The Blanchisseusse-Maracas run: Initiation of the Newbies!!!

[lighthammer]

Right fellas, I still here on Maracas (posting from my Blackberry). The rest of the crew already left.


Let's just call this run - "The Initiation of The Newbies: Biting Off More Than We Could Chew".


Relatively uneventful run from piarco old-airport (new meeting site) up to SpringBridge up blanchisseusse side....


Left piarco old-airport at 7:45, waiting for RT. Stopped at piarco gas station to pick up ice. Drove up highway, had to detour through arima (my hometown).


No events up till blanchi/maracas up until we decide to go up paria. Then the fun start.

From doing a mini-stance event & parking it hard in a river, muddy-clay hills, to big pools of water, treacherous mountain sides, huge ruts, choppingdown trees to make filling for ruts, 4 out of 7 vans sticking, my navara getting stuck badly in a rut, a mazda B2500 preventing landslide and digging ditch, a hilux surf getting completely bogged.... We made it out alive and relatively unscathed & uninjured (except for jhonnieblue, who got a picker in his foot).


More to come later....

[MrCuddles]

wish i was there....to get stuck wit y'all

[lighthammer]

next time man - we'll have to make that run in the dry season.

7 guys, mostly in STOCK vans, hitting a muddy/clay trail UPHILL in the height of rainy season.


If us noobs didn't earn we stripes today, then I dunno when we will !!!

[jhonnieblue]

next run my nav goin to hav TOYOS
and yes she alrrady washed and clean again
cant be a dirty gyurl whole day lol

[lighthammer]

^^ i still have mine dirty as a pig.
Gonna drive to work just as it.... but then again I passing through Valencia so doesn't make a difference if I wash it or not

[venum]

pics plz


sounds like you all had fun


glad that everyone back safely

[lighthammer]

pics coming in a sec, still resizing and processing... uploading to photobucket now

[lighthammer]

Alright guys, here's some of my pics. Half the time I was too busy trying to get the big Nav unstuck, chopping trees & logs, helping others get unstuck, etc. etc.



Meeting at the old piarco airport



Meet & greet



Rutless Tiida just itching to go off-road... and we now leaving the meeting point, lol.



Epic views from up here...



First river we came across....



Walking to the river




3stagevtec just HAD to go do it.....




Parking it hard, in a river





Ranger came down to park too!



Then a B2500



Went a bit too far, but that's ok, he's in a Mazda



Parking it hard.





Time to go



JhonnieBlue went and park up in the people's farm, and of all places de man gone in the muddy part of the lawn,



Back tyres spinning...



The most action the 4x2 Nav saw for the day
Time for some toyo's boy Jhonnie!



Unfortunately our convoy's trip down to another river was stopped by a heavy chain.
You shall not pass!



Springbridge






Rutless Tiida is the first to cross. Had to do it one-by-one, that bridge rickety!



Ranger next



... 3stageVtec makes his way across



Followed by Droppa in the hilux surf



Photo-op



After climbing this soggy mud/clay hill. Got stuck a couple times but was able to power-up the hill in 4x4 - hi-range.



Droppa making his way through the slush



The mazda b2500 sporting some MUD...


After this point... I didn't get much pictures of us getting stuck on the hillside incline. It was basically a narrow track, with a set of deep ruts plus a 30-40 foot drop off to the left. We mostly made it down the hill and up the other side, but decided to turn back seeing that the mud/clay was really deep and we thought we'd have trouble getting back up. Didn't want to burn too much daylight and end up still struggling to get out (which is exactly what happened). Thank goodness for veterans like 3stageVtec, and the winch on the Grand Vitara! If it weren't for him, Droppa, Original Bling and I would have been in REAL trouble!!



Some more pics.... after getting unstuck.



Parked it on the hillside, so I could go get some logs to fill in the deep ruts



I dunno how Originalbling and his pardna (this is his friend's van, and he isn't even on the forums!) got stuck into the side-ditch. He needed to be towed out by 3StageVtec, and thank goodness for the sidesteps on the van, cuz those things really saved the bodywork! Watch how the van almost leaning against the mountain...





3StageVtec to the rescue!!!



Letting the Nav rest after her first scary ordeal
That long-wheelbase really not ideal for hardcore off-roading, but we made it !! (with some help)



After the Nav, Hilux Surf and B2500 got unstuck, the other guys made it out relatively ok. We went back to spring bridge and then off to Maracas Bay for some well-earned bake & shark by Richards.












