16th July 2013, 20:42
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| Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Will we? Wont we??? This is a question that me and wifey were asking each other The billion dollar question was whether we would get leave on Friday from our respective bosses to go on to Wayanad Jeep Club’s “Splash OTR trip”. To cut matter short, our bosses were understanding and gave us leave  Me and wifey (She is also an accomplished offroader, successfully completed the Mumbai AKC 2011 and EXAMM 2011 where she was the only Lady offroader) and our faithful Orange MM540, which my wifey calls XL (I have three 4WD jeeps, in varying chassis lengths so wifey calls them XXL,XL and L) started our long cherished trip to Kerala-Gods own country. We chose to take Bangalore – Kanakapura – Malavalli – Mysore – Gundlupet and beyond roads. We reached mysore in a jiffy (less than 2 hours). The Malavalli route is short and beautiful. The roads are practically empty. I was able to belt out decent speeds on my 540’s wide axles MT tyres. We met up with rest of BODA team in Mysore and there after moved as a convoy all the way to Kalpetta. The intermittent rains kept us company right after Gundlepete. The forest drive was such an awesome experience and will remain etched in my memory for a long time. The dusk was falling and rains coupled with short spells of rain and eyes were peeled to catch a stray elephant and with enthusiasm building up inside of us for the next days event … Words are’n’t enough to describe the feeling. There were a total of 9 vehicles from Bangalore – Old stalwarts like Swatik Viji , Kamal, Siddu, Robi ,Prabhu , Rajesh were there along with fairly new kids on the block SSK, Suraksha Lokesh, Darshan Gowda, Harish. Missed the still older generation like Dwarak, Suresh Stephen, MPS, Giri etc . We got a rousing welcome at Wayanad Cliff. That’s the name of the hotel where we were put up both nights 12th and 13th July. After some throat cleansing, we all trooped down to register ourselves at another venue in the city. The dinner had a lavish spread, arranged on 12th July at Kallat hotel, post registration. At the registration counter we were handed over a bag of goodies with T shirts, caps,food coupans,pen,key chain, small note book, tea packet etc. Also met Dhanush here. He is a person with warm gesture and I am glad that I met him in person. The rest of the organising team were also cheerful despite handling many registrations and much paper work, we felt welcomed and enjoyed rest of the evening with Jeepers met over previous OTRs and new friends made. There was a display by WESEM off-roading lights and the range they have is very good. The accommodation was comfortable. Wayanad cliff has total of 12 apartments. Each apartment has a 2 BHK. The drawing room has comfortable Sofa and dining table with LED TV. Each participant got a room to themselves. The hot water for bath provided by solar heater. The parking at the hotel was also comfortable and most BODA vehicles were inside the lot at night. Our coordinator was Robi and in all seriousness he informed us to be ready at 6.30 AM as the flag off was planned at 7.30 AM. Little did he know that we all got up only at 8.30 am, put on attire of rain coats and gum boots and arrive at the flag off only at 9.30 AM. The jeepers created a massive road jam at the flag off venue; fortunately the traffic police and event volunteers handled the jam skilfully directing the vehicles to their allocated parking lot.The flag off as usual with lot of clapping and hooting with lead vehicle being 3 puny ATVs. There were Media folks, Cameramen of all shapes and sizes. At this point were handed bag of water bottles, biscuit packet, juice,chips, and chewing gum(??) (Whoever came up with this combo is a genius) Eventually, we too started out, but hardly a kilometre, and then BODA team were requested by the ‘O’ team to stay put and let other vehicles pass for a while. I think, that was to appease the locals. The first part was a trail drive through a slushy farm which was fun as tyres were continuously trying to grip. The jeeps were trying to get foot hold in the free slipping and sliding arena, however the following two trail drives weren’t as exciting as the first ones. Finally we went to the mother of all OTR spot. At the entrance, after handing out food coupan, we were given a massive packet of food. Hot packed rice, choice of veg pulao or chicken biryani with accompaniments large enough for 4 people. I later heard that chicken was fantastic. Here all of us started the endless wait for jeepers to finish climb and let us pass. Here is the place that I request organisers to emulate BODA. Both in 2012 and 2013, as BODA ‘O’ team, we made multiple tracks and divided jeeps into batches. Each batch was let into one trail that would spend half a day and then round robin over next 2 days ensuring that each batch did those 4 trails of varying degree of terrain. Some tracks were further specified as ‘Lockered Jeep/Gypsy only’ tracks. This was sorely missing here. The tracks were bifurcated into 2 trails, namely A track and B track. At this juncture the BODA got separated, while approaching the incline, an organiser suggested us to do B track and later come to A track, as he said, A track is clogged with Jeeps.The B track was very challenging with many ‘S’ curves, thankfully the ‘O’ team had organised winch tractors and they did a tremendous job of pulling out many jeeps that were probably driven by many first timers. Since it was continuously raining, the trackers at one point just would’n’t let even a seasoned jeeper go by. As the dusk was fast approaching and still many Jeeps were stuck, the ‘O’ team had a tough job on hand to ‘unstuck the jeeps’. A bunch of BODA including me lost our way on the tracks 3-4 times, took detour many times, and came back, asked the cowherds keepers whether Jeeps had passed this road. While it is good that organiser were busy recovering, there should have been direction pointers all along the trail too. Here again request 'O' team to emulate BODA. In our BODA Annual OTR 2013, we took strips of barricade material and cordoned off tracks not covered in the trail, in addition to that, we tied strips of eye catchy material at each turning point and along the way to indicate trail path continuity. The first day went off very well to our satisfaction, and we were invited to a Gala dinner at Vythri hill. Since many of us were exhausted, I too opted out of going there. Had a nice lukewarm water bath and sampled local spicy food and went into a deep slumber.The next day was a race kind of a thing and wifey not willing to stay back, we opted to travel back to Bangalore, which we did. Last but not least 3 cheers to the 'O' team whose efforts were clearly seen, managing 70+ jeeps is not an easy task. Food arrangement was superb, execution of the event was very precisely handled. Thank you 'O' team (met many of you, sorry poor memory of names) for the Fantabulous OTR show put up by you, you will only get better and better every year, minor glitches are there in every OTR, let not that bother you. Go ahead, create memories for folks like us. Will come again, next year for Wayanad Annual OTR - 2014 Folks who were part of second day please put up photos. I heard that second day was equally fun with major crowd of spectators. Now the time for photos and videos. |
