[garrett_t16]

hey guys !
just got up some time back
was exhausted till the limit yesterday, 22 hours without sleep.
but in all a good otr
had lots of fun,but man was it tiring !
It was my jeep's first otr,performed really well.exceeded my expectations.
here are some pictures of my jeep.
others please chip in your photos
cheers !!
Im off to sleep again
found out about some niggling issues with my jeep, will get them sorted.
thank you everyone for such a wonderful session of off-roading.

[tigerranch]

8 am we all started to arrive at Big Wheels Motoring at Kamshet... After some eggs and sandwiches we started to wards slopes of hell.. named by a few Enfield riders from pune..the name (Slopes of hell) is also named by these riders as the last climp is really steep and you need to go full throtte and cannot stop...once we all were up we got do do some real hardcore obstacle where the machines were not willing to go.. but a few of the machines did perform and cleared the obstacle.. the grass was thick and the mud wet.. This could not hold the bighorns too.. And the machines were skidding and slipping down. after slopes of hell we started to drive down back and came across a slush pit.. and Tejas took the first plunge.. and then all the other machines and we spend about 2 hours doing the in and out of the slush pit.. over to a couple of chilled drinks and Chai we decided to go to Rajmachi in Lonavla, on the way some wada pavs down we started to drive towards Rajmachi.. The drive while going was good and we reached (Anda point). this was an impossible task for all the machines.. Everybody kept trying with all the power the machines but could not climb the 65 degree incline to the top...But there was a route towards the left and some machines managed to go up to this peak and all the machines here again got stuck on the grass and the wet mud.. No slush but the machines would not budge and were slipping and scary.. As one Jeep went over to the edge of the cliff and could have gone down.. But our Heros managed to get all the vehicles out and down the hill and then was the pond.. The track was difficult but a few vehicles managed to reach the pond..Again some more chilled drinks here and we started the journey back... 25 kms of drive was quiet boring as the excitement was over.. We all regrouped and met at Sidhus for a good dinner and back to our respective homes..
WE ALL HAD A GREAT TIME...Thanks buddys

[gsferrari]

Fantastic day out with the guys which turned from an innocuous half-day recce into a full blown 18 hour marathon!!

Landed up at Panvel McD's at 7:45am to meet Tejas and Soumya. After some banter and a few burgers we headed straight to meet the Pune gang. From there we headed to Kamshet through an interesting path with some steep climbs (nothing that would hassle a 4x4) until we got to the top where there was a relatively simple looking climb which soon became one of the most challenging I have ever done. Slippery entry, slippery climb and slippery inclined exit making it almost impossible to maintain traction. See the video to get a better idea of the situation here. Some of the attempts were comical and others were dangerous. There wasn't much room to back away because, if you look at the video, the Mumbai-Pune expressway was waiting behind us some 1000+ feet below the cliff where were playing!

The drawbacks of the Yokohama AT-S tires became glaringly obvious here. I now wish to have a set of Trepadors (235) for the next OTR season. In the dry stuff the Yokos are more than adequate. It is on the really wet slippery stuff that they start to lose ground to better and more expensive tires out there.

After playing around for some time here we headed down and I found us a nice slush pit to play in (Nishant will claim it as his find ). Tejas went in first and was soon coated in buffalo dung, urine and mud all mixed up. This was a buffalo wallowing pit that we were playing in after all. After a few unsuccessful attempts the rest of us decided to have a go. Nishant cleared it in his first attempt, Paras took a couple of attempts, Manan was always right on the point of making it through before inexorably rolling back until on one attempt the tires gripped and he managed to squeak through. I tried 4-5 times before getting out of the mess. Devang arrived late and we promptly invited him to try. His HT tires got him out of the muck straightaway but he got stuck on the way back.

I thought the day would be coming to a close right about this time (somewhere around noon) but we unanimously decided to head to Rajamachi! Now I've never been there so I was pretty excited about it. LONG drive to get to the place...very interesting road to get there. Passed several surprised and gobsmacked hikers. We reached the "Anda Point" but the trail was too buggered for us to make it up the main slope. Some of us went up the side slope and got stuck on top. Soumya's jeep was in a precarious position where it was sliding away off the cliff and any attempt to move it caused it to slide some more. The rescue jeeps that went up were also stuck in different places and soon what was to be a simple recovery turned into a multi-vehicle recovery effort. Once all the vehicles were recovered the time came for Soumya's NDMS shod jeep to head back down the incline.

