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Old 3rd April 2018, 12:18   #1
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My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

MS Desert Storm 2018 - Amateur experience

My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm-11.jpeg

My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm-29871940_1846463995366474_551692976740520420_o.jpg
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Riders of the storm!

"What on earth were you thinking before going out there?" asked a bemused friend who I described the experience and preparedness of razing through the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018. Now I recall, it was indeed a tale of acute learning within those moments when you could feel the adrenaline rush racing through your head with the windshield covered in thick dust while you control your way out through the storm into the next never ending challenge.

5 days of sheer intensity came to end finally on Friday with the conclusion of Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018. Having finished the longest rally in India across the testing terrains of Rajasthan, I figured, it might a good idea to sum up the experience here.

While we started, very sparse information was available across the forums and public domain, however, through intensive interaction with legends on the forum like Sudev, Arvind etc. and googling, the prep just got a bit smoother although being amateur was totally incomplete.

Prep Week - Ground Zero

Without a rally tested vehicle in place, Renault Duster seemed to be a skeptical choice for revving across the challenging terrains of Thar Desert and props coming along the way. Car being mid version 2WD with 10K on odo, the condition was fairly top notch with limited Sulphur burnout. Nevertheless, obvious choice to participate in 2WD category kept our hopes high estimating the under preparedness of competitors until we hit the park ferme at Flag Off. Bit more on that later, for the starters, preparation included the following:
  • Aux headlights - Hella Headlamps (costing about 8K) tricky to get fixed in 2017 Duster, one mechanic seemed like a pro at doing so in Gurgaon and finished his work with aplomb. Kudos, when other major workshops backed out.
  • Gear - Helmets, Extinguishers, Checks - Fuel, Air Filter, Brake oil etc. along with Pre Rally service (About 15k more)
  • Fee and license etc. to participate in the rally (As applicable)

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Briefing from the organizers before the flag-off

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Flag off lineup – Simply petrol-heads’ heaven!

After days of running round to get the car prepped for the rally, finally the day dawns with Co-Driver joining me (travelling from Kerala) and we reach park ferme mid-day for scrutiny and flag off. After toiling for hours to complete the formalities, we could only feel excruciatingly overwhelmed with the sheer preparedness of the decked up vehicles lined up for our amateur start line. We seemed like Amateur in the Pro rally line up for the event (although there were 95 percent Amateur in our lineup).

Post event flag off, we begin our overnight drive with our new road colleague being the only Quad Biker in the event. We were on pretty tight clock (which was the case every hour of next 5 days for the event) to reach Bikaner early, find a place to crash for few hours and then join the first leg lineup by 11 AM. After almost no sleep on the Day 1 for few hours we crashed in the amazing hotel (@1.5K a pop), we were psyched up for the leg 1.

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Our Quad Bike companion en-route to Bikaner

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Our night halt option in Bikaner

Brief interaction with fellow competitors, we start prepping for lineup of Leg 1. With limited rally experience, especially in TSD format, we were looking to get as much inputs from experienced fellows. Although, given the pressure each of the competitor was feeling for the event, it seemed really pressing to seek the same at the last hour. However, few people came to our rescue and we had last minute words of wisdom to begin our journey for next 5 days. We got to know in-depth insights about the road-book rules and better use of Rally GDP app from an experienced navigator, using which we were planning to sail through the event.
We were in the dilemma of whether Driver and Co-driver can switch the steering during the event which came out with confusing inputs from the competitors. However, we went ahead with the original plan as we envisaged.

Leg 1 – Raring to go

We were all pumped up for the first leg to begin with the picturesque backdrop of majestic Laxmi Niwas Palace in Bikaner. Our lineup had around 23 vehicles competing with each other in the 2WD category. Except 2-3 sedans/hatchbacks, rest of the vehicles were mostly greater than 1.5 L engines with better ground clearance including decked up Pajero, Scorpio and XUVs among others.


Laxmi Niwas Palace, Bikaner – Flag off point!

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Leg 1 Lineup

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The TSD Bible – Road book!

After 2 vehicles being sent off, we were placed at 3rd in lineup and as we inched closer to the countdown, amateur mistake kicked in when we realised we did not paste the Scrutiny OK sticker on the windshield. After quickly pasting the tag with the borrowed tape, we head towards the flag off. After receiving the road-book with the TC card, we started going through the TSD nittie gritties and syncing with the Rally Apps and setting Odo. Time came finally and on the count of 3...2...1, we flagged off with the speed limit in mind. We strictly followed the limit across the Tarmac following the road-book, but once we hit the gravel, the game completely changed for us.

