[jaysmokesleaves]

Wowowow!!! The pics are simply lovely. The scenery and the setting stunning!!
Even without a narration... it speaks volumes about the fun you guys n gals mustve had..!

Im not sure if we have such beautiful vistas around Bombay which are accessible without their share of problems...!!
Thanks for sharing....

[Jaggu]

So lesson learned, if you plan to do a photolog then you better shoot continuously, which obviously i did not. So instead i will give some narration of some events that happened but not captured.

Day 1 evening, OTR trail first stop

So we took a breather on an incline, the route is being modernized. We could see JCB's has done some leveling work. Even optical fiber cable ducts and cable. Alas this might be the last time this bit might be staying a mud track, next time we would mostly see a tarmac instead.

With these conversation me and khan start off. Redliner is in front and his jeep has a unique sound insulation system which some term as racket! by which honking is insulated away from the passengers. He doesn't have a rear view mirror also. So when Dwarak honked from rear i noticed and when i inturn did the same, Venki aka Redliner just drove off faster! Anyways i pull and give side to Dwaraks gyspy and when he passes us, we notice that the gypsy has sprouted a long black tail, which used to do duties as bumper earlier in life.

Oh yeah, second break down of the trip. First being bluee heating up due to a busted radiator cap, which delayed us by a ciggie length. So coming back to Dwarak, whose gypsy is stacked up with tools, petrol, water, you name it he has it. Dwarak does some pull and push to the still attached end, but wont budge. Finally we decided that the more scientific approach of using spanner on bolts will be better. Total time of work out hmmmm maybe 15 mts and so we chug along.

Day 1 evening just before we enter camp site

The original camp site was filled with cow dung, according to khan's night eye vision there were 300 cows out there, give or take two, but yes the ground somehow confirmed the numbers. Much respect to khan who has found a technique to count the animals based on the amount of excreta they leave behind. First was in Sidhu's farm where he came out with 1000 bats, give or take two again. He is really a king! Though we still are trying to figure out if bats are birds or mammals!!

Ok respect to all animals, but these were the only animals we found in this trip. Though elephant dung maybe a day old was found on the trail.

So getting back to the incident, the alternate location was found a lil further away. Our own private camping ground all hidden for the love birds we are. The recce party mentioned a tricky climb so to be prepared, i locked the front hubs and proceeded in 2 wheel drive. Crossing started and as soon as the climb started phusssssssss spidey got stuck. Lessons from palar thread lol, decent momentum and 4 wheel drive. Well it worked for us and we moved onto the camp site.

We park spidey and start checking the place out and we could hear the angry growl of ISZ engine. Ipsy was dancing, forward backward, sidewards, spin and do the same in opposite direction BUT wont climb!! Knight in sweaty Tshirt enters the scene and offers help. He is doing something, so i went to fetch the camera and when i return i see the Ipzy climb up. Am impressed.

Next is bluee. Sidhu is notorious on OTR's, he can get over hurdles in the most un-assuming and least prepped vehicle by just his aura, but with bluee, nope! it aint working. He confirms with Chetan his co passenger that the 4 wheel stick is in right direction. Then figures out bluee's new rubber might be giving away, so try slotting to low ratio but then thats not working.

Our knight again offers help and some kdang kdang later bluee is climbing up! Man am impressed this knight is really wearing a sweaty T, with his driving skills. Only to realize later he is actually the wiser driver who actually ensured 4 wheel drive was engaged proper before attempting the climb, in both the vehicles. Both the times the vehicle's were attempting climb in 2 wheel drive!!

So guys who do OTR, ensure your 4x4 is really a working 4x4, can save you lot of abuses

Time for a break... do post to dispute any of the facts put up!

[dwaraka]

Jaggu,

Ipzy got stuck because of my fault. I had put it in 4 WD , but forgot to lock the free wheeling hub. Pritvi , noticed some thing wrong. At that moment I remembered the freewheeling hub and locked it. Next moment Ipzy is out with virtually no effort.

[Red Liner]

Oi Jaggu, I have the mirror, but I had folded the windscreen down on the bonnet!

[King413]

Originally Posted by theMAG

King- you look like the modern reincarnation of Buddha- attaining salvation under a waterfall !

Beating the heat under the tiny waterfall was no less than moksha at that moment.

