A blast in the sand

For the hundreds of people who turned up to take part in this year's Fun Drive, the end of the day left them a bit tired, somewhat sand-swept, but with beaming smiles.

The event, first held in 1986, has become a local institution and has flourished in size and profile each year.

But, however much fun hurtling across the desert in a 4x4 undoubtedly is, it takes months of organisation to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.

Naheed Patel, Manager of Promotions and Fun Drive stalwart, gave Unwind the lowdown on the ups and downs of running the much-loved family spectacular.

What are the main differences you've noticed over the years as organiser?

One of the main differences is the desert is getting smaller, roads have come up in remote areas too, so finding routes has become tougher. Also there are many, many more 4WD owners — all of whom have adventurous spirits.

How has your role changed as an organiser? What demands have increased?

I was, am and always will be general dogs-body! Basically, the same type of inputs are needed. But as there are new people, workload increases because they don't know the event as well. Suppliers too keep changing and keeping track is always a hassle.

How big is the team and who's in it?

We are a small section and there are eight of us aside from the group marketing manager. While my role involved putting together the main structure of the event, other jobs such as marshals' liaison and sponsorship sales were handled by my invaluable colleagues.

It's very much a team effort and on the day itself everyone pitches in to get the job done.

For this Fun Drive we had more than 236 members of staff helping out (excluding press), including 22 people packing goody bags, 50 people handling the parking, 38 check-in staff, 48 checkpoint monitors, 24 Hatta parking attendants, two food coordinators, 12 general assistance operatives and 30 tyre deflation staff!

How was 2009 compared to other years for you? Tell us about some mishaps and some proud achievements.

2009 was a smaller event than 2007, when we did an overnighter.

But this one was just as demanding as we had to set up in four locations: The Sevens, Tyre Deflation in Jebel Ali on the Hatta road, Tyre inflation in the village of Fili and Hatta Fort Hotel. And everything had to be ready on time!

Six pickups were deployed with a team of 15 from Alfan Alsaree to do signage and lanes, four pickups remained overnight at Gulf News, so that they could leave at 3.35am for The Sevens.

Three 32-seater buses were also used to transport volunteers to The Sevens and that day the thick fog made driving difficult and one bus lost the way, causing minor heart attacks as at least four key persons were onboard who needed to be there before 5am! Fortunately, the bus got in at around 5.10am and we were back on track. A close call!

What is the most rewarding aspect of the project?

The most rewarding part is when at the final destination people come and thank you and ask when the next will be held. We had excellent feedback generally from sponsors and participants.

Anything new in the pipeline?

We hope to do an overnighter at the end of the year, provided we find a new camp.

Last word?

Our Fun Drive is a huge event and somewhere along the line, while organising, we forget its magnitude and just take it in our stride.

The fun bits are the boards that are put up in the desert — these boards are dedicated to the people involved with the event and, over the years people start referring to those locations by the names we have given them, eg Pollitt's Peak — this is the peak of the mountain section.

Everyone now calls it that. After years of having a “Nightmare'' named after myself, this year the marshals were kind to me
and I had a “Naheed's Nirvana''!