Without any experience of sand driving, the thrill of racing across the gravel/part sand was extremely exhilarating holding the grip tightly and pressing the throttle optimally, avoiding any mishaps or sliding off track following the navigator’s instructions carefully. We were gliding across the gravel/sand field along the fence of some farmland keeping enough room on either side, suddenly, the car behind us, jumped ahead and starting racing towards the given direction. I pumped the throttle more and revved across the sandy track following the dusty trail led by the White Brezza. The momentum was maintained, adrenaline was high, tolerance for sliding off the track was nil and gushing towards the objective was prime priority.


Following the sandy trail!

The moment Brezza went past us, being still novice to the TSD concept made us realise that we might be lagging behind but later in a flash of the moment when we had a sharp left downhill coming through, it just came to us that we got to match our time and off my revvs come down to skid forward in the last few KMs before we hit the TC. We were keeping a safe distance and after multiple twists and turns across the next 8-9 KM, we finally hit the TC. With limited visibility as to the time we were doing due to still nascent understanding of the Rally GDP app, we completed the time-check, chit chatted with the Marshall and geared up, all this in 20 secs to proceed further past the TC. We were told by the Marshall to keep the heavy momentum going by reversing back a bit to have enough runway room and continue with limited revving across the huge mound of sand coming up across the deep trough from which we had to climb the sandy elevation. Turning my head left with the helmet on, suddenly I noticed with my navigator, the guys ahead of us were jammed inside the deep sand mount right before the elevation on the main track in the trough. Our main route seemed to have been jammed already on our first major test and we were quiet a much in confusion with the high adrenalin pumping and novice urge to beat the guys already stuck in the mount.

All the sweat, tension, anxiety and adrenaline we tried to bring together and focus on getting us through the single most important moment so far, to get through the mound. Without too much calculation, we decided to give it a go, move ahead and race across the sandy mound. I throttled my paddle and gained up to 2K RPM and continue gliding down the slope on the main track, sliding past the curves and about to maneuvered around the stuck folks and right in that middle of the moment, my car starts slowing down considerably with RPMs raising their bar and odo hitting the wall. I tried to inch forward with the limited speed and finally I had to start revving harder in order to move past the mount. But all for no avail, finally our car's front axle was completely drowned in heavy sand.

We made our way out of the car thinking it might be having a fix somehow, emulated the Brezza already stuck in the sand, used our shovel and tried to move the sand out of the stuck front tires. We used our hands as well later to make room and all of this, in the heat of the moment, frantically trying to get the car out, we kept on working with the sand with our heavy helmets on in the middle of the scorching Rajasthan heats. On realisation, we immediately threw off our helmets, fortunately, I had my headgear to save myself being roasted and continued maneuvering the car to bring it back to track. It turned out, we had a major sand party about to happen. Seeing us struggle down in the trough, other daredevils took a shot on surmounting the Sand Everest and one after another, we could see finally almost 10 cars stuck to cross the first TC.

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Got out of the deep sand, stuck in the track on a small mound!


Stroll on the Sand Everest

Moments of panic and frantic struggle, given the growing company we had soon started turning into hilarious turn of events. Marshall keeping a vigil from the TC gave all of us time to pull ourselves out, and despite few hours going past and we hitting past the MPL long back, we continued multiple P&Cs to get us rolling again. But alas, the Sand Everest doomsday could kill our hopes on the first day itself turned out to be an absolute marauder of our spirits. We did a hell lot of team effort too but that also couldn't help anyone move about not caring about the penalties to be incurred. Nevertheless, Marshall finally came to our rescue announcing that the Day 1 for chirpy gang is going to be a DNF and if we can live with that, he can start towing us out of the trough. And so it happened, we got pulled out by the Isuzu DMax turn by turn and off our Day 1 chart goes through the roof.

That brought us into tremendous pressure of holding on our hopes high and continue with rest of the 5 legs.

Leg 2 - The Longest Leg

Next off, we start our Day 2 early morning @ 0700 hrs. with anxiety of facing a similar mountain of obstacles we had on the Day 1. In the hindsight, I thought of going all out today with car come what may, we shall not get stuck at any moment. And we waited for the flag off. By this time, with all the team building exercises we did on Sand Everest, we were quiet a well in-sync with the competitors and tremendous amount of retrospection of Day 1, information exchange etc. left our anxiety bucket a little empty up-top.

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Much needed culinary delight by the pool!

