30th January 2009, 12:51
| #16 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian   Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Bangalore
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30th January 2009, 14:41
| #17 |
| Team-BHP Support   | That's a heck of detailed report, Samurai. So detailed that I had to save it for a no break 30 minute lunch read. Well-written, but I guess the best (Munnar OTR part) is yet to come  . You've had such an adventure on the way to the resort, I can only wait for the next installment of your report. And yes, if this is how mapforindia takes you to your destination, thanks but no thanks. Hat's off to Satish for planting the seeds of this OTR. Without it, the weekend would have been a waste. Great Escapes are increasingly oriented toward 2WD Scorpios. Next year, I bet the MGE will accomodate Xylos too  I see SYJ posting pictures. How about posting your thoughts on the Classics off-roading ability, SYJ? I guess this was your first time in a serious event. |
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30th January 2009, 15:02
| #18 |
| BANNED  Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Panaji - Goa/Bangalore - Karnataka
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30th January 2009, 15:28
| #19 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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30th January 2009, 15:35
| #20 |
| BHPian Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: bangalore
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30th January 2009, 15:44
| #21 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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30th January 2009, 19:57
| #22 | |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Bangalore
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30th January 2009, 21:30
| #23 | |
| BHPian Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Kannur/Calicut
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i can post some of their works soon | |
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31st January 2009, 02:25
| #24 |
| Team-BHP Support  | As we were having breakfast, our first concern was lunch, we were sure none of us would find a restaurant in the middle of the jungle trail. The kitchen at Ayur County had flat out refused to pack lunch for us. That means we had to pick up lunch from Munnar, and additional delay. Then I remembered that Louis (RipperGeo) was already at Munnar town. So I quickly took a count of all the people who needed lunch. The first count came to 12 people, I added 3 more for reserve and asked Louis to pickup 15 packs of anything he could find that can pass for lunch. As I finished speaking to Louis, I ran into Shams (Hyderabad JT Mod). When I realised he too didn’t have idea about the lunch, I got his team count and ordered for 17 more lunch packs. Louis must have been overwhelmed with 32 number of lunch packs, I could imagine him running from restaurant to restaurant in desperation. But he managed to do it on time and was ready with all the packs when we reached Munnar town. At first he was worried how he is going to find us, but it is hard to miss 50-60 offroad spec Jeeps and Gypsys in a small town like Munnar. His first reaction looking at the CJ340 was “Hey, I didn’t realise it was so small…”. Our first task at Munnar town was fuelling. Once we all lined up, Vinay Thomas gave a go ahead and we all took off towards Top Station that was 35Kms away. Louis in his excitement forgot his jacket, extra water bottles, etc., in the Swift that he parked in some Munnar street. I mean he was travelling Titanic Style on an open SWB Jeep through magnificent Munnar scenery. At top station however I made sure he bought 4 liters of mineral water since I knew how fast water would be consumed under the hot sun in an open Jeep. Finally he consumed most of it by the end of the day. After Top Station we turned into mud road which was bone dry and very dusty. Even before we hit the off-road trail, we were already covered with thick coat of dust. Little before hitting the off-road trail, we had a briefing session, all routine stuff except for the part that we will be passing through a ancient village and we have to be on our best behavior, not look at them or laugh at them or even talk loudly. Meanwhile my wife and I were eating (Louis declined) some really delicious Guava fruit practically forced into my hand by Mrs.Srinivas. Vinay, who had seen me eating while passing next to my Jeep came back running after a while enquiring about the Guava. Louis’s loss was Vinay’s gain, he got to eat the third Guava fruit. The starting of the off-road trail. (cough, cough, the one on the right)  Here Srinivas just discovered that his 4L was not engaging and his first attempt to climb it in 4H failed. While he was fighting the 4WD levers, there was some excitement up there in the slope. Dwaraka’s Gypsy was stuck in the rut and Suresh Stephen’s Jeep was winching him out. All this excitement had attracted all kind of attention, even this Hip-hop guy from NY. Wait, that’s not right, he is member Sha from team-BHP.  Meanwhile one of the village lady was berating all of us saying that uphill road was no good. She was telling in Tamil to whoever listened that we will get stuck up there. She was mainly concerned about Srinivas’s wife, but the latter couldn’t understand a word of Tamil. It took many of the Tamil speaking members to convince her that we are all there for exact that. We want to drive through totally treacherous trails and get stuck and then recover using winches and chains. She eventually left with a very confused look on her face. Now that the village lady left, Srinivas could take off, he finally got his 4L to work.  