DNCR’s Bird-watching Trail at Mandhoti Wetlands
A Pictorial Travelogue of Bird-watching at Mandhoti Wetlands
It’s almost 10 o’clock now, yet I am not feeling too tired to retire for the day! Strange!
The day actually went off so well, full of actions – starting with setting off very early in the morning, when people were still in deep sleep at homes under the comfort of warm blankets.
This 3rd Sunday of December — the first harsh winter of the season broke loose over DNCR, shattering the records of last 15 years or so!
13 Jeepers of DNCR Trailraiders (defying the rule of not exposing into biting cold of early foggy morning), finally responded joining the “First ever Bird-watching Drive” to the wetlands of Mandhoti village, approx 55 km from Gurgaon.
One after another, the Jeepers (with family & their brave children) coming from Delhi, Noida & Gurgaon started arriving at the pre-planned assembly point near the Hero Chowk in Gurgaon on NH-48 from 5.45 a.m.
That means, Jeepers from Noida & Delhi must have set out from their homes around 5 in the morning!
By the time everybody assembled for a small chit-chat, the time was close to 7 – losing almost an hour from our starting time planned!
Our dear Jeeper friend Kannav, drove down all the way from his home in Gurgaon at the assembly point, just to meet us and wishing us good luck. He had to drop out at the last moment due to some muscle injury in his arm.
“Bird-watching Drive” to Mandhoti Village wetlands in Rohtak, finally flagged off in a _’Jeep convoy’_ at 15 min past 7 in the morning.
As we gradually headed away from City limit towards the countryside with no sign of Sunrise, dense fog was quickly engulfing all over.
Driving thru narrow single roads thru vast farmlands without any street lights in that thick fog, grew more & more difficult & tensing with almost Zero visibility. It was only the pair of red Tail Lights of the Jeep in front that was helping a lot to follow blindly!
Just think of our Marshall, Shiv S Tripathi, leading the convoy in that challenging drive, with no tail light to follow for him! BRAVO Shiv 👍🏼
Leaving behind the dist limits of Gurgaon, we took on the Jhajjar highway. The thick fog also seemed to be slowly diluting to a much better visibility, with the Sun slowly coming out, but with great difficulty.
– By DNCR TrailRaiders
(Written by Sh Abhay Mittra)
DNCR’s Drink and Dinner at Army Golf Club
Let's have our next Drink and Dinner amongst one of the most prestigious class of our country...
DNCR Trailraiders Fitness Drive – Sep 8th, 2019
Inviting you all to the very first DNCR Trailraiders fitness drive…
Walking the jungle (7 km walk)
When: Sunday, 8th September
Where: Jahanpanah city forest(Don Bosco side)
Time: 5:00 am sharp…
Followed by a mouth watering breakfast…
Independence drive to Kufri – DNCR Trailraiders and Club Himalayan Devils, Chandigarh
CHD and DNCR went out for a Social Cause and Jeep Trail on Aud 10th, 2019.
Original Agenda:
Hello Jeepers,
Over a casual meetup over coffee, one of the Jeepers asked – Why we travel so much and why at all in a Jeep?
The only answer that came gushing to our minds like a giant wave was – these mountain trails, forests and other serene locations have given us so much to cherish and enjoy and feel blessed about being born here, that we owe it all to Mother Nature and now its our turn to give back to the nature what we took from it – Drive for a cause.
We smiled in agreement and then continued the question … And why travel in a Jeep? … Well, that’s because only the heart and muscle of a Jeep can feel responsible towards its driver – to get us to the destination safe n sound and to get us out of trouble – be it Sand, Snow, Mud or even Rock! Everyone unequivocally agreed that if a machine can be built to show a sense of responsibility, we humans have it our blood, let’s do more for our nature.
I’d say as time passed by, even the Jeepers are becoming Trail Rated !
So, after the huge success of 2018 Independence day trail based on No Plastic theme, this Independence day month we’ve planned to drive for a social cause spreading the message of water conservation – Save Water, Save Earth and leave a good future for our children and our children’s children.
A joint effort by DNCR Trailraiders and Club Himalayan Devils, the trail is planned for 10th and 11th August 2019 (Saturday and Sunday).
Jeep India has always come forward for social causes which concerns the general public – and the best example is the all too famous Jeep drive to ferry voters from remote locations to their respective polling stations – that was heart warming. Drawing our cues from that and hoping you’ll undoubtedly want to continue promoting social causes, we seek your help in motivating us by promoting the cause to begin with, and along with that promote the Jeep brand via sponsorship in the best way feasible. We leave it to your goodwill and fine sense of marketing to help us in any way you feel will help us market the brand and also flash the Jeep brand. Be it food, dinner and goodies like T-Shirts etc or in cash to help us balance our logistics.
Below is an overview of our plan:
We have finalized the majestic Toshali Royal View Resort @ Kufri Chail road for our 1 night stay.
Our drive plan is as below:
- DNCR team will start at 3:30 AM from Delhi and reach the Himalayan Expressway Toll Plaza @ Chandimandir at around 7:00 AM
- CHD team will gather at the toll at 7:00 AM, in wait for our DNCR band of brothers.