Coming back in Lineup, we wait for our turn and off we are handed the road-books. We quickly start syncing the app with the road-book and gear for our head-start hoping for this day to be a benchmark for rest of the competition. Our nerves are racing past their limits and car has got to match up to our intensive thrust for today as well. We start our leg on a bright note and continue gliding through the track, we continue going past the turn as per the road-book and off we go over the tarmac into a gravel track.

Slowly, the thumping of gravel track with constant crackling through the sump guard etc gives way to smooth but gut trenching deep sandy track and as we turn our heads ahead, we see the similar sand mount waiting for us, looming out there to test our mettle again. In the rush of the moment, with the constant re-runs we had through the last 24 hours in our mind, we throttle our way further to move towards the trough of the sand crest and slowly we could feel that we are gaining good momentum at a constant RPM while we move past the stuck competitors and voila, finally we stand tall on top of the sand mound and to show the solidarity (Which was quiet a stupid idea knowing we are losing time), we get out of our vehicle and help the stuck vehicles especially the one with both lady drives helming the drive. We tried to get them moving, but their vehicle seemed be digging in deeper and our efforts were turning futile, while our clocks were leaving us very little room for breathing.

After giving it a decent shot at helping others, we gear up and off we go down the sand mound through the dusty terrains zig zagging our way through absolutely gorgeous pathways in barren fields following small trails of sands and matching them up with the road-book landmarks without heeding too much for the speed. App is mentioning we are quiet way behind so revving up the throttle seemed but obvious. We continue through the sandy tracks and we take a sharp left turn to be greeted by the TC and tarmac. We are taken aback by the major hurdle we just crossed and reaching the TC boosted our spirits tremendously. Off we head forward through the tarmac again to the dusty tracks straight up around a sizeable mountain taking a wide U turn and coming back onto the tarmac again collecting Self TCs etc. as they arrive. All in this while, we are ensuring the grip for the steering is not lost and we continue the moment come what may even realizing that the car is getting thrashed with extremely rough tracks consisting of heavy sands, stone, gravel etc. We glide past the hurdle 2 as well consisting of maneuvering around the mountain with the tricky sand terrain track through the heavy bushes. We hit the tarmac again and immediately we take a turn to another smaller tarmac to be greeted by a TC little up ahead.


Chasing the never ending sand!

With our rookie glasses on, without thinking much, we race towards the TC to realise we have actually missed about 2 self TCs behind. We feel the setback, take a deep breath and follow the track as per the bible – road book. Henceforth, we cannot afford even a single mistake, and we continue as per the instructions all along the way. After multiple sharp turns, it turned out we were part of huge maze zone which had 15 odd competitors crisscrossing each other to complete the track and find self TCs. We seemed like part of the Pac Man game with all cars moving helter skelter to complete the Odo, cover the TCs and exit. Post completion of the maze leg, we hit the tarmac again and for good 50+ KMs we continue driving through medium to low level tarmac or gravel tracks, even crossing through a cement factory. As already our car was covered in heavy dust layer, white cement coating made it look more duster like.

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The road ahead

We kept on moving forward and off we head out finally across the train track into a sleepy village to exit the civilization, head to absolutely stunning countryside track now. We continue moving parallel to the railway line through the deep sandy track thumping across the bushes, car being bumped on the sump guard constantly and we maintain the momentum with multiple competitors moving alongside the given track. Heading out a little further, we reach a wide 360-degree flat hinterland where we get confused with the road-book milestone. We await a trail to lead us further which we grab at once, we catch it, hold on to it and continue zooming past the rough picturesque terrains approaching twilight adding to the beauty of the situation with us in high adrenaline zone and landscapes just making our neck to neck rally more thrilling. We move across the villages to make our way through the livestock, wave past the gleeful children, shift paddles across the bumps and broken tarmac, admire the vastness of the countryside. We were really enjoying the thrill of the cross country rally now blowing the sand behind and realizing our objective of ensuring we won’t let go of this day, we will cover up for Day 1 and keep our hat in the ring for the contention.


Crossing the railway track

We whisk past the TC check across the railway line to have been given a timeout now due to approaching train closing the check post. We wait patiently, socialize a bit with fellow competitors and wait for the train to move by. We lined up behind the barrier and waited patiently to complete rest of the leg at about now 1630 Hrs. in the evening. The moment barrier lifts up, all the cars pressing throttle race past each other to make up for their own time.

