CJ7 rescues Hummer H2

For those who weren’t there, I took this picture last Sunday, 21st May, out in Phase VIII, only about a half a km from where Karachi’s aspiring rally drivers were launching their 4×4s into the criss-crossing offroad trails in the empty plot that will be the venue for next Sunday’s rally, supposedly the first of its kind in Karachi.
A multitude of Land Cruisers, Patrols, Pajero Evolutions, Wranglers, Jimneys and various other 4×4s had come out to get a feel of the place, running up and down the trails and trying not to run into each other. Meanwhile, this 2005 Hummer H2 was at the other end of the still unpaved road milling about a couple of dunes. Apparently, the big boy didn’t want to play with the all the other leaner and meaner machines out there.
Back at the rally point, someone in the crowd that had assembled there suddenly drew attention to the lone Hummer stranded away on the distance churning up angry showers of sand this way, then that way. A few minutes later, with the Hummer well and truly stuck, the sand stopped flying and the occupants came out wondering in amazement as to how the unstoppable had become mired in the lowly sand of Phase VIII. As other vehicles passed by one by one, a few began making the detour to take in this rare sight. Taimur Mirza was then heading towards the rally point himself in his Jeep CJ7 when this small gathering, with the haplessly high centred Hummer as its crown jewel, caught his eye. Being the Good Samaritan that he is, TM stopped to see if he could lend a helping hand, or in this case, as it would be, a helping winch. No stranger to pulling such rescues out in the Phase VIII area, TM is considered by many an avid offroader to be their guardian angel.
First, TM hooked up a tow strap to the mired Hummer and tried pulling it out, but its heft just proved too much for the Jeep, itself no lightweight. Realising that trying this again would only make the Jeep dig in too, TM broke out the big guns - the 12,000 lbs rated Toyota winch gracing the front bumper of the Jeep. Of course, since this also required that the Jeep be pulling back as well, lest the winch drag the Jeep right up to the Hummer’s rear bumper, Dr. Mansur assumed driving duties while TM waited outside with the winch controller in hand. Ready or not, the winch proved just far too much for even the Hummer and yanked it right out.
But wait, our story doesn’t end here (just a little longer now)… the Big Boy’s pride was obviously hurt. How dare a lowly sand dune put up such resistance to the Big Bad Granddaddy of all offroad machines? So the Big Boy backed up a few feet and lunged again head first into the exact spot from where he’d been pulled out moments earlier. As one can imagine, the result was no different this time, but he was able to back out under his own power. Then he went back at it with a longer run up. Finally, all 6.0 litres of V8 fury came out clawing and biting at the sand, throwing all 6400 lbs of the beast right through the dune rather than over it. As if to add insult to injury, in the Hummer’s wake was Omar Salim in a beat-up, fresh-off-the-auction-block CJ7 with nothing more than a raspy sounding 2.8 litre 4 cylinder diesel, which ambled up and scooted right over the same dune without much drama at all, not once BUT TWICE!!