[khan_sultan]

As mentioned earlier it was a wonderful family meet and was great to be again amongst auto enthusiasts/friends.

Thanks to all who organized it and thanks Hari for the call asking me to join. even though I have not been managing any weekend at my house for past several months, I could not manage to say no to you when you asked. Thanks again.

Originally Posted by akroy

... We were all set to reach Pavithra Hotel @ Tumkur at 6AM as planned but got stuck....

Oh man.. akroy must have mentioned 6.00 am sharp deadline a gzillion times in the planning emails and he was himself the last. (no excuses abhi -- you were the last or amongst the last to reach pavithra ). Jokes apart, kudos & thanks to akroy for being the finance minister of the group. We didn't have to worry about anything on that front.

... The estate has coffee and supari plantations and looking the ambience we were in no doubt that the evening will turn out to be a remarkable one. ....

Yes, it is a very very peaceful resort and the best part was that we had all the resort to ourselves. No other people. Here are the arecanuts being plucked at the resort.

Beach Time: After lunch we all headed towards the Tunga river. The bank was full of sand resembling a beach. All of us hit the ice cold water within no time. Once into water, everyone went back to their childhood and started to throw water and play around. It was indeed fun.

Here are some candid moments from the fun & frolic at the river sandy beach waters.
Vaseem was one of the first one to venture into deep waters. Here is he calling everyone to get in.


Some had to make a human chain to venture into the waters. This was like 'you are in queue' situation


And soon every one was enjoying themselves


One half of the mjothi family.

Samurai arrives: In another 15min Sharath arrives with his family (and afcourse his camera, lens kit) to the beach. ....

Here is the Samurai clan arriving.



Look at the camera bag and his young son in his arms. I am told that the camera bag is as heavy as the boy himself.


And yes, soon we were to see all the arsenal coming out from the bag and being pit to use -- like an accomplished artist using different paint brushes to paint the canvas.



The long walk back after the fun at the sandy beach waters.

Originally Posted by akroy

As planned, Hari will be the lead car and Khan bhai will be the last car of the group. ...

Originally Posted by Samurai

I didn't realize you all came in a convoy, that's really great. Must be a first in Team-BHP, generally people take-off in whatever speed they can and there is no convoy left...

Usually, in the Bangalore family meets I have mostly seen a convoy being maintained more or less. You are right about some folks taking off at whatever speeds their cars are capable off -- but then that at times can be fun for them when there are enough cars of that kind.

It was nice meeting you Samurai and exchanging quick notes about various topics. It's always nice to meet a t-bhpian from a different city. And yes, I came t know more about camera lenses in the 2 minutes talking to you than I ever did in my life.

[vaseem]

Here are some more pictures from an AWESOME FAMILY OUTING

What on earth could come between and hold up bhpians from Thatte Idlis?

Not one but two trains





Post breakfast we stopped at Gajanur Dam





The folks who had the most fun..



contd..

[Samurai]

It may come as a total surprise to most Fiat fans on the forum that you own a Palio 1.6 S10, but only talk about your Gypsy all the time.

[vaseem]

contd..

after a wonderful drive we reach our destination. Let the pictures do the talking..

















contd..

[akroy]

Khan Bhai, I accept the failure for not reaching on time. But We all left yelahanka at 5:15AM and never expected to get stuck in 2 railway crossing. The first one was for 20min (never ending goods train) and second one(15 min)
Nevertheless, it could make the resort on time which mattered most.

Originally Posted by mclaren1885

I think at the next Yelagiri meet you should hitch a ride with one of the Elantra uncles . You will witness a totally different kind of enjoyment, one that will make you feel like you are 18 again.

I agree Rahul and thats the reason Yelagiri meets are redlining meet but this meet was different. In longer distances and with family maintaining convoy helps a lot and things go according to the plan.

Abhi

[vaseem]

contd..

at the beach..err river

the first ones..



where is everyone..???



do you think it is safe..??



testing waters..



fishes..err bhpians in water..



contd..

[mjothi]

First my thanks to Hari for inviting me to this drive. He called a couple of weeks before to join him when he was leaving for Shimoga, but could not make it since I was leaving to Chennai at that time.

Seems all for good. Got the chance again to enjoy the Vihangama with so many like-minded families.

We were stopped in both the train crossings from Dodballapur to Dobespet. This easily took more than 30min of our precious time.
First culprit - Oops not Roy, but the train & gate. Hehehe



Finally we arrived at Pavithra for the thatte idli.

The box office


In front of ticket office


Thatte Idli - Behind the scene


200KMs to go.


Nice roads [and not NICE!!!]


Its hot... Coconut please.


Chevy tailing Chevy


In your lines please.


Next stop is Arasikere


No No, not the Indian Pisa Tower


Water all over


Why are you leaving? Come with us no!


You may be black too, so what? Come behind.


Starting of "good" roads!



Atlast we are almost there


15KMs for next stop


Aaisman bava


We reached Gajanur dam. Please get your tickets for the Gajanur visits.

Contd...

[mjothi]

The Dam was really huge, plenty of water.

Wait, I am also coming


Shoot.


Full of water


Left, right, left right left.