- We all will do the traditional Jeep Wave-n-Hug and move towards the resort at 7:30 AM
- Our 1st stop will be at Sadhupul for 15-30 minutes for taking photos.
- Our 2nd stop (tentative) will be at Chail Palace as a point of interest.
- Final stop at destination by 2:30 PM, where all will relax for 3-4 hours before setting the scene for a splendid Bonfire, Karaoke, DJ, Live Music, Games, which are all essentials for knowing each other better, making new friends, and sharing our Jeep stories.
Jeeper’s are proud of their Jeeps, and Jeep is proud of its unadulterated 7 decades of legacy ! So, with your co-operation, we intend to take this legacy and pride to a new level by campaigning Save Water Save Earth to spread awareness about the importance of what makes 70% of our earth out of which only 10% is drinkable. We’d say, lets partner to do our bit for the environment.
When Jeeps roar, people pay attention and listen…
Logo Unveiling of DNCR-TrailRaiders – May 12, 2019
The DNCR TrailRaiders’ logo Unveiled...
Ever Since its inception in November, 2017, DNCR TraiRaiders have been using the logo of its parent club “Indian Jeepers” as there were certain delays observed in its own Logo design.
The logo design was shared with some jeepers of DNCR for their recommendations; who in turn came up with some exceptional ideas for it, derived out of sheer enthusiasm. The ideas were so awesome and irresistible, that framing those endless brilliant ideas in a small 100mm circle became more & more difficult and finalizing the logo took much more time than expected.
Continuous follow ups & design meetings with experts and sharing ideas ultimately gave us a rough sketch of what we were looking for. Final crafting, processing and designing of the logo was handled carefully by our Co admins.
The DNCR TrailRaiders’ logo prominently displays the Indian Jeepers sign right in its heart showing its everlasting bonding with it.
The mountains in the middle take cue from the mighty mountainous terrains we have around.
Analog Compass behind the mountains across the horizon are a clear indicator of our intents, our limits and our jeeps. It shows that wherever a Compass works on this planet, we intend to have a trail there.
The tyre treads all across the border depict the all-round, all weather, all terrain capabilities of our jeeps.
The super logo launch event of DNCR TrailRaiders on 12th May, 2019 at the Off Road Adventure Zone (ORAZ) will be witnessed by the highest numbers of jeeps (more than 50 jeeps, 55 jeepers and their families,) making it the biggest single group event throughout the country. It will be second in number after the Karnal trails jointly organised by DNCR TrailRaiders, CHD and FCA, whereby around 64 jeeps participated. Our beloved jeepers have contributed in every possible manner in the endeavour to make this event a success and laying the foundation stone for some of the biggest trails in the coming future.
We are highly thankful to jeepag.com and the associate groups to make the things happen by sharing their ideas and experiences.
We are also thankful to #jeepindia #jeeptrails #jeeplife for giving us a common reason to grow together as a community.
Original Agenda:
Overlanding The Cold Desert – Jun 15-22, 2019
Long winding roads to picturesque valleys through a cold mountain desert; snow-crowned mountains with intermittent greenery and picture-perfect villages welcome you when you set foot into Spiti Valley. Bordered on all sides by the Himalayas, Spiti Valley, located in Himachal Pradesh, has an altitude of 12,500 feet above sea level, and is one of the coldest places in the country.
The term Spiti means ‘The Middle Land’, separating India from Tibet. Scantily populated, Spiti is an adventure lover’s paradise!
DNCR Trailraiders’ Breakfast Drive to Jewar, Yamuna Expressway – Feb 24th, 2019
Trailraiders, Let’s join together this Sunday, 24th February, 2019 at 7.30 AM to have a drive at one of the Finest Expressways of India – The Yamuna Expressway, followed by a finger licking breakfast.
Itinerary
– Gurgaon jeepers to assemble at 7.00 AM opposite Ambience Mall (our regular pitstop).
– Meeting with Delhi / Noida / northern jeepers at DND flyway ( just after crossing toll plaza from Delhi Side) 7.45AM.
– Leave for Yamuna expressway through Noida Greater Noida expressway.
– Reach Jewar by 9.30.
– Breakfast / Gupshup at Yamex till 11.00.
– Those who wish to have a chit chat or those who want to leave, are free to do so…
DNCR Jeepers : Breakfast Drive @ Murthal
Itinerary : DNCR Jeepers : Breakfast Drive @ Murthal
We have shortlisted Mannat Dhabha as the venue. Mannat Dhabha lies before the toll plaza and is second in the cluster of those 5 to 6 dhabhas on our left and plan to reach the venue by 9:15 AM.
07:45 AM – Gurgaon Jeepers will assemble at the Ambience Mall and shall there after proceed to the meetup point.
07:45 AM – Delhi and Noida Jeepers will meet at Millennium Park.
08:45 AM – All the Jeepers reach the meetup point, at the bus stand odd 500 meters away after the Mukarba Chowk’s and click a few pictures.
