Rainy Rhapsody
The Monsoon Challenge was the first TSD rally organised by Mahindra Adventure and we were invited to participate in it. Incidentally this was our first-ever TSD and terms like tulip chart, TC and PC were absolute Greek. The event was spread over three days with a total driving of 1,500km – from Nashik to Aurangabad, followed by Kolhapur. Goa was to be our final destination.
Our vehicle for the rally was the Mahindra Thar. The good bit was that we had experienced the Thar before, on our drive to the Komic village (covered in the last issue). So, the Thar wasn’t at least was not new for us. The initial plan was that I would drive while Pawan would be navigating. However, after the driver’s briefing session, I took up navigation duties.
Day one was a great learning as we missed one TC and PC and also got familiar with reading and calculating time to reach a destination. So, the day ended with loads of learning and satisfactory results, as we finished fourth in the media category. The next day, things got better and our performance improved until the brake pad on the right wheel got stuck to the disc and began to heat up while coming down from Mahabaleshwar.
Despite our best efforts, we were left with only two options – wait for the rescue team or resolve it on our own. We decided to drive slowly to reach a flat patch of land. As we began driving slowly towards the spot, miraculously enough the brake pad stopped scrubbing against the disc. The car had mended itself! The final day, needed less than 200km of driving. And we finished without incident. As the results were announced, we realised we had finished third in the media category! Not bad for a debut.