Meanwhile we were all talking about how to tackle this incline. I had decided to take it in 3rd low. However, I was warned by somebody that I will stall at 3rd low. I was not so sure, but I decided to heed the warning and do it 2nd low which will allow me to crawl. That decision turned out to be a good one. Although the portion of the trail visible from below could be done in 3rd low, the portion after that definitely needed crawl power of 2nd low. However, once I got into the crawl portion I had to stop in that incline. There was a queue of 2-3 Jeeps waiting for some Jeep to hop the final part that was almost 90 degrees and turns left. Some Jeeps were struggling, but I had the SWB advantage and cleared it without a hitch. See here: Next we stopped at the entrance of the village waiting for more people to assemble before we enter the village. I was the 4th vehicle in the first group that was led was a local plantation owner named Mr.Jayesh. While we were waiting, I politely approached Mr.Jayesh and introduced myself. Mr.Jayesh smiled back says “Hey, I know who you are… You are Samurai and I am Jack33” Wow, it is a small world after all, I had seen many posts from Jack33 in the 4x4 section before. Finally we enter the village and that is one of the craziest track I have encountered. I had to actually use 1st low, something I almost never use these days. The winding trail was full of huge stones and we had to pick our way through it. It basically had two downhill turns, the first was a curved turn and the second was an abrupt 90 degree left turn. There was no question of looking anywhere or laugh or talk. All of us were so frantically focused on the road, we practically held our collective breaths until we cleared the village. Phew! And yeah, nobody even thought of shooting any pictures here. After clearing the village, then it was time to climb the rocky mountain. The next 3 are shot by my wife using the P&S. Sam’s Jeep (No.35) playing marshal’s role today almost got in front of me, but I managed to get in front so that I can have free scenery in front of me. Makes good photographs.  You can see me driving the CJ340 and Louis playing Leonardo DiCaprio.   And the rocky hill starts. Yup, it is very steep, no camera trick here, notice the angle of the trees.  Soon I find nobody behind me, obviously Sam has stopped to help somebody in distress. So I too decide to stop and investigate.   If you are wondering where Louis is looking, have a closer look at his view. It is a train of offroaders.  After walking down a little, I noticed there is a traffic jam, see the trail on the left.  As I get closer, I realise it is Dwaraka’s Gypsy that is stuck.  As I reached down, I heard marshals telling Dwaraka that 410 Gypsy can’t make it on the trail. Meanwhile Dwaraka is thundering that it is the tyres, not the 410 Gypsy. Anyway, one thing is clear, whatever the reason, that Gypsy is not going any further. So they push it to the side and clear the path for the remaining vehicles.  So I turn back and stare at the uphill I need to walk up all the way, my Jeep is not even visible from here.  After few minutes of huffing and puffing up the steep trail, my Jeep becomes visible.  Rest of the path was very and narrow and steep all the way to this flat trail.  Again it got very steep and narrow and we had to continuously crawl without stopping, Sam was not letting up behind me. Therefore, no photographs of this stage. But I gotta say this. Offroading with a SWB Jeep is almost a child's play. Although I am a rookie offroader, I could get through every obstacle like cake walk. It was almost like point-n-click offroading. CJ340 rocks! Anyway, we finally reach the lunch point just after 1PM. Since there were only few Jeeps, I quickly grab my opportunity to fire off some shots.      Soon lot more Jeeps crawled up and the hill top looked like a parking lot.  To Be Continued… Last edited by Samurai : 13th February 2009 at 08:21. |
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31st January 2009, 03:51
| #25 |
| Senior - BHPian | |
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31st January 2009, 11:13
| #26 |
| Senior - BHPian  | |
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31st January 2009, 11:21
| #27 |
| Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Bangalore
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31st January 2009, 11:23
| #28 | |
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I think it had something to do with it being a single lever gear selector. But, once that was sorted out, the Green LWB did it easily. | |
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31st January 2009, 13:43
| #29 |
| Newbie Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bangalore
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31st January 2009, 14:43
| #30 | |
| Senior - BHPian | Quote:
Hi sreenivas, Good to hear that....i appriciate your guts to keep pace with SWB jeeps that are agile by nature. With a N.A Di engine, LWB and higher kerb weight and relatively narrow track of old armada you did a good show i must say  P.S- Iam looking for a hard top for my family purpose and offroading, sell your jeep to me | |
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