No escape for these adrenaline junkies

Gurnaaz Kaur

On a bright sunny day, when like-minded people come together to do something adventurous, it translates into a remarkable event. That’s precisely what Mahindra Great Escape this time was. 

Close to 100 participants made way to the Forest Hill Resort, some even from Amritsar, Delhi and Maharashtra, in their Thars, Boleros, Marrazos, Scorpio, XUV 500, TUV and Alturas G4 for off-roading. To man the ride, there were 12 marshals and 10 recovery teams. While for some it was time for adrenaline gushing, others came with families to enjoy a getaway. 

Set amid natural terrain on the outskirts of the city, it was conceptualised keeping in mind both veterans and newcomers. Sharp turns, steep hill climbs and descent, wading through uneven surfaces, crossing river bed, driving at high-degree tilt, the experience of the ride had the right amount of thrill and adventure. 

“This is an annual event and happens in various cities around India. The idea is to keep it a fun drive with family and friends but it does involve a decent amount of off-roading so that people can get to know the capabilities of their jeep that too in a controlled environment,” explains Sunny Sidhu, city’s ace rallyist, who is part of the Mahindra rally team and was leading the convoy of cars. 

While there were many women who were on the shotgun seat, there were three of them behind the wheel. The mean machines they believe are as much for women as for men. “This one was a great ride, quite well-organised and challenging. I wish it had rained some, would have got even more interesting driving through sludge and water. I’ve done Leh Ladakh twice with my husband as a long expedition. Even otherwise, I keep going to the fire range near Chandimandir to experience some stimulation because I love driving my Thar,” says Shalley Sharma, an Army wife who was accompanied by her son.

Jagman, who is preparing for PCS, also owns a Thar and first went off-roading two years back. “I’ve driven twice to Spiti and this year it will be a trip to Leh. Among the professional drives, I participated in Auto Prix by Maruti other than this one by Mahindra. I love driving. It’s a stress-buster for me.”

The promise of an exciting and challenging experience brought Meenakshi Malik to Chandigarh from Gurgaon. With her husband and seven-year-old daughter, they drove in turns till here and she says the greater the challenge, the better it gets. “I want to do more such drives. Gurgaon itself is no less than a challenge but to have fellow drivers who enjoy the sport as much adds to the fun,” she says.

A week-long planning goes into such off-roading tracks and a lot of things need to be considered while deciding the path. “The main thing to keep in mind while planning the route is that there are two-wheel-drive cars and four-wheel-drive cars, so we have to make sure they both can go through it and the ones that get stuck are taken care of by our recovery team. Just like this time we had six jeeps in the recovery team to make sure all cars made it through. The uphill section that had a very steep climb on our way back made the recovery teams work very hard because of the two-wheel cars that got stuck but we made sure everyone was safe and happy,” says Sunny. 

Celebrating the camaraderie between the off-roading community and 4X4 enthusiasts, the Great Escape kept the participants captivated through this day-long event. After this experience we can safely say, once in a while, a good escape can be rejuvenating.

[email protected]