Translate please


Khan's fav site



Khan, thinking of what he saw just before - "When can I drive my Gypsy here?"


Sorry, access closed


MJ, TJ & KJ


Look out


Who will have heart to leave such sight?


My dad asked me to leave. :(


Contd...

[vaseem]

contd..

some random pictures of my Black Beauty and others..



Ground clearance anyone...???






The team bhp group photo..



Our official photographer not happy with the lineup..



some more beauties..who is getting photographed here???



contd..

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

It may come as a total surprise to most Fiat fans on the forum that you own a Palio 1.6 S10, but only talk about your Gypsy all the time.

I agree that 90% of the time it is the Gypsy that may have the mind share on this forum and the resulting visibility but I absolutely love driving my S10. It is one of the few drivers dream come true cars out there.

However the fiat owners here on this forum know that I have a S10 and I do engage in the 'sane' Palio 1.6 related discussions

[mjothi]

Then we left the Dam and our next stop was the Vihangama Resort.

Real good scenes on the way


Tailing again the Optra


Roads, yes you have it


Moongil Kadugale!!!!


Beleive me, he is taking picture only.


Slowly one by one, everyone started to shoot


Smile please


Our photographer getting ready to shoot the cars


View form the entrance of the resort


Finally, Vihangama. Hurray!!!!


Then after the refreshment, we started for the river. Since all of us were having fun in water, we did not take any pic there.

Except this one!


Then we & Samurai family went for the boat ride. I think that was the first time I meet him face to face. The chat on board was everything other than Automobiles. From Kaveri water issue to Bullion market.

Oops, no seat belt in this boat.


The boat also provides shelter for these!


Sunset


Can you spot the snake?


Cave formation of the rock.


More Sunset scenes




Time to go home


Then we went back to the rooms where we met Abhi & Srini. We had our usual talks about the cars, jeeps and had hot tea. With the wet clothes still on us, we were getting colder and hence took leave to get ourselves ready.

Then when we came back to the main room, Samurai was all set to leave. Thanks Samurai, for coming all the way from your home to make our meet more memorable one.

Contd...

[khan_sultan]

There have been few posts about group driving & convoys etc. This is what happened most of the time :-)

Originally Posted by akroy

...
..... Chit-chat, timepass, unplanned photography, waiting for the remaining herd to join etc......

Some of the pictures of the many convoy stops -- planned & unplanned :-)

The first one after the thathe idli joint


The stop at a turn to nowhere where everyone went berserk clicking pictures






On the way back. I think this was the last one before the big one :-)

[mjothi]

Campfire, full of fun.




Its here we found one Maduri Dixit within the Team-Bhpian. Lol...

The DumcC and antharaksi was really great and the time flew like anything. But since most of the kids started to get sleepy, we went for Dinner. Had a nice dinner and we decided to call it the day.

We got up, had bath and ready by 5:45am the next day. I thought of going for a small stroll and took my warm clothes and started to walk. But after few steps, I realised that the warm cloth was making me sort of hot and not warm. Yes, the climate was much warmer than Bangalore.

I was laughing at myself thinking how I was dumping the whole car with all warm clothes.

Since no body was found in the main room, I came back to the room.

My kids were also ready and they started playing in the grass on the resort. It was really well maintained.





Junior Srini and my family


Few scenery


Can you spot the tri-color on moon!!!


Then I saw Srini & Abhi getting ready. When we came again to the main place, we saw all guys washing their cars.

Eventhough I was not ready to do any cleaning, Khan bhai was canvasing my kid like anything to have the car washed. Finally I decided to wash it and took nice pictures.

With the friends!!!




Contd...

[snaronikar]

Lots of pics are taken by all but it has the same background and members (only different cameras). I'am deleting the pics from my share (of pics) that is supposed to be uploaded. Anyways, it will be a stored in my laptop. I'll be posting those which are not taken by others (I hope)

[mjothi]

Then after the heavy breakfast we gathered for the group photos.

















Then we stopped at Platers for Lunch. Had good lunch and went through the city to start through the Belur direction.

While we were filling petrol in Chikmangalur, we saw that Srini was missing. We waited for him to arrive and after that, something got changed in Khan's Palio. It took off and said no to be in the last

That's when I saw his palio going so fast and with loud blast from his ICE. Khan, did you find how we can save battery while on drive in groups















Then we stopped around 20KMs before Hassan and had big tea time. When we left from there, its was almost like 7:30PM. From there we drove in convoy and never stopped anywhere. Ya, just one stop for the dinner. We stopped in Kamat for dinner, had Idli, Vada and chai.

Once we refreshed ourselves, we started to hit back to Bangy. We were in line till Nelamangala, then while others left myself & Abhi was going together. We could see so much of lorry traffic even at that time. It was around midnight. We took the Mekri circle, Ulsoor route and finally waved Abhi a bye around 12:45am near Big bazaar on OMR.

When I reached home, it was sharp 1:05AM.

Total KMs home to Home was 763.8Kms. The FE for the visit was 12.9kmpl. The return journey's FEs is still to be calculated. I think it should be same or more than the onward journey, since the roads was much better.

.