@ Jaggu
I see a great report coming up, request to post up the rest of it soon.

Knight? Din't get that, was it King in the Night?
Hahaha

[Jaggu]

Originally Posted by dwaraka

Ipzy got stuck because of my fault.

Absolutely! She is lovely otherwise but for the owner insisting to do things in 2 wheels before engaging 4 wheel, in this case the free wheeling hubs

On this a related debate that me and Sree had, while on these trails where 2 wheel's also can allow the vehicle to move, but with some amount of strain/slip/slide. Isn't it better to engage 4x4 to reduce the strain on the vehicle as well as the rear tires?

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Oi Jaggu, I have the mirror, but I had folded the windscreen down on the bonnet!

And i was flashing and honking away to glory, pity the elephants!

Originally Posted by King413

Beating the heat under the tiny waterfall was no less than moksha at that moment.
=========
Knight? Din't get that, was it King in the Night?

Tell me about it! I was sweating like a pig the whole night and day. The place is so humid! and that's what takes the toll more than the heat. Which was relatively less last weekend.

Knight in shining armor = knight in sweaty T for us offroaders!

[siddartha]

hi guys,

As always this was one more awesome fun filled trip. and let me tell you this,it can NEVER be NOT fun with this bunch of mad offroaders.

Jaggu as usual is doing a great job of narrating and putting up pics. i do have some pics, will try and put them up later. Thought it was about time i put something up on this thread. so here goes.

Here's how it started - about 2 weeks back - swastikviji,khan,pritvi and i were sitting at a club and discussing that its been a while since we went out on a camping/offroading trip,(just a smaller group, just us guys ,not an open for all kinda thing) )

So immediately i called "mukundababa" and expressed our collective desire to go on a camping/offraoding trip and that he should lead the way and take us to some of the exotic,remote locales our revered mukundaba frequents. And baba obliged us and readily accepted our plea. He promised our wish shall be granted after a fortnight. and so it was!

Exactly a week later, mukundababa calls me and fixes the dates for may 1 and 2. I said to baba that all of us were game for those for 2 days. and so a group mail was sent to everyone,and the plan was ON.

Baba had in mind a new route that he wanted to explore himself, which to us was sounding very exciting, but due to to some unavoidable reasons that did not come thru. so it was decided to go to this particular spot on the banks of the cauvery and have a little khumbh mela of our own.

[ragpicker]

Originally Posted by siddartha

hi guys,

So immediately i called "mukundababa" and expressed our collective desire to go on a camping/offraoding trip and that he should lead the way and take us to some of the exotic,remote locales our revered mukundaba frequents. And baba obliged us and readily accepted our plea. He promised our wish shall be granted after a fortnight. and so it was!

Exactly a week later, mukundababa calls me and fixes the dates for may 1 and 2. I said to baba that all of us were game for those for 2 days. and so a group mail was sent to everyone,and the plan was ON.

Baba had in mind a new route that he wanted to explore himself, which to us was sounding very exciting, but due to to some unavoidable reasons that did not come thru. so it was decided to go to this particular spot on the banks of the cauvery and have a little khumbh mela of our own.

Hey Siddu,

Easy mate, you making it sound like I'm some wise man from the Himalayas. I use the word baba like people use "Bro" or "Mate" or "Anna" or "Bhai" etc. Thats it. About going to these places, well from about 15 years, friends and I have been exploring the jungles around the cauvery near bangalore and are yet to complete 10% of the exploration. There are many many more trails like these that need exploring and fortunately/unfortunately these are protected jungles where getting in/out needs forest department blessings.

Cheers

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by siddartha

As always this was one more awesome fun filled trip. and let me tell you this,it can NEVER be NOT fun with this bunch of mad offroaders.

+1. FUNtastic.

Good camping for summer. Somehow I keep missing this Dabgalli.


Hope I will make it soon.

Siddu, so, did you become a JEEPguy for this camp? How was this blue aqua fellow. Still worth to keep it for the next 3 months??

[Ardy]

Just finished reading the entire thread and looking at the photologue.

to you folks.

Keep it up.

Cheers,

[dwaraka]

Originally Posted by mjothi

+1. FUNtastic.

Good camping for summer. Somehow I keep missing this Dabgalli.


Hope I will make it soon.