09:15 AM – The convoy will leave for the Mannat Dhabha, Murthal.
We know there are always last minute delays but we will try our level best to be on time!
CHEERS!!!
North Jeep Group – Independence Day Trail – Aug 15th, 2018
A Drive against use of PLASTIC
22nd of July, 2018, around 11AM, we (Ayush, Kannav, Kunal, Mohit & Rizul.. aka jeepag.com co-founders) had a quick chit chat on a conference call to meet midway from Tricity & NCR over breakfast and plan for the upcoming trails and drives.. Eventually we also checked the pulse of fellow jeepers and they were more than keen to join us over for this short drive.
After just a small ignition, it didn’t took much time for the engine to warm up and vroom, just like our jeeps….
The soft clay started taking the desired shape and the plan was formulated to utilize the Independence Day to have a small meet and greet breakfast drive by a few interested jeepers from DNCR and Tricity… And agreed to meet all the jeepers from Tricity & NCR at Karnal.
While we were going through registration process of collecting details, we checked with jeepers to come out with a theme for the Independence Day drive where Saurabh Sharma came up with a wonderful idea of “Say No To Plastic”… We were already in parallel discussions with FCA to help us support the event and it was this point where #jeepindia to step in, which was very well accepted by them, although the time was very short.
A number of jeeps and the list of participants was freezed upon and details were shared with FCA officials for necessary arrangements and got unconditional support from #JeepIndia, #Landmark Delhi #WSL Mohali #RahulJeep Karnal #eventsolutions to plan the drive in their respective regions and help the fellow jeeprs.
The closed group meet of 5 jeepers slowly started to turn out as a trail and the numbers gradually started increasing from 5 to 12 to 20 to 35 and finally 61 jeepers along with families registered for the drive.. Which surely was no more just a breakfast drive 🙂 🙂
Sadly due to time and logistics constraints, we were to close registration and say no to many fellow jeepers 🙁 🙁
It was a well planned event by Jeep India. DNCR jeepers received a warm welcome at Landmark Jeep, Moti Nagar with Mr. Harmeet Gill (from FCA) briefing about the dos and donts which was followed by breakfast. Same welcome was received by Tricity jeepers as WSL Mohali dealership which was well taken care of by Mr. Nikhil Jaspal (the official Trail organiser for Jeep).
#eventSolutions planned the event so well that the jeepers from NCR & Tricity reached Noor Mahal, Karnal with a warm personalised welcome at the same time and the visuals were well captured by their photography team using drone cameras…
The jeepers were not at all ready to rest a little after the long drive and straightaway meetings and introductions started between inter state jeepers of the North. The introduction session was concluded with introduction of JEEPag, introduction of Indian Jeepers and a welcome speech cum drill by Mr Nikhil. The JEEPag team and Event solutions teams were further introduced to fellow jeepers. This was followed by fingerlicious snacks & lunch along with chit-chat with each others.
FCA, #jeepindia was more than generous to support the event by arranging delicious food and T-shirt for all the participants.
Carrying the theme of “Say no to plastic” a little further, the jeepers cleaned the near by areas as a gesture of caring for a cleaner India #swatchBharat. Despite it being a hot day, the yung jeep kids were simply more than cheerful and happy to be a part of the clean drive. Most of us were clearly inspired by the young guns to start up.
All the social activities were followed with an off roading trail with a specifically selected a d curated area.
Lastly a message to society was delivered by forming “NO PLASTIC” through preplanned placement of 51 jeeps showing that “Responsible Jeepers care for our environment” and again the moments were captured by drone camera.
After a well spent day by jeepers at Karnal it was time to bid adieu untill we meet again…
Stay tuned @www.jeepag.com for more details..
Chandigarh
- 15 August – 8:30 AM – Meet at WSL Mohali Dealership to have Tea/ Coffee and Sandwiches followed by Registration and number and Jeepag stickers.
- 9:00 AM – Flag Hoisting ceremony at the Dealership.
- 9:30 Am the Convoy will depart towards Karnal.
- 12:00 PM – Expect to reach Hotel Noor Mahal, Karnal.
- Meet and Greet Delhi NCR Jeepers over Tea & Coffee .
Delhi NCR
- 15 August – 8:00 AM – Meet at Landmark Jeep, Moti Nagar, Delhi to have Tea/ Coffee and Sandwiches followed by Registration and number and Jeepag stickers.
- 9:00 AM – Flag Hoisting ceremony at the Dealership.
- 9:30 Am the Convoy will depart towards Karnal.
Planned activity at Karnal
- 12:00 PM we expect to reach Karnal Hotel Noor Mahal
- Meet and Greet Chandigarh & Delhi NCR Jeepers over Tea & Coffee.
- Merchandise stall to be set up at the Karnal Stop over Point
- Small briefing along with lunch and leisure time for all to Talk and mix with each other over Lunch.
- 2:30 PM to 4:00 PM we’ll do a small off-road trail near the Resort & a small cleanliness drive.
- 4:00 PM we depart .
The Still Photography will be done by SoulMate team.
