Off-road adventure: Driving the Tata Safari Storme to Chikmagalur

In the midst of a coffee estate

If my life has an on/off switch, the wires run through the view out of my room right now. A large French window gives a clear view of the infinity pool in front of me, and about 15 layers of hills make up the background. This particular hill I am on is part of the Urvinkhan estate in Chikmagalur, after driving 750km in the Tata Safari Storme. Five hundred acres of coffee plantations surround me, the air is fresh with a nice nip this winter morning. The coffee I’ve been sipping refuses to kick me out of my slumber. It’s just one of those days that takes you to another world from that you’ve been living in. But lunch won’t be served. I’ve been told that I can’t have more of all this luxury, I’ve got to find my own food. There’s a lake somewhere down the estate. I’m handed a fishing line and shown my way there.

Words by Anand Mohan

Crawling down a slope in the Tata Safari Storme

If you’ve seen a coffee plantation, you’ll know it’s built on the sides of steep slopes and the dirt trails that vein through these plantations can put you through a bit of an adventure. The way the estate plants its coffee has evolved over the past few years. The yield is going to be a lot more this time because the trees haven’t been pruned, but that means all the excess is spilling over the trails. It’s a lot narrower now and I was going to be driving a wide SUV through them. I turn the knob of the Tata Safari Storme VARICOR 400 to 4-Low, slot in to second gear and gently crawl down the slope. As the narrow trail opens to a beautiful lake in the middle of nowhere, if makes me wonder of the hidden gems we have all around the country. There’s so much to explore and I’m happy the Safari Storme is letting me do that.

It took us all of 12 hours the day before to get to Urvinkhan estate

The roads almost all through are fantastic and the last 100km of our 750km drive snakes through forests full of stunning landscapes. It’s driver’s paradise here. The Safari is more of a highway cruiser than a corner carver, but I wasn’t going to let such wonderful roads go to waste. Riding the Tata Safari Storme’s strong wave of torque to catapult me out of corners (there’s 400Nm of it), staying in a lower gear than usual, using the rear wheels to position me out of corners and taking lessons learnt in weight transfer very seriously, I was surprised at how much abuse the Safari could take when enthusiastically driven. Driven right it can bring a smile to your face and set a good tone for my weekend. I could just lounge at the villa, do nothing, and come back with happy memories of a road trip. Until I was told to fend for my food.

Fishing wasn’t that tough

Get a worm to your hook and launch it in and the fish come to the line without much delay. Didn’t test our patience much. There were plenty of fish in the… err, lake. A narrow stream flows on the other side of the lake and feeds it so we decided to test it out. The Safari was back in 4-Low and getting down a rocky descent. You just let the Tata Safari do its thing. Get off the throttle and the brakes and let it ease over large ruts and stones at its pace. We had just got a fresh set of tyres for the drive and grip levels were excellent both on and off road. The stream had little water and wasn’t much of a challenge. Get past it and you enter the other side. A turn around the bank of the lake and we were done with a morning of off-roading.

Weekends for an off-roader usually involve a morning hunting trail followed by a sumptuous lunch

You’ve got to admit we had already done more. Post lunch we were going in to newer trails. Villa Urvinkhan was made as a homestay but its popularity has given estate owner Sunil Gowda the encouragement to expand it into a fully equipped resort and spa. Work is on in other parts of the estate for a restaurant and Sunil was keen on showing us more. We drove up to a new trail with a narrow road cutting through the hill on one side and a ridge on the other. To make it more challenging, a deep rut ran right through this trail. The Safari gets a robust sump guard that lasted through some underbelly scraping. The thing about any 4×4 vehicle is that a few knocks and bruises are inevitable during a drive through the woods, the terrain makes sure you respect it. The minute you get casual with your driving, it will bite you. That’s a part of the adrenaline rush too, to get the Safari safely in and out of the trails. A few light taps to the sump guard and a nasty stone hitting the right footboard aside, the Storme went through all that was thrown at it. If you haven’t broken anything and there are no dents to show, you’ve had a successful run. A full day of off-roading.

“Everything from crawling in 4-Low over tough terrain to driving on fast and smooth dirt roads with power sent to the rear wheels only”

There was a sense of accomplishment by the end of the day

I’ve driven the Tata Safari Storme through three adventures in the past months but none involved such a long stint on dirt. Everything from crawling in 4-Low over tough terrain to driving on fast and smooth dirt roads with power sent to the rear wheels only, the Safari shows a lot of character. Some vehicles aren’t just mechanical devices. When it allows you to do more than the usual, has a breadth of capability that only a few vehicles can match and when you have the story of an adventure to tell, you build a bond with it. I’ve got to say that I’m starting to build that bond with this Safari.

We’ve driven it to interesting places in the past three months and have lived an adventure every single time. Topping it up required some effort and the Urvinkhan estate gave us a platform to do just that. The day ended with us sharing stories of adventures over well-aged single malt around a bonfire. With Floyd playing in the background and dying embers lighting the night sky, our week came to a slow and easy end. If this isn’t a perfect weekend with a 4×4, what is?

Special thanks to Villa Urvinkhan for hosting us. For bookings, visit www.villaurvinkhan.com or call +91 9886059876