By the time photo session got over, the driver announces that all the near by temples are closed for the morning. He is kind of a temple expert, so he suggests an ancient temple 15Kms away which has some great reputation. I have never heard of this place, so he informs me that it is located in a very internal place. Considering I haven't bothered doing to puja to many of my previous cars including Baleno, this is the most boring part of the day. Therefore when he said very internal place, it got me interested. So we set off to this temple by 11:30AM, the delegation included my family of four, my M-I-L, and the driver to show the way. After about 4Kms on Karkala-Udupi highway, we turned into a narrow tarred road. The remaining 11Kms or so were was such nice road, we decided to shoot photographs on the way back. Meanwhile driver makes some small talk, one of them was about how the smaller version of this car forced the Santro price by 50K. After some wonder, we realize he means Swift. We reached the temple exactly at 12PM, only to find out that we need to wait 30-35 minutes for the car puja.
We parked the car in the small parking lot and walked to the temple. As I explored the temple, I realized that there was a mud road coming right into the side entrance of the temple. That would be an ideal place for the puja rather than the silly parking lot away from the temple. Since I had time to kill, I figured I'll try to get the GV from that mud road. Upon inquiry I found that the road was quite disconnected from the front road, it came from a completely different place. And it was currently blocked few KMs away because of some bridge construction. I found that a little puzzling since I found a autorickhaw (AR) on that road. When I questioned about that, a priest manning a prasad counter told me that it came via the unused paddy field. I suddenly brightened at the idea, I mean GV can handle any path that can be handled by an AR. So I ran out of the temple to check the route. I see no route, and the parking lot is almost full leaving only one gap behind my car, which can get taken by the next car. I had to hurry.
So I ask another priest about this route, he gives me a wild look and says it can't be done. When I mention the AR, he said it crossed over few days ago, it has rained hard since then, the field is soft and slushy, full of long fresh grass. The AR is actually trapped on the other side servicing the blocked stretch of road. By this time the our driver caught up with me and started pleading with me to give up the hare-brained idea of going over a green slushy paddy field. While the priest and the driver were on my case, my arguments about GV being a off-roader, 4x4, big GC, diff-locks were all falling on deaf ears, they both had no idea what that all meant. Meanwhile the first priest walks out and joins the word duel. He says "If this SUV can't go over the paddy field, what can?" The second priest says it is wet and slushy from the morning rain, but the first priest says it doesn't matter for a vehicle like this one. Nobody knows the model of my car, nobody has ever seen it before in their lives, but the first priest sees something in this SUV. So he goes about showing me where the off-road route begins. It was about 200ft away from the parking area. I walked over to that place, and I could faintly make out a clearing which is now fully covered with fresh grass and other plants.
So I walk back to the parking lot just in time to see a new swift trying park behind my car. I stop them and get my car out before they settle in. Now the driver finally gives up and follows me on foot. By this time even I had started wondering. The field looked quite wild, and starts out at least a foot and half below the road. What if I get stuck, the second priest had already warned that they don't have the manpower to pull me out. It will be quite a shameful affair on the very first day. But then I thought, this is supposed to be a capable SUV, if it can't handle a slushy paddy field, then I better know it right away than later. So, I plunged into the green valley of a paddy field. Wow, what an experience, it was like fording a river, I see no road, just a faint difference in grass level indicates the old path. The path is not level, it had many invisible ups and downs that can take out a car, but GV practically glided over everything and reached the side entrance of the temple. I almost jumped out and wanted to dance. The driver also reached the entrance from another trail with a stupefied look on his face. This time he was more open to the idea of 4x4 SUV and not just big Swift. In fact, I had not used the diff-locks, I was using the regular 4H used for on-road driving.
Check of the new puja location.
The mud road leading away from the back side.
Parked right at the side entrance of the temple
Meanwhile a senior priest walks by and does a double take. How did that car come here, he asks. I told him, just like that AR did. But he says that's impossible under current conditions. Then I tell him those conditions are not a challenge for a 4x4 SUV. He walks away in disbelief. I was really having fun looking at all this reactions.
The car puja finally starts...
The big picture of the puja location, where no other cars could come.
Time to turn back, this time I hand over the camera to my wife so that she can record the off-road adventure.
Now comes the real fun-part, the return journey. This time the car was fully loaded, I asked the driver to sit behind with the kids, so that my wife can shoot snaps from the front seat. Since she shot almost 20 snaps before reaching the real road, I created an animated gif to show the off-road travel. It is about 3MB file, here is the
link. Enjoy.
Rest of the ride back.
