Rohtaas Adventure on Sunday 16 th May 2010 Dear Members & friends of IJC
Islamabad Jeep Club is always striving to explore new venues of Offroading in this region.
This time Raja Aamir of Sar e Alamgir & Fahd ( Offroad ) invited Islamabad Jeeb Club members to explore the area near Rohtaas Fort.
IJC accepted their invitation & on Sunday 16 th May 2010 we went on six vehicles to the area. ( Raja Aamir's vehicle was the seventh one )
We started our journey early morning at 8 am from Rawat. Reached Dina where Raja Aamir welcomed us.
We started our Exploring mission from Rohtaas n reached Jhelum after a very adventurous day at around 9 pm.
Did so many tracks on our way specially Sand Run etc
Few vehicles got stucked in Sand & mud. Retreiving those vehicles was another adventure n high level of coordination was witnessed between all the friends.
Although it was a very hot day but all the friends enjoyed thoroughly.
At the end of the journey Raja Aamir gave a very levish dinner at Al Bilal Hotel Jhelum.
As usual lot of pictures & videos were taken n will be uploaded soon
Thanx
All IJC Members
Msg from nn
A long yet lovely day out of off-roading with IJC, at the dry river bed next to Rohtas Fort (near Jhelum) on the invitation of Raja Aamir and Fahd (Off-Roader)
First of all must thank Almighty for granting us with all the blessing. And for keeping us out of harms way and bringing us back safely.
We set-off at 080 from Islamabad, in a convoy of 6 Vehicles,
Shabab and Zeb in Safari Cruiser!
Ali and Nomi in Land Rover Tomb Raider
Zohaib and Salman in FDO 1 (aka Rescue 1122)
Ahsan and Imran in Lazzaz
Asad and Shahzad in ~Jero
Me, Aamir Bhai and Zohaib’s friend in my LC
At Deena Raja Aamir Sb joined us in his Open Top Land-Rover, Fahad was driving the Land Rover.
After fixing few electrical gremlins in Shabab’s Safari Cruiser, and spilling Lassi on Pinky's New BlackBerry (long story)!! We set-off on the road to Rohtas Fort, and eventually drove down on to the dry river bed. Once in the sandy river bed, the child in each of the driver’s raised its head and everyone started doing high speed runs, donuts, water splashes and what not. Because of such vast area and higher speed runs, still photography was probably very limited, some of us did make some vdo clips of various acts.
We stopped over for a short / quick snack / lunch in the shade of trees and set off again. I felt that we hadn’t had much adventure till then so I tried something different, and different it was!!! I got the LC stuck in soft wet sand near a water crossing. The LC was truly beached, i.e. belly on the sand and wheels spinning in the air. The moment it happened, I knew we are in big trouble. What followed over the next hour and half or maybe more was just pure coordination between all IJC gang and Raja Amir, Fahd and their Mechanic. The LC is one heavy beast, even without me sitting inside!!!
We managed to completely break / snap 3 different steel winch cables and two fairly heavy duty tow straps as well. Zohaib’s High Lift Jack was of extreme help and we managed to slowly life rear wheels and place stones under it and some more and more. In between we had the most amazing action with three powerful 4X4s (Safari, FDO1 and Tomb raider) with individual tow straps attached directly and also in tandem to try pulling together to get the LC out and couldn’t believe it didn’t move at all out of the bog hole. Everyone was almost out of ideas. I couldn’t really believe a tractor or two would have enough power over n above the three beast we used together to get us unstuck. Finally as a last straw we got Raja Sb's (FDO1 and Safari’s winches out of commission with broken cables) Land Rover parked across the river bed on rocky terrain, higher by about 8-10 feet and from there we successfully managed to pull out with the help of the winch. Once the front wheels were out I just pushed the accelerator to the floor and drove out like anything………
But that was not all, being the true off-roaders that we are. Shabab and the Safari cruiser were feeling really hot and tired after all the hard work they put in to get the LC out. So being the true IJC Buffalo, they decided to take a dip in the pool of water just 200 meters away from where I had got stuck. And guess what, Safari got nearly sunk as well, water went inside the cabin and more. The rear silencer was dipped fully in water and water went in that as well, as engine shut off. Luckily this recovery was much quicker with two Land Rovers winching and pulling in tandem and we were out within 20-25 minutes. But with so much water in the silencer, electrical gremlins made the starting of Safari an issue. Things improved slowly once water came-out of the silencer just like out of a hand-pump, must have been more than 10 litres in there. The Safari’s new engine was saved by the grace of Almighty and eventually seemed to be running fine.
In addition to that we had plenty troubles of over heating with various vehicles, especially Raja Sb’s Land Rover, which eventually gave up the ghost and had to be towed the last 15+ kms by our Rescue 1122 vehicle of the day FDO1.
In between, we had the most fun with Acceleration runs; high speed tail slides, donuts, and jumps from the ridges etc. Lazzaz managed to break the right front shock mount after the jump (from which it landed really awkwardly on front right wheel only).
After reaching back Jhelum we were treated to a nice dinner in Bilal Hotel by Raja Amir Sb. Finally we set-off back for ISB at 10:30 and I managed to get home just before 1 am after dropping off various passengers with me.
This morning I could not believe the amount of mud stuck under the LC. The wheels had so much sand /mud stuck onto it that on the way back the wheels were wobbling / bubbling like mad above 85kmph, because the mud weight had really imbalanced the wheels. Hopefully all will be sorted by a proper wash/ service.
Unfortunately, despite my best intensions (charged the battery the night before, put new memory card etc) I did not manage to take a single picture with the DSLR. Have few quick snaps and small vdo clips from the mini digital which was in pocket. Will upload them soon.
I would specially like to thank each and everyone person who was there and put in selfless effort in trying to get the LC unstuck despite the hot weather and such a long day. Everyone was splashed all over with mud and sand while trying to get the job done.
Once again it was a truly unforgettable and memorable trip for me and am sure for almost all who came along and had had great fun. Thank-you ALL, May God Bless us all. |