[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Lets visit Tungarli again in April

What's the joke? Didn't get it. I haven't done tungarli otr earlier with you guys or anyone else either.

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by DeClutch 4X4

Kudos to O-team and Shubendra ji for crisp narration. am Sure this is one of the best organised event i am reading about so far in the recent past. Regret missing this one due to time required in traveling. Next time will make this happen with Bolton Concepts team. right Godfather??

Thank you sir. I am sure you wont regret your travel once you attend this event. On day 2 we did more than 15 obstacles (2-3 were really big ones), but at the end of day when we referred Tulip map and spoke to marshals, we got to know that we completed only 40% of entire trail
I am seriously contemplating to go to Gokak again for 3 days just to offroad till i/my machine get tired.

Originally Posted by vroom666

One more Q out of curiosity: How was it for the participants & organizers alike with so much of crowd around the venue? Did it prove to be a hindrance in controlling & were there any instances where the crowd were too close for comfort? I am total novice to these events having participated in just one for now - but some videos of the 2012 event looked very very crowded to me and I am guessing it was the same this time as well? Isn't it uncomfortable to have so many people around when you are doing the obstacles?

Crowd management was better as compared to last year. last year crowd was centered around few obstacles leading to chaos but this year it was scattered.
also, Marshals always make sure that crowd is never on line of vehicle and near by. they always force the crowd away from vehicle/track. Local police along with marshals played a big role in crowd management. there were few incidents of 'Lathi charge' though.

Shubhendra

[DeClutch 4X4]

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

I am sure you wont regret your travel once you attend this event.

Shubhendra

Will take your word for that Shunhendra ji. My ride is slowly (read SLOOOOWLY) getting restored (should i call it modded?) on and off . But, will be up and running before next Gokak event for sure and most importantly will have the privilege to meet stalwarts like you

Best regards

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

What's the joke? Didn't get it. I haven't done tungarli otr earlier with you guys or anyone else either.

Arrey baba, weren't you there when we had series of breakdowns ? Kasli's Thar seized, Manan's Jeep's front prop shaft twisted, Paras's Gypsy's gear box fell down, Ibu' Gypsy's front prop shaft fell down, Ritesh's Jeep's entire diesel tank, pipeline, air filter was in water.
IIRC, Way back in April 2011.....

Shubhendra

[Shubhendra]

Day – 1 (Track A): All competition tracks were mix of natural and man-made obstacles. Track A proved to be most challenging for initial attempters. It started with a small decline, short run, small but steep incline, take a left U turn, come down straight (refer yellow 550 pic, who didn’t follow this line), 5-6 ruts for articulation, then there were 3 ditches which proved to be difficult for people attempted initially. They were deep ruts in a row, and initial vehicles used to simply sit on chassis. I almost cleared them, when my clutch rod mount came off from chassis, I was disappointed as it was first obstacle of the day. But team of mechs put my jeep on back on track in flat 7 minutes

Once you come out from ruts, you had to follow track (all tracks were clearly demarcated) speed up your vehicle and there was a little hump, followed by 30-40 mtrs of rough patch and a mid-sized incline and sudden decline, take a right U turn and again same incline and decline, few more small ditches and then came small but steep hill filled with boulders and big rocks. Many people couldn’t complete this incline, few breakdowns happened here which were attended promptly. Once you reach on the top of incline you had to take right and come down, moment you come down, you had to follow track and take left which navigated you to a long and deep man made trench with moisture soil followed by a small steep incline.

Below is pictorial illustration of entire trail:





























Few pics of star of the day (Genesis)



















For initial vehicles, this track was tough but after few attempts people dashed too many big stones on hill and flattened out deep ditches in starting. Krishna Malve from Poona completed this track in Gypsy in shortest time.

[Shubhendra]

Flying vehicles
My old rust classic








This is why i dont like competition, to complete obstacles in shortest possible time, everyone literally gun their vehicles. He is a experienced driver, but small mistake and .......












Random pics for viewing pleasure







































To be continued.....

