Wotcha Foggers....
Now, got a bit of time for a proper post
The day started off with most of us meeting at Notcutts as per the norm...
Then off up to the workshop to grab some essentials and then down to the woods....into the mayhem!!!
It was the muddiest we have ever had it....the already saturated ground had suffered almost a weeks constant rain....so to say it was muddy was kind of an understatement...
The clearing/parking area was such that cars on A/T's or road tyres were struggling just to get parked!!!
Its all fun though...
We set up site in record time and after a brief briefing the fun commenced...
Tom and I dived up the top of the site to cordon off the farm tracks to keep em untouched as much as possible....cheers for the help fella...
My assistant and I then dived into the extraction business.....starting with the pedro
first stuck of many of the day matey!!!
The picnic'ers for today were....(in no particular order)
Retro Pedro - with his co-pilot.....First stuck of the day matey....will take a while to live that one down...As usual pete and his trusty 2.8 shorty were conquering most things, but the mud was making it even challenging for the old special tracks....Cheers for going and trying to help get Louis' Dent-Rover going...poor sod was so looking forwards to it, but his Green-Oval-ish werent having it...
Oh and by the way Pete, Louis has been in the woods and dug some more holes with the digger!!!!(but I think that you might have found them!!!)
Will paint em PINK next time so you can see them (or Kel standing next to them admiringly!!)
Country_est -and sonNice to see trev again, met him when laning down hampshire with Jimbo, but Trev was a picnic virgin so to speak...
His teched up B on buckshot mudders did well in the mud, with some good driving to get the lwb through the woods...got himself impaled on a treestump which had become more of an obstacle as the ruts either side of it got deeper...I arrived after the waffle extraction had failed and trev was trying lifting the car with a bouncy castle he had in the back...carries everything does our trev I think...however the exhaust was blowing slightly and hence the castle wasnt inflating enough, so this was aborted in favour of me laying the mud and cutting the stump out from underneath with the trusty chainsaw...managed to cut 3/4 of it from one side and 1/10th from the other before the chain on the saw was killed by the flints in the stump and it would cut no more...but it was most of the way through and a sharp reverse up by trev was enough to break the remaining bit as it hit the chassis on his B where the torsion bar adjuster is...then he could reverse off it and we could attach the remainder of the stump...broke my maul...and I love that tool
Hope you got home ok after the run in with the concrete block when laning and the ensuing oil slick!
Houndog
Another Picnic virgin, joining us all later in the woods....Nice to meet Phil and his nutty (but lovely) dog....his 2.8 did well in the mud, which was making it tough going for everyone with anything other than extreme mud terrain tyres....good to see another 2.8 going strong, tow bar did some ploughing for us...
And thanks for the frying pan...will be doing many picnic bacon sarnies in the future!
Mum & DadFinally got to meet the notorious "Mum and Dad" and their granddaughter and staffy....and his Lovely shiny B Lwb...
They bought Sal and I some lovely glasses that Tom had engraved for us...really brill gift and a nice surprise...
Fortunately Tom had engraved them BEFORE he had been out in the li'll white leafer with me, or I fear mine might have had something else engraved on it!!
Thanks also for the wiper mech...the chevy can have 2 wipers again soon, instead of the "single wiper conversion!"
Tom was my co-pilot for much of the day...encouraging me to do silly things and making me try things that any sane person would have avoided!!
Assisted also on many extractions and there was plenty of them...!!
Tom is a bad influence...he "made me" drive through a tree when a descent went pearshaped and we got kinda stuck....it was only little, trunk about 10-12" in diameter and laying horizontally about a foot or so off the ground...i think the words "I hope that tree is quite rotten" were muttered by me as the bullbar met it and I mashed the loud pedal!!! it was the only way we were getting out from there...other than reversing out in July!!
Tom also "made me" keep trying to get up the last but one climb...as impossible as it seemed...
Tom also locked my brain in the glovebox so I couldnt exercise any rational behaviour!!!
Cheers mate...was fun though!!
Tom also busied himself selling raffle tickets and stickers to anyone who dared go near him...several of the cows in the next field now sport the FOG logo from venturing to close to the fence!!!
Mum kept Sally company holding the fort back at "base-camp"...assisting Sally with coffee making duties...cheers
JammywagonwheelHis shorty did well and its waterleak didnt reoccur, so John got in a good days playing...I dont recall having to extract John, which is an achievement in itself...well done matey...
Thanks very much for the gas bottle...will be our reserve one if we run out...Big help assisting in other extractions thanks mate...
You are doing well fella...
jay1974Yet another picnic virgin....Sadly the a/ts on Jays shorty were not up to the level of mud at this meet, and most sensibly he opted not to attempt venturing into the woods with it...Helped me out no end with extractions, and helped me get extracted when I got stuck when I suffered a sudden burst of "amateur" and drove totally the wrong line thought the bomb hole and got cross axled...
The mud was that deep in the hole that Jay lost his boot in it...and it had to be retrieved by someone else! Word of advice next time fella...dont stand behind me when I give it large...you will get muddy!!! I think Jay was one of many to slip over in the goo...myself included on a couple of occasions...tis all part of the fun and gives everyone else a good giggle!
Need some muddies for next time mate, and you can show us what you can do, if you do everything the opposite of how I showed you, you will be fine!
