Now we enter Trail 2
Pretty much immediately we run into an interesting obstacle. In fact, there were a series of obstacles and each of them needed a marshal to spot. After spotting for the first few Jeeps, the trail marshals moved on, before asking me to become the spotter for the first one.
What made it interesting is that you could see the incline straight, but you have to approach and conquer it with a S shaped approach. If you come up straight, you are toast. I would not have guessed it. But the trail marshals showed me the only workable approach (the S shape) and moved on. And there were sharp rock rocks on the side to rip the side wall, if you turn too early.
Here is the perfect example of S shaped approach. I was using hand signals so that I would be least ambiguous. JeepCaptain (Shibu) shows how spotter’s instruction can be followed to the T to execute a perfect climb.
But some guys don’t watch the signals too closely, so they get to do trail & error a little. For example, this fellow came up fast, turned a little late, so hit a rock. So I got him to back out, and try again. But this time he turned before I told him, there by climbing over the sharp rock I was hoping to have him avoid. But he had some really thick sidewall, so no damage done. So you gotta listen to spotters, that trust is important.
The S approach, watch the spotter, follow the signals carefully, and get through.
Then it happened, a dirty incident.
A vehicle comes up, ignores my hand signal completely and ends up the far right side, leaning towards the cliff. And he stops as he realises his precarious condition. He should have never gone to the right, it was not part of the S approach at all. I quickly run to the other side, get on a rock and try to recover him. First I look behind his vehicle and notice a big rock about 10ft to his rear. Obviously I have to get him to avoid that rock, get him along side of it.
So I asked him to turn the steering fully to the right and then reverse. And I repeated the two more times (TURN RIGHT FULLY & REVERSE) since he seemed a little distracted. There was another guy who was telling him that he was in 2WD, and somebody else screaming another instruction. It was getting chaotic. Then he reversed, STRAIGHT! Right into the rock. I visibly cringed because that is exactly what I was trying to avoid. So I got a bit upset too. It may be his vehicle, but no Jeep lover likes to see a Jeep getting hurt like that. So I tersely told the driver to listen to instructions and follow it correctly. Then the driver says the most absurd thing:
HE: I just followed your instruction and my Jeep hit the rock.
ME: What? You didn’t follow my instruction, therefore you hit the rock. I asked you to turn right and then reverse. You did nothing like that.
HE: Forget it, I don’t want to follow your instructions.
ME: What do you mean? I am the only marshal here, so I am the spotter for this obstacle. I helped everybody before you.
HE: No, I don’t trust you. I want him (points another Jeeper).
ME: <stunned>
Now, having my spotting instructions ignored by drivers is pretty common, it happens all the time. I usually shrug and move on. This time however, I just snapped. I screamed back saying he can’t blame me just because he can’t listen to spotting instructions, and then some more. Of course, I didn't use any profanity, not my style. It was a very civil ranting, but with a loud voice. Meanwhile, he was trying to wriggle his way out of the mess he had created for himself. It took nearly 10 minutes of heavy revving, he hit that rock repeatedly and completely dislodged it. He was being spotted by others now. The ground at that point was totally ripped apart by the time he clawed his way out of there. Then he turned towards me and makes a casual apology. I was too heated at that point to accept it. I got a grip over my temper only after he moved out of my sight.
I started spotting again. The next few vehicles followed the spotting instructions perfectly and got through. But one Gypsy made a mistake and ended on the right side. I gave him the same instruction, turn fully right and reverse. He did exactly that, and recovered very fast out of the mess.
Meanwhile, I was wondering what went wrong with me. I have never done that.
It could have been because:
- I felt I was unjustly blamed for the (big rock) hit.
- I was told my spotting can't be trusted, although I had helped many vehicles before his to get through without a glitch.
- My brain was fried after walking in sun for 3 hours taking photographs.
- All the above.
But these are excuses. I should never have behaved like that. Not in a friendly event like this. I don’t display road rage in the worst of traffic snarls. So this offroad rage was really surprising and unacceptable. So I moved ahead in the trail and made my peace with him. After I came home, I got his email address from a friend and sent him a detailed explanation and formal apology. I never got a reply, may be it went to his junk mail folder. But I felt some closure only after that.
So, we continue...
Sometime around this time, I was able to check out the Hyderabad hard top in action. Even though it was still a prototype, the fit and finish looked very good. I suspect it will be impeccable once fully finished. I rode the Jeep in a very rocky terrain and I could hear nothing, not a squeak from the hard top. I was even more impressed by the roll cage that is right under the hard top. This will be a great product.
Then the trail got really narrow, not much chance to drive around the rocks.
We were coming to the end of Trail 2, but it was wicked nevertheless. At one point I was spotting a driver (Manas in Thar) to avoid a sharp rock that could cut the thin sidewall on his Geolandar AT-S. Then a guy in red T-Shirt (that said BUM) contradicts me, gives a different instruction, though he was standing quite far from us. I have cut my same model tyre on similar rock, so I convince Manas to avoid the stone. Then I focused my attention to that fellow, who looks vaguely familiar. Why would he contradict me even though he was too far away to see? But I don’t want to lose my cool again, so I move on.
No, I am not tilting the camera. It is a tilted trail. The trees are straight.
For most Thar Drivers, this was their first real OTR and you could see them really sweating, even in Trail 2.
Then manas in his hard top Thar find himself on a big rock.
By this time marshal Viji was present and was helping him recover. So I take a back seat.
But nothing works, so Viji gets another Jeep to tow it. Still it is a very dicey situation. Now the red T-shirt gets in the way of Viji.
I finally identify the red T-shirt as Viji refers to him by name. Then I understood. He can’t help it, that is his nature. He has to have his say.
Thus we have come to the end of Trail 2.
To be continued...