[Frankenstein]

My story , arrived late at the meeting point since i was getting the Jeep washed . Meeting point was a good 25km from home and i see a lot of regular faces and Dwarak at an all time high since he was busy doing the registrations etc. The camp was around an hours drive from the meeting point . The tent was huge, like some big marriage was going on . It was dark in the parking area hence could not see all the vehicles . Went to the tent and reserved my bed and went out to have dinner . Morning it was eventually and the first thing is toilet, they were very very clean and proper western . Breakfast was pongal and it was i think one of the best i had in Bangalore . The line up had started and i was all charged up , rolled the wind screen down and hit the ww2 siren . We did trail 2 first and it had some good rocky declines and inclines , our marshals were Vijay and shanawaz with their spotting skills next to none . Finished trail 2 by lunch time (lunch was packed veg biryani , it was very nice ) . Weather was a bit hot but nothing bad . The best part now was the trail 3 . This is one of a kind trail , i have done aavalakonda twice , but here every foot of the ground was an obstacle. Narrow , bushy , proper wheel placement , judging the terrain, concentration and crawling were the key. Lot of new guys had it here , broken leaf springs, ripped side walls , fenders and what not . I was a little worried how the CJ3B would perform, but it was meticulous , every obstacle and turn in one shot . The organizers were right , this was a pucca CJ3b trail . Some new guys had some issues which the whole convoy was ready to help . It was around 6 PM by the time we got out . Tea was served hot , followed by party time and dinner, not to forget the stuff i was waiting for, Barbeque and Kebabs, ate a lot and slept at 3.AM. Next day was trail 4 for us , failed in the first climb cause i was doing it for the gallery (show off) . Did a small rock face for the villagers and went home fully charged up . Jeep had no issues , guess its reliable .

Meet all the lions, tigers, bears , low bonnets , high bonnets, 540s, 550s , handmade , peugos , inters, Di s petrols , the whole Jurassic park was there.
You have to see the organizing and turnout to believe it , tent, food, toilets were superb , trail making by M.p sreenivasan was un believable , every stone and tree was marked, one could actually do the trail alone .
Serious trail only enjoyed by the Guys with experience and not for newbies . It feels ashamed to put so much responsibility on those few guys and we just enjoying, next year i will do the hard work my self .

I would personally like to thank
M.p .Sreenivasan sir , only you can do what you do
UBS, JEEP Legend , he likes my Jeep and it means a lot to both of us .
Arka
Prithvi
Robi
Shanawaz, the humble champ
Vijay, SAAR
Bob
Chetan
Suresh stephen
Dwarak for controlling all the animals , but your mic skills suck.
Sharath
Andy
Rajesh
Adi, vijis son
Prabhu av, the Jurassic park uncle

and all my other friends.

[DHABHAR.BEHRAM]

Dear all - WOW! That's all I can say. I really enjoyed reading these pages. I am surely mssing out on all the fun. Looking forward to more pictures.

Best regards,

Behram Dhabhar

[gsferrari]

DB-Ji, going by the number of "Thar CRDe" that were to be found participating in this OTR, I think you would have been thrilled to be there. Some stock, some modified, some with fancy paint protection tape and so on. It will be interesting to get a total count of Thar vehicles at this OTR...

[Rajith]

hi,

We have particpated with 1 MM 550,1 CL 500,2 THAR CRDe,1 CJ 340,2 MM540.
Both the Thars where driven by the new drivers who has never driven an OTR in their life time and one vehicle was with just 500kms on odo.

No words to say, THAR CRDe performed fantastic , it was 90% vehicle & 10% drivers effort.

Under belly was checked at ASC & found 0 problem.

Got many many thorn scratches on the shell , but after the MAXI CARE , vehicle looks bran new and scars gone ..

Thanks DB sir. Your machine is just superb..

[headers]

^^: What tracks did it do?

Just curious

We too had a Thar CRDe among Terra Tigers - It performed..ahem..it performed..ok..We got to do TRack 4 on Day 1 and TRack 3 on day 2. No vehicle had any breakdown and we all got back to Chennai the next day!

Sampled the THAR on the HIGHWAY and noted my observations!

[madhkris]

BHPians,
Had a great 2 days of pure Off-Road fun!! A big thanks to the organizers and B.O.D.A guys for the wonderful arrangement on and off the trails. I participated with my MM540. I went on the sectors 2 and 3 on Day 1 and on Sector 4 on Day 2.
The trial was unforgiving and put to test both man and machine. Right from the word "Go" we had to be in 4WD high or low!!
Sector 2 had inclines and declines aplenty and sector 3 was unforgiving with many huge boulders, rocks, thorny bushes, under-hanging branches, steep short climbs..Most of the trail was technical with little scope to loose concentration even for a few seconds.
Day 2 had only one steep climb which had already seen lot of action the previous day. Jeeper after Jeeper tried gunning the climb but were unsuccessful and eventually winched out after the Marshals gave enough attempts to do it.
This was due to lot of loose mud, big boulders and a tree stub. There was even a sharp left turn at the end of the climb which proved to be the bane for many Jeeps. However among a few other jeeps, mine too managed to climb the incline successfully! Looking forward to more such events..A huge round of applause to MP Sreenivasan Sir, Rekha madam, Dwarak Sir, UBS Sir, Prithvi, SwastikViji, Andy and all the Marshals who made this trail possible with many Recces.
A few pics from my side.