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Arrey baba, weren't you there when we had series of breakdowns ? Kasli's Thar seized, Manan's Jeep's front prop shaft twisted, Paras's Gypsy's gear box fell down, Ibu' Gypsy's front prop shaft fell down, Ritesh's Jeep's entire diesel tank, pipeline, air filter was in water.
IIRC, Way back in April 2011.....

Shubhendra

Nope. I wasn't there for that OTR though I read about it.

[Shubhendra]

Day – 1 (Track B): it had water wading, mud splashing etc. there was a long trench dug by organizers and you had to glide through waist deep water and mud, there were 2-3 big humps in the middle as surprise. And these humps were so big that vehicle’s chassis used to sit on them. If I am not wrong, only one jeep cleared it which was SPOA with 35 inch MTs.
After that jeep, few vehicles went who created nuisance and ruckus there and organizers had to abandon this track. That’s why I feel, event should be on ‘Invitation’ basis only to filter people and avoid such incidents.

Nonetheless, enjoy these pics







































Day – 1 (Track C): this track started with an angular decline towards right, you had to position your vehicle in such a way to avoid a thick branch on top right, as it was an angular decline, who did not judge it properly had to brush his vehicle with tree. Once you complete the decline, there were more than 5-6 small but steep ups and downs with too many turns in trail. Best part was you could do this in your softroader like Thar last obstacle of this track was to reach on top of a steep gradient with very little space for momentum. where many vehicle had to try few times in order to reach on top which was road.

Though this track was not difficult bit it was fun to negotiate through turns and inclines/declines.

In genesis’s language, this track was like a ‘Treasure Hunt’ game with lots of turns and twists, inclines and declines.

I do not have pictures of this track, but i got hold of few pictures where few participants were enjoying on dry land (i will not comment on whether its correct or not ) ......

[Shubhendra]

Day – 1 (Track D) optional track: as mentioned by organizers, it was optional track and was toughest track of the day. This track started with few real deep ditches in one line, and wooden planks were put on them and you need to maneuver your vehicle through planks avoiding going into ditch. Though this part was cancelled as first vehicle with 35 inch tyres and SPOA broke few planks. But it looked technical.

Take a look at the below picture and on right corner you can see crowd, that was the place where second and third obstacle were set-up



Once you cross this ditch, you go 50 mtrs towards hill, where there was one big rock on right hand side of track, which required entry from right side corner, pointing your vehicle towards your left, and moment your vehicle reaches on top, you again had to take right to get down from rock. This obstacle though was attempted by too many participants but I think 2-3 vehicles were able to complete it.

below pictures can give you more idea about this obsatcle















We had a tough time, recovering this vehicle out. Tried various tricks, anchored my jeeps in various angles to enable self-winch, but finally had to give jerk to get him out of that situation.









Miscellaneous pictures from this obstacle

















Last obstacle was to climb on hill in through rock in two steps. First step was to crawl through small but steep incline of rock, then it was kind of flat base with 2-3 big boulders, next stage was to crawl through next big step of rock to reach till top and then reverse it back till ground. Again only 3-4 vehicles could reach till step 1 and no one even tried to attempt second step. Honestly speaking, second step was so steep that I lost my confidence and reversed my Jeep.















To be continued.......

[Shubhendra]

Day – 1 (Track E) – Trail drive – conquering lion point: by the time everyone attempted all tracks, it was already 4:30 PM, and upon our continuous insistence, marshal started to lineup vehicles. We were lucky to lineup our vehicles in first group. After sometime first group started towards ‘Lion Point’, we were briefed that it’s a normal hill trail used by pedestrians to cross this hill and once we would reach on top , there is dirt road which connects to main road, which would take us to Gokak passing through a scenic point from where you can see entire town. We were also told that, vehicles can’t be reversed as there was no space to take U turn till you reach on top.
Pictures from initial incline















