DISCLAIMER: This is going to be a one hell of a long report. Pictures are taken by lots of different people, so it will take time to compile all. Be patient.
Day 1. Saturday. 1600hours.
Plan: Do a recce for the next day
Number of cars: 4 (Gypsies: Devang, Sharit, Imran; ML: Danny's Friend)
Crazy People: Me (as passenger), Imran, Devang, Danny & friends
Alok comes in 10 minutes late and misses the main part
Terrain: Rocky & dusty with loose gravel pits
The plan was to meet up by 4pm and do a quick recce of the area. But, we got stuck in the Eid processions and got delayed by an hour and a half.
We reached the stone quarry and scouted around for half and hour but didn't find anything interesting. We reached another water spot which seemed good to slush around but the locals said no since it was their fishing grounds. We then chanced upon a hill climb with very loose gravel. Monstar (devang) was the first in to try it out. Unfortunately, the gravel was very loose and Monstar stuck beached at the start of the incline. We tried everything from rocking the car to sliding stones under it, but there was no traction.
Finally Imran's gypsy was called to pull her out. Now the problem was that we had only one short cable with us and imran's gypsy had to go in very close. And as Murphy's ghost is omnipresent, his gypsy got stuck too! Now the problem was that our only cable was tightly strung between the two beached gypsies!!!
At that very moment another local comes running and says, "we have planted dynamite and it's going to blow in a minute at the hills nearby and run since rocks fly". He then gets on a moving lorry and makes a quick getaway. The ML also makes a very very very hasty retreat. We all just duck behind the beached gypsies. A series of very loud explosion follow for over a minute but not even a tiny pebble flew 20 meters near us.
A hard hat should now be added to essential gear for OTRs.
But we did feel shock waves traveling very fast beneath our legs.
We finally jacked up imran's gypsy, slid a couple of huge stones below and got her out. Others meanwhile dug out a lot of gravel from devang's gypsy but still no traction.
Then someone came up with the idea that imran's gypsy should just tug devangs and devang's gypsy should not also try to help with it's own power to prevent further digging in.
I'm driving imran's gypsy (the tugger) with imran and danny sitting behind on the left side to give more traction to that rear wheel. The rest of the guys are pushing devang's gypsy and devang is near the driver's door of his car also pushing, but not in it so that the car is lighter.
Devang's gypsy has to be pulled out in reverse and imran's gypsy is pulling the car out in 1st gear. So basically both the cars are facing back to back and devang's gypsy is on a slight incline.
Now you know what happens...
And you know how it is in OTR's: everyone shouting.. GO GO GO STOP STOP STOP, GO GO... So you have no idea who to listen to.
The first mightly tug and devang's gypsy is free. Nearly runs over his own feet. And is now coming back at me with force. The stop and go shouts are confusing. Now i can't go too much further since there is a huge stone ahead. In the nick of time i manage to turn slightly left and devang's car goes straight and comes to a halt right next to my door (parallel). And it's only and exactly 1 inch between the two cars!!!
A very valuable lesson learnt!
Too bad we didn't get a video of it. But danny has pics and he should post them soon.
Had a great laugh afterwards and tried to find more obstacles but didn't get anything challenging and we decide to go to lonavla (rachmachi) early the next morning.
... continued....