We catch up a sandy trail and continue moving our ship across the deep sandy track through the different zones and sped up to catch along with the competitors, we are pumping the rush high, holding the grip tighter, laser sharp focus on the bumps over the track and ensuring our car sails past through, when immediately emerges out of heavy sandy, a black Mahindra Thar. We could only see a bleak tail light so far up ahead in the super hazy track full of dust. Our car must be on at least 60 KPH and suddenly we see the small tail light turning into a huge stationary Thar right in the middle of track, braking not being an option, quick thinking had us going completely off track taking a sharp right and whisk past the mammoth. Immediately within inches of approaching the black beast, we turn quick right off track and turn left to be swerving back on track in a split second hurling abuses at the dumb driver only to realise he was waiting for us to trail us now. We continue the momentum as per the road-book and through different tracks, we finally could see a gamut of competitors which means we are about to reach TCs. We get to the marshal and 100 KMs behind the road-book, we are instructed that the leg is complete and we are ready to roll now to Jaisalmer at our own pace.

We continued on the highway which was almost under construction throughout the journey, however, we could feel the car drifting to the left a bit. It seemed car has gone off balance in the testing gritty terrain while we could hear clanking sound coming from the sump guard. Fortunately, right after our tea break, we could find a sizeable body shop. We take an hour break, get the alignment and balancing done, fix the sump guard to continue moving towards Jaisalmer.

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Check out the BHP


The Golden City highway

We felt a relief at final completing the Leg 2 at good momentum although missing TCs was a setback but overall it was a good show of speed and skill across the testing but stunning terrains. Looking back now, I feel this was one of the best legs we covered in Desert Storm 2018.

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Horizon looming

Leg 3

With the high note we reached in Leg 2, we were really excited to up the tempo in this leg. Again our Leg 3 starts early in the morning and after covering a brief tarmac track, we head out to gravel track in mesmerizing Jaisalmer. We are covering good time without following any trail as we could figure out the road-book well. While we move forward, the rustic charm which enthralled us in the Bikaner tracks was completely washed out by the sheer expanse of the breathtaking sand mounds giving way to Suzlon windmills. At which point, we just wished the time to have stayed still while we capture the beauty in our phones feeling zone out for a bit while rushing our way through the testing and beautiful track leaving a thick trail of sand behind for our competitors. The huge crests and troughs across the track were giving new scenery at every turn, we were just driving in sheer awe for the beautiful landscapes Jaisalmer has to offer. Place just seemed pitch perfect for the Desert Storm 2018, we kept on the revving the throttle to cover the track as per road-book while appreciating the landscapes with dunes and windmills.

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Windy city of India – Jaisalmer!

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Endless Dunes and the Beast!

As we moved over the gravel track through the arid mounds with windmills and power station located on their hump, we almost lost track of the road book and got lost in the enigma of the overlapping tracks. We traced back to the last correct milestone on the road-book, corrected the odo, re-initiated our trail which to our surprise took us to a steep elevation up the mound. We kept pumping the throttle, reached the top of the mound only to be greeted by a TC right on top. We continued our trail across the picturesque terrains of charred brown mega mounds with gravel, sand, green patches all coming across us but nothing bringing our momentum down, we race past the farmlands in the track to reach a deep sandy trail.

We had a dust trail which we were following which when cleared, we could again see the pileup across the sandy track with farmland on either side of the track. The only way to get past the competitors was to maneuver our way around the competitors by going right on the field and then across the track to go left again across the sandy track and continue doing so in zig zag fashion until we cross them all and are back on the track. We got down, took a ground check of the situation, got back inside, started with a wild momentum to do exactly that. And there we went, crossing them all to hit the sandy track, continue racing across the sharp lefts, across the fence, between the fields, checking the milestones in the road-book to hit the tarmac finally.

After a long haul across the tarmac, we continued to move deep inside the Thar desert with 360-degree view of golden sand, camels, herds, colorful people and road-book milestones. We head further to take a sharp left turn on the gravel track with maintained RPM to reach tracks with mix of sandy patches and gravel/tarmac which made the entire speedy situation very slippery. We hold the grip tight again, sail through the sharp turns while following the directions in an exact manner, ensuring we don’t miss a TC to cover the time well. Every moment today was kind of going great for us where our timecard looked good without a TC miss, our time variation with Marshall’s chart seemed alright as well, the given leg was getting better and better for appeasing our 360 vision.

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Make way for the XTREME!


XTREME Trail 1


XTREME Trail 2

We were working like advanced amateurs, almost pro kind and odo kept adding KMs while we sail through the tracks to finally reach a dusty trail again from between a small hamlet, we speed our way through the mini mounds to hit the TC. At that moment, we could see a huge valley awaiting us to continue the journey, at that moment, Marshall mentions that the TCs are done, we are through with this leg as well.

