Day Two OTR:
Day two was quite relaxing, everyone woke up quite late ( read 7:00 AM)and local children had to work hard to wake us up. I had to uninstall and pack my tent and by the time we got ready after checking our jeeps, breakfast etc. most participants were already disappeared to line up at Goakak stadium. As per Tulip map given to us, total trail was around 32 kms with obstacles scattered around Gokak city.
Obstacle One:
First obstacle was river crossing followed by slippery incline exit, it was situated next to city on main entrance, and led to congestion due to visitors and motorists wanting a glimpse of action.
This obstacle was not at all tough but many jeeps and gypsies stuck on incline.
I was particularly impressed by 10-11 years old boy from our Poona group (he was accompanying his grandfather) driving one week old gypsy with original F78 tires. He cleared this obstacle in one go, where few old timers got stuck.
Our dear friend and old timer Sandeep Anand from Poona lost his fuel tank in river, although he crossed the river but one of the marshals saw tank floating in river. He did rest of the OTR and journey back to Poona on a makeshift tank arrangement.
First obstacle took almost 2-3 hrs to finish for all vehicles.
Next obstacle was again river crossing few kms from first obstacle covering 11-12 kms, but when we reached there with marshal we got to know that due to depth of river this obstacle has been cancelled. We moved on to third obstacle some 6-7 kms from second obstacle, which was attraction of whole event. It was hill climbing, you need to follow path marked by white limestone powder, go up to the top clearing few big stones and stone steps on the way, take left ( few drivers had a sweat of the day here) and go down following marked path. While Jeepers enjoyed this to the core, gypsies and thars had a hard time. It was a well calculated and designed track designed by Ayub Bhai. But this event must have consumed most of the day, as initially they allowed next vehicle to enter only when preceding vehicle has come downhill. Many drivers took hell lot of time, but by the time organizers realized this blunder, it was past noon and 20-30 vehicles remaining to finish trail. At that point organizers started sending vehicles in batches where every vehicle used to finish one part and then wait on hill to next vehicle to move on and so on. But by that time damage was already done. One solace from heat and long waiting queue was crowd watching these stunts. They treated all of us like stars, asking questions, taking photographs and admiring us. There were people everywhere, we had to literally stand next to our jeeps to protect it from youngsters peeping into vehicles and trying to touch everything, but it was fun.
as were done with hill climbing, While waiting for rest of our friends , we started identifying few small obstacles here and there to get away with boredom. and it turned out that crowd literally gathered our vehicles while we were doing out antics
Few vehicles (including me) moved on to next obstacle again driving 5-6 kms. It was again river crossing with big rock boulders, which was easiest obstacle of the day. As soon as you cross the river, there was an open space where lunch was being served. Once we crossed the river and had our lunch, we started asking marshals about next obstacle. They asked us to wait for some time till they confirm from Ayub Bhai, in the meanwhile we received SoS from our group stating our star gypsy has broken transfer case mount (one of the weakest link in Gypsy), we rushed to spot. Once gypsy was repaired (had to use rope to tie transfer case), we again came back to last obstacle only to get informed that OTR is concluded. They informed us that next obstacle is inside jungle and very difficult, a single breakdown can delay everyone. We (Poona & Goa group of 30 vehicles) pledged them to give one marshal and let us attempt remaining obstacles. But they denied citing logistic issue and risk involved, we reluctantly returned to camp where rest of our team members who were deprived of lunch had delicious lunch. On hindsight I was happy as we all were tired and few of our friends didn’t even have lunch, though we were disappointed as we couldn’t get opportunity to experience trail which we saw on pictures, particularly me, as I came all the way from Poona to do witness second day trail. Once we reached camp, everyone got fresh n up, packing bags and tents and chit chatting.
we were so tired that we couldnt click pictures. except these few
Journey back:
It took us sometime to gather and get ready and line up our vehicles in convoy.
Our convoy
Our convoy was led by One of the best MM classic I have ever seen in India with trailer and I was last jeep.
Red Classic with trailer ( this classic deserves a separate thread). Mr Vishal Jandial
Journey back to home was eventful, first breakdown occurred 15 kms from Gokak. One of MM Classic fuel pump wire got melt by silencer (root cause - wrong routing of wires) led to melting of few fuses. We had all spares in trailer and they all moved ahead, I had to tow jeep to 15-20 kms to the place where our group was waiting. We repaired fuses and moved ahead only to face same problem again, while Vishal got down to check, he realized that wire loom was touching silencer leading to melting and short circuit.
Mr Pathfinder
By the time we reached Mumbai-Bangalore highway (Gokak is around 40 kms from national highway), it was 8 PM. To compensate lost time we all started zipping towards Poona with scheduled dinner plan at Karad. As soon as we were about to reach Kolhapur, we got news that one of our 550 has leaking nozzle (not leaking nozzle pipe). We all stayed back at a restaurant while one gypsy went to fetch 550. This short stop turned out to be a full dinner/drink/masti stop. And after leaving 550 to a garage we could leave Kolhapur by 01:00 AM. After that journey was uneventful, we maintained convoy speed of 90-100 kmph, covering 230 kms in 3 hours. We finally reached Poona at 04:00 AM.
Will post miscellaneous pics soon.
Regards,
Shubhendra Singh