Siddu, so, did you become a JEEPguy for this camp? How was this blue aqua fellow. Still worth to keep it for the next 3 months??

Mjothi,

Blueacqua is enjoying the absence of her owner, shredding pieces German boy must be wondering what is shredding all about. He has to come to see it.

[siddartha]

@mukunda- dont know abt the himalayas - but you sure are the wise man from the cauvery basin.

@mjothi - "tum konsi GALLI ke baare mein baat karthi so, ye dabguli, dabGALLI nai baa!"
Became a jeep guy, cant help it, i become a jeeper when i am driving a jeep and a gypsyer when i am driving a gypsy.

and when i said fun - the fun started even before the trip. guys.. do u remember the last conf call?

@dwaraka - the blue jeep is getting to have fun even without the owner around. i dont think the jeep is missing the owner as much as the owner is missing the jeep.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by siddartha

and when i said fun - the fun started even before the trip. guys.. do u remember the last conf call?

Who can forget..Khan after the 30 minute call asking "Okay guys, where are we going?"

And ofcourse, until now, we have not found THE MOLE................

[Jaggu]

Sorry for that (the long pause), but my schedules have all been shorted these days After many starts and restarts since afternoon.....

Lets get back to some story telling.

Day 1 ends:

I decide that i cant handle the heat anymore so i drag everyone to the river. Take some water and splash it on face, over the head and body to cool off!! and i hear a big SPLOOSHHH!! A tree has been cut or fallen and it has fallen into the river, barely missing me.

Oh well it was actually Sreerajcannotswim taking a safe dive on the shore. We encourage him to venture more so that we have one less person to carry back home, but some spoilt sport starts off with stories of crocodiles and how they visited the shores the previous time. Anyways after a bit of cooling off and leg pull, few of the matured adults proceed to sleep. While some debated why English is a more inclusive language etc etc.

I vaguely remember a "parrot" on one side of the debate who replies to yes or no answers with more complex words than you and i can imagine or decipher and much much much loooonger than this sentence and that too without even taking a breath.

I slept off eventually with a jacket for padding, woke up atleast 10 times thanks to the parrots who played hide and seek, and then when the early morning gang landed up, when the raft was being inflated etc etc etc. Finally once more at sunrise, when the sleepless parrot came and pecked all of us to go watch the sun rise. I pressed the ignore button, wore the jacket since it was really nippy out there and slept off. Finally woke up at around 8 i guess.

Heard news that rafting has started and few people who went on it, decided to wash the dirty DSLR's they were carrying in the river to remove the dust and sand.

Fast forward:

So finally by noon we set off, original plan was to have breakfast and get to civilization before the burning heat, for some lunch. Thanks to the amphibians we set off late, some were already withered, with headache. Plan is to take the alternate route and emerge in TN side.

Minor misfire:
The willy which came early morning has a starting problem, battery seems to be lil low, small push and she fires up.

Small misfire:
Trail starts with a steep incline, Redliner is in front of us and he seems to be having trouble taking the CJ up the slope. He manages to clear and Sreeraj pilots the Spidey with me in passenger seat. Spidey casually walks up the slope. Later we realize that Redliners clutch has decided to take over duties from accelerator. Every time he uses the clutch, the engine starts reving? Funny ain't it, how everything in a jeep ecosystem coexist. Pop the hood up and out comes the diagnosis, clutch cable got entangled with the throttle links. In goes a hand and CJ is back to normal.

Weather is becoming hotter by the second, and we gently climb up and up and then down down, finally the trail reaches level ground where we can see Kaveri flow by the side, as if we offroaders never existed. hmmph! we decide that we will get the attention from the river next time, when we come back during monsoon and move on.

Beginning of bigger misfire:
Convoy has come to a halt ahead of us, everybody is pouncing on redliners jeep?? Its misfiring and not making power, pop open the hood (again!) and we see fuel dripping at the pump end! and engine seems to have received a spray. I try tightening, but then backs off, coz if it snaps he will be stranded. So plan B: forget the leak, tank up at the next pump and drive till BLR!

The midnight willy wont crank again, battery leads are covered in copper corrosion and is loose. No place in front and its an incline. Let's push it to the back and start. Sometimes with all the excitement around, we underestimate the power of diesel engines and the tranny ratio. Every push is returned with a screetching halt, thats it! The engine wont turn! Thankfully the many failed attempts have given a good run up and that too relatively level ground.

