Following a days laning, Sandy had booked us into Langdale Quest, where we though ourselves ready for the Extreme Experience (black route), and whilst we had only one winch between us, after me explaining how the second vehicle could be winched out using tree strops, snatch blocks and choke chains, off we set.
Unlike laning, here, we could let our hair down:
The "tricky bits" were linked together by easy forest tracks, with our map indicating which marker boards we should turn off at. Conviniently, the winching spots were marked by a yellow dot.
So, at the appropriate place, we turn off and head into the dark of the forest. Hmm, perhaps we better get out and walk the section first. Armed with a short stick, the muddy water gets poked and prodded. There are plenty of trees to winch off, so off I go...
...I did alright as well, until I got bogged in the mud. Out with the winch then... no problem at all. Next came Sandy who made it through with a little more power and commitment:
We continued on, not expecting any more winching until later in the day...
Then, it all went a bit wrong:
At the end of a long wet and rutted forest section, there were a couple of rocks to clamber over:
It looked like the LWB Frontera would damage a sill, so seeing as there were other tracks (perhaps for the same reason) I made a slight detour - oops, wrong decision:
I appear to be hung up on a submerged tree root - Sandy tugs me back and I try a wider approach:
Does'nt look good, does it.
I give up and get Sandy to tug me back into the woods and decide to try the two rocks again - this time we took broken logs and smaller rocks and piled them up to make a ramp - easy (why did'nt we do that to start with?)
Unfortunately, the tree root has caused some damage to the sill, partly due to my over-exuberance as well I suppose - at least the damage is not structual.
Oh, I tried to unwind the winch, but the clutch would not disengauge - I wonder why:
Anyway, after a full can of energy drink, I was repaired and we carried on:
We met a number of great people in the forest and exchanged many a tale.
We will be going again, before the year is out.
Lawrence
:)