Nice to meet you mate and share some crazy moments with ya...
BobbinsjobArriving later in the morning with his mate, came the Bobbinsjob....another picnic virgin...and yes bernie he did go the wrong way!!!
Got to finally meet up after abusing each other on the forum for months! Great to meet ya fella...
Ian bought with him the lovely Angelina....all clean and shiny....not for long!!!
Three words for ya fella......
YOU GOT STUCK!!! extracted by the rather less attractive li'll white leafer...
Ian and the shorty B did really well, having a go at some really tough stuff (and sliding back down again!)...
Thanks very much Ian for the donation to the digger fund...the first of many, which will eventually provide many more holes for me to tow you out of!!
Oh and thanks for the encouragement to "do it in one" on that last toughy of a hill, and for assisting in the lightening of the li'll white leafer to make it possible! and cheers for the coffee first thing...much needed!
Really been great to meet ya mate...you wait till its drier and your angelina can get everywhere in the woods if you think this was good!!
And admin....can you change Ians avatar to "Mr ShakeyHandMan"...as when he gets all excited he gets all shakey...
Krusher...Poor old kel was suffering today, following a "session" the day before....and hence he slept straight through his PINK Minnie Mouse alarm clock!!!
Sadly Kel hadnt got his new tyres yet for his 2.8 lwb, and hence was even struggling in the clearing...in fact I believe he almost headed off down the bottom of the woods by accident...the car going where it wanted instead of where Kel was hoping it would go!!
BadBoy...Kitt wasnt playing today, as Sharon would have beaton him to a pulp if he dented it, and the 4wd was playing up...
Thanks for running Sally up the workshop to get the camping cooker for much needed refreshments...and well done for organising the laning (and leaving all the maps at home
)
2muchMasterchef in the Green-meany!
Top man Steve for doing the FOG-B-Q again mate....delicious...
Scored a dink to the door on the horse shoe and the extraction of the day...tow and chainsaw!!
Just trying to remember what you said before that attempt....hmm....
You did well as always mate...you will show me up on the dumpers if you got a set of insa special tracks on your car...
Bravo and thanks for all your help mate...
mapracing
Yet another Picnic virgin, and a spectator today to see what it is all about until his fronty is ready for the inevitable!
Nice to meet you mate, and hope your arm gets better soon....
And 11 out of 10 for getting your L200 out of the difficult exit on road tyres...reckon you will be a force to be reckoned with when your fronty is finished!
Garethc878937365754854568812354484 (can never remember what the number is!!!!)
Surprised us all (pleasantly!) when Gareth arrived, and again his "moon and back" LWB B was strutting its stuff and having a go at the most impossible of climbs!! Well done that man...and great you could make it...
Gareth had a day off his usual camera work, gotta make time to play fella, we do really appreciate all the time you spend photographing and videoing, editing and uploading at all our other gatherings...must be a bit like a "busmans holiday" for you sometimes, but we all really respect your efforts gareth...
Blinding pickies of kels new pinkie mate...gave us all a huge chuckle...
Louis...Sadly Louis Dent-rover did not want to play today...maybe it knew what was going to be instore for it!!! Despite Pedro's efforts in trying to get it going with him, it sat out this picnic.....but will be back to shed its body parts around the woods in true Louis fashion...
Louis and his friend were kept busy helping with extractions...good man, even though he wears a dead cat on his head!!!
SallyThe hostess with the most-est as always...
Sally manned the base camp and did all the admin stuff and provided refreshments etc etc etc...
Sally enjoyed driving the li'll white leafer home with its new "features"...
Thanks again for all your hard work and putting up with me getting us stuck in the woods on our own the night before the picnic!!
Me...the gregster....Had a blinding day...as did the li'll white leafer (not)....
Was great to see both old and new faces and tackle probably the most challenging conditions we have all encountered in the woods yet....and I think this is as bad as it gets, we should start drying out in there now as natures changing seasons convert our mudbog back into our lovely woods in the summer...
Hope I didnt scare my passengers too much during the day...in these conditions there is only one thing I have found works...dumper tyres and full throttle!! not forgetting putting the brain in the glovebox, and turning on the headlights for an extra 10bhp!!
Had a blinding battle with one of the final climbs, the last few feet catching me out each time....dug some rather large holes up there I fear...but it finally made it in one once the car was stripped of every bit of weight so I could keep it spinning all the way so it did bog down at the top...The front wing and bullbar found a tree at the very top though!!
The shorty is sporting a few more bits of "character"...the bullbar and bumper seem to have moved back a couple of inches...that would be fallen tree that Tom made me drive through, when a descent when pearshaped...one of the dents in the nearside wing appears to have grown....and a rather impressive dent (well stoved in!) lower n/s rear quarter panel that occured when 2much and I broadsided it into a tree stump going up the hill from the stump garden...
Was an excellent day and I cant wait till the next one, where hopefully it will be much drier so everyone can accomplish more...
Thanks so much to everyone who came and braved the mud in the name of fun, and demonstrated some really excellent driving in such extreme conditions....and I look forwards to seeing you all soon at the next one!!!!
Laters and big thanks again...
Greg
), and the Pilgrims way would have been worse.
can not seem to get bad boys pictures up on my pc 
.............pete