Gentle push, half crank and she fires up. No time to waste so everybody jumps in and move on.

What trouble:
Last vehicle is Ipzy and before that Sreeraj and me in Spidey. We move on but soon realize Ipzy is lost?? We wait for a min, but then decided to turn around. After 5 mts we see Ipzy parked on the side with Dwarak peeping inside the hood. Khan as usual is trying to spot the birds aka bats.

I tried cranking and Ipzy would cough and spit back for a few sec and then switch off. Sounds like an ignition issue, so out comes the tool kit and after a great deal of circus, out comes spark plug 1. Its coated with carbon, clean it with cloth and is put back. Repeat the process for remaining 3. Only the last one was dicey, it wont go in! Thread is fine and is sitting proper but darn tight. Somehow i manage to plug it back in and finally fire the engine. Alright she is running and we are ready to go.

We are cursing the rest of the buggers who have left us to rot (no cell phone connectivity since last night, just to remind the readers) and then see poor Redliner and his mate coming back. Ok we decide to forgive the gang, for sending someone to fetch the lost pack back.

Trouble starts now!
Redliners jeep has started coughing, and diesel coughing aint good. Pop the hood up and see the drip has become shower. Close inspection reveals that the pipe to injector 3 is snapped! Anyways nothing much to do, drive with 3 cylinders to join the gang. Finally we meet them at a small waterfall aka stream crossing. I see half naked men strewn around the rocks under the water fall.

After a great deal of debate about, if i should remove the hitecs from the foot, i go naked behind Spidey and then into the stream with shorts.

Time for lunch. Unfortunately there is not much ration left, which includes water lol. As usual our gang of sweet bawarchi's cook, while the retarded lazy bums play around in water. Cupanoodle, eggs, all boiled using stream water is the menu. And without any remorse we finish everything off! and ensure only the non-bio degradable bits land in the trash bag. Suddenly cuponoodles have become 5 star rated, hmmmmm.

Mr Fix it discovers limp home mode

I get a brain wave to choke the broken pipe so that diesel is not wasted and limit the fire hazard. Rdliner has some rubber piece which we cut and shove inside the lock nut of the pipe to block it. Mission accomplished and vehicle started, still misfiring and still spraying diesel!!! and then we realize that its not one pipe that is cut!! Second one which has got cut on top just before the injector!! Nothing much we can do with the twigs that we have around, so out comes bluee on tow duty.

Towing starts and slowly we move, after an hour or so we are out of the trail and onto tarmac. But then we are greeted by ghat section and soon all the heavy towing takes toll on bluee and she also starts to overheat.

Change in parade order and we try to hook up Spidey to tow, but Spidey doesn't believe in all these "jeep things" and has the tow hooks perched awkward that the rope cant be attached. Dwarak offers Ipzy and then we move on. Plan is to tow to Hosur and call up SVSanthosh (as soon as we get some cell network) to arrange for help to attend to the jeep there.

I had managed to snatch the keys for Spidey and was driving, and we reach a small town en-route. Don't recollect the name and don't know who came out with a bright idea of repairing the CJ there??!! I was repeating "bad idea" "bad idea" in my mind. But then Dwarak had managed to find a small cycle repair shop with welding, and he could do brazing also. We remove the pipe and hand it over. Redliner walks around and finds a spare shop also!! WOW!! Saved!! But they needed the sample pipe to check. So Sidhu and Venki take the pipe to the shop and return with spanking new high pressure injector pipes. Only issue is its for tractor engine!

Meanwhile we see the midnight willy being towed in front of us. So thats 2 vehicle being towed for another 90 kms at that point of time. Whatafun!

Then comes a TN long-wheel base bus, whose path we have successfully managed to block! with the broken down jeep and the Ipzy. I learned many new words in Tamil that day, how sweet of them, though Dwarak didnt seem to care at all! Anyways our friendly tamilians gave us some hand and we managed to move the vehicle to a safer place, where the learning curve with new language was lesser.

Back to repair, we do a trial fit and we find out we will have to do a mix and match. One old pipe repaired by brazing and the second one will have to be cut and mated to tractor pipe at the other end. Some more trial fix and spot brazing later, we are all set to go. Some leak are there, actually there was a shower from one of the end and that too horizontal. Another leak has sprung up and i knew it would give away soon. But to keep the mood upbeat i ask Redliner to drive slow without overreving. Soon he disappears and we all follow.

