**** Redbeard (FJ)
** jlundgren (JK) - Second lead
** Tonisb (Grand Cherokee)
** vipinmpd08 (JK) - Sweeper
***** ossme (JKU)
Mission
Recover the GoPro Toni lost several weeks earlier on a trip in Nahil. The GoPro was a gift from Toni's close friend, so beyond the monetary value the loss was also sentimental for Toni. We thought it was very unlikely we would find it, but we had to at least try!
Phase 1: Practicing Intermediate skills in Nahil
All cars arrived roughly on time before or at 2:30 PM, we deflated and had our safety briefing, then headed off to explore the dunes east of the gatch.
Many bushes in this area, and we ended up retracing back toward the gatch a couple times to find an intermediate-suitable track to the most interesting bowls and dunes on the east side of gatch. We played around doing some easy to medium intermediate level side sloping. We had a couple cars with temperature issues, so we monitored temps as we went and took a few extra breaks to let the cars cool down.
Once the dunes started getting smaller we turned and found a nice track west back toward the gatch, exploring different dunes/bowls than we had on the way east. We continued on past the gatch to explore the dunes on the west side, arriving at the last known location of the lost GoPro at around 4:15 PM.
Phase 2: Search for the GoPro
Toni pointed out a grid of around 4x15m that we needed to search. We pulled out some metal detectors and shovels, and got to work. It was hot, the sand was blowing in our eyes, the dune was steep and had a hard crust which made it tricky to walk on. After 30 minutes of searching we had covered the designated area with no luck, and had almost given up hope. We decided to extend our search area slightly, our theory was the nearest crest had moved a few meters and we needed to search closer to this crest. We finally got a hit on the metal detector, and just ~10-15 cm under the surface was the GoPro - in pristine condition and still with ~23% battery left.
Toni put together this amazing video: https://youtu.be/SQRfFIp11lI
The first part is footage from the original trip where the GoPro fell off his car. He was in the middle of the convoy so was not able to stop, and multiple cars passed over it before he had a chance to search for it. The rest of the video has footage and pictures from our hunt for the lost GoPro.
Thank you to Marshal Osama for making this trip happen, thank you all drivers - you did well. Nice second leading by Jens and great communication from our sweeper Vipindas.
Image - Toni sweeping with the metal detector, Vipindas ready with the shovel.
!
