The OTR took place in mahape, New Mumbai, at a location close to Allan's workshop. He uses this location frequently to test his WIPs. Infact one such WIP, the Discover took part in this OTR along with three others -
1. My Safari
2. Tejas's Impulsive Classic and,
3. Dr. Mohan's seasoned Gurkha.
Out of all four drivers, I was the complete novice. Tejas had done plenty og Jungle trails and Mohan has done this track once before.
We gathered around in front of the Indian Express compound around 7:30 in the morning. I reached there first and was looking for some tea, while Allan arrived in his Landcrusier followed by Tejas in his Classic. We went inside where Allan's Workshop is located and enjoyed some nice tea. Meanwhile Dr. Mohan arrived in his Gurkha. He came all the way from Alibaug, which I then cosidered to be quite outrageous for attending a 1.5 hour OTR.
I later learned that
rhandle of Delhi was interested to join in and infact have traveled all the way down once to participate in Rajamachi. I understood that Dr. Mohan was one of the more sane people around.
From Left - Tejas, allan, Sen, Mohan and Tyson.
After hanging around for a while, we left for our spot.
The spot is quite close to Allan's workshop. The land belongs to a local temple.
We parked at the begining of the trail for a quick instruction session.
Allan gave us a small introduction of the trail - what would it contain. Dr. Mohan has been around before, so me and teajs needed this most. Allan also advised us to be permanently in low gear in the region.
About 5 minutres from the briefing spot, we reached our first obstacle. It was steep climb with some sand towards the top. The LR and Gurkha climbed with ease. Classic seemed to break momentum near the top end but managed to pull up with some wheel spin. Safari also climbed without much issues.
We did 4 climbs in this section, last one being the toughest one for me. I tried 3 times unsucessfully. Later alan sat beside me and instructed me on the go - completed on this 4th attempt.
From here we moved towards some slushy sections.
However, the first slush spot was too slushy.
Allan tried to copnvince Mohan to get his Gurkha into it. However, mohan found it to be too soft to try (he threw a rock in it, and the rock sank a couple of feet). So, we returned back to the convoy for our next obstacle.
Next up was a river trail. The river bed was rocky so wasn't much difficult for anyone.
However, climbing back upon the bank was difficult due to the slush on the edge. This was the first time Allan had to engage a gear lower than the 3rd in his LR.
Next we crossed a deep rut with some water at the bottom. Meanwhile climbing gradients became more frequent and I could do them on the go (as opposed to stopping, thinking five minutes, trying 3 times and clearing).
Last up was some steep declines, mostly the inclines we climbed earlier near the begining section. I learnt the precious Engine breaking here. Tejas's classic gave some nice macho pose around here.
The LR was truly the thing one would want to have! With the 3.6 litre toyota engine and other mysterious technologies, this was one monster which can do anything and everything. Of course one must not forhet the driver's skills, but I guess even a novice could do many difficult things with such a piece.
End of it, between the Allan and the LR, it's tough to decide who is tougher.
There were some more action, like where the classic got stuck in the slush and where I got my nose banged. But, for posting those, I need some inputs in Video processing. The files are just too huge to upload to youtube. If someone can help me towards any thread discussing video editing and compression, I can post them up as well.