[karan561]

It was on 30th June to be precise when the last Fortuner OTR action happened at Rajmachi & now about a month later i.e. 28th July, WE ARE BACK AGAIN !
This time we decide to take on a challenge called " The Slopes of Hell. "

Totally 4 BHPians (T-Foggers) took up this challenge namely Kedar Walke, bhp!(Manish), Venkat_Iyer & myself.
Guderian, MonaroCV8, Ahmed could not join us & were missed during this OTR.

This time though its a bit different, i say this because our chief script writer Guderian was missing so i have to make an attempt to pen down the entire episode of our outing.

We assembled at our usual Rendezvous point before Airoli Toll;

^ Our 4th missing member Venkat was suppose to directly join us from Pune and meet us for breakfast @ Kamats, Lonavla.

En- Route the expressway met a friend (Mineel, Mkraft fame) with his monster Endeavor and asked me where to for the OTR ? And we said " Slopes of Hell ", he smiled at me and wished us Good luck & waived a bye (A Final GOODBYE ?)


Reached Kamats for B'fast, sure was a quick one this time;


Soon after Breakfast we head to the SLOPES via the NH4 towards Kamshet;


After taking a turn in from NH4 went in towards Kamshet & Soon after the GPS announced "In 200 meters turn right for the Road to Slopes of Hell", IMO this is the best & the scariest turn the GPS has asked me to take, because the road ahead was like this;


And a delightful scenery on the right;

We kept on moving;

And the road got Narrow;

And narrower;

^ More like the Road was swallowing us
But Finally we saw light;

Slope Point;

^ technically from here we can see the expressway down under- but the FOG dint allow us to.
We took a halt for a while where Manish(center) was saying he has had enough & wanted to go home & i on the other had told him that he has gone good so far & theres no going back there is a Slope to conquer & Kedar at the back confirming weather there is any food stall up there ? LoL



Well, we head on to some more slopes & now it was getting a bit tricky;

^ HL mode was good enough as it wasn't Slushy (thank fully - otherwise would have been to much to handle for our 2 TON beasts)

But we managed to snail through some SLUSHHY patches too;

And finally we had surpassed the hill climb & FOUND HEAVEN;



^ Behind the FOG there would have been a nice view of the Mum-Pune Express Way but the fog cleared a bit later & some snaps ahead will prove the same.

It was too windy so the umbrellas failed miserably;


OH WAIT ! It was VENKAT's Bday ! Manish (bhp!) had organised a surprise cake for him;

Making it for an OTR on his Bday truly calls for an applause

No ! Manish wasn't pulling a piece of cake from Venkats mouth, but was the otherway round, LoL

Finally we have a SNAP where we can spot the expressway;


Well, Soon after the celebrations we left to head back;



But Kedar had other plan where he found another interesting trail;


& chose to attempt a hill climb and got stuck for a while;


^ For "Weigh Reduction" purpose Kedar chose to step out and offered me to take on the wheel of his car & help to get out of the mess, LoL

^ More details about the obstacle will follow later ( Also a video )

Finally was out & was rewarded with a Chocolaty Tires;


And it was finally time for the photo ops;

^ And Venkat took it literally

Until next time;


All in all it thoroughly was a day well spent for any, and a good show by all the BHPians

Now i request the rest of the team to contribute their stories & pictures.

Thanks for reading guys !

[karan561]

For the benefit of others im attaching the Route map from Lonavla to the "Slopes of Hell", Kamshet

[sudev]

Lovely pics and narration. Now that is one Slope to Hell actually.
Did you have to use 4L any where?

[kedarwalke]

Well this OTR was a yes,no,yes,no and finally Karan and Manish nailed it!!
The trail was very serene and beautiful.Everything went as per the plan and once we were on top of "slopes of hell" the scene was breathtaking.
A big thanks to Karan,Manish and Venkat.We missed Admiral,though he was present in spirit with us.Monaro CV8, was unwell and missed too.Ahmed,our official 'Atul Kasbekar' did not make it as his son is unwell.

I was stuck badly at one patch,thankfully Karan and Manish came to my rescue.

And because of events like these the Fortuner puts a smile on my face everytime On road and Off road.

[kedarwalke]

More Pictures continued...

[Monaro CV8]

Nice narrative & pictures Karan and kedar ! Great day for some muscle action for the fortuners.

Been cursing myself for missing this one.
:(

Wishing a very Happy birthday to Venkat..!

[karan561]

Originally Posted by sudev

Lovely pics and narration. Now that is one Slope to Hell actually.
Did you have to use 4L any where?

Hey Sudev,

Thanks a lot, appreciate your words.

Regarding LL mode, i did engage it once to be frank, as i had managed to stall my car once on the slope so did not risk it so had started back in LL Mode only

Originally Posted by kedarwalke

And because of events like these the Fortuner puts a smile on my face everytime On road and Off road.

+1 to that Kedar, well said

Originally Posted by Monaro CV8

Nice narrative & pictures Karan and kedar ! Great day for some muscle action for the fortuners.

Thanks Monaro,

You were missed today, also hope you're health is better now.

[Guderian]

What ho !

After all the planning and visualising all the tantalising scenes of the adventure - it wasn't exactly a pleasant task to announce to the group that yours truly and Admiral wouldn't be able to make for the Sunday's OTR to Slopes of Hell. Quite a kill joy that reason which was a mix of professional and family irritants.

