Travel With a Couple

The clock is ticking.

The next action begins on 3rd August. Till 5th, the next D-Day.

But action for us has not stopped. We now have to start blogging on the TGDC website and we have done that.

And we need followers too. So here is another request.

Open this page, http://www.greatdrivingchallenge.com/ee/index.php/nomines/blog/unny-bindhu/

Click the Follow Us link and sign-up.

Keep cheering us.

We can’t express what are we feeling now.

We have made it to the Top 12 from over a thousand contestants.

This challenge is getting interesting for sure.

The 12 contestants will now meet for a ground event somewhere near Mumbai for three days. 3rd August to 5th August. The Jury is expected to grill us on all possible skills. And 3 will make it to the final round and get to drive 3000 kms.

Once again thanks, friends.

The first hurdle is over. We are in the race. As one among the 100.

Thanks for everyone who voted for us.

As the digital clock ticked seconds on the TGDC website on 20th July, we anxiously waited hoping that as it turns 1.00 pm, the home page will transform into a list of names and we have to search through the 100 names. But Sandip had one more trick up his sleeves. Sure the home page changed. But to some 100 blocks of letters. One had to click each of those letters to find whether he/she is in the race. And after some random clicks, when the heart beat started racing, we started clicking one by one from the start. And voila. When the 4th letter ‘R’ magically turned to be us, we smiled at them with some narcissistic pleasure.

Getting into the next 9 from the 100 is certainly not easy. Nothing can be done now. It is just wait and watch to be plain lucky.

The hills and mountains that cover the entire western part of Maharashtra have many forts. Most of them have seen hectic activities from 1400 to 1900 AD (an average, and an assumption). After the Mughals, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Marathas and the Britishers finished their party, what was left were more often only rubbles of forts. Except in very few cases, where the government has taken up maintenance for archeological reasons or those maintained as places of worship.

From 21 century onwards, it was the turn of city slickers to lay hands (and legs) on these forts. People who choose an active weekend as against plunking in front of idiot box. Those who wanted to take a break from the city life to have some adventure and some refreshing air. And it is monsoons that these mountains are at their best. It is also the time that gets the best out of us. Pouring rains, lashing wind, gushing waterfalls, slippery rocks, slushy pathways…

Season 2009 started with a trek to Kohoj fort. This little, relatively unknown fort, at a height of 3200 ft, is off the Mumbai-Ahmedabad highway, a little inside from the Manor-Jawahar road. Not much historical information is available about Kohoj. The remains of the fort and the well dug cisterns suggest that it is from Bhoj-period. Portuguese is supposed to have captured the fort in the16 century followed by Peshwas in 1737 and later by the British.

Many pairs of footwear became casualty – including our three pairs. Our new trekking stick from China could not stand the terrain and weather of India, but it was not a bad product.

Lashing rains also meant the camera remained inside for a reasonably good time. Yet the photos will tell a visual story. Click here.

The trip was organised by Nature Knights.

Kohoj is accessible from the base village, Waghote which is on the Manor – Jawahar road. Manor is about 120 kms from Mumbai on the Ahmedabad highway.

The history of orange says that the fruit has its origins in India. And perhaps most of India’s oranges come from its centre – Nagpur. So somewhere in back of our minds we knew that a trip to Nagpur cannot be complete without a visit to an orange farm.

While planning for trips, we provide for on the spur changes in the itinerary and explorations. Yet visiting an orange farm was not part of our Pench plan. While we had some intention to peek into some farm while returning to Nagpur, we did not expect that we almost could go on a rampage on a farm.

As we packed our bags from Sillari, we casually checked with the driver about an orange farm. He checked with some locals and we landed up in a farm where the harvesting process had just started. Orange farmers normally sell their produce in advance. During the harvest season, the contractors camp in the farm with his laborers. They pluck, sort and pack the oranges which are then taken to the market.

Some of us tried climbing the trees and plucking a few. We could not buy any oranges at that farm since it was technically sold out, we moved to the next farm. The farm belonged to the relative of a local who accompanied us and had permissions to sell. We plucked as many we wanted and returned with a bagful of oranges.

Interestingly, true to the Indian tradition, orange harvest also starts with a prayer. At the base of an orange tree, a few oranges became a symbol of God and the workers did a traditional puja before starting.

More photos on the farm tour here.

Mitsubishi, with its Indian partner Hindustan Motors is organizing a contest open only to couples. Couples who love travel, who can blog, photograph and drive. We have jumped at it. Close to 400 couples are in the list now and a 100 will be shortlisted based on the application forms.

Shortlisted people will have to go through a second and third round of evaluation – details of which are not known now – and a final three teams will be selected. These three will have to travel 3000 km during a 10 day period, blog about it with videos and photographs. And the winner will get a cool Rs. 10 lakhs !!

So vote for us and help us increase our chances of winning !!