[4x4 cruiser]

We all met and discussed last night. Independence day road blocks are serious. Gogi will leave from hotel pritam (dadar - east) at 5:00am and meet the rest at McD at 6:00am so they can be in lonavla at 7:00am.

Meeting point is Lion's Point (the flat land after Bhushy Dam). Kunal, request Pune guys also be there. It's a neutral spot where cars can wait without raising eyebrows.

Point well taken sir, shall reach McD at sharp 0600hrs.

Either you carry your own food or else i'm going early today to try to arrange for food packets for tomorrow (biryani). If you guys want us to arrange, i need to know before 4pm today. Please post here with veg/nonveg preference.

No Lunch for me, not a great fan of Briyani. Though i am getting some Puri Bhaaji (Sorry without puris ), i hope it shall be good qty for at least 12-15 people. Will get some breads or pav along.

[V-16]

Originally Posted by Rossi

Tony Bhai...A/C gypsy joiyech sooo?? green colour neee??

Translated to: Do you need a green Gypsy With A/C

Aree Rossi, bhai pella to mara naam Tony nathi, Gogi che (Tony murra bhaii nu naam che dikra)
Next u coming tomorrow? will eb great to see you too. Aavija!!

Originally Posted by motocamp

We will be passing lonavala's Rk restaurant by 7:00am in the morning and will drive straight to the Trail head.

See you guys There

Anybody from Pune Who plans to meet me at RK's at 7:00am speak now

I think all of us should plan to meet Kunal at Rks at 7 or straight at Lion's Point at 7:30.

Originally Posted by 4x4 cruiser

Point well taken sir, shall reach McD at sharp 0600hrs.
No Lunch for me, not a great fan of Briyani. Though i am getting some Puri Bhaaji (Sorry without puris ), i hope it shall be good qty for at least 12-15 people. Will get some breads or pav along.

Ill carry a large loaf or two of freshly made and sliced bread from my bakery.

Guys please carry your lunch or order with Tejas. Tejas, please order three packets of Non Veg Biryani for me and my two friends accompanying me and one veg and one non veg for Gautam aka BolBolero so a total of four non veg and one veg biryani packet.

Ok so heres the final plan and the participants

Dadar @ 5:00 am
Gogi (V-16) - CJ3B
Bharat Malkani - friend (passenger)
Zuzeer Lucknowala - friend (passenger)
Gautam (BolBolero) - Bolero 2WD (to be eventually parked at Amol's place at Lonavala)
Wife - Passenger
Son - Passenger
Akshay (Flying Spur) - (Passenger- will have to fit him somewhere in these two Jeeps)
Please, since we have no more space, others please join in the group at Mcdonald's Panvel. If there are any more vehicles leaving from Bombay please let us know as we can then transfer one of our uncomfortable passengers in that vehicle.

Meet the rest at 6:00 am at Mcdonald's. I will leave there by 6:10am guys so whoever is not there by that time kindly reach Lonavala Lion's den by 7:15 am. Once again let me remind all of you traveling tomorrow that due to the Independence Day holiday rush the road to Bushy dam from Lonavala will be shut for a while at 8:00 a.m. Kindly adhere to the timings and respect the value of time please.

Carry your own food or order before 4:00 pm with Tejas.

@ Tejas - are you sure the food will be managed? if not then we have to tell the guys to arrange for themselves. Will you re confirm by 7:00 pm on this thread?

Guys please keep your eyes open and access this thread till at least 8:00pm. today. If by then there is no mention then take it as confirmed that Tejas has been able to conjure us food. Else just pile on to him tomorrow and eat whatever he has bought for himself

Great, looking forward to seeing you guys tomorrow!!

Must get the CJ fueled, tanked up again today.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Gogi, I won't carry my iPhone. I'll call u and u update the thread please.

[V-16]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Gogi, I won't carry my iPhone. I'll call u and u update the thread please.

Done!! If you guys have forgotten something, let me know, i can then carry it with me. I am carrying a few shirts and some kurtas which may be given to the Village headman as a token of our appreciating his gesture to let us use his village land.

[BolBolero]

@ V-16, Gogiji thanks a ton. I will meet you at Pritam at 5.00 am. tomorrow.
There should be space in the Bolero for at least two more people.
Before I forget, do you want me to get the Hydraulic jack? Please let me know if anything else is needed?
Hope everyone is carrying at least 4 litres of water as suggested by Tejas!

[vikramvicky1984]

Hi all
I am sorry to inform that I'll not be able to make it
I am down with viral fever & it will be very difficult to reach so early in the morning by train
have a great time & thank you so much for allowing it
I'll miss it a lot
@tejas sir: i'll take stickers from you,
my phn number is 7738368854
I'll come to collect

[V-16]

Originally Posted by BolBolero

@ V-16, Gogiji thanks a ton. I will meet you at Pritam at 5.00 am. tomorrow.
There should be space in the Bolero for at least two more people.
Before I forget, do you want me to get the Hydraulic jack? Please let me know if anything else is needed?
Hope everyone is carrying at least 4 litres of water as suggested by Tejas!

Gautam"JI" no sweat. Please carry the hydraulic jack.

Originally Posted by vikramvicky1984

Hi all
I am sorry to inform that I'll not be able to make it
I am down with viral fever & it will be very difficult to reach so early in the morning by train
have a great time & thank you so much for allowing it
I'll miss it a lot
@tejas sir: i'll take stickers from you,
my phn number is 7738368854
I'll come to collect

Vikram if you feel ok, and change your mind, you know where we will be at what time. Hope you can make it.