But it was a delight to receive regular feedback from the gang about the progress and that the feature was conquered and task completed.

Great show Karan, Manish, Kedar & Venkat. What better way to celebrate a birthday eh Venkat ?!!
Great narrative and snaps Karan & Kedar.

Waiting for more snaps & videos.

Strictly OT:
And to share with the team the Earth shaking assignment that Admiral was deployed on.
Firstly was the official business that was dispensed with a long overseas con-call. Easy. Could have still come in.

And then was the family matter which needed to be attended to with visiting relatives (and from the LoH's side, mind you) to be escorted to various nooks and crannies of the city which neither me nor Admiral had ever seen.

The start of the trip:



And two hours later - nothing much had changed.


In the end not much of running around was achieved as expected and I came to a conclusion that relatives should be banned. Especially on the weekends. And on weekdays they should be prevented from visiting.

Anyway it's time to plan for the next outing.

Tally ho guys and jolly good show !

[miharbe]

Nice Thread Karan with some pretty amazing pictures. I am certain these threads on Fortuners doing all this stuff are contributing largely to the sales some way or the other!

Originally Posted by Guderian

And then was the family matter which needed to be attended to with visiting relatives (and from the LoH's side, mind you) to be escorted to various nooks and crannies of the city which neither me nor Admiral had ever seen.

Sir as usual you have me in splits with your narration. Only difference this time being that your pictures are way more hilarious than your narration. I understand your enthusiasm in ferrying the relatives from the LoH's side (I have suffered too! Enough Said!)

I shudder to think what would happen if your LoH would ever read this thread

[bhp]

A sunday well spent again with the group offroading in the hills. Although some of them missed it this time.

Beautiful weather, view, rainy, foggy and greenary at its best. We 4 were the only souls around this place. No sunday crowd was a good thing. Actually hardly anyone would dare to take their vehicles, its scary to go at the top between those bushes which can leave deep scratches. We were at the top enjoying the view and cake for quite a time. A very relaxing outing and everybody was back home by 2-3pm for lunch.

The winds were very strong and our umbrealla's couldnt take it. We lost 2 umbrella's there. LOL

Some pics of the outing :-

[karan561]

Originally Posted by Guderian

What ho !

After all the planning and visualising all the tantalising scenes of the adventure - it wasn't exactly a pleasant task to announce to the group that yours truly and Admiral wouldn't be able to make for the Sunday's OTR to Slopes of Hell. Quite a kill joy that reason which was a mix of professional and family irritants.

Guderian,

Those set of pictures were indeed hilarious.

Also it does justice to the thought you shared;

" Nothing More Painful...than the winding up of the weekend and having missed the weekend OTR !"


Lets hope we roll together soon.

Originally Posted by miharbe

Nice Thread Karan with some pretty amazing pictures. I am certain these threads on Fortuners doing all this stuff are contributing largely to the sales some way or the other!

Thanks miharbe,

Well, i am sure the Fortuner doesn't need boost in sales but lets hope the existing owners who have bought Fortuners make it to proper use with similar expeditions.

Originally Posted by bhp

A sunday well spent again with the group offroading in the hills. Although some of them missed it this time.

Hey Manish,

Thanks for the pics

[DineshKanna]

Awesome Guys......Simply superb, enjoyed watching those beautiful pictures....

[SDP]

Karan and other T-Foggers,
Brilliant report and pics as always!

When I saw the thread title mention "Slopes of Hell", I thought must be a nick-name for some place. Then when I saw the map, the turn-by-turn directions actually mentions "Slope of Hell"! So the name is real! Interesting!

Was it because you were there early in the morning or is this place generally deserted?

No donuts this time?

[karan561]

Originally Posted by DineshKanna

Awesome Guys......Simply superb, enjoyed watching those beautiful pictures....

Hey Thanks Dinesh !

Originally Posted by SDP

Karan and other T-Foggers,
Brilliant report and pics as always!

When I saw the thread title mention "Slopes of Hell", I thought must be a nick-name for some place. Then when I saw the map, the turn-by-turn directions actually mentions "Slope of Hell"! So the name is real! Interesting!
Was it because you were there early in the morning or is this place generally deserted?

The name Slopes of Hell has been coined by a few Enfield riders from Pune IIRC.

This has been named so after the last couple of slopes which are extremely steep & where there is practically no road, only big rocks & after crossing that a slushy grassy slope.

The place was isolated for sure, we reached there around 9:30 am, dont know about the crowd pattern as this was the 1st time we went there.

Originally Posted by SDP

No donuts this time?

Well we have been lucky enough always to find a place(slush pit) to make donuts

Here are a couple of pics of Manish (bhp) doing donuts;

[getsurya]

Well, i am sure the Fortuner doesn't need boost in sales but lets hope the existing owners who have bought Fortuners make it to proper use with similar expeditions

Hi Karan, Agree! The way you guys are taking the Fortuner's 'out', should encourage other owners to explore and utilize the beast.

Strictly OT:

Hi Guderian, awesomely put note, that was! The pictures were too hilarious to put a big weavy smile on the face. Thanks so much for the humour!

Making it for an OTR on his Bday truly calls for an applause

Yes, Happy Birthday(though belated) Venkat! You had a blast of a day