Members from Karachi
1. Libra
2. Jag
3. CharterAli
4. Gtir
5. TimelessFahad
6. Kizzi
7. Furhammand Ehtishaam
Members from Islamabad
1. Spectra
2. Ghuncha
3. Amin
4. Waqar Cheema
5. KPSheikh
6. Romano
7. Xain
Members from Lahore
1. Saifi007
2. Mrhot2000
3. ilyasburke
Members with cameras please post trips pix in here..lets post Rally pix in the other thread..
Cholistan Jeep Rally 2008 Pictures
Trip to Cholistan Rally..
Once upon a time… err skip! It was very much planned since past few months and the plans did work out really well. I would like to thank mum65 for arranging the accommodation for us at Bahawalpur, though we didn’t get to know much about each other due to his busy schedule. Also special thanks for members from Islamabad and Lahore who managed to take the time out from their busy routine to come all the way to meet us.
7th March 2008
All gears packed! 1.00am Odometer reset to 0 at Zero Point, Sohrab Ghot Karachi.. CharterAli, GtiR, Kizzi traveling in Kizzi’s Cultus. Libra, Jag, TimelessFahad, Furhammand Ehtishaam traveling in Libra’s Pajero.. it was pretty dark out there and atmosphere was really great but who cares? Dark is dark afterall you can’t see a dime except the rolla’s high-beams and lazy truck drivers driving in the fast lanes on the high-way. After completing 129km around 3.00am we reached Hyderabad Toll Plaza to refuel our stomach.. basically from what I remember we always stop at the same Shop next to Caltex pump where they sell these Bombay Bakery cakes.. although none of us bought any of the cakes but we do like junk food don’t we ? LOL! We move on the endless seeming roads of Sindh traveling and traveling and listen to Libra’s selected collection of Ghazal’s which do make me sleepy but it wasn’t a good time to sleep can’t miss the traveling action. The word was spreading around as we traveled almost 450 km’s to Sukkur, where we had our breakfast at a familiar “dhaba” with special Paratha’s and Cholla’s. After another hundred or so kilometers one of our PakWheels member “Ateeque” who works at Angro Chemicals in Daharki met us for a quick Hello / Hi, he insisted us for lunch, as we didn’t wanted to delay the trip further we apologized, and after listen beautiful words of thanks for PakWheels we started our journey again passing Rahim Yar Khan after an hour, called up Jaan99 but he mentioned that he was leaving for Cholistan right at that moment so we told him that we’ll see him tomorrow there only, as we were a bit tired after almost 12 hours of traveling so far.. Still going few hundred kilometers around 5.30pm we reached our destination Bahawalpur, where mum65 had booked rooms for us in Silver Tower guesthouse, he guided us to the Guest House! Tired like anything, we were in a mood to hit the bed but spent few hours chatting with mum65 as he had arrived at the Guest house to meet us, around 8pm or 9pm I went to sleep meanwhile Islamabad PakWheelers had arrived around 2am or so.. which I’m not aware and missed all the action there! And woke up next morning 10am.. pretty long sleep I guess! Lol
8th March 2008
Around 12 o’clock we left Guest House the Karachi PakWheelers, moving towards Derawar Fort or Cholistan Rally location (both are same) it took us around 2 hours approximately with total of 101 kms from our Guest House in Bahawalpur. On the location where the Islamabad team was already present, we surveyed the surroundings for a moment and in couple of minutes Jaan99 arrived with his Wrangler! Apparently he didn’t managed to come on location yesterday as per our conversation with him, but anyways it was great to see all the PakWheelers in action. After a small show-round of the area, Libra, Jag, Spectra, KPSheikh we took a ride in Pajero to check out the other camps and any familiar faces we may find.. the camps were located at much distance and it was hard spot people around who maybe resting in camps .. and there was no means of travel apart from your own ride! Everybody was busy in their own camps some were camping right at the moment while some had camped there since yesterday, overall it was hard to communicate with participants as in 20 minutes we could only see 4-5 camps .. so you can imagine people had camped pretty far far away, maybe they were not really interested in meeting.. that’s what I felt, it should have been like a proper get to know each other also rather than just come, drive, win or loose, go home type of thing! Well all said and done, as Jaan99 had to camp for tonight and sun was setting down, it