(Iron)Wolf goes goat hunting after a Coorg holiday

[IronWolf]

It all started on Friday Diwali morning.

7:00 am we hit Mysore Road. Tanked up! Minimal Traffic, speeds not in excess of 130kmph due to certain passengers in the car.

12.30 we a Home Stay at Siddapura. Clean place, 3 spacious rooms recently built, behind the Estate owners house.


Its run by an Estate Owner and his wife. We were the very first guests there. They were very friendly. He showed us his Estate (which included a little lake on the property).

Breakfast and Dinner was given by them and it the best Coorg food I have tasted. Yes Obviously Pandi curry was on the menu.

By the way he owns a decently maintained MM540 4x4. and said he could get me a good 1995+ model for 75-90k.



2 Days all we do is drive to various places. My friend had bought a farm near chickliholle dam. so we were driving up and down quite a bit. The Drive from Siddapura to Chickliholle was about 20 km and each time the drive felt better and better. 60-80kmph on windy well laid roads with greenery all around. Did I mention the roads were smooth?



Sunday 1pm we head back to Bangalore, with an aim to reach in 5-1/2 hours including 2 stops.

Coorg to Periyapatna was bad. Roads were very bad.
After that the road was wonderful. Wide and fast.



It then got better as a 4 lane highway and the wide divider in the center. The type with plants growing and you cannot see the other side if anyone or anything is trying to dart across.

On SH17 before Ranganathittu a Scorpio overtakes me and we were at the same pace for over 10km. We maintain good distance. On one section of the open road the road goes downhill and as I go downhill at about 90kmph... as soon as the Black Scorpio passes a point a herd of little brown cute little goats trot along right in front of me with their more cute looking kids following them. There were about 15-20 goats of all colors and sizes.

It was all over in a flash !

Well you know the drill Screeeeeeeecchhh ... Trying to control the braking without locking the wheels. ......just not enough space.

I felt like I was in a FlintStones cartoon where Fred runs into something and Things go flying all over.

By the time I reached the pack.. with all the screeching and honking they spread out a bit. Cutting left or right would have anyway not helped as they were all over the place.

I ran into 3-4 goats/kids/lambs.... It was all over in a coupla seconds, however I remember most of it as if it were happening in slow motion.

In a span 3-4 seconds this is what happened

Tires screeching... Loud Thuds on the front... one goat thrown to my right... sound of bones cracking under us... thoughts going through my mind that I was glad I did not flick the steering at that speed in a reflex reaction.... Thoughts of the damages to the Baleno these freken_good_for_nothing_but_lambchops have caused. :(... Thoughts of my family in the car and that I need to GET THE HELL OUTTAAA THERE.

As we all know with India being developed and all, Farmers have the right to beat the snort and fart out of anyone who hit their chicken let along goatS. I was not ready to get beaten and lynched for a herd of goats.

As soon as I realize it over I cut gears and use the G16B torque to get me out of that town (and district). Meanwhile Mr Scorpio had slammed his brakes to see what happened.

Mr Scorpio. hears my horn, sees my flashing headlights, feels my pain and guns his CRDe.

The guy was literally making way for me. I am not if he was trying to help but he sure was. He was going through some traffic which helped us gain some good ground fast.

We thought some guys might follow in bikes or Sumos or something to get compensation for their poor neighbor shepherd. So our aim was to get out of there fast and get off the road after about 20-30 km. We reached Ranganathittu junction and instead of the right to Mysore Road we took the left to the bird sanctuary and took the immediate

Call me Paranoid or just Crazy and Stupid, however how often do you hear someone running over 3-4 goats? If that could happen ... I just did not want to take a chance of getting my wife, son and the other couple into trouble with some drunk villagers.

So there.... Here lies my car in the Garage back in bangalore...

46k bill.
Main damages:
Front Bonnet bent (dead center edge)
Front Bumper (smashed, cracked, hanging)
Grill
AC Condenser (Bent), (Fan Broken), assembly et all

Insurance has sanctioned most of it...





IronWolf got a broken jaw after trying to bite off more than he could Chew :(

Also, Guess what I had for Dinner that night at 'Sues Kitchen', Indra Nagar.....

[Nitin]

Ouch!
Really sorry to hear what happened to you. call it bad luck,or just bad timing. Eitherways the damage is done. Good thing being all of you escaped unharmed.
'IronWolf got a broken jaw after trying to bite off more than he could Chew'..
I'm not sure if it meant that you broke your jaw..but I do hope nothing serious happened to anyone.

Think of it as a bad dream,and hope that over time everything will be forgotten.
Take care..

