Mahindra Adventure and WBB Successfully conclude historic ‘Mustang Overland Drive’
Mumbai, 14 May 2018: Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M), in association with extreme overlanding pioneers ‘Women Beyond Boundaries’ (WBB), recently concluded the historic ‘Mustang Overland Drive’ enabling the World’s First All Women Drivers crew, amongst others to reach Lo Manthang in Upper Mustang, Northern Nepal under its Mahindra Adventure umbrella brand.
The fleet managed to conquer one of the three most treacherous and challenging roads in the Himalayan belt (India, Nepal and Bhutan put together). This drive lived up to the Mahindra philosophy of First Time Right as Mahindra, an Indian Manufacturer supported convoy of vehicles successfully reached Lo Mathang for the first time.
The expedition set off from New Delhi with eighteen adventurers, spear headed by five women drivers, covering 3000kms over a span of thirteen days in seven 4WD Mahindra Scorpios and one Mahindra Thar. The convoy entered Nepal via Gorakhpur, making their way into the pretty Pokhara Valley. Further, they picked their way along the tricky, nearly non-existent Himalayan roads as they made their way into the Mustang Valley, negotiating a daunting mix of terrain from river beds, rocky sections, gravel, mud tracks, slush and multiple river crossings.
An erstwhile kingdom, Mustang borders the Tibetan plateau. The Old Silk Route that descended into Nepal from the Kashgar region (now in China), wound its way through the valley. With an average elevation of around 13,000 feet, the area hosts two of the higher peaks in the Greater Himalayas that stand above 8,000m – the Dhaulagiri & Annapurna mastiffs. The entire expedition consisted of challenging routes that encircled the mighty Annapurna peak. It spiralled its way through a picturesque assortment of landscapes including lush forests, Kali Gandaki river gorge (the deepest gorge in the world), high altitude deserts and snow.
Nidhi Tiwari, an accomplished extreme terrain driver, led the expedition and was supported by the experienced Mahindra Adventure officials who ensured the convoy’s expedition-ready Mahindra Scorpio 4x4s ran trouble free even with an average odometer reading of over 70,000 kilometres on them.
About Mahindra Adventure
A unique concept to showcase the tough and rugged DNA of Mahindra vehicles, Mahindra Adventure functions as an umbrella brand with a series of self-drive overland adventure expeditions organized under its banner.
Mahindra Adventure was launched as an independent entity for all adventurous activities, in 2011, headed by Bijoy Kumar Y, Chief of Adventure Initiatives. He is a motoring enthusiast and the erstwhile editor of a popular motoring magazine.
The Mahindra Adventure calendar comprises a series of experiential marketing events throughout the year such as the popular off-roading event, the Great Escape, several Challenges (sporting events in keeping with the company’s promise of providing adrenaline pumping challenges), Multi-Day Special Escapes, such as the Monastery Escape (10 days), Royal Escape (6 days), Authentic Bhutan (8 days), Himalayan Spiti Escape (10 days), & the Summit – a drive to the Everest base camp (14 days) .
To spread the DNA of off-roading, the Mahindra Adventure team has also recently launched the Mahindra Adventure Off-Road Training Academy in Igatpuri to encourage off-roading amongst the adventure seekers.
Mahindra Adventure Off-road Training Academy is 28-acre facility, India’s first dedicated facility providing a one stop solution to learning everything about a Mahindra 4WD vehicle and how to use it to its full potential. Through this, we hope to leverage the brand’s off-road heritage, showcase the vehicles abilities and give the participants the confidence to explore the limits of the vehicles. Custom-made Mahindra Thars equipped with radio sets are exclusively used as training vehicles at the facility.
Team Mahindra Adventure has also been blazing the motorsport arena with their rally-prepared– Super XUV500, since its inception. Mahindra’s cheetah inspired XUV500 won the overall championship at the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2017.
