One step closer to a cleaner desert
Friday the 22nd of May was an important day for the UAE wilderness as it was the inaugural CleanDesertDrive event which saw teams battle it out for trash collecting supremacy! All teams were positive and showed a great attitude for collecting as much garbage as possible.
Once participants began arriving at Ramy 4x4’s showroom in Deira, it was clear to the organisers that people weren’t coming just for a drive, these were serious trash collectors! Upon arrival at four o’clock they all got the new official Ramy 4x4 T-shirts, garbage bags, snacks, plenty of water and discount vouchers for Rugged Ridge, American Off Road and Swiss+Tech products. Each team received a set of instructions and most importantly, the GPS coordinates for the checkpoints. Once kitted out, the teams set off to the first checkpoint where they would deflate their tires and get their vehicles checked for any pre collected rubbish. Game on!
A very positive surprise
With their tires down to 12 PSI the participants now had half an hour to get to the top of Fossil Rock to be signed in at the next checkpoint. Despite a predictably slow start, all members from the teams were soon jumping in and out of their vehicles to collect any pieces of rubbish that they saw. Naturally, there were some different collection techniques. Some teams decided to hug the pylon track with the hope that they would find cans and bottles caught in the fence whereas other teams chose to aim their vehicles for the summit collecting rubbish on the way. With the ‘all clear’ from the marshals at checkpoint two the teams faced just over an hour of grueling trash collecting on their way to the checkpoint three at Pink Rock. The balance between picking up rubbish and trying to get to the checkpoint in time was one that not everyone mastered. However, despite Ramy 4x4 supplying all of the teams with 4 large trash bags it was quickly apparent that they were not enough for some teams. Soon enough, people stopped collecting bottles and cans instead focusing on larger pieces of rubbish. An abundance of body parts ripped from lesser vehicles meant that very quickly the boots and truck beds of participant’s off road vehicles were filled with old tires, bumpers and even a tonneau cover! The team's true determination to clean the desert is evident in the way that they didn’t manage to get to checkpoint three and instead focussed their attention on the bottom of the Al Faya dune, however the organisers chose not to include the timings for the last checkpoint. The final meeting point was at the 2nd December cafeteria where everyone gathered to share stories of the events on the day and admired each others piles of rubbish. In the end first place for collecting the most volume of rubbish went to UAC 4x4 club, whilst the winners for the heaviest amount of trash went to Xtreme 4x4.
"This movement should eventually teach people not to trash," said Marwan Semaan, Deputy Managing Director of Sales and Marketing
Ramy 4x4 is extremely pleased with the response to the new CleanDesertDrive movement. The task now is to continue with trash collection and raise awareness. The best way to do that is by posting pictures of any trash you see in the desert, using the hashtag #CleanDesertDrive, naming the location and by trying to bring as much of the rubbish out of the desert as possible so that soon others will begin to follow.