Immensely satisfied today with our performance, we sped our way through back to the civilization to explore the magnificent golden city in all its glory. We headed to a nice quaint café in the fortified city, met few Hungarian tourists who were budgeting their way through South East Asia travel by volunteering to work with local café in turn, bagging a roof and meals for their stay. We head to our hotel, take a relaxing lunch break, catch up with the competitors, enjoyed the rest of the day. Much required relief after our grueling last few days to gear up for the actual upcoming storm with 2 back to back day and night tracks awaiting our invasion.

Leg 4-5

Having gone through a thoroughly satisfying Leg 3, we started our track in high spirit to be flagged off @ 7 AM. Working our way around the road-book, we continued our way through the tarmac to reach the dusty track, deep in the densely populated windmill melee. Our road-book and odo were catching all the landmarks mentioned while we hoped to up the tempo this time around, take the dusty track deep in the fields going around the multiple windmills as well as power station. We reached a point with multiple tracks pointing to different directions which was kind of confusing but we went by our instincts to move ahead for the next milestones of a windmill with the power station. But it turned out, each windmill had a power station off the mound, from that milestones, similar windmills laid all around it. We continue exploring each and every windmill as per the direction, but we could not find the next milestone of gravel track joining the tarmac in about 500 m. We went berserk, we could see now, all the competitors coming back, taking round, figuring out the waypoints and correcting the odo. This went on for next 2 hours where we clearly exceeded the MPL as well. We tried to work our way through the torrid confusion but now we were part of massive cavalcade where everybody seemed confused. Finally, we break our way out of the entourage, grouped by 2 other cars to work with a local help for finding the tarmac wherein we could reach the next TC.

We again move through a totally off-road trail, across the fields, livestock, small hamlets and finally reach the tarmac of Abu village. From thereon, we needed to make up for the time lost and move towards Sam dunes. The sound of it was good enough to lift our spirits while we raced towards the next TC. We continued our way forward to reach the next TC greeted by the long trail of competitors waiting to be stamped, without thinking much, we jumped out of the car, ran to the Marshall whisking past other lined up cars, got our TC stamped to hit the road again. We cross a small turf patch for reaching the next waypoint when we take a sharp right into deep Sam dunes kinda track between the fields following a sedan giving us the way ahead. We were in too much rush to even continue looking at the road-book. We just followed the track in the deep dust trail following closely the sedan ahead. While we move across the track, it seemed, the car ahead wanted to lose our trail to which they start speeding north of 70 kmph in the tough track. We ensured not to lose their trail despite our car covered in deep zero visibility dust trail but continued maneuvering the confusing track in a need for speed drift race kind of way with the sedan. Coming across neck to neck, we were almost a KM behind the tarmac, when the sedan guy looked confused and slowed down a bit, at which point, we just took the leap of faith, sped past them, reach the tarmac to be greeted by the TC at which point, it turned out to be the last TC and we were done the first half leg today.

We wanted to quickly reach our hotel, take a required rest for continuing on the night leg and so we did. After a brief uneasy rest break, evening arrived, we reached park-ferme on time as usual. We awaited the testing track ahead and were flagged off at 9 PM to start the night leg.

Being through the first leg in distraught manner, we were feeling weary now and in the rush of the moment, we took a 6 KM detour to come back to the track and catch up with the competitors. Fortunately, the moment we reached first TC, in the dark of the night, we could see hordes of headlight doing rounds in the maze like track, wherein people search for clues through searchlights, continue to come back again at the TC for correcting the odo to restart the search again.

After finding few self TCs, we made our way to the first Marshall and to our shock, it seemed in our 6 KM detour, we missed couple of more TCs. Bogged down by the disastrous day so far, we buckled up and continued following the road-book in the middle of dark night, followed the fencing, spotted the required huts, pillars, turns and patches etc., we were now trailing a deep dusty track led by another competitor wherein the track was becoming more and more bumpy. We continued driving in the deep dusty track and in that damn split second, suddenly I could see a warning caution tape, missing the view of which our car jumped inside a deep ditch in the middle of the track to somehow crawl the way out with a twisted rim and flat tyre. We jumped out of the car, installed the reflective triangle on the rear, unwounded the backup tyre quickly from the boot. We took almost half an hour to fix the tyre which further added to our misery. We maintained momentum with utmost caution now to ensure we do not get into another tricky situation which we can’t afford in the middle of the wilderness.

