About 35 Willys Jeeps and an assortment of other strange off road creations including a highly modified 8 wheel 6 wheel steer mid engined turbo diesel Steyr Puch.
I rolled FrankenJeep on day 1 while exiting a [ luckily ] dry river, I had successfully got up the bank thanks to the lockers and was getting some spotter advice from someone who I thought was one of our group but turned out to be a villager when I put my right rear tyre over the edge of the embankment.
“Oh #hit” went through my mind when I relealized that the Jeep was at the point of no return and sat suspended for about 2 seconds, I told AdventureBabe to hang on, it is an 8 foot drop and FrankenJeep now has a demolished windscreen [ CJ3, which will be replaced with an older style MB screen ] and some panel damage on the front where it hit a concrete bridge [ yes , there was a f’ ing bridge but this was a competition so it was used by spectators ] bent intake and exhaust snorkels and some minor scratches and dents.
BTW the windscreen was down and took most of the impact when it hit the bridge, more supporting evidence for windcreen down driving
40 people and a couple of snatch straps dragged it halfway back up the emabankment where I had to climb back in and drive it up while the folks held the rope . I also got hit for US$5 for crop damage and US$5 for the labour !
Then after an eventful day we ended up on top of a mountain and we pitched our tent on the undulating ground only to find if we didn’t hold each other we would roll ‘downhill’ .
After working out that a full contact body hug was the solution to hold us still and managing to fall asleep with Indonesian country and western music blaring from another competitors tent.
We where then woken at 2am by a loud explosion [ turned out to be a hand grenade ] and then a 15 minute volley of a couple of thousand rounds of AK47 machine gun fire. Turned out to be a police training for a posting to Aceh a few days later to fight the rebel forces, the rally organizers had stuck us 300 yards from a army and police jungle training camp.
We completed 2 days of competitions and were preparing for day 3 when one of our mechanics learned that his brother had died that morning so we immediately headed back to Jakarta.
I also met an Indonesian revolutionary veteran complete with jackboots, 1944 Russian Gaz and packing a 9mm Luger in a holster waiting to meet the retired General that organized the event. Cool old guy, we ended up smoking some of his Javanese cigars and I will visit him next time I’m in his home town.
So FrankenJeep did something like 30 hours of touring in all sorts of conditions, got a few more tank loads of petro-sene [ kero/petrol mix ; I know how to spot this now after 2 destroyed engines ] and A_Babe and I were completely soaked driving in tropical downpours with no windscreen. The ‘Big ol Fat Rain’ scene from Forrest Gump with all the different types of rain sums it up.
In this pic you can see some of the damage to the windscreen and fender and the body has shifted 1/4 inch to the left, lucky and minor really as FrankenJeep literally tipped onto its side on to river rocks from 8 feet.
Crazy thing was after I checked that my pax still had both arms and legs, no red stuff spurting out and killed the master switch I climbed out to find that I was still puffing my kretek clovebomber [ indo cigarette ] , didn't realize I was still smoking !
The 6 point cage and 5 point harnesses probably saved our lives [ or at least very serious injury ] as without the cage FrankenJeep would have kept rolling until inverted on the rocks crushing both of us.
Some other snippets
1. The local motorsport press photographers say FrankenJeep is a hot item to photograph as I usually get the front wheels 2 or 3 feet in the air during competitions
2. AdventureBabe said loved the trip even though we were both sick with the flu from 3 days of driving in tropical downpours with no windscreen !
3. AdventureBabe was the only female competitor in the event, she is an amazing lady, no complaints , tears or hysterics about the roll over and she hopped straight back in the navigators seat , GUTSY and FEISTY ! [ her grandfather was a revolutionary figure and close friend and confidante of President Sukarno. Her Grand Dad has his pic on one of Indo's bank notes and lots of roads and buildings and stuff named after him ] , she DID get angry when I moved FrankenJeep to set up the tent in the camping ground and it took her an hour to find me in the rain , she was FURIOUS !
4. Oh yeah , she threatened to shoot me once