Now I don't know much about tires but I can say that the NDMS were ruddy AWFUL on this terrain. ZERO grip and full-time sideways. The scary part is where the rear of the vehicle suddenly builds more momentum than the front while coming downhill resulting in a spinout and a roll-over!!!

After a few scares, Soumya too was down from the incline. Now I had been playing in the slush pit where we were doing power-slides (sometimes) and understeering wildly into the surrounding bushes (most of the time). You can see Ibrahim tooling around in his Safari 4x4 in this slush patch. Allan calls me and challenges me to go up (this is after rescuing everyone and getting them back down). Not one to turn my back on a challenge like this I decided to do the climb...I made the climb and thought "hooray!" before watching in horror as my Gypsy refused to stop and kept sliding on off the path and towards the decline leading to a sheer drop off the cliff. Powered up and turned back towards the path with some wild wheel-spin and sideways action. All the practice in the slush patch below came in handy up top! Turned around and gingerly led the Gypsy back down and gave a feeble thumbs-up to the guys who were, like all good friends, on the edge of explosive laughter seeing my ashen face.

So after all this naatak we decided to head towards the "Pond" and this got me excited...finally a chance to wash off the slush from the Gypsy and from my shoes. What followed was a harrowing drive through to the turn-off point and from there and pretty interesting descent to the pond. I was just telling Allan, who was spotting, that going down was purely academic...coming back up would be interesting to say the least. After reaching the destination I had a keen desire to stab Devang because the "Pond" turned out to be a 10 foot dia old fashioned well in the ground! Instead of killing him we took a walk towards one of the most spectacular views I have ever seen. The fact that you could come to this spot alone with NOBODY to bother you and just wonder WHY you pay so much money in taxes is in itself worth the effort. Absolutely amazing, astonishing and frightening because as we broke out the beverages to cool off, the rain started coming down. We soon realized that the path leading back up would be slipperier and more difficult than expected. Devang also broke something in his Gypsy which caused more delays. The whole scene in getting back up reminded me of the scene in Jurassic Park where Ned has to deliver the Embryos to the ship at the dock and drives through the park in rain , slush and low visibility. It was THAT awesome

After a few challenging moments my Gypsy made it to the top and while I was helping Soumya sort out his jeep's technical glitches, Manan's Jeep refused to crank up!!! Devang made it right to the end in MONSTAR before Nishant gave him a quick tow over the last obstacle which was proving too much for his HT tires. Finally we were all on top and heading home. Reached the main road and we decided to head to Sidhu da Dhaba for a bite...by the time I reached home it was 1:45am.

Monday morning...tired as hell, dirty great smelly Gypsy to drive to work and a big smile on my face. It wasn't the MOST challenging off-road recce ever but it certainly was the most fun I've had in a long time. Plus I got invited to some interesting rides on my motorcycle!!

Fantastic...looking forward to more Recces while the season lasts.

The video: (HD is being processed by Youtube, may take a while)

YouTube - Aug 22 2010 EXOs OTR Kamshet + Rajamachi

[garrett_t16]

brilliant video guru !
do you have the video of the multiple attempts made by me in the slush pit ?
and videos of 'anda point' ?
if you do then please post them
cheers !

[garrett_t16]

next batch of pictures.
tejas entering the slush pit



Nishant goes through in one go.


Devang gives it a try.


Something i have seen for the first time,guru wanted momentum but could not go in reverse so nishant agrees to give him some help


i think this was when soumya was comming down 'anda point' and his car went sideways. look at guru's expression


the group

[gsferrari]

I was with Soumya when he came down Anda Point so I think this was when Imran decided to take the aerial route off one of the humps mid-way up the climb.

[Blue Thunder]

Awesome terrain...looks like all had a ton of 4X4 fun !!!

Originally Posted by garrett_t16

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Attachment 411812
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Aha!

Close-up pics of a Gypsy making out with a Jeep...nice

[ex670c]

Looks like all of you guys had a Chocolate Sunday!!!!!!

[pdev29]

Ya it was one crazy trip.. sadly i couldnt attempt anda point because issues with my gear lever.. that was one dissapointment and ya HT needs to go soon but waiting few more upgrades then the final shot.

@GS,

I had to use word "Pond" because i knew you guys wont come down to see a well after spending hrs at anda point :P

but seriously there is a big pond but now due to issues with villagers we cant take our cars there.. its a 1km if we decide to go next time.

P.S

Monstar articulation was awesome. just in love with her.

