Finally it was time for the very first full-fledged offroading event in my newly acquired Jeep. Conveniently for me that event was being held in Coorg, which is well within 5-6 hours of drive from my place. The event was being organized by the Jeep Thrills, and I diligently followed the instructions given in Jeep Thrills yahoo group to prep the Jeep for the event. I even bought engine oil, differential oil, brake fluid, coolant, etc., for the first time over the counter. Since we were travelling in an open Jeep, I also had to figure out a way to secure the items at the back. I finally worked out a locking mechanism to secure the luggage, toolbox, 5L engine oil and tyre inflator to the Jeep. This was all strangely new experience for me to prepare in such a manner for a trip. Photography was not of high priority for me on this trip since I had bigger fish to fry. I was originally planning to take just the newly acquired Panasonic FX-36 so that my wife can use it. However, I did take the Olympus E3 at the last moment, but I didn’t really spend too much time thinking of photography as I was worrying more about how to get across the next offroading hurdle. It was only yesterday I realised I could have taken some pan-action shots, but my mind was only thinking offroading during the weekend.
On July 11th 2008, my wife and I started off from home after lunch. After 35Kms we had a brief stopover at my parent’s home. My parents finally got to have a look at the Jeep. My dad (aged 75) was quite impressed with the Jeep, I even found him testing the seats for the firmness. We left after drinking some fresh kokum juice, and then hit the ugly road construction scene at Suratkal. I don’t know when traffic will come back to normal in these parts. Anyway, we didn’t get to breath clean air until we crossed B.C.Road. Then we turned right at Mani, and encountered occasional bad patches all the way until nearing Sulliya. The roads around Sulliya and onwards were in superb shape, all the way into Coorg. Even the main highways in Coorg are in good shape.
As we started climbing the Sampaje Ghats, my wife noticed that the engine was heating beyond 90C. I quickly stopped and checked the coolant level in the overflow tank, it was well above full. Then I opened the radiator cap and lots of coolant whooshed out. Well, that was a typical rookie mistake. So I added more water to make up for the loss. After some wait we continued again as we wanted to hit Madikeri before it got dark. But the engine started overheating again. So we again stop. This went on for few times, we even checked engine oil level, fan belt slackness in the dark in torch light. The heating didn’t make sense since the weather was very cool and sun was already set.
Anyway, we finally hit Madikeri at 7:45PM and refuelled. Then we turned towards Murnad and started climbing down, the temperature now came down all the way to 70C and remained there. At Murnad we took a left turn before hitting the town and headed to Ontiangadi and then finally reached Alath-cad Estates, our home stay for the next two days.
As I pulled in one of the organisers directed me to the parking area. As I started again, I stall the engine in 1st gear, in front of all the Jeepers standing there evoking a generous round of laughter. So much for first impressions.
After parking the Jeep we settled into one of the rooms and freshened up. The dinner was being served, we met the organizers, and also many members for the first time. The Patrick Kani’s team from Chennai had to ditch their Land Cruiser in Bangalore as it broke down, and ride down with Jammy’s Jeeps. After an hour long dinner chit-chat we all settled to our rooms since we had to get up by 5:15AM.
July 12th 2008
We were woken up by loud banging at the door at 5:15AM and that repeated every 30 minutes to make sure we were out by 6:30AM. By 7AM we found ourselves at the rendezvous point, Dhinu’s Home Stay.
Dhinu's Home
The first set of Jeeps have gathered, it even included a new Pajero.
And I started checking out some impressive rides.
A rare MM440 that runs on petrol and LPG belonging to Jammy Anand, from whom I bought my Jeep.
The limited edition Mahindra Legend, this was the most modern Mahindra Jeep in this OTR, belonged to Mr.Sudhir Kashyap’s team from Mahindra & Mahindra.
The red Classic belonging to Giri Tirumale.
Meanwhile a second layer of Jeeps were added to the lineup. The Gurkha created quite a stir while being parked here. There were quite a few Jeepers circling it around muttering manual diff locks, snorkel intake, etc.
We had long wait here while the organizers were sorting things out. In fact we didn’t leave this place until 9:10AM after we were issued our event stickers and Jeep numbers. The Pajero team was asked to leave the Pajero behind as the terrain would be impossible or damage the vehicle. The local organisers who knew the terrain very well didn’t feel Pajero would survive it, probably they had past experience with Pajero on this trail. So the Pajero stayed home, in the Home Stay.
The numbers of participating Jeeps were huge, according to the rumour I heard there were 52 Jeeps and 80 participants. And that’s without counting the audience who came in bikes and the forest dwelling tribals. We had at least 3 rescue tractors and lots of other local enthusiasts who came to help and organise. It was like a big Jeep carnival in the forest, and we didn’t see a single wild animal.
We often had traffic jams whenever difficult challenges were encountered. Sometimes we just didn’t know why we were stuck. But unlike city traffic, we didn’t have road rage. Everybody was relaxed and walking around taking photos every time we were held up.
Me with my Jeep waiting at the first traffic jam.
A long wait...
After this finally entered the forest and quickly passed through few heavily slushy trails. Due to my inexperience I took the slush in 1st low and it took forever although I kept moving. Another crazy looking challenge was also conquered quite easily. Soon we hit another major traffic snag and we took off to investigate. We were to spend 3 hours at this challenge.
It was a small stream of water with the other bank being on the higher side. Finally only one Jeep crossed it without help, every other Jeep including the Gurkha had to be winched or pulled from the other side by tractors.
This Jeeper had no idea he was going to be stuck for an hour in this stream, and disabled for few more hours after getting winched, he got water into the fuel tank.
As the seriousness of this challenge sunk in, participants soon started scouting various crossing points across nearly 100 meters wide area, constantly probing for hard surface under the knee deep water.
The Gurkha tried 3 different crossing points, got stuck everytime with all four wheels spinning. Two times it was towed back hoping for a successful retry. After the third failure, it was towed across to the other side.
The First Attempt.
and was towed back.
The second attempt with good speed, the rear tyres went up air, again stuck and was towed back.
But the Gurkha owner Srinath should be given credit for trying it so many times before giving up.
Meanwhile the official rescue Jeep (Mahindra Legend) gets towed to the other side to help in rescue operations. Driven by Mr.Sudhir Kashyap of M&M.
Now it joins the rescue effort .
Meanwhile a long line of Jeeps are waiting for their turn.
There was a brief bamboo experiment inspired by the old Kung fu movie (The 36th Chamber of Shaolin) which grew stale after a few tries.
To be continued...