We started towards top and initially it looked like normal jungle drive, (making most of whether I removed hood and put down front glass) slowly we entered into moderately dense jungle and slowly trail was getting tougher, narrow and denser. All vehicles were crawling (Gypsy and Thars were trying to crawl though )
slowly track was getting narrow and tough








it was about to dark when we reached almost 40% of ascent, and vehicles stopped in a convoy. We few friends were chit chatting about how thrilling was the day, praising such a silent and calm evening in a thick forest, merrymaking plans were made for remaining part of the night (we were under impression that we would soon finish this trail drive and reach base camp in another 15 minutes).
Suddenly I heard people shouting my name from hill, I rushed towards them only to find out that one Jeep from Poona was dangerously tilting on left side towards deep (200 feet +) gorge, almost on the edge of cliff resting on 2 trees (otherwise it would have gone down). There was a big crowd there, more than 10 marshals, they connected Jeep’s front winch to a tree on front right hand side, but when they attempted to winch in front, vehicle was dragging on the edge of track and it was not coming on track. Left wheels were in air or on loose stones of cliff. By that time Ayub bhai also reached the spot by walking till than point along with few more marshals and policemen (as usual, he was omnipresent). We used winch rope of a vehicle behind, passed the cable through right side of the bull bar and then 90 degree right to connect to a tow strap which was tied on a big rock. I sat on the driving seat and using Jeep’s winch I started winching towards front right, rear vehicle was anchored on my right in such a way so that jeep does not fall in cliff. After incredible spotting from Ayub bhai, and man power from marshal, jeep finally came back on track. Few meters ahead there was a steep incline filled with big boulders, and this jeep was second in convoy and first vehicle somehow made it to top. I started driving this Jeep and somehow crawled till top.








I parked it there and came back to get my jeep to find out one Thar was badly stuck at few meters from where this Jeep was stuck.



All tricks tried, people pushed, rocks removed but it was not budging from its place. People suggested towing the Thar till top. They reversed the Thar towards left of track in order to give space for others to move ahead. It was pitch black by then and I was around 5-6 vehicles behind, somehow all front vehicles climbed up.



I connected towing strap in my Jeep’s rear pintle hook and after 2 attempts, we started moving towards up with Thar in tow. We decided that we will not stop midway to detach tow strap and stop directly on top to avoid further chances of Thar bogging down on the way. We reached on top and parked our vehicle, after waiting for another 30 mins for rest of our convoy, we came to know that one Gypsy was stuck badly at that same point and it was being recovered. After another 30 mins, remaining vehicles also joined us.
Personally speaking, drive through hill was ‘best of the day’ because of few reasons:
1) Weather was pleasant
2) Imagine silent and calm environment in a thick jungle at dusk time in an open Jeep
3) As it was noncompetitive, there was no hurry, you can crawl through hill enjoying scenery
4) Perfect drive for a jeep, rock crawling is real fun
5) Camaraderie among participants during winching, vehicle pushing. People came from different cities/states to attend this event but everyone was busy on their own during competitive tracks. But when few vehicles stuck on hill, everyone started joining to help each other to reach on top. Owner of the Thar which I towed till top, is my FB friend for almost an year and I didn’t even realize this till we interacted after we reached on top
Highlight of this obstacle: marshals lined-up almost entire hill, they worked tirelessly throughout the day and they were on hill guiding/helping each and every vehicle to reach on top of the hill. Even in pitch dark night, there were marshals at every 10 steps showing you the way by torches. They helped in a BIG way to clear rocks, pushed vehicles, guided all of us to reach base camp.

Kudos to marshals !!!

Once we were sure that all vehicles reached on top, Marshals made a convoy and we left for base camp. It was 15 minutes. We came to know that half of the vehicles had to return without attempting that hill drives because of numerous vehicles were stuck on hill. We were lucky enough to be part of group 1 who completed such a lovely trail drive.
It was 9 PM when we reached base camp. Team of mechanics was on demand, few vehicles were opened up and people were running after marshals to get required spares from shop. One vehicle from our group had bent ties rod and bent tie rod ends. After registering our request for spares, we freshened up, and organizers were kind enough to provide hot water throughout our stay. Once we were done with self-cleanliness process, we went to see what is happening all around. It was a gala night today, as it was sponsored by ‘King of good times’ (Kingfisher), and with hot piping chicken, mutton, Indian, Chinese dishes on the offering, time flied and it was 1 AM when we had dinner at retired for the night for another adventurous and thrilling day.
Offroaders enjoying much deserved break



Hot air balloon being put on air by offroaders from Goa








To be continued…….

