As usual the Wayfarer is a pleasant drive with no surprises until we came to this:
It would appear that a farmer had tried to drive up the grassy slope on the right and slid back down again, the drop from the grass to the track was too much for the truck and it fell onto its side.
We hung around for a few minutes to see if anyone came back for it so we could lend assistance but the weather started turning for the worst so we pressed on.
Again it was fairly uneventful until we got about halfway to the top where there were sheets of ice across the track, Not just a thin layer but 4" thick sheets. Made for some interesting passing of gate posts I can tell you
At the top we only stopped for a minute or two to survey the bombhole:
Before heading down the other side. It was only about 300 meters down we met 2 Land Rovers/Range Rovers (they all look the same to me
) trying to climb up the stepped sections. Here though they were virtually impassable going up the hill as the track had turned to ice. We all got our tow ropes out and joined them together, about 100' of rope and shackles and pulled them up the ice. fair play to my old girl she never faltered once 
Here you can see John coming down with the ice stretching maybe 60'+ behind him, I dont have any pics of the LR boys but John might.
Most of the deeper water splashes had huge chunks of ice in them which made it difficult for me at a couple of sections as I was breaking up the ice which then went under the wheels leading to a loss of traction. Like driving over submerged ice boulders.
After the wayfarer we stopped in the village for coffee in the hotel and warmed ourselves by the fire for a half hour or so before starting splashy lane. This had some rivers of ice in one rut and gave us a giggle but more importantly it had deep water splashes with the aforementioned submerged ice waiting to be broken under wheel. This led to me getting stuck at the deepest one as all 4 wheels had nothing but a 4" thick sheets of ice under them.
We continued on, exploring here and there with the general aim to find the Pheasant steps (I have only done them once and someone else was leading so only had a rough idea of where they are) which by chance we found on the last lane of the day
Again weather was against us so not too many pics.
The steps were eventful to say the least, I made an error in judgement and slipped sideways into a big hole leaving the truck in a dangerously close to 45degree angle. A turn of the steering wheel brought some stability back to the situation and a tow out from john and everything was hunky dory again
For anyone thinking of doing the Pheasant steps beware that it has deteriorated considerably even in the 6 months or so since I was last there. This I suspect has been caused by people trying to go up them rather then down them along with the considerable amount of rain we have had this year of course.
Still though, that little mishap shows that it pays to be vigilant at all times when offroad as I thought that hole I slipped into was just a puddle.
All in all a great day out and we covered quite a lot of ground considering the late start.
Here are the other pics:
This one especially is for Ste (Drift):
Pleased you all had a great day out!
