Day
6 –Challenge Accepted!
The next day,
I woke up completely drenched in water from the rain from the night before and
the terrible stench of wet and dirty socks. But when I climbed my way out of
the tent I was welcomed with one of the most beautiful view I could have NEVER
imagined.
We did out
daily routine and headed for breakfast, while the competitors who couldn’t
manage to complete all the stages the day before got their times in for the
stage.
The day was
meant to be a rest day for all of us. But Ashish Gupta and his Cougar team
decided to have some fun with us Media professionals. They had set up two
special stages just for us as a part of what they called the “Media Challenge”.
By around 1:30pm the stages were set and two Polaris RZR S800 UTVs were ready
at each SS. SS2 was my first stage of the group. Going first everyone had a
beautiful view of my incompetence and were making notes on what not to do. The
start was right at the edge of a cliff. From where I was sitting all I could
see were the top of 20 foot high trees. Srivathsan Vallabhan, a veteran marshal
was assigned as our navigator for the stage. We had to gingerly head down the
hill and into a tight left hander at the bottom. Follow that path to a cross
axle right hand and slalom though a series of trees turn around, slalom again
through them and back to the start point across the finish line. I handled the
first bit well, then hit a rock on my way to the slalom, hit a tree in the
slalom, hit the same rock on my way back and climbed up that hill to stop the
clock.
SS1 was a
relatively easy downhill followed by a slush pit which led into a dense trail
into the trees with lots and lots of water. With Guhan Shetty as my Navigator,
I went in blind not knowing what I would have to do. With Guhan’s life in my
hands, and only his instructions as my guide I floored it as the sound of the
whistle. With mud all over us from the very first splash, I soldiered on,
pinning the throttle completely, batting the torque steer into the gully
between the trees. We came to a point of…return, jammed the CVT into reverse,
turned the car around and made my way back as quickly as I could across the
finish line. My idiotic driving was rewarded with a terrible time on both
stages but I was happy that I was not last. I came 8th of the 12 of us who took
part.
After the
Marshals and organisers had their fun watching us make a fool of ourselves, we
forced Juhi and Murchana from the PR team to go as passengers. Once we
FORCEfully…(terrible pun intended) strapped them in, we called Raj Singh
Rathore, from team Polaris to give them a ride of their life. Needless to say,
as we had told them, they came back with brown muddy faces grinning with their
glistening white teeth overwhelmed from the experience they witnessed for the
first time.
By far, it
was the best day of my life. I will put my hand on my heart and say that I have
never had so much fun in a single day in my life. I can’t speak for everyone
there, but I’m sure they would say the same. When the excitement settled, we
headed back to our hotel to clean ourselves up.
Day
6 - Twilight (No Vampires and Werewolves in this story)
Day 6 was
scheduled to be the Twilight Stage, the real RFC stage. The selected location
was a forest in Sattari, Goa that no one had entered in the last 15 years. The
start point was marked, a GPS location was provided to the drivers, no marshals
will be marshaling, and a time of 10 hours was allotted to them. Starting from
12pm, on the way, they had to ford 4 waterfalls, treacherous paths that they
had to carve out from the forest to make their way and drive as the crow flies.
I knew I was
not physically fit to handle the task for 10 hours to complete it on my own on
foot. But with some help of my dear peers from the media, we helped each other
through the dense jungle. It was pure camaraderie not just among us
photographers and reporters, but also the competitors. Climbing the mountain as
the un-treaded path through the forest, with all the knives, sticks and
protective gear we could find to prepare for snakes, spiders and anything else
mother nature decided to throw at us, I thought to myself if the Virgin
Screwdriver I was offered before I left would have helped me survive. Come to
think of it… No. So I wheezed my way to the first waterfall with the others.
Over there we saw the competitors working together building a path through the
waterfall, moving rocks, tying winches, placing ladders for each other and
helping other competitors with whatever they faced in the jungle.
After a few
pictures and numerous bottles of water, we decided to head back for lunch and
then back to the hotel. We relaxed for the rest of the day. At dinner, all of
us from different linguistic backgrounds sat down together and made fun of each
other one by one. In short, we just
laughed our way through the evening.
Day
7 - Judgment Day
Next morning,
the competitors were on their way back from Sattari. In the evening, the final
results were announced in the prize distribution where all the trophies were
handed out. To our surprise, Juhi and Murchana also called every person
representing their respective Media houses to come up on stage individually and
receive a token of appreciation. It was a first time someone had done something
like that. All of us were pleasantly surprised and overwhelmed. Once the prize
distribution was over, we went out for the after party at Bay 15, again, where
we did some more questionable things. Half way through, suddenly I decided to
walk back to the hotel by climbing up the mountain. Midway I even decided to
jog to the hotel for no reason whatsoever and passed out in my room.
Day
8 - I’ll Be Back
Lucky I
wasn’t hungover like I was from last time, I sat down with Luis, the founder of
the Rainforest Challenge over breakfast. We had a long extensive conversation
which I shall elaborate in a report later.
To sum up the
week, it was one that I will surely remember, and it was all possible because
of Ashish Gupta for hosting the life changing event, Cougar Motorsport and the
Marshals for doing an undoubtedly brilliant job, Luis and his RFC International
team for creating such an event and the good memories. A special shout out to
Murchana and Juhi, from Greenthumb PR for having us and running the event
flawlessly and tirelessly. Anything we needed, anything we wanted to know, they
were extremely helpful and deserve a massive round of applause. With that we
flew back home and I made a promise to myself, with a year at hand, I will be
fitter, I will work smarter and in the words of Arnold Schwarzenegger: “I’ll Be
Back.”