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16th July 2013, 20:49
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16th July 2013, 21:10
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18th July 2013, 14:17
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report  Disappointed Driver !! He did a perfect timing on track but just before the Articulation pit lost the Clutch.  My NGCS on rescue Mission.  One of our Marshal Vehicles..     Slush, Slush and deep Slush  |
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18th July 2013, 17:36
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Fantastic Event..... I think after long, experienced well organized event, which had to offer everything what a participant look forward for. Well done O-Team.  Track: The selection of the track and location was just beautiful. All we had to do was drive on slush-slush and slush in different format (Dips / Inclines / flat and extremely slippery patches). On top of everything, it was pouring heavy, which made it even more exciting. Stage A first obstacle, long and curvy incline were only first two vehicles climbed in single attempt was one of the best. Testing the vehicle and drivers limits. Accommodation: Excellent place with all the basics. Hot water, tea & coffee, whenever you require and good parking lot with water wash facility. What more one can expect. Skill drive: Too good! Single stage, long, water pits, and tight turns. I think, people who were gentle on the throttle did well; otherwise most of us were skating big time. NDMS rocked!! Proved straight, it can out beat any MT's on heavy mud. Food: Just Yuma... Especially the chicken Biryani, and definitely the gala party at Vythiri resort. O-Team: You guys did a fantastic job. Marshals to support on every recovery, the tractor recovery worked really well, 40 plus vehicles towed at the first incline couldn’t have been possible with out that. Break down vehicles were taken care and best part you guys had deployed people every junctions (road & trail) to direct the participants. Again... Brilliant stuff guys Suggestions: 1. The skill drive winners could have been given trophies instead of a certificate. 2. Crowed during the skill drive was too heavy. A bit of structured barricades for safety. Good show... Regards Last edited by moralfibre : 19th July 2013 at 11:22. Reason: Only two smileys per post please. |
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18th July 2013, 21:05
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| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Thanks Robinson & Andy! Encouraging comments from you all really means a lot. We will try to make the next years event even more better w.r.t track, stay, organization and everything!. Let me once again mention my thanks to all:
The results of the Skill Drive event are: Petrol Category:  Diesel Category:  SUV Category: 1st Place: Ranjith - 03.39.25 2nd Place: Vishnu Ranjam (Endeavour333) - 05.08.38 ATV Category: 1st Place: Guhan Shetty - 02.11.53 2nd Place: Sundar - 02.31.18 The Jeep Club Wayanad Recce Team:  |
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19th July 2013, 10:49
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| Senior - BHPian  Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Poona
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Congratulations Dhanush, Sreejesh & 'Jeep club Wayanad'  After a long time saw and heard about a good event. Would appreciate if you or someone can talk more about artificial track made for second day. Wyanad OTR is in my wishlist OTRs to do. Shubhendra |
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19th July 2013, 18:15
| #8 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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19th July 2013, 21:49
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20th July 2013, 15:45
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Just got this Pic now  Last edited by sreejeshmp : 20th July 2013 at 15:46. |
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21st July 2013, 16:08
| #11 | ||
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Quote:
The second days track was made in a ground of 10 acres. Initially we planned for two tracks, but, on the day, we cut off one due to lack of time. The track included two water pits, several jumps, tight curves, straight stretch, 8 articulation pits, three ruts etc.. over a span of ~one kilometer. A picture of articulation pit, which was custom made using MM540XD measurements, and later tested using MM550XD NGCS, MM550 ISZ petrol, MG413W King, Toyota LC 80 series, 500D, Mahindra Classic CL340, MM540DP, MM Invader, MM640DP, 1942 Ford GPW   Quote:
Last edited by dhanushs : 21st July 2013 at 16:20. | ||
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22nd July 2013, 10:28
| #12 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Finally got hold of some pictures.. Pic credits, respective owners. Enthusiastic MLA who offered to lead the convoy with his Range Rover Vogue.  Making the Vehicles Lining Up    And then, Flag Off:          Drive to Trail      Stop for regrouping        Last edited by dhanushs : 22nd July 2013 at 10:54. |
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22nd July 2013, 12:22
| #13 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Enter into slushy trail drive for some harmless fun. No obstacles, but real slushy, so that one can have some slipping and sliding fun.         Introducing the First Prize Winner in Petrol Category!      Baleno engined gypsy..       Introducing the 2nd price winner!   Kurians Thar lost clutch on the way, which was repaired on the spot.  Repaired and back in action     Last edited by Rehaan : 29th July 2013 at 13:25. Reason: As requested |
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22nd July 2013, 21:00
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23rd July 2013, 10:50
| #15 | ||
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Chennai
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| Re: Wayanad Annual OTR'13 - Event Report Quote:
Re: State backing the event.. .. Well, its just the same like all states. There is no special policy. The MLA turned up as he is a patron of the club, who might as well go on and become a member. The real issue is some fellow Jeepers who instead of promoting new ventures, go ahead and spread negative publicity.  .Quote:
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