In the photos I published, some of you might have noticed that all are not of same quality. This is because many of the shots were taken using the ultra compact Panasonic FX-36 by my wife when I was pulling driver duty. Since she caught much more action being on foot, I have generously used it wherever needed. The FX-36 obviously doesn’t produce images anywhere closer to E3.
After lunch we started off again and almost immediately hit the next traffic jam.
Sarvinder, the Jeep Thrills moderator from Delhi looks bored.
This is a steep drop into the tiny river bed, but angle is not evident since it is shot from inside. But the tilt of the Jeep compared to the trail.
Initially I was afraid the water may be too slushy, but the river bed was quite firm.
The water was splashing all the way up.
Now Sarvinder is happy.
We had to wait our turn in the river bed too since getting out was not easy.
Although it is not evident in the photo, the ground under the red Jeep is extremely slushy, and this incline goes 50 ft further in a S formation. I didn’t climb the first part in the first 3 attempts. In my fourth attempt, with lots of help from local folks who put extra weight on the Jeep by jumping on it, I managed to pull though and then practically flew through the S curve.. In the photo you are seeing Jammy Anand (MM440) on his red petrol Willys, he made it in his high-revving style.
Photographing an offroading event is a very challenging affair. Most off-road hurdles looks flat and simple on a photo. It takes lots of experimentation to compose the shot to convey the real difficulty. Also, if the photographer is also the participant, he can never get out and shoot the really difficult hurdles. That is why many of the challenging hurdles are not even shown unless my wife managed to capture it.
Consider this simple looking V hurdle. Looks easy right?
Now have a closer look at the ground, totally slushy.
Now consider standing there in person, it would look even crazier. I am giving out these impressions as a newbie off-roader, seasoned off-roaders may not find it as crazier. But one thing is certain; you can’t judge an off-road hurdle from a photograph or video. The real degree of difficulty sinks in only when you stand there and realise you have to go over it.
Soon we are told to take a U-turn, now we are supposed go back mostly on the same route. Yes, that includes the dreaded water stream which almost no one could cross.
But the reverse crossing should be easier, since we are now in the higher bank. Again participants start probing various crossing points.
Bangalore Jeep Thrills moderator Giri Tirumale tries to explore the only successful route from the earlier crossing, also the bane of many Jeeps. And he gets caught and needs to be winched out.
One would think that this and the earlier experience would deter the participants. On the contrary, this crossing point draws more participants, like moth to the flame. See the line up, notice the yellow Jeep who was stuck here for so long, he wants to try it again. You have to applaud that spirit.
Even the marshals with their god like offroading ability got stuck on the reverse journey, it required long time to pull them out. I have to mention that this Jeep was driven in an awesome fashion whole day, mostly by the guy standing next to it, they were running circles around us. Anybody recall his name?
This time I was quite determined to cross it without being in winched out, but how? As I was looking around, I noticed that some of the local organisers were retrying the bamboo technique. It was very close to where I was parked. And I see that at least 3 Jeeps successfully crossed the stream using the bamboo waltzing. So I decided take that route right away.
So the local boys lay the bamboo along the stream and I take off... and I cross successfully!
Behind me Patrick’s son too makes the crossing successfully on the MM440.
Meanwhile rescue effort is on pull the Jeeps from the extreme crossing point. During this process the Mahindra Legend from M&M team breaks its oil pan by backing into a rock. That is not something that can be fixed in the field. Later it was towed all the way to India Garage in Gonikoppal for replacement oil pan.
Now that I crossed the stream earlier than most, it was time for a long wait for others to catch up.
Wife posing with the Jeep during the wait.
Now that I knew how much the Jeep can tip, I parked in this tilting position since I saw many others doing it.
This strange position revealed the flexibility of Jeep chassis. Check out the wheels.
After some time we start moving and again get stranded as the towed Legend is getting stuck in hurdles. One more long wait. The electric fence you see on the side is for the elephants.
To be continued.