Muddy Madness

We Head to 'God's Own Country' for the 2017 Edition of Mahindra Adventure Club Challenge and Thar Fest
 

- Janak Sorap

It was a completely overcast sky as our flight landed at a solar-powered airport. Yes, to my surprise the Kochi International airport is the world’s first airport to be completely powered by solar energy. And for those like me who were digesting the new known fact, it was also the first time Mahindra Adventure had organised the Club Challenge and Thar Fest event in Kochi. There was a bit of a coolness in the weather and as we anxiously waited at the hotel to be ferried to the event, all hell broke loose. It started to rain heavily like nobody’s business. Thankfully, by the time we started to head for the venue, the rain had subsided but only to make the activities set forth for the event even more challenging.

The Club Challenge is a two-day event which begins with a night stage. As the sun went down, the event began with the spread of floodlights in an open area that had several descents, climbs and ditches dug up for the muddy action ahead. The course was called ‘Pass the Baton’ which involved three Thars of each team that had to individually complete the three different sections in the shortest time. Flags were placed at strategic locations which had to be picked up only by the driver for additional points without getting off the vehicle at any given point of the obstacle. The first section of the course, unfortunately, turned out to be the very challenging for the stock Thars as not even a single vehicle was able to complete it, let alone the other obstacles.