[Shubhendra]

Day 2
After such an eventful day 1, everyone was tired and tried to squeeze in as much as they could. As a ritual, there is a team of kid who do the needful if someone wants to squeeze in more sleep.
And yes, however mad you are, you cant say anything to such innocent kids, and they will keep saying you ‘Good morning’ till the time you come out of your tent
This time, many jeepers were staying in hotel, and they were late to report to base camp to have breakfast and start day-2 of offroading. Many people were still working on their jeeps and many were simply relaxing after sumptuous breakfast.

Marshals gearing up for the day



Vehicles being checked/repaired





prepped up Jonga with original inline 6 from Poona



unusual tyres, jeep from Goa



Ayub bhai's jeep collection



Finally everyone assembled by 9:30 AM for briefing and we had a pleasant surprise. Ayub bhai informed us that we will start our day with snake training session (yes, you are read it correctly).

So below was our schedule for the day
1) Award ceremony
2) Snake training session
3) Mud-fest
4) Start of river countless river crossings – river crossing 1
5) Start of river countless river crossings – river crossing 2 (next to road)
6) Start of river countless river crossings – river crossing 3: (sharp incline to connect to road followed by lunch)
7) Sharp incline on rock next to sugar mill
8) Start of river countless river crossings – river crossing 4 (long walk to river, followed by entry to personal farm house)
9) Parting obstacle ( hill climbing similar to last year, but with different entry point and route)

1) Award ceremony: due to something which happened first day (I don’t want to elaborate it on public forum), O team decided to scrap competition of day 1. And instead, they identified two people from all participants (on the basis of how they drove throughout on day 1) and awarded them, which I think was a nice gesture.
a. Soumya Banerjee (Lifetime achievement award )
b. One girl from Goa (sorry forgot her name)
c. Team of mechanics for their amazing support









Snake training session: Ayub Khan, who other than being an expert offroader, is also an expert/trained snack catcher. He provides training and conduct awareness session. Our session started with some background on snakes, type of snakes, their effect on eco-system etc. after that we were informed that there are two pythons that were rescued few days back and they want us offroaders to free them in jungles which we would visit during our offroading today.
Then marshals took out two pythons from a sack. One was 7 feet long and another was 11 feet. They trained us how to hold them, what to do and what not to do. People went berserk, trying to hold them, touch them and get their pictures clicked with pythons.

Gokak DSP with 11 feet python



Genesis trying to get over snake fear



After around one hour we dispersed and lined-up with our respective vehicles. Obstacles in day 2 were distributed across few kilometers but best part was all obstacles were natural and not man made.

[Shubhendra]

Mud-fest: as the name suggests, this trail revolved around mud pits, but it also had too many inclines/declines, sharp turns etc.
This obstacle was set up near river in an area which had ancient banyan trees spread along with other trees between slush pits. As usual it was well marked and manned by marshals. Entry point to this trail had a big mud patch for few meters where vehicles started struggling after vehicles attempting initially dug enough that my Jeep with 235/75/15 tyres could’ve touched entire drive-line if not maneuvered properly. But it was just start 







Second obstacle was deep mud pit which later turned into clay pit after a Thar dug at least a foot further as it was running on HTs. After 30 mins of struggle marshals finally pulled out the Thar and then few other jeeps also got stuck here making it almost impossible.









another jeep trying to clear this obstacle



I tried from another approach angle and cleared it in one go as I didn’t want organizers to suffer again because of my stupidity. I still feel that I could’ve cleared it as this obstacle was meant for SWB vehicles. In excitement and fear of getting stuck, I literally flew through it (which I later realized was not required at all) and my jeep was filled with muck and soon my alternator breathed its last breath.
After mud bath



Random pics from this obstacle

















Anyways after this pit, there were 3-4 inclines/declines with tight to very tight turnings under ancient trees.




















