[JeepCaptain]

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Oye, you passed hosur!! I would have loved to meet you and HVK over a tea. Will make it up in munnar

Hi Santosh, Yes we did pass Hosur, but it was on a Thursday morning and we were running late by more than 24 hours due to delayed start and slow driving. Hence did not call you. As you said lets make it up in Munnar.

[joshguy]

shibu why didnt you take mysore,waynad and ernakulam from bangalore?

guess there is no need to touch TN

[JeepCaptain]

Originally Posted by joshguy

shibu why didnt you take mysore,waynad and ernakulam from bangalore?

guess there is no need to touch TN

Hi JoshGuy, I was taking it to Adoor my hometown which is easier to go via TN. ( The route was Nagpur- HYD - BLR- Hosur-Madurai -Tenkasi- Courtallam-Punalur- Adoor)

Waynad is my second home or my maternal home but I do have a house there too.

Do you think I would have made such mistake in route planning with our "living GPS" HVKumar (HVK) sir travelling with me.

[hvkumar]

Hi, svsantosh, did not know you were in Hosur now. The state we were in - no sleep for 2 nights, no bath for 2 days - I doubt whether you would have liked to meet us!!! However, we will bear this in mind next time we are looking and smelling decent while passing Hosur!

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Hi, svsantosh, did not know you were in Hosur now. The state we were in - no sleep for 2 nights, no bath for 2 days - I doubt whether you would have liked to meet us!!! However, we will bear this in mind next time we are looking and smelling decent while passing Hosur!

HVK,

Heard you and Shibu just set the "record" for the slowest passage from Nagpur to Kochi/Adoor



It must have been a real experience of sorts for you against your habit of furious paced drives

Best Regards & Drive/Ride safe

Ram

[hvkumar]

Ram, the drive was very slow, I took double and more time to cover each sector since we were travelling at speeds less than 80 kmph, where even ST buses were overtaking us. But the 2 cars took the journey very well despite their age.

[SirAlec]

Dear SHibu and HV sir,
How is the engine holding, any heating or cold start issue.?

[svsantosh]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Hi, svsantosh, did not know you were in Hosur now. The state we were in - no sleep for 2 nights, no bath for 2 days - I doubt whether you would have liked to meet us!!! However, we will bear this in mind next time we are looking and smelling decent while passing Hosur!

Sir, I would have been more than glad to host you and shibu. You cld have had a quick shower and nice food at home and proceeded, but anyways, shall be glad to do so in future...

Great trip by the way.

[JeepCaptain]

Originally Posted by r_nairtvm

HVK,

Heard you and Shibu just set the "record" for the slowest passage from Nagpur to Kochi/Adoor



It must have been a real experience of sorts for you against your habit of furious paced drives
Best Regards & Drive/Ride safe
Ram

Dear Ram, Yes sir, I am sure it was a new experience for HVK by setting the slowest trips ever done by him between any two cities.

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Ram, the drive was very slow, I took double and more time to cover each sector since we were travelling at speeds less than 80 kmph, where even ST buses were overtaking us. But the 2 cars took the journey very well despite their age.

Dear HVK, Yes sir.. you are right besides the slow pace, despite of their age, Both the vehicles reached safely without any issues.

Originally Posted by SirAlec

Dear SHibu and HV sir,
How is the engine holding, any heating or cold start issue.?

Dear SirAlec, Engine was excellent. No issues what so ever.It starts in half or one crank and very little smoke. Thanks to Sireesh for an excellent job with FIP overhaul/calibration and nozzle cleaning at Nagpur.

Originally Posted by svsantosh

Sir, I would have been more than glad to host you and shibu. You cld have had a quick shower and nice food at home and proceeded, but anyways, shall be glad to do so in future...
Great trip by the way.

Dear Santosh, Thanks for your offer, Next time we will definitely plan a stopover in Hosur to enjoy your hospitality in my forthcoming trips.

Defender is defenitely going to places soon.. Few trips to North East, Himachal, Uttaranchal, Bhutan, Nepal are in the pipeline.

[hvkumar]

Log book coming, you can see for yourself how slow we were!

Both the cars being old and quite beaten up, it is fantastic they made it to their destinations without any trouble whatsoever, testimony to their ruggedness, Shireesh's work at Nagpur and our - immodestly - own confidence in the vehicles!

[JeepCaptain]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

Log book coming, you can see for yourself how slow we were!

