Finally I get some time to scribble on this thread. It was an amazing gathering as always. Thanks once again to Guderian, Monaro, BHP, Karan, Venkat, Kedar and Mad Monkey for a memorable drive.
I was driving down from Aurangabad and had to join the group @ Kamat's Lonavala by 0730 hrs. I started at 0330 hrs. from Aurangabad and had taken the Ahmednagar - Shirur - Shikrapur - Chakan - Talegaon - Kamshet - Lonavala route. It was an awesome drive, save the pathetic roads between Kaigaon and Nevasa. ODO clocked 587 km base to base. Drive to Lonavala was spirited - 120 kmph average which got me 11.32 kmpl. Return drive was relaxed as I was really tired and heavy traffic between Pune and Ahmednagar, 80 kmph average and a whooping 14.9 kmpl mileage. Reached back to base at around 2030 hrs, took a shower, dinner and slept like a log.
This was the first time I felt exhausted after group drive, probably because I did not join from Bombay. Here are the snaps for the same:
Scenery 1
Lined up for the first break.
Scenery 2
Scenery 3
Scenery 4
Even after a deep cleaning drive on Saturday, both inside and outside, this is what happened even before the river crossing at Rajmachi.
Scenery 5. BHP asked me why was I driving so slow and these snaps are the reason for the same. Yes the drive was awesome, but the scenery was simply mindblowing.
Scenery 6
Lined up before the first obstacle - the landslide area
Conti's were the star of the day!
Dense vegetation - thanks to monsoons
Scenery 7
Scenery 8 - just before the Devil's back
This is where Monaro was stuck. More on this later.
Guderian
Karan, Manish and Venkat. Waiting for their turn on the landslide area
Guderian climbing on the land slide area
Guderian climbing on the final donut point.
Karan guiding Monaro to try and come out of the pit by rocking out.
Monaro stuck and there was an effort involved to get him out. There is a video on this later.
Monaro out and Karan and everyone was happy for it. Lunch time now?
Manish towed Monaro out and it shows in his happiness.
L-R; BHP, Guderian, Kedarwalke, Monaro CV8, VenkatIyer, Mad Monkey, Karan561
Partners in the crime
Customary Tripod shot
Looking in the Landy's engine bay - Tripod shot once again
One the way back - some Enfields were slipping away to glory
Scenery 9
End of upload limit - to be continued: