The call of the mountains is a very real phenomenon. It's never quite a high-pitched shriek - more like a low-frequency chorus that's drowned out by the noise of the daily grind. You do hear it in the background every once in a while though - and, eventually, you do have to take notice.
I hadn't made a trip to the mountains since the SJOBA rally in March last year, so I was itching to succumb to this ever-present calling. A month or two before SJOBA last year - very early in 2013 - we decided to make a trip to the hills in the hunt for snow. The weather gods were kind enough to greet us with bright sunshine, following which they pelted us with a snowstorm through the night. And this led to some stunning shots the following day of the four compact SUV's that served as the chariots of choice - the Audi Q5, BMW X3, Range Rover Evoque, and Volvo XC60.
Well, four seems as good a number as any - so we went about lining up an intrepid fleet of the same size for this year's adventure. Now, we know from last year that premium compact SUV's can get the job done. They may be crossovers, but a reasonable ride height and four-wheel drive gives them the artillery needed to take on the harshest conditions that Mother Nature can throw at them - well, this side of the Jalori Pass anyway.
The burning question in 2014 is whether we could make a similar trek in more rudimentary, two-wheel drive compact crossovers. Now, the daily grind doesn't let up for too long, so we only had two days over a weekend to make the trip there and back - so, making it all the way to the the Jalori Pass was out of the question. We would set up camp at a home in Mashobra - roughing it out is a relative term, after all - and explore some of the roads and trails in the area. Now, this is not only SJOBA terrain, but also home to the opening day of the Raid de Himalaya - so, it would more than suffice.
The obvious choice for a compact crossover at present is the Ford EcoSport. Now, you may have to wait up to a year to put one in your driveway, but a phone call is all it took to borrow one for a few days. The same was true for the Nissan Terrano, which is essentially a tarted up version of my service car for SJOBA last year - the Renault Duster. Now, we know full well that the Duster is an extremely capable and rugged crossover. I used it to lug around not only a full Gypsy's worth of spare parts and a service crew, but it also served as my recee vehicle - which was my excuse for hurling it around the stages that the Gypsy would later tackle. Let's just say that it passed with flying colours.