A bit of circus:

Rewind back a bit, since there was a limitation to number of vehicles few of the characters had to park the vehicle in BLR itself. The grapevine says they spend the whole night sabotaging other vehicle for revenge. Bluee was also not spared and the passenger door lock's as well as window winder was disabled. Good news and bad news! Bad news coz door wont open and one has to practice some amazing gymnastic move to get inside, especially rather tall blokes like me who stand at 6 foot 11 inches. Good news windows were completely open and one could enter the vehicle through them. Just like american racing guys do.

So thats how i enter bluee and we move another 2-3 kms and see the willy being worked upon. The transfer has fallen in neutral and wouldn't engage. Tractor mechs try their level best, while the experts amongst us sit and watch the fun. Please remember this is a common phenomenon that happens in BLR circles and has been resolved by some people many times. Still since they see that even the propeller has been dismantled, they decide to wait and figure out the new method. Wait actually they are too thick headed to learn anything more, so it was actually to see that jeep is broken down to bits and can be carried back in gunny bags.

I do some very important facebook updates for german friends, calls wife and tells her i will be home in couple of hours (what an idea sirji!) and munch on some raw mangoe's like a pregnant lady. This stop is in front of a petrol station and redliner has tanked up (hope it was diesel) and revving the engine to glory. I beg and plead not to, but unfortunately the old sound insulator is at work. Sunset is nearing and willy is being towed out and we folks follow. I drive a really drunk bluee, well its an anti theft device connected to the jeep which makes it drunk.

Chale chaloo chale chaloo. Mothaofalltroubles!

Another strech of small ghats and we see Venki aka Redliner huffing and puffing, rather the jeep. I knew it! *(&(*^(*&)*&) he went go karting and the pipes have burst again!!! ()*&)*_)(_))&^*&^(*& Actually Venki was swearing and we were laughing it out.

Out comes tow rope, bluee goes in front and tow starts. After a few kms bluee starts overheating (again!). So we pull over, beg and plead a shop owner to spare some water, let bluee idle to 70 deg. I take over as driver. Its occasional climbs, then some level ground and sometime downhill.

Keep the revs in sweet spot of low to mid range, keep the momentum by frequent gear change and a constant 30-40 kms, we see 19 kms to Hosur milestone!! Hallelujahs!!! And then we hear a loud screetch, which finally comes to stop when we stop!! First time in our trip we got a lil scared and that too in open state highway. Inside the jungle, lost without food or water, with a dead engine and elephants around, we were hopping around like mad kids. Out in real world with headlights and cell network a screech did it for us...................... jeepers are woosies you see.

Murphy at his best!

Thankfully it was nothing serious like the wobbly rear LT wheel of Bluee coming off! but it was 2000 rs and 4 tow's old tow rope which went under the front right tyre of CJ. Rope was boiling hot and has melted!! Ding dong! Lets ditch the CJ and move on!!

Thankfully sufficient length was there to make an elephant knot, Sreeraj who is a well trained elephant handler did it within minutes. We ask Venki to keep the fender lights ON to observe the rope, and again the towing starts.

18, 17, 16, 15, 14, 13, 12...... 8, 7, 6, 5 kms to reach hosur and we are in touch with Santhosh's friends cousin (hope i got it right?). We shot past the meeting point, then take a U turn in the middle of a busy town junction. Try it, its fun! ie if you take the turn without tripping a rouge 2 wheeler guy who would definitely try to get in between the vehicles.

Anyways after some town darshan which involved passing through the middle of a temple festival, we reach the shores of National Highway and in front of the garage! Its 9 pm to be precise. Rest of the gang is waiting in some dhaba, having food and enjoying, we had given them the permission. Just because they cooked for us without complaining.

All of us were too excited to party anymore and could have been injurious to others, so we dump all the luggage onto bluee and spidey and speeds off to namma bengaluru for ever after, correction till the next OTR!!

The End.

[M.R.Boruwa]

That’s awesome.... Brilliant Pics and also the nice write up (I got busted in Office while reading {Did not even realized my boss was also looking at the screen })…

Where exactly is this beautiful place and which is the route taken ?

Can I also join in in the next trip