Its pitch dark all around and only on flashing the torchlight are we able to spot the waypoints. We look back to only see deep dark of the night without a single blink of a headlight. We continue moving forward carefully spotting the way points. We move along the fence and take few turns to reach a sizeable puddle full of water which we had no idea about the depth. We just slid back the vehicle a bit, revved the throttle, jumped right inside the puddle surrounded by deep bushes in the middle of nowhere, the entire track kept us sailing through the slush of ditches to reach the sandy track. We move forward on the track to reach the tarmac awaiting another Marshall. We move forward to realise another misses of trick self TCs right behind the field where Marshall stood. Moving on the pitiful time we were going through, we drove on the tarmac for about 10 KM to take a sharp right, reach the sandy track again. We maneuvered around the tiny villages ensuring we do not create any ruckus like waking up the people sleeping in cots on the field, hitting a livestock, blaring noises of the engine. We just kept gliding past all the waypoints to hit the under construction water tank when we get called by our Marshall for reaching the MPL and instructed to follow the next TC. We hit the tarmac, sped our way through the state highway to land up in the final TC of the grueling night track. We could see other competitors wait near the TC for creating a union sort to cancel the leg due to wrong odo at certain points, other competitors being under duress by the local villagers, a bit of stone pelting supposedly and other issues.

We just went along with the competitors to finally close the leg on a wild note, reach our hotel, take a much needed shower, get some sleep and wait for closing the leg 5.

Leg 5

Next day, Leg 5 turned out to be absolute breather, with organizers ensuring that the grueling track we had in the Leg 4 is turned into a bit of sightseeing tour across the Jaisalmer terrains through waypoints around 2 forts and ending in the Sam dunes. Not much challenge out there, but we were aware our contention for Top 5 slot was way behind. We took it in our stride and enjoyed our cruising through the Leg 5

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The desert ships

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TC Check-Fort

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Famed Cheetah on the Prowl

With a deeply satisfying experience, we can look back and be aware of the massive learning we had across the 5 days of Desert Storm. Driving through the awe inspiring terrains with brilliant motorists was an absolute pleasure. Given our quick learning ability we are so proud of, we look forward to glittering finish in the 2019 and we continue to keep revving till then.

- yours truly

Last edited by guyfawkes : 3rd April 2018 at 17:17. Reason: Final edit
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Old 3rd April 2018, 17:36   #2
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re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!
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Old 3rd April 2018, 20:59   #3
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Re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

Nice article and pics Varun. How are you doing? I believe last time we met on 7th floor 10C many years ago.
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Old 3rd April 2018, 22:14   #4
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Re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

Thank you, going good! How you been? Help me a bit in placing you my Deloitte pal
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Old 4th April 2018, 09:34   #5
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Re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

I was (trying to ) following this year's Desert Strom closely. In fact, I used to keep updating a thread with Desert Storm 2018's news and updates.

Participating (or at least do Marshalling) in one of this kind of rally is my dream. Thank you very much for this detailed write up on your experience.
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Old 7th April 2018, 15:05   #6
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Re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

Great adventure and write up. Is your car 4X4.
Is it possible to share the route map of the Desert Storm.
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Old 7th April 2018, 19:22   #7
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Re: My Experience: The 2018 Desert Storm

Great write up.

Interesting insight from participant helps us prepare even more confusing tracks!! Sadly no longer associated with the event but yes it is a terrific navigation and driving challenge.
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Old 8th April 2018, 21:40   #8
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Mod note: Back to back posts, please use Multi Quote [Quote+] instead. Thanks.

Quote:
Originally Posted by spgv View Post
Great adventure and write up. Is your car 4X4.
Is it possible to share the route map of the Desert Storm.
Thanks spgv. Nope, Car is FWD. Unfortunately, don't have near exact route map but can give an indication about the track we took. Will take sometime for me to jot that down though, when I have that ready, will post it out here. Hope that works.

Quote:
Originally Posted by sudev View Post
Great write up.

Interesting insight from participant helps us prepare even more confusing tracks!! Sadly no longer associated with the event but yes it is a terrific navigation and driving challenge.
Many thanks Sudev. Your guidance throughout is well appreciated. We are planning for the other big 2 this year though, both Dakshin Dare and Raid. Look forward to your valuable inputs.

Last edited by Jaggu : 9th April 2018 at 12:24. Reason: Back to back posts, please use Multi Quote [Quote+] instead. Thanks.
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