took around 10-15 minutes to put the camp up.. just minutes later Shani606 came to the camp location we did meet him early in the afternoon also, but it was quite a surprise visit again from him. We were busy discussing various affairs from location to photography, earth to sky, cycle to jet planes, etc.. meanwhile Jaan99’s company were busy preparing for BBQ, and trust me middle of almost nowhere, sitting and eating with people who are likeminded it was really wonderful. Special thanks for jaan99 for his hospitality! And not to forget the folk songs which were sung by the locals over there who were passing by each camp in the desert just to entertain, truly amazing, and unforgettable memories. Finally it was pretty dark and around 10.45pm we left Derawar Fort.. the sand- dust was still and the visibility was really really low! It took us quite an effort to find our way out specially with Kizzi’s cultus following us so we had to make sure that we are not sitting in 4x4 so that the cultus behind can follow us easily. It took us again almost 2 hours to reach back to the Guest House.. and finally we got to meet the special Lahore PakWheelers including saifi007, mrhot2000, Ilyas Burki…. It was pleasure meeting people from Lahore.. though we didn’t get to chat a lot as they had just arrived and must have been tired. Everybody in their rooms locked up .. probably sleeping I guess ? but Karachi people .. sleeping that early ? well it was must be a mistake LOL! We discussed all sort of crap logics, and etc! around 4 or 5 am it was time to hit the bed as tomorrow we had to travel back to Cholistan Rally… ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
9th March 2008
Early morning of Karachities.. 10:00am lol! We left for Cholistan Rally which we sure would have started as the time to start was 8:00 am.. it took us a while to reach to Cholistan due to a bit more traffic today as compared to yesterday. After reaching Cholistan, we saw many 4x4’s returning at the finish line and most of their fronts were not looking really great and drivers seemed very much tired! All the while Shani606 was there with us to keep us company it was quite interesting to watch how the 4x4’s managed to finish the rally in such condition. The results of the rally can be seen on PakWheels forums incase if you are interested along with all the details and pictures. Around 5pm we left from Cholistan and had a mini-break in the middle for Chai Paratha. Once we reached the Guest house, it was decided earlier to have a dinner meet with the Islamabadi Members, around 8pm we left for a restaurant around 25kms from our Bahawalpur Guest house, the dinner was really great.. except for some people who didn’t like it very much.. it happens all of the time LOL! Later after dinner, as per our plan we had decided to leave for Karachi early in morning but after further discussion we decided to leave at 4am without any reason! Meanwhile we had a discussion with KPSheikh who was in our room till 3am, he also was coming to Karachi and had plans to leave at 8am along with Rumano (sorry if the spelling of Rumano is different from this one). Anyways it was time to leave for Karachi. 4am really early morning.. left Bahawalpur Guest House, by this time the odometer was showing 1238 kms.
10th March 2008
Another few hundred kilometers without major stops except few stops for breakfast [though we found breakfast at only one of the stops rest of them didn’t had much to offer] we traveled all the way to Sukkur, and at 1.00pm we stopped at same “dhabba” we did when going to Bahawalpur, we had our lunch stomach full all set to go.. just wanted to mention here that Kizzi didn’t sleep whole night, no nap stops in between.. he was driving all the way whereas his companions CharterAli and GtiR were taking nap turns hehe, at 8.10pm we touched Hyderabad, and for no reason again we stopped at the same Caltex Pump to buy some junk food! LOL! From there onwards we split the directions at Nooriabad as Libra went off to drop Furhammand Ehtishaam and GtiR, whereas Kizzi dropped TimelessFahad, CharterAli, Jag.. and then himself!
P.S. If I’ve missed anyones name, it’s probably that I forgot to mention unintentionally, so kindly don’t take it personally..
Well that’s all from my side.
Cheers,
Jag
Jaan99 in action on his Wrangler Download Now - 1.37 mb
Jaan99 in action on his Wrangler 2 Download Now - 1.85 mb
Folk music at Cholistan Desert Download Now - 0.79 mb
Folk music at Cholistan Desert 2 Download Now - 1.61 mb
