to remember for all of us.

Thanks to the 7 Teams Leaders (AD4X4 future Marshals ) who led their Teams safely across 80 Sq. Km!! All of you guys were amazing (according to the feedback of your supporting Marshals), Well Done!

SPECIAL THANKS to all the Great Supporting Marshals, without you the event would have never seen the light.
35 cars divided into 7 Teams went in the sand driving for 6 hours and came back SAFELY... That's an achievement that wouldn't be possible without your support.... Thank You All

See you all soon on the Dunes in another spectacular event with AD4x4

[KomSer]

Team 6 Report

First of all I would like to thanks to FidoDido for arranging the GPS Hunt 8 and all the other Marshals for the support during the drive and even before the drive.

We had 2 advance drivers (Me and Happy2555), one intermediate driver (Ishampn) and 1 newbie (Doberman). Our drive has been divided into 2 stages. In the first stage Happy2555 took the lead, Ishampn was second lead and I was sweeper. During the second stage Ahmed got an emergency call and left from the drive, I took the lead.

Our Marshal k-alhosani created a whatsup group and introduced the drivers to each other. Later on Marshal Dakar joined to the team and he observed us on Desert. 2 days before from the drive I met with Ahmed(Happy2555) to talk about the GPS device and GPS Hunt since he had joined a lot of times to the previous GPS Hunts and having good experience. We talked about the previous organisations and some strategies. I had an idea to record all the points to the computer software which is basecamp and create a route on the computer and transfer this route from computer to GPS. but we have seen that it is not efficient way to move forward. However this meeting was really fruitful. thanks Ahmed...

Khaled, Me, Mohammed and Cornelius met in the sweihan wedding hall as planned. We met with Ahmed before the basecamp and entered to the basecamp as a team. After some chitchat at the camp the trip briefing done by FidoDido, coordinates and map was given to all the teams. Me and Ahmed entered all the locations to the GPSs, later on we did our strategy on the map with all the team and created our route.

We were the first team left from the basecamp at 10:00 o'clock. We really did a good startup during fisrt 2-3 points later on we faced some stuck issues and lost some time. We decided to bypass 2 points and continue for the further points in order to collect more cones and tennis balls. Desert showed us some surprises; while we were looking for the flags on the points we have seen a snake. Marshal Dakar caught it and analyzed it , he left the snake back to desert once he decided its not dangerous type of the snake

Ahmed got an emergency call and left from the drive, I took the lead until finishing. It was a fun to lead the team since there are a lot of factors, I was alone, entering the coordinates to the GPS, checking the map....etc. I had to choose right track and keep always an eye on the convoy behind me, arranging the pace of the convoy but I was lucky because all the other drivers were perfect and they did really great.

We finished the rest of the points at around 15:00 o'clock except 2 points where we bypassed during the beginning of the drive. The distance to the points was around 10 km from our last point. Hence we internally discussed whether to go back and collect the missed points or just go to the camp since we did well and collected a lot of cones and tennis ball. We did not take the risk and went back to the camp

We were either second or third team having the highest score.

Thanks to all again and see you at sand

Warm Regards
SeRkAn

[Ajesh]

Thank you to the organisers for co-ordinating and their extra efforts to hide the flags a week prior to the event. The pics of that trip show that you guys had as much fun hiding them flags as we did finding them.

I was a part of Team 4. Kman's report is very detailed and accurate. Being the second lead through the trip, I could see first hand the efforts that go into keeping the track simple when you know that your destination is just over a big ,welcoming slipface .

The team did really well and everybody automatically upped the level to scramble through the last set of flags towards the end.

Thanks to the team including the co-passengers for making the trip fun.
Thanks to kman for a well paced and safe track selection .
Thanks to Marshal Georges for the guidance through the trip .We hope we gave you enough time to relax.

[Tiago_RedBaron]

From Team 7
Thanks to all the Marshalls for the great event!
Was very nice to have this first opportunity to lead a trip and put into practice what we’ve learned with time at Ad4x4.
Special thanks to Marshalls Tariq and FidoDido that were with our group during the hunt!
The most important was that the whole event was planned with SAFETY in mind at all time!
Thanks Karen and Harry for the great enthusiasm during the hunt.
I’m sure whole team 7 had really good fun!
Can’t wait for the next event!!!

Best regards

Tiago

[PeggyPJ1]

This was my first GPS Hunt and I really enjoyed it. Thanks team 4 for the advise and support. It’s great to be part of a supportive group, we worked well together.