Both the cars being old and quite beaten up, it is fantastic they made it to their destinations without any trouble whatsoever, testimony to their ruggedness, Shireesh's work at Nagpur and our - immodestly - own confidence in the vehicles!

Dear HVK sir, Looking forward for your Log book. I am glad that the vehicles did not let us down.

[hvkumar]

Here is the log book of the drive:
https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0BzW...lM2Qw&hl=en_GB

Please note that the odometers in both the cars did not work and hence I had to overlay the route notings with distances from previous log books of mine. Therefore, there is an element of approximation in them.

Some highlights:

Total kms covered - around 1,700 kms
Nagpur-Hyderabad took us 12.5 hours, out of which:
- 45 minutes was lost in punctures
- 3 refuelling halts cost us 45 minutes
- Tea & Food halts cost us 1.5 hrs

We stopped by in Hyderabad - with MileCruncher escorting us through the city (Many Many thanks, AB) and us ending up meeting the Team Mars gang near Kukatpalli and spending some time with them, but to continue...

Hyderabad-Bangalore took us 12.5 hours, out of which:
- 1 refuelling halt cost us 30 minutes
- 1 nap cost us 15 minutes
- and finally at Whitefield in Bangalore, the Gypsy ran out of fuel, costing us 2 hours

In Bangalore, we halted for some time to meet up with Robinson very early in the morning

Bangalore-Dindigul took us lots of time, because we stopped at Shoolagiri after Hosur to take a wash and food, so:

- the overall drive (including stop time) took us something like 12 hours
- apart from the breaks near Hosur, we also took a tea break and dinner break, costing us 1 hr
- the rains after Karur were troublesome for us because the Landy's wipers stopped working, and we had to terminate our 44-hour non-stop drive at Dindigul, instead of proceeding on our 3rd straight night's drive to Adoor!

Dindigul-Adoor took us 8 hours, with just 1 break for brunch. And some time wasted in wrangling through the KL checkpost where stern officials tried to impound Shibu and his car but ultimately melted under his enthusiasm and passion for driving, and ended up lapping up every word of his OTR adventures!

[gsferrari]

Interested to know more details about the KL checkpost issue.

[hvkumar]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

Interested to know more details about the KL checkpost issue.

We were loaded with payload in both the cars - the Landy carrying a engine and gear box and the GYpsy carrying extra soft-tops, seats, etc - such that they were both visibly overloaded and looked like cargo carriers. In fact, at one of the toll gates, I had to fight since the toll guy wanted to classify the Gypsy as a LCV and not a car to extort more toll!

We manged to evade all the check posts (MH,AP,KA,TN) till the TN-KL one at Aryankavu where the road is too narrow. Being in the lead, I whizzed past (knowing the CP propensity to stop all), but apparently the guys noticed my payload and were whistling after me. JeepCaptain who was following sensibly stopped - since he found the guys were calling on mobile ahead to have me intercepted in the name of being a smuggler - and he had to negotiate his way through, explaining our respective payloads. The CP guys levied the usual charges saying that JeepCaptain and I were carrying commercial goods (and he had to pay some). Luckily, JeepCaptain turned on his charm and had them mystified and enthralled with some tales of offroading and rallying, the entire contingent was virtually lapping it up and finally let him go.

[gsferrari]

Originally Posted by hvkumar

We were loaded with payload in both the cars - the Landy carrying a engine and gear box and the GYpsy carrying extra soft-tops, seats, etc - such that they were both visibly overloaded and looked like cargo carriers. In fact, at one of the toll gates, I had to fight since the toll guy wanted to classify the Gypsy as a LCV and not a car to extort more toll!

We manged to evade all the check posts (MH,AP,KA,TN) till the TN-KL one at Aryankavu where the road is too narrow. Being in the lead, I whizzed past (knowing the CP propensity to stop all), but apparently the guys noticed my payload and were whistling after me. JeepCaptain who was following sensibly stopped - since he found the guys were calling on mobile ahead to have me intercepted in the name of being a smuggler - and he had to negotiate his way through, explaining our respective payloads. The CP guys levied the usual charges saying that JeepCaptain and I were carrying commercial goods (and he had to pay some). Luckily, JeepCaptain turned on his charm and had them mystified and enthralled with some tales of offroading and rallying, the entire contingent was virtually lapping it up and finally let him go.

If I could sweet talk border bandits like that...I'd have no problem being married to the girl of my dreams!

Great story!! Can't wait to hear more from you on Sunday.