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
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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.