[paras211]

it was a super saturday followed by a super sunday , apologies for being late and making you guys wait at mcd . Hills of hell was a very scenic place , splendid views not a lot of 'off roading' though and hence we move on to rajmachi . It was my first time at rajmachi so was pretty excited the route there was great but threres more to do at rajmachi right?
I had a friend (Amit) riding shot gun , He enjoyed it. this is soo much better than sleeping in late on a sunday he said, proved wrong all the lack of sleep , bouncing around and the vada pavs gave him a headache and a stomach upset. As a result i couldnt join the gang for dinner.

Garret your mutant cross breed 'thing' works superb just the the small engine issues sorted and you will enjoy it more , you wouldnt have to have that naging worry that it wont crank all the time ,

I lost a side cladding this otr , last three otr s i lost 3 pieces of the rear bumper, every otr i am loosing parts, soon i ll have a purpose built off roader.

[4x4 cruiser]

Hi Guys,

The fun element is clearly visible, had received a message from Tejas on saturday night to join at MCD on sunday, but already had plans with wife to move out. With grave pain in my heart I had to regret the offer. The worst part was my plan with wife also got cancelled, as i had to hospitalize my grandfather, spent the entire Sunday in Hospital. The pictures are making me envy you guys more and more.

Anyways their is always a next time and I hope the next time is this Sunday only .

Cheers
Ravi.

[HappyWheels]

Originally Posted by garrett_t16

hey guys !
just got up some time back...

Lovely spot and get mud bashing all around!

Garrett,

Nice mean jeep (didn't know you had one of these!).

A suggestion: only thing missing is a good seat belt in the jeep. It has the bars all around to keep the jeep safe, but for the occupant, a belt would be great.

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by Blue Thunder

Close-up pics of a Gypsy making out with a Jeep...nice

He he... I just wanted to be pushed back into the pit so I could have another go. I finally made it out on my own power. This seemed like the easiest way to get the job done...hence the kiss!

Originally Posted by ex670c

Looks like all of you guys had a Chocolate Sunday!!!!!!

We did Arka! We're totally gunning to make EXAMM-AKC Edition #2 a rip roaring success.

Originally Posted by pdev29

I had to use word "Pond" because i knew you guys wont come down to see a well after spending hrs at anda point :P

Arre Bhau...you were so close to getting pushed off the "viewing point" he he. Seriously cool spot though. No complaints after having reached there. If not for the numerous snake pits I would be a lot more comfortable chilling out over there. I don't think it is safe to spend a night there though.

Originally Posted by paras211

I lost a side cladding this otr , last three otr s i lost 3 pieces of the rear bumper, every otr i am loosing parts, soon i ll have a purpose built off roader

Welcome to the club. I just don't bother fitting the broken stuff back anymore. Less is more when it comes to going off-road.

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

A suggestion: only thing missing is a good seat belt in the jeep. It has the bars all around to keep the jeep safe, but for the occupant, a belt would be great.

This is actually a safety feature. There was one point where he drove into an obstacle and was actually able to watch his jeep moving through from the outside! The bump had dislodged the driver to the outside of the vehicle

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Guru, that video is tooooo good! You even managed to sneak in the guys who took a lift in my jeep... do you have the tunnel video?

This is what i like about offroading in small groups; the camaraderie is super!

The worse part was getting back from Rajmachi. The fog was bad. I could barely see the end of my bonnet and was crawling slowly, walking on foot to check the turns and again inching forward.

And that damn pit plastered me so badly... i hate all you gypsy boys with doors and windows!!!!

A lasts few OTRs made me realize the disadvantage of the 31" with my XDP engine and 4.88 difs. The engine just can't take it! I need to get a better engine or change to 5.38.

Next sunday we do the lake and the spot where Alok got stuck for a few hours in May.

[garrett_t16]

Originally Posted by HappyWheels

Lovely spot and get mud bashing all around!

Garrett,

Nice mean jeep (didn't know you had one of these!).

A suggestion: only thing missing is a good seat belt in the jeep. It has the bars all around to keep the jeep safe, but for the occupant, a belt would be great.

Buddy i almost fell off the jeep ! literally !! on one of the small stream crossings in rajmachi. I got back in because of the fact that i was holding the steering wheel with both hands,otherwise i would have a face full of mud

guru, thanks for elaborating but believe me I always thought 'seatbelts and off-roading, naah !' but this was an eye opening experience, i seriously need some belts