My weekend out.

[pauldaf44]

Ive just got back from a thourighly excellent weekend. I will write up a proper report tomorrow but im knackered now so for now have a few teaser pics from my weekend of muddy play.







and yes that last one does show an off road prepped defender 90 stuck on a tarmac road your eyes are not decieving you. Oh has he been getting some serious ribbing for that!!

[macplaxton]

You've just reminded me of this:

LET'S OFF-ROAD!!!

[pauldaf44]

I got back late last night from this event and must say what a cracking weekend, great food, great site, and great people.

Sadly I was riding shotgun for the weekend as my own Landy broke down late Thursday evening and with the event starting Friday I simply didn't have time to fix it. So I finished Uni at 1 and was picked up and driven to the event in a TD5 90 pickup. No pictures from Friday evening but basicly it was getting to know people, sitting around a camp fire, eating good food and chatting cars.

So on to Saturday lots more Landys turned up in the morning as there were laning trips planned. 3 groups set out on different routes and even a few freelanders and Range Rovers joined in the fun








As the morning went on lots of Landys started grouping up and edging towards the gates obviously eager to go and play and then someone had the sense to banish the interloper and line up the all the Landys for a photo.









At this point we split up into our laning groups and made for the gates

Next instalment the lanes themselves.

[pauldaf44]

A quick jaunt down the A14 in convoy was required to get to the laning route which I must say had been chosen well, reasonably easy but spectacular and challenging enough that they weren't boring.



I took my postion in the second car of the convoy the truck cab Defender which unfortunatly did not make for easy photo taking.



This P38 behind was on standard road tyres and managed remarkably well, he did have a couple of sideways moments but didn't get stuck once. Although we did nearly lose him a couple of times.



and then we got to our first lane nice and simple but a bit wet in places. The council had erected some chicanes at both ends of the byway which were tight to say the least. No problem for us in the 90s but the 110 and and the P38 struggled to make the turns.





A quick rest stop after a bit in a nice pretty location and a chance for a photo of the whole laning party. At this point I jumped into the back of the beige 90 van that was leading the convoy as it was much easier to take photos from.



That little 90 was suprisingly pokey even with its pre TDI 19J engine. Now I shall shut up for a bit and let the pictures talk.









The weather was pretty good to us to be honest, despite the forecast we only had a couple of rain storms.









The soft focus in that last pic is absolutely deliberate and nothing to do with the rear window being covered in spray and me being thrown about in the back of the 90 honest





and then we found a nice little water splash this was tad bumpy but was a pleasant none of us expected. The routes had previously been scouted but none of us actually in the cars on the day had done them before.

[pauldaf44]

Despite the nasty weather I had a rare oppurtunity to get a photo of the tail car which was a rather nice sounding 300tdi 90.

[pauldaf44]

Now if I do say so myself I love that picture!





This last lane had a few good puddles in it which when your in a Landy well you have to play.



After the last lane just as we were heading for base we spotted a fuel stop and seeing as a few of us were running a touch low by then we decided to turn round in a side road and head back to it. Only at this point the numpty of the year award got awarded to the blue truck cab 90 for managing to get stuck on a tarmac road! Just to add insult to injury the recovery process was watched over by a police officer who happened to magically appear 30s after the truck went down the ditch.

[pauldaf44]

And onto yesterday. 4 cars decided they were going down to a nearby pay and play before taking the trip home so I jumped in one to get some photos. It was only after that we realised why only 4 had gone. 3 out 4 suffered damage that had to be repaired before they could be driven home and one of those 3 ended up on a recovery truck after it self destructed its engine.



Lots of mud and lots of getting stuck resulted. Unfortunatly that mud hid a lot of rocks which resulted in one bent steering arm and one fractured fuel tank.





That truck cab really liked to get himself stuck and it took two vehicles anchoring the winch to get him out of that one. Saying that he did attack pretty much everything available at the pay and play, only got stuck twice, and was the only undamaged car at the end of it.



Getting out of that was easier said than done!





Those two discos weren't with us but they certainlly were putting there vehicles to good use!



The end was result of the pay and play was a landy looking like this.

[33grinder]

Nice to see these vehicles doing what they were designed to do.

[Nick]

so those chicanes werent there to stop people going down there in vehicles then?

[pauldaf44]

May 12, 2014 12:37:51 GMT Nick said:

so those chicanes werent there to stop people going down there in vehicles then?

Public byway you have a right to use a vehicle on it. Signs at either end were clear no vehicles November - April inclusive which is fine as its May we were legal.

I think they were there to discourage but the road has vehicular access rights at certain times of the year