[IronWolf]

Originally Posted by Nitin

Ouch!

'IronWolf got a broken jaw after trying to bite off more than he could Chew'..
I'm not sure if it meant that you broke your jaw..but I do hope nothing serious happened to anyone.

I was referring to this >


Nothing happened to us in the car. It was like going over a really bad road without braking on time. Just a bit Bumpy and crunchy. if you know what I mean.

[skandyhere]

Hmmm... thinking about what your baleno would have suffered while hearing the crunch and grind of bones under you sure needs some iron heart. no offence, but my heart goes out to the animals rather than to a car.

anyway, i know precious little can be done in such a situation and it could happen with anyone. bad luck. i hope the goats died a quick death and that your car recuperates as soon as possible.

[v1p3r]

I'm thinking better rubber would have ensured those goats reached Bangalore, and my empty plate. So buy nice tyres and make sure I get my quota of lamb burgers!

Originally Posted by IronWolf

...crunchy. if you know what I mean.

Mutton fry? Yum!

[akroy]

Hey that was quite an incident, I must say that the Baleno took it well at that high speed but at the same time, it is more evident that SH17 is not that safe at higher speeds as it looks like...you should never cross 120kmph on this road
Plus there is are some sudden speed breakers near Srirangapatna which you can miss out if driving first time...

Last but not the least nice to see that you and your family are absolutely safe...

Abhi

[tsk1979]

I guess the dog bar in the fiesta is actually a good thing

[greatDrive]

ouuch.. 46K damages done by a Goat hits!
anyways, you did right thing to not to stop and put you & your family in danger.

[s0uljah]

See it was an accident, they were but animals. The owner should have been more responsible.

Whether they deserved to go down that way or go down v1p3rs mouth is a tough one.

Ironwolf, stopping to help and being a good Samaritan is no use in our country, Iv tried and been at the receiving end at things.

[Samurai]

Well, stopping would have put you into lots of trouble. Suddenly those goats would have commanded astronomical price considering you would have been the sole and compulsory buyer. The police will completely take the farmer's cause and will swindle you to the sky, it doesn't matter that the farmer was wrong in driving the goats into the roads. Police themselves don't know the rules or don't care about it.

But you got lucky too. About 20 years back, something similar happened during our college trip, around the same place. Our bus ran over couple of goats, but the driver wisely decided to keep driving. However, this farmer was smart enough to call up ahead, and Maddur police promptly stopped the bus and arrested the driver for hit-n-run, over two goats. All of us students had to spend 2-3 hours negotiating with the police and the farmer over the bribe and compensation. Finally we all students pooled together enough ransom to release the hostage. That's the most expensive mutton we ever bought, which we didn't even get to eat. Half of us were veggies anyway. Needless to mention, the whole incident never entered the police records.

Now let's just hope there are no Team-BHPians who are kin to this farmer whose goats you slaughtered.

[dadu]

I too feel like skandy.

A herd of goats is not small enough to be overseen, that too under clear sunlight on a straight line road. But I also understand that its dangerous to stop from those speeds.

But accidents happen and unless its a fenced expressway (like mumbai-pune), we as drivers need to be on the lookout for anything on the road.

You also lost your number plate there which can be rebuilt from the broken pieces and if the herdsman files a police report, its a hit-n-run.

Originally Posted by skandyhere

Hmmm... thinking about what your baleno would have suffered while hearing the crunch and grind of bones under you sure needs some iron heart. no offence, but my heart goes out to the animals rather than to a car.

anyway, i know precious little can be done in such a situation and it could happen with anyone. bad luck. i hope the goats died a quick death and that your car recuperates as soon as possible.

[akroy]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Now let's just hope there are no Team-BHPians who are kin to this farmer whose goats you slaughtered.

On the positive side, the TBhpian should teach the farmer a lesson or two to how to cross a 4 laned highway with goats

If he cannot, the TBHpian will get a lesson from us for sure

Abhi

[tsk1979]

According to the LAW(I am not kidding here), goats have right of way. So if a herd of goats crosses a highway all traffic is supposed to stop.

[gbpscars]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

According to the LAW(I am not kidding here), goats have right of way. So if a herd of goats crosses a highway all traffic is supposed to stop.

yeah???
can you please quote the section so the next time i'll be sure to let them pass.
what can one do when the speedo is at 90? break hard and kill people on board?

this has to happen when V6 engines and cattle live side-by-side in our country.

[esteem_lover]

My heart goes out to the goats or kids that were caught in your car, but there is very little you could have done. There is one thing though, you can stay away from lamb chops for a year.