This trip has been in discussion for a few months on the GLASS forum, with a bit of banter going back and forth, mainly about preparing vehicles, ie fitting winches and snorkels. As this was to be a "mooch" or "recce", I was going to take the Sport (rather than potentially damage the Estate), which was already suitably equipped.
Alarm at 05:00, leave home at 06:05, arrive Newtown (Wales) 07:50, in time for a McD coffee to await the other two vehicle (a fourth having lost a wheel bearing the day before). 08:30 would see Stu and Alan arrive in the Daihatsu Fourtrack 2.8TDi and off we headed to Mclyneth to meet up with Ed and his £600 Disco dirty laner. This is where we discovered my Sport had sprung a petrol leak - a visit to a petrol station for some jubilee clips, would stem the flow, just.
Alan (GLASS Shropshire Rep) had researched the route, although none of us had driven it. First lane of the day:
Hmm, that looks a bit narrow for a BOAT.
A recce on foot suggests that it is drivable, although very scratchy:
After a few hundred yards, the lane opened up, sort of, well width ways it did, but it closed down in height:
It was quite over grown in places:
The Disco suffered a little with height, collecting a little damage, whilst the Spots' tree sliders lapped it up:
The Daihatsu faired surprisingly well, even though on AT tyres:
The "mechanical bow saw" had to be used on this one:
Now it all went a little awry, as the track was severely washed out, with perhaps a 12' sheer drop:
We debated what to do, discussing different options. The consensus was to about turn... easier said than done.
Ed drives the Disco up into the woods and Lawrence follows, this allows the Daihatsu to drive round a large tree and back onto and up the track:
To give the Disco more space to manoeuvre, the Sport tries to drive further into the woods, but the slope gets the better of the tires - so out comes the tree stop and winch:
Although with a little more space, Ed has a coming together with a tree and dents the nearside wing, removing the indicator and trim panel in the process. To make matter worse, the Disco then gets cross axeled on the track:
so out come the strops, choke chain and the hi-lift(s)
Lawrence too has a tree incident with the Sports rear door handle, but otherwise manoeuvre's back on to the track with little drama.
Three hours is a long time to be stuck in a lane, but in hind sight, it was a good learning experience.
Now running well off schedule, we break for lunch and a damage assessment - the scenery and the weather are stunning.
The other two lanes (I) attempted were a little easier (sort of), but each had their own character and still stunning views over the Welsh countryside:
Thanks Alan, that was a cracking day out.
Lawrence