The man with the CLEANEST van out of all of us.....
JhonnieBlue's nav was 4x2, but that's ok, he rode with me - Nissan Powah!



The state of the inside of my Nav. New Car smell + muddy trail smell = bleh!




One Nav clean, one Nav dirty



OriginalBling's pardna going to bathe in Maracas, to wash off the muddy trail. This guy well into radio operation, has a CB radio in his B2500. Thanks to OriginalBling for providing us with the Walkie Talkies - those things came in very handy.



Brought some of the trail with us....




And that was the "Initiation of the Newbies"! We all thought it was gonna be a nice, easy run all the way on paved road. Boy were we wrong! This turned out to be a proper, full-fledged diesel boyz run, very challenging for the newbies!
But thank goodness we all made it out safe, we all came out relatively unscathed, no one was injured, no one's vehicle got badly damaged, and we all had a lot of fun.


Thanks for the great company guys, t'was awesome and I can't wait to go on the next Diesel Boyz run!

(I definitely have to change out the stock tyres on the Nav - those Toyo's looking REAL GOOD.... lol )

[homeboy]

Nice pictures and look like it was a cool lime!

hope to make it one day.......

[*Phoenix*]

Nice Pics... Glad to see it went better than expected..
Post the rest huh!!!

[wagonrunner]

if that's who i think it is, especially, as you mention CB. that's Jason du Barry

[jhonnieblue]

LH, whats the specs for the toyos we need?
looking to go price them out this week!!

[Rutless Tiida]

^^I think you need 4wd first
Remember it was a combination of thing that helped the Ranger and myself in and out of their.
1. 4wd (for the big hill where LH got stuck I was in 4L)
2. tyres (the Toyo are brand new on both vehicles so that was a big help)
3. line along the trail. (we learnt from the others mistakes and stayed away from the really bad stuff
4. a rear LSD (I am sure this helped)

[Jeremy Mohd]

Yup, no one was making it outta there without 4x4.

I turned mine off in some places just to see, and even with the new Toyos on the Ranger, and all that power, you were swinging left and right; going nowhere fast.

[bleedingfreak]

^^I think you need 4wd first
Remember it was a combination of thing that helped the Ranger and myself in and out of their.
1. 4wd (for the big hill where LH got stuck I was in 4L)
2. tyres (the Toyo are brand new on both vehicles so that was a big help)
3. line along the trail. (we learnt from the others mistakes and stayed away from the really bad stuff
4. a rear LSD (I am sure this helped)

Experience is also a hell of a thing too..

[Rutless Tiida]

Actually it was because Droppa and 3stage 4wd were not 100% that they destroyed the trail. LH went down in Droppa's "drain" and that was how he got stuck.

Droppa buy back the Zuki you would have really enjoyed yourself then....

[droppa]

yeah boi if i had the zuki i was the first one to go into the river, i kno is more fun with the zuk , maybe one day ill get back one.......

i real like how the ranger perform, thats why i was saying he sud have been in front of hammer to help pull up......3stage front hubs was shot, at the point when he was turning back his hubs were cracking real loud, i taut something would have mashed up in there for sure, jus real glad it did not lock up on him and he reached home safely like the rest of us......

if i had ride the bank like the others i would not have grounded off, but i was going real good until i got stuck in the same hole as were jhonnieblue stick with his converse.....

cleaning down was a task but she all shiny again, so no scene.........
i was real hungry and we decide to eat by uncle sams, saw u guys in the parkin lot on my out...
thanks again to 3satge and the warn winch, it wukk real best, ah get real kixx wen he try to snatch me off fram ah lil ass coconut tree and it started to limber......

originalbling tell radio man join the forum, and organise he self for ah nex run, he was a bit timid on the first hill, luckily the mazda has LSD and some pwah so he make it after bout 10 tries, man real like he radio boi, "WD40 stepping out the mobile"


but really and truly if it was not for them brothers who came in and helped hammer out, we would have been in a much worse state......

so fellas, newbies can do it too...........who say next run........!!!!!

[originalbling]

wagonrunner, yes that is who you think it is. I chained him up to go on the run - first time he played in mud since he had that truck. LOL

It was a real cool lime, we all had fun.

