SMC DRUMCLOG EVENT
I met up with George at the mini tesco in cambuslang at 8:30 a.m he had a red landrover kitted out with big tyre`s, winch on the front bumper, rollcage,sporting a trailer tent on the towbar he got for a fair price. George gave me 50p tour of his landy an told me about his bargian trailer tent jealous yes i was i want a trailer tent at a reasonbile price like him. So we set off via blantyre then hamilton then strathvan then onto the counrty roads. The sun was hot sky was blue i had the roof n windows off an bugs blowing through my hair the mud tyre`s humming after many twist n turns through place`s i never been even a village called "Quarter" which is funny considering im in a place called "Halfway" we eventual hit drumclog we took a left turn at a church an after a few miles we came to a gate with a hill to its left with a muddy gravely trials heading up it. We had arived at Drumclog at 9.am. The campsite was a Dry mud carpark with allsorts of 4wd motors. i met Brian the orginiser of the event had a quick hello etc and i enterd the campsite.
The campsite was weird surrounded by hills some tree`s there was a river nearby aswell an a pile of pallets in the middle there was a few people Zombieng about who had camped the night before an were not happy been up this early i think. I took a wander round looking a the 4x4 on offer there was variose creations some you reconised some i was not sure what they were I was the only frontera.
I got myself a sandwich an bottle of water from my piece(sandwich) box thought breakfast time. The site started to come alive people every where with looks of maddness an foaming at the mouth it was going to happen.
Then one by one engine began to start 4x4 were shuffling about creating dust clouds people were getting fidgety this went on for half an hour you could fell the tension an could hear rumbles from the all the engines then a small convoy of jimny jeeps went past then another convoy landrovers, suzuki, surfs started one by one 4x4 left the campsite out the gate an turned left in no particular order i joined the rear of a convoy so i could follow. we followed this gravel/trail turned right an it began we crossed of some bumpy grass ridges that had tracks an rocks an water soft mud a suzuki got stuck had to be pulled out i diverted past the boggy bit not wanting to get stuck in the first minutes i watched variose 4x4 cross the muddy boggy bit an in the distance saw the first convoy climbing a large hill or brae at speed. This was it im going to have to climb that hill oh dear i followed the convoy through a rock stream taking a right course following this high banked stream then we hit the hill. it went straight up i had to put the foot down to climb i followed a black suzuki up the hill the frontera was revving at 3500 rpm bouncing about the hill angle changed to an even more steeper angel in the rear view mirro the bottom was miles away i thought im going to flip backwards down this hill the frontera just kept going i put the foot to the floor heavy squeezing evey bit of horsepower i could an reached the summit all i could see was the bonnet an sky i thought i was just gonna take off i had no idea what was in front of me i knew it must be flat as the suzuki had made it over i went over an it was flat ish thank god i thought i saw the rest of the 4x4 i parked up wandered to the edge an looked down wow it was far i then watched another convoy of surfs n landrover an jimny`s take same path as i did an watched so try climb the really steep bit one had to reverse all the way back down as he just could not get over the top.
Once every one made it over we hit a place called death valley it was a bog i stepped into a part an sunk to my knee`s the jimnys had went a ahead an crossed this i an few other opted for the senice route. I spent my day with nico climbing over rocks, rivers, mud, woods, up hill down hills i went down the pipe both side`s i drove along a river with water all around me created a bow wave i got stuck side ways i got diffs stuck an jammed my prop had to be pulled out backwards into a river i was at all angles i hit a tree drove over a tree got hit by a tree i stuck my head out the window to navigate through some mud an wheels spinned it all over my face i splashed through muds an water, the frontera took some heavy rock knocks underneath i manged to knock my drivers window out the mechanism its now sitting indside my door i put a large dent in my fuel guard lucky i made that metal cover over the tank or i would of split my tank.
The frontera just kept going it took every knock an bang i traveled over a rocky river bed with large boulders an it never lost grip, apart from my diff getting stuck riasing the wheels above the ground it took a beating. on ahill i went down thanks to my guide nico saying follow me was just a stupid drop all the weight was on the front wheels i put trust in first gear an allowed that to drive me down either way it was going down this hill i was pooing myself i was with a Nico in his suzki vitarra buggy he showed me round the site an made my day at drumclog awesome i had a friggin laugh scared myself got sunburnt to hell i made it back home aswell. There was a few 4x4 casualties Nico bust a drive shaft which he stripped an replaced in an hour, one of the jimny`s bust a propshaft , a shocker and part of the suspension , a landrover bust an diff i think then nico split his diff at the end. Every one was friendly an helpfull an i had a great day an want to got back.