Highlights of the Gulf News Fun Drive 2018

Gulf News

The 37th Gulf News Fun Drive, which this year saw 3000 participants travel through both Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah was a great success. Daily headlines from the UAE and around the world brought to you by Gulf News. See more at: http://gulfnews.com/gntv

Transcript

00:00We're here at the starting line of the 37th annual Gulf News Fun Drive. We're getting

00:08ready to set off on a two-day journey through the desert and the mountain trains before

00:13ending at our camp. We've got the trusty Sony NX80 helping us capture those awesome slow

00:19motion shots throughout the whole trip.

00:21The 37th Gulf News Fun Drive, which this year saw 3,000 participants travel through both

00:27Umm al-Khiwain and Ras al-Khaimah, was a great success. Around 800 four-wheel drives participated

00:34in this year's desert adventure.

00:36The annual two-day event kicked off at 7am at the Umm al-Khiwain Emirates Motorplex Checkpoint,

00:43with a warm breakfast, completion of formalities, and a safety debriefing by the marshals.

00:47It's a very challenging course, navigation in the beginning, slow, careful driving through

00:52the mountains, and then desert with large inclines and bowls on the way back, so it's

00:57a little bit for everybody.

00:58The four-by-four cars took their place in their designated spaces, deflated their tires,

01:03and prepared for the day's adventure.

01:06Flag off took place at 9am by Sheikh Hamad bin Hamdan al Nahyan.

01:11So we've made one of our first pitstops here in the Umm al-Khiwain desert. It's a great

01:27day out right now, the sky is very clear, there's no dust in the air. There's a couple

01:33of cars driving by on the designated route, which has taken weeks to plan. We can see

01:40that it was really well thought out, there's little signs and flags everywhere directing

01:45people where to go, so no one can get lost.

02:00There were 90 marshals monitoring the event and providing support to anyone who needed

02:05it. The marshals were seen helping people every step of the way.

02:28So we've just passed our first checkpoint here in the Umm al-Khiwain desert. A lot of

02:34the Gulf News fun drive cars are driving by, as we are right here by the path. We've also

02:40spotted some wild camels, which has been really exciting.

02:55We've been doing this for many many years, nine years. Nine years for Evo, six years

03:00for us. Our first. Their first. So it's good fun, conditions are good, very busy start

03:07and hopefully it will start stringing out a bit now and we can have some fun.

03:13This is one of our stops here at the Gulf News fun drive. I think this is one of the

03:18most interesting ones for me because I've actually never seen the borders between the

03:22emirates so here's a cool indication of being in one emirate and then being in another.

03:30So we've made a quick pit stop very deep into the desert during the fun drive and it's

03:43a great place to see cars kind of maneuver their way down a really steep dune.

04:01After a day of dune bashing, the first cars arrived at the campsite at around 4pm, where

04:19they were greeted with a fully equipped space and an evening packed with entertainment.

04:25So we've just arrived at the campsite and here we are at one of the tent sections where

04:30we're going to be sleeping for the night. There's a whole lot of them set up all over

04:35the camp. People are going to have a really nice spacious place to sleep. So we're really

04:40looking forward to a night in the desert in one of these great tents.

04:44At the campsite, organizers and sponsors pulled out all the stops and created a truly memorable

04:50experience for everyone.

04:51I've been doing the Gulf News fun drive for almost 10 years now. I think this year was

04:58really good. Last year in Leva, it was challenging. A lot of dunes, but I think the course this

05:04year was much better.

05:05Awesome experience. Awesome. And a fantastic time. Really well done, I must say. It's been

05:10great. We're superbly organized. It was driving for the first time. Really very well done.

05:17Although no activities were planned for day two of the fun drive, many have opted to take

05:22advantage of their location and create their own activities in the desert surroundings.

05:28We might have got stuck almost five, seven times. And though we couldn't finish all the

05:33checkpoints, but it was really good.

05:35The Toyota ride, it was very nice because we got to be slanting and we got to go up

05:41and down with all the games. It was really nice.

05:43I feel scared of desert safari, so my car was about to flip twice. I was scared about

05:48that.

05:49As soon as we reached here, we started looking for tents and started playing. The food was

05:55great. Today morning breakfast was really great.

05:58Three cheers for Gulf News. Hip hip. Hooray. Hip hip. Hooray. Hip hip. Hooray.

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