As off now, one friend backed off, and one more almost backed off. One assured but i dont know how he'll be after tonight.

Since i have not heard from Tejas, we can safely deduce that they must have arranged for our food so, those of you who have told Tejas to arrange, may not carry your own food.

Cant wait for tomorrow. Hope we have tremendous weather and tones of rainfall.

[4x4 cruiser]

Hi all
I am sorry to inform that I'll not be able to make it
I am down with viral fever & it will be very difficult to reach so early in the morning by train
have a great time & thank you so much for allowing it
I'll miss it a lot

Hey Vikramvicky, sorry to hear about your health, had blocked one seat for you in my Jeep but as suggested by Gogi Bhai, if any last minute changes you know where to find us and you have my number.

Eagerly waiting for the Morning and not able to sleep at all, had thought will sleep by 2100 hrs so i can get at 0400hrs but here I am still awake, feeling like its my school picnic tomorrow and waiting for the FUN to be unleashed.

[BolBolero]

Guys,
Aditya's small contribution to the I-Day OTR.



See you all in the morning.

[Mud Slinger]

Exhausted after that mad traffic jam and pedistrians at bushy dam..

We guys.. Tejas / Amol / Prasad / Jyotsna / Alok / Shibu & Me met up at 10.00 pm on Saturday night at Sidhu's Dhaba where we had dinner and Tejas also sorted the food for the next day. Above all was the the Hukkah that just made my evening. We got done by 12.00 and started back to our hotel. By that time Devang / Paras and some more friends reached Lonavala too.. We all checked into the Room which was a 8 Bed dorm. We immediately jumped into the bed and actually reserved our respected beds..

Then devang and gang left to eat dinner and the rest of us just crashed. 6.00 am in the morning i was given the duty of waking all up. After 2-3 pushes we had tejas up as he and alok had to leave for collecting the food.

I too got up and tried to wake the the rest up then moved down to solve my Radiator problem. Then we had Gogi sir and Ravi reach our Hotel. I then walked with them to RK's as we had to kill some time as the others were not ready.

We then had Kunal / Kishor / Ibrahim / Vishal / Suleman Bhai etc also reach RK's. We then all moved back to the hotel where all the Jeeps were parked.. Just then we realized that besides our tiny little 4x4's there were some Big trucks had reached lonavala (Devangs Friends) 2 (4X4) Endevaours / 1 Monster Endevaour which was one crazy machine (unfortunately 2x4) / Fortuner & Nissan Patrol came in. We all then had our internal introductions etc and then got our T Shirts & Food Packs & also the Independence day stickers which we all installed onto our Jeeps.

We all then head out to the OTR where we witnessed all the Advantages & Dis Advantages of all the Vehicles.

We had two major Disappointments A) Amol's Kaiser who damaged the Steering Rod and the Radiator at the first Obstacle & B) the Nissan Patrol who 4x4 transfer gave up.

After thats things started rolling faster and everyone got into the flow.. We had the 2x4 Endeavour try to do its best to clear some Obstacles. But eventually Its not about the Machine.. A vehicle of that size and Weight would always die out cause of the 2x4 drive.

After which all the Monsters had to be left there itself as vehicles of that size would not get through the narrow trails and bends that were on the cards in todays OTR.

Eventually all the Tiny 4x4 & yes one long Land rover too went through and successfully completed most of the obstacles.

Over all it was a great experience and was great fun to be with all the participants of the Independence OTR.

Thanks EXO's for this amazing OTR... Looking forward to a lot more OTR like this..

Mud Slinger (Nishant Chhabria)

[4x4 cruiser]

Had a funfilled day, too tired due to the traffic jam from amby valley all the way to Express way.

My 2nd OTR and i am falling in love with it more and more, too tired to post pictures and write up but shall do the same tomorrow.

Nishant can any obstacle ever stop you? you inspire me a lot man a never say Die attitude.

[Sudarshan]

It was A day . like Ravi my 2nd OTR ( after a long break) too.

This is prooving good , as for practice , I have started getting refreshed with thease sessions . The vehicle & me both are getting tested. ( not that much punishing though)

I avoided some serious obstacles & enjoyed watching the short chassis's acrobatics.

The winch got tested too, not too much but enough .

I feel now for building my own 80" wb Jeep

got to go now , but thanks all those friendly, helping & fun loving offroaders.

Yours Sudarshan

[pdev29]

I am glad that you all enjoyed.
We will try to find more trail like this.

Guys I heard some news of one gypsy caught fire on expressway.

I hope that's not the one of mkraft gypsies because all exos reached safely and last 3 gypsy were of mkraft.


Let me know if you have any update and please share the pics.

Cheers
Devang

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by pdev29

I hope that's not the one of mkraft gypsies because all exos reached safely and last 3 gypsy were of mkraft.

It was not our group. That was the group that did rajmachi.

Anyways, it was fun. It would have been killer if it had rained! Then it would have been just awesome!

Prasad and me on the way back used my police ID and got out via the market and hit the expressway from the other exit.

In the process we saved a lot of time! By the time the rest hit the expressway, we were already half the way back. Waited at the food plaza then for the rest for approx 20min. Gogi, you were driving really fast. While waiting at the food plaza, we saw you go through and left immediately. I was doing nearly 80kmph and could not catch up with you. I tried to speed up more but the temp needle started going up so i backed up and slowed down more till the temp settled.

Anyways, someone please put up a detailed report and pics.

[danlalan]

Awesome OTR trip this one. Rain would have made it even better for sure. That traffic jam near bushi dam cost us almost an hour and a half. Thousands and thousands of people walking on the road. Just to see bushy dam