[Endeavour333]

Had an awesome 2 days at the event! Did not take my Endy on the trail but was a passenger / spotter on the Jeeps during day 1 and on day 2 I actually got to drive Sid's Thar on about half of trail 3! This was such a fun experience that I seriously considered selling my Endy to get a Thar that I would modify to the extreme and still have plenty of money left over! I got so excited after driving the Thar that I was like a child running around afterwards. The Thar was very very easy to drive and the torque even on idle in 1st low seriously surprised me. I had wheelspin on 1st low idling up a slope... ridiculous.

Anyway, here are the videos that I captured during the event. Got lots of video on the first day but and the end of it my battery died and didnt really have any place to charge it. So only got a very small clip from day 2.

360 Degree view of the campsite:

360 Camp View - Bangalore OTR 2012 - YouTube

Trail 4 Part 1:

Trail 4 Part 1 - YouTube

Trail 4 Part 2: 9 minutes of Climbs 1 and 2 in 720p HD

Bangalore OTR Day 1 2012 - YouTube

[Twinn]

Ok my episode of the sitcom is as follows:

Picture first and then me talkeh!!!



























































BODA, You folks pull this off in a way good manner than we would have thought of, Hats of to each and every member of the team who put their souls into this event.

Now the Goods, the bad and the Ugly

Good:

- Awesome trails, extensive planning for each trail.
- Tent out in nowhere
- No hassles from villagers or locals
- Great idea to have 4 different trails
- Trail marking with ribbons
- Everything and anything except the Bad and Uglies

Bad:

- Distribution of the Goodies, - You know what I am speaking off.
- Food - the lunch basically, maybe you would need to re-look the caterer for the next event.

Ugly:

- Loud music on the midnight of day 2, and shouting on top of the Voice (words) irked the women who basically had to close the ears of their kiddos who were sleeping.

Some other areas where we could improvise are:

- Limiting the number of vehicles - like say for a thrill of 1 hour, we the team 4 (mostly Chennai folks) had to sit and wait for 6 hours. What I want to point out is that, when there is a trail that is identified as the toughest, can we have not more than 5 vehicles on that trail, so that the others would not miss-out on the action elsewhere waiting.

- Garbage bins to be placed in the campsite areas and marked.

- Reduce the usage of plastics.

Please do not take it personal, but this is a learning for other event organizers, likewise all I can say is that BODA has set a benchmark, and those who missed it - YOU MISSED IT

Few more clicks to follow in the next thread, BTW I was spotting so all I have is few clicks from my mobile.

[Twinn]

Little more snaps.

Word of Caution for all Offroading Mates:

Please do keep your belongings either tied to you or somewhere where it is felt even while your are sleeping or dumping. Cuz my mobile was flicked, which was right under my pillow, that too when I was sleeping.

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by Twinn

BODA, You folks pull this off in a way good manner than we would have thought of, Hats of to each and every member of the team who put their souls into this event.

Thanks buddy. The hard work & effort put in by the O-team pays off when participants have good words to say about the event.

Now the Goods, the bad and the Ugly

Bad:

- Distribution of the Goodies, - You know what I am speaking off.

Agree. I was one of the marshalls handing out the goodies and we distributed it on a trust/honesty based bond. People show coupons & they get goodies. However, we came to know that there were folks who showed the coupons quite a few times to get the goodies and in the process few folks got left out.

Next year, this will be taken care of.

- Food - the lunch basically, maybe you would need to re-look the caterer for the next event.

Agree. Point taken.

Ugly:

- Loud music on the midnight of day 2, and shouting on top of the Voice (words) irked the women who basically had to close the ears of their kiddos who were sleeping.

Agree and we tried to make it less loud, but believe me, jeepers after a long hard day would want to have their equivalent of boys night out and some amount of noise will always be there.

However, we will see how the "party" & "peace" balance can be achieved next year.

- Garbage bins to be placed in the campsite areas and marked.

- Reduce the usage of plastics.

Agree. Point taken.

Please do not take it personal, but this is a learning for other event organizers, likewise all I can say is that BODA has set a benchmark,

IMHO, every event organizer wants to do the best they can -- within the boundaries they operate in. After all, we (and other jeepers) do this for our fellow jeepers and not for anything else.

Originally Posted by Twinn

Word of Caution for all Offroading Mates:

Please do keep your belongings either tied to you or somewhere where it is felt even while your are sleeping or dumping. Cuz my mobile was flicked, which was right under my pillow, that too when I was sleeping.

This is bad. Should not have happened.

