a stone on the road

The title of this post may seem strange at first. For the characters involved, i believe it will bring a smile on their face. A scary smile.

November 15, saturday midnight.

punit,chintan,sarvoday,devashish and myself perhaps were destined to experience the incidents of that night. At 1 am we picked up deva and a pile of logs and sulphur cakes (to light a bonfire) from his home and head towards Troodos mountains. It was a cold chilly night. We were 5 in the car and going uphill at a good speed of 60-70 kmph for quite a while. When the steep climb started, i switched the car to power mode to get more revs and get us up. There was a chill in the air and dense fog which reduced the visibility to barely a few metres. I switched on the hazard lights and was giving dipper signals at a good fast rate just to be more cautious. The mood inside the car was full of fun and enthusiasm, good music and excitement to reach the top and have a great time. Driving in the fog was a first for me but everything was going good. Or in hindsight now, everything except the car engine. Little did we realise what made the fog so dense and reduced our visibility was not fog alone. It was also the smoke bellowing out of the engine. We smelled something burning and then our eyes went to the heating indicator and our jaws dropped. It had almost reached its top. I stopped the car there, openend the bonnet and thick dense smoke gushed outside. Had we not stopped there!!!.

We had coolant and water with us and we poured that into the radiator. I parked the car aside. We were still about 4-5 km away from the Troodos top. We got down and played football in the middle of the road. Probably would have been hired by a good EPL club had they seen us. Moving on, Sarvoday took out his camera phone (N-82 to be specific since he brags about it alot) and started with the proceedings. We clicked a few pics here and there and after about 35-40 mins we resumed our journey ahead. We managed to reach the top without any further trouble. Now was the time for the bonfire and bonhomie. We got the bonhomie not the bonfire though. The chilly wind would just not allow the logs to catch fire. 5 brains could not light a wooden log and we call ourselves engineers. So we just tried and tried till we got tired and fed up of those logs. So we just went back into the car for obviously it was more comfortable than staying out. Since our bonfiire experiment failed and it was 4 am and the degree dropping further, we decided to head home to Limassol much against the wishes of some daredevil (dont remember who were they) guys who suggested to wait till sunrise.

There were 2 roads that led back home. We took the other road, longer and a little more treacherous path. This time it was downhill and by physics the car gathered good speed even when my foot was off the gas. We did not know how to drive downhill. I drove in low gear for a few minutes and then switched back to normal driving gear. Little did we realize, that this small mistake of shifting gears would prove so disastrous and costly. The driving gear and downhill combined to give a very high speed to the car. The car would touch 70-80 kmph with no foot on the gas. It was dark, cold and to be honest, i was scared about driving downhill as well at such high speed. To counter this speed, i put my foot on the brakes. This again proved to be a big big mistake.

The brakes did manage to get the speed down to 45-50. But the brakes were burning out because i had pressed them on throughout the drive. They were wearing out but we did not realize it. All seemed good but the fog had reduced the visibility so much that i could not see a big stone in the middle of the road and drove the front left tire over it with a thud sound. This shook us all. A few metres ahead, i stopped the car on the side and we got down to check. The tire rim was damaged. But more shocking were the brakes. The brakes had become red hot. I took reverse after stopping for a while and that was the most horrific moment of that night. With the gear in reverse, a downhill road the car started gathering speed even though the brakes were pressed hard. The car was not stopping. I put on the handbrakes and brought the car to a halt.

The brakes had failed. On seeing more closely, the front left tire was also flat with rubber pieces coming out.

We tried to contact the speed fire towing service but he was reluctant to believe us and come to pick us up. Through him, we managed a taxi to come and get us. Punit, chintan and deva left in the taxi towards home to try and get help for me and sarvo who stayed back with the car. It was about 6 am. Sarvo and i tried to put on the spare tire but we were unable and how we thank god that we decided to stay there instead of going in a car damaged and without brakes. We managed to get the towing truck come and collect us and the car. At 9 am the truck came and loaded the car behind. Now we were heading back home safely. When we saw the road through which we returmed, we realized how bad it could have been had we not stopped there.

We reached home safely on sunday morning after spending a chilly 3-4 hours in the car. The bonfire did not happen, the bonhomie was ruined but we were spared living to tell this tale, safe and sound.

That stone on the road.