I was really worried for that nav after a few attempts failed. Thanks to the veterans for their experience and the help we got from the ppl who were passing tru the trail.

lighthammer, no scene glad to help out with the radios

jhonnieblue like he get high from all dat dramas...and mud lol - next run this weekend? eh ?? LOL

[Rutless Tiida]

^^Maybe you and 3stage should do the necessary repairs first...

Where can we get fiberglass grating I am looking to buy some cutoffs.
If we had that we would have had no problems. Just put it over the trench and drive

[originalbling]

Who's idea was it to go up the MUDDY, CLAY-LADEN, WATER-SOGGED acute-angle hill in the first place???

Well the old man did warn us not to go past the hill LOL but y'all didnt listen... I remember a man *cough*3stage*cough* saying it not as bad as he first thought and he run back for d GV and decide to go brave... LOL

Anyone have pics or vids of the winch up using the coconut tree?

droppa, yea he will join - once time permits we go fall in for a next run

[originalbling]

I think he panicked when he saw the large pool of water and pulled a bit left, that caused a skid straight into the ditch. I was down the hill waiting for the last truck to come up, then all of a sudden we hear on the radio that the mazda down in a ditch.

but i was going real good until i got stuck in the same hole as were jhonnieblue stick with his converse.....

hahahahahahahha. dat converse didnt come with LSD

[jhonnieblue]

i think i leave that in jeremy tray yes lol

[Cooper]

this vehicle looks familiar..... Droppa, you ever work KFC delivery?

[lighthammer]

^^ allyuh is real kix yes.

But at least now we can say that a stock nav with stock tyres have some off-road action in it.

Just gotta stay away from big-@ss ditches. But then again, it was hard to avoid it cuz of the inwards incline of the trail towards the mountainside. Having a GV and Hilux Surf dig it up beforehand wasn't much of a help either .


But seriously - the next planned upgrade is a set of those Toyo Open country. I'm fairly sure if I had proper All-Terrains with more grip than those piece-of-shyet dunlop road-tyres, I wouldn't have had as much trouble.


But I thank my guardian angel for sending those guys down the trail boy, they helped out tremendously.


I still can"t believe jeremy give away his cutlass to de piper and tell him "merry christmas"...... Lawd boy, aye!!


Next run, I shall come better equipped!

[Jeremy Mohd]

Re the cutlass...

The man had ah ole rusty cutlass. I buy ah brand new cutlass, real sharpen that does be under my bed, and only come out when I going offroad. The man see it and he face lighttt upppp. He was like 'Wooowww..'. So 'tis the seaon, I tell him; 'Take it, just show us the track to walk down to the beach.' 10 mins after, he was gone.. Lolll.

I realllyyy didnt think we would need ah cutlass, we were turning around to come back. Both me and RT would have made it back easy... well so I thought...

Re johnnie...

Yeah there was something covered in mud in my tray that look like ah shoe. Real sorry to say but I thought was one of the mystery hikers, and It's now probably in the hands of another piper..

[lighthammer]

^^ lol well at least de pipah man will be able to do some cutlassin in somebody yard, earn some money...


I think I saw Jhonnieblue's airwalk's inside the ditch where I stick. The lady who's farm parking yard he went and rip-up with he big-nav had real liked his airwalks though, saying she wanna buy it for her daughter.... LOL.

But jhonnie needed his shoes though, after he get the picker in his foot he needed a minimal amount of medical attention, heh heh heh heh.....


Next time I carrying both a cutlass AND a freakin' hatchet, in case we have more tree to chop down and drag UPHILL.... LOL

[3stagevtec]

1st off, I have to say many thanks to all those responsible for organizing and planing this run. It's thanks to you guys that this fun day was able to materialize. Everything was well thought out and safety was definitely at the forefront throughout! The contact list and mobile radios came in quite handy at keeping track of everyone and I was quite impressed at how smoothly the day went.. Good stuff..

This was this 1st time I ever made the Arima to Blanchisseusse drive and it was an amazing one. Talk about a picturesque and scenic drive! Will definitely be making that run again.

Would you guys believe the Vitara is still covered in mud! and i'm not gonna get a chance to wash it till tomorrow evening.. lol.. I gotta work 11/7 again tonight and everywhere I drive, all that mud on the van is getting some amusing reactions.

[3stagevtec]

Great pics lighthammer! Did you get any of the winching operations?

[jhonnieblue]

lord there goes mi shoes to a piper
time for a new one

[venum]

Rutless, if you can get the metal grating that would be better

I am looking around pt lisas for some