[Twinn]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Agree. I was one of the marshalls handing out the goodies and we distributed it on a trust/honesty based bond. People show coupons & they get goodies. However, we came to know that there were folks who showed the coupons quite a few times to get the goodies and in the process few folks got left out.

Wonderfully quoted Mr khan, I appreciate your effort to write back, likewise I was shocked when I heard members of our community did scam around for the second round of goodies. But what say, even i was misguided with the trust/honesty part with keeping my cellphone under the pillow, not giving it a second thought though

[King413]

Originally Posted by Twinn

Wonderfully quoted Mr khan, I appreciate your effort to write back, likewise I was shocked when I heard members of our community did scam around for the second round of goodies. But what say, even i was misguided with the trust/honesty part with keeping my cellphone under the pillow, not giving it a second thought though

we had 50 additional t-shirts and bags which were taken multiple times by some of the Participants. We hated giving out coupons for dinner and breakfast, looks like next time we may have to provide coupons for every thing.

[svsantosh]

IIRC in 2010 or 2011 we had marshals teamwise and they were given 25~ kits each and they cascaded the responsibility of distribution... that would save such ^ incidents...

and regd mobiles - i think tejas once wrote it is best to drive into these places with a cheap water proof mobile - saves such situations :( also loose the excess plastic cards and may be carry one with a 4 digit limit just for the 3-5 days trip??

[madhkris]

Some more pics from side from Day 2

[Ravveendrra]

First a pic taken en-route from Hyderabad


The Lynx and the Thar HT meet up for lunch on the excellent NH 44.

Since we hit the sack only around 2.00 a.m. we were hoping that we would be allowed to sleep in late. No such luck! The place was a beehive of activity by 5.15 (when I stirred) and stepping out of the tent I was greeted by the sight of off-roaders of all shapes and sizes getting ready for the day ahead. A quick brush and wash done, I managed a change in the Thar (thanks to the hard top we were able to leave all our stuff in there and it doubled as a changing room). As the sun came up, I saw the campsite in its entirety for the first time and the enormity of what the organisers had pulled off hit me. HATS OFF to Dwarka and each and every one of the O team, Organisers, Marshalls, Officials et al. Organising such a huge event and managing it so well is no mean task and we are still in total awe of what you guys did. Words cannot express our gratitude for what you did to make us so comfortable.

Just so that those of you who were not there get an idea of what the BLR O team did - imagine a little knoll with scrub and bushes on it in the middle of nowhere. These guys first made a path to that little knoll using earth moving equipment, then they levelled the area using a dozer/JCB. They pitched a huge tent with sidewalls to house close to 300 people, put carpets throughout and arranged for matresses, blankets, sheets and pillows. We were (I presume) the last to reach the venue at some 1.15 a.m. and we still found place to sleep as well as bedding. Then they arranged for a generator to run 24 hours a day to light up the whole campsite. They arranged for tables (with table covers) and chairs in the middle of that wilderness. They dug a trench for waste, they arranged for a whole line of loos. They arranged for water tankers drawn by tractors from a nearby village. The water tankers were replaced as soon as one was empty, which meant that water was available all the time we were there.

Then, there was the kitchen - it ran 24 hours either dishing out hot food, tea etc or cutting, chopping and grinding stuff for the next meal. The organisers had arranged to feed everyone hot meals 4 times a day (yes we did not get enough packets on the trail, but that was because some fell and were wasted when they were being carted from the kitchen to the trail). Drinking water was available in plenty at the camp site and at the beggining of the day - a huge 5 ltr bottle of water alongwith juice bottles were handed out to each Jeep. No way we would have died of dehydration!

Looking at the mess left behind after breakfast I wondered how they would manage to clean up the mess created by 4 more meals. The answer came to me when we returned after doing the first days trail - we returned early evening to see an army of workers sourced locally busy at work cleaning up the camp site and putting things right. WOW! That is some foresight and planning - get the place cleaned while the participants are away on the trails. There was even a posse of cops posted to keep things safe and quiet.

With a sense of anticipation we got into line for the flag off.


There seemed to be a huge line in front of us and for a moment we thought we were at the tail till I looked back and saw that the line of Jeeps behind us was even longer!






At the entrance to the trails we were told that we would do trails 1 & 2 alongwith the others in our pack. We were the last two jeeps in the pack and the only vehicle behind us was the sweeper a lovely green gypsy that unfortunately got dinged. Being at the end meant I did not get many pictures as time is short. At the head of the pack one does an obstacle and waits for the rest to come so one can take pictures of them.

























Fazal Adil. Gentleman and off-roader par excellence.












Sector 1 was a walk in the park with only one or two interesting bits. It was more of a precursor to the more interesting things in store and gave us a chance to acclamatise ourselves to the terrain particularly the sharp and loose stones, the smallest of which were the size of a football.

Lunch was served on the trail and was supplemented by the odd bits and pieces we were carrying as some of the packets got damaged when they were being carried to the trail by the organisers.