Once you cross them, there was an obstacle which had a deep mud pit on right hand side and big roots of tree on left. Participants had to keep their vehicles on as much left as they can and had to crawl through it. Whoever tried to clear in speed landed on ditch

[Shubhendra]

Suicide Pit: Next was suicide pit (I named it so because of water depth), it was more than 5 feet deep filled with clay and I don’t think anybody cleared it. I simply took chicken route avoiding further damage to my Jeep's electrical system (I already lost my alternator by that time)













Just imagine how deep this pit was, look at people standing on flat ground and looking down to see where Jeep disappeared



Start of countless river crossings – river crossing 1: once you finish obstacle 1 (mud bath), there was a river next to it, which had not so deep water but small to medium rocks and marshals were all around to guide you through. Once you cross the river there was entrance to a sugarcane farm and you had to incline to reach farm. A small and congested lane then takes you through that patch and yes you were allowed to pick/eat sugarcane and I promptly did so reliving childhood village days. Once you finish this stretch there was a very steep descent which again took you to river. But this time river was deeper than previous one and stone got bigger as well.

[Shubhendra]

Start of countless river crossings – river crossing 2 (next to road): after last obstacle we had to drive for few kms following marshals which took us to a river next to bridge build on state highway. This crossing was tricky and few jeeps had to be towed out with the help of tractors deployed by organizers. It was pure joy of river/rock crawling with big boulders obstructing your diffs and you are negotiating hard to get much needed grip to overcome these big/round slippery boulders. Key was to follow man made chain of marshals, whoever followed their spotting made out, whoever missed it had to be either towed out or winched out or pushed out.













Mr DSP supervising event











One of countless river crossings – river crossing 3: (sharp incline to connect to road followed by lunch): though there were numerous river crossings which we did on day 2 but all were different and even for a moment we didn’t feel like getting bored.
This river crossing obstacle had different fun. Its had small loose stones with moderate depth and when you cross the river, you had to enter to a very narrow turn with a ditch, as soon as you come out of turn and ditch there was long steep incline which connected you to main road. Marshals were having a hard time controlling traffic as for every approaching vehicle they had to stop traffic on highway at the same time managing crowd.



















Before coming to this obstacle, marshals distributed lunch packets to all participants (other than what they distributed in the morning before leaving for trail). We had lunch and moved on to next interesting obstacle.

Sharp incline on rock next to sugar mill: organizers might have realized by that time that we had attempted too many river crossings and they took us to a hill next to sugar mill. There was a sharp incline on single piece of rock, with very tricky approach point. Approach area was filled with small rocks and undulation but good part was, rock was not slippery and vehicle crawled up to the top.

[Shubhendra]

Start of countless river crossings – river crossing 5 (long walk to river, followed by entry to personal farm house): best and longest river crossing of the day, it must be more than a kilometer. Vehicle had to follow river path which was zig-zag, deep-shallow, tight turns, filled with variety of rocks/boulders. And as usual whoever not followed spotters had to towed/pushed out. At the end of river crossing there was an incline and then you go into a private farm road which then led you to main road.





















Parting obstacle ( hill climbing similar to last year, but with different entry point and route): this obstacle was attempted by many last year as well. But this year entry point was different and only first two vehicles (including my classic) were somehow managed to enter and then organizers had to change the entry point in order to enable more participants but that also couldn’t help much. A big 550 was having hard time climbing uphill and after some time everyone got tensed as jeep turned into a very dangerous position, where if it would have been toppled it must have taken more than 15-20 turns before resting to the flat ground. Ayub khan took charge of situation and they cautiously reversed the jeep back to starting point and then he showed how to do hill climb his way!
Few vehicles were denied entry as some of them didn’t have power assisted disc brakes as it was such a steep climb vehicle without proper brakes could have been rolled down leading to potential accident.
I was lucky to attempt this obstacle first as I had a failed alternator and my Jeep was on. As I got spare alternator from my friend and wanted mechanics to fit them, they asked me why not you first attempt this obstacle and by the time your friends would finish this obstacle we will repair/replace alternator. I had to literally struggle to get through at entrance of this obstacle. As I attempted this hill climb last year as well. I can definitely say that this year was 30% tougher than last year. Few participants didn’t even attempt after seeing how jeeps were struggling. To encourage participants, organizers even cut short the climb and at last they kept a gypsy for all gypsy drivers which all gypsy drivers along with Ayub bhai as navigator used to attempt this hill climb. Pictures don’t do justice to the real incline!