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9.45am and Tony Cordell and I arrived at Adventure4x4 at Stibb near Bude for a day playing in the mud with some internet forum regulars. Some off us had met before at a meet on Salisbury Plain last year but for most it was a chance to put faces to names. David Smale is the owner of Adventure4x4 and he soon had the kettle going for us and had a big plate of home made biscuits to munch on whilst we drooled over the off-roading hardware in his showroom and waited for the others to arrive. Before long Mark and Jerry arrived in a brace of Discoverys, followed by Les Henson in his LWB S3, before long the yard was full of Land-Rovers from standard Discos to seriously modified 90s, with a few Series Landies thrown in for good measure.
David gave us a briefing of site rules and we all signed disclaimers and handed over our £20 notes for a days fun. The site stretches over 150 acres of steep north facing combe with some wooded sections, we had been worried there wouldn’t be much mud as we had just had 20 days without rain. We need not have worried, within 5 minutes of setting off I led the convoy into axle deep mud. I just about managed to reverse out but had obviously dug some deep holes in the process as Tonys 90 bellied out and needed a tow from Les to get going again. The favour was returned 2 minutes later when Les decided to go for the ‘if in doubt go flat out method’ resulting in a well bent gearbox crossmember and a Series 3 left high and dry on a tree stump! Maurices 90 hissed and clunked as he engaged his axle lockers and he slid and squirmed his way through the bog and out the other side. Lots of mental notes were made to start saving for axle lockers. We set off again with Mark Hopkins leading the way but stopped after a few yards for Mark to walk the route (to check for stingy nettles someone said…I might remember who said it for a pint or 2 Mark!). Les in his wisdom decide to turn around and lead us off in the opposite direction, and so began a 2 hour fiasco… Les got caught up on a tree stump again, Mark, Jerry and I rushed to his aid and piled logs under his wheel to get him clear, unfortunately we paid no attention to where Les would end up if he cleared the stump and he dropped straight into a ditch.
Maurice offered assistance and came crashing through the undergrowth in his NeneOverland 90, roped himself to the front of Les’ stricken LWB, engaged his axle lockers and got completely stuck as well. Tony Cordell and his 90 were next to offer assistance along with Gordon (Dr Goon to his mates) in his winch equipped 110. Tony stopped 30 yards back from Maurice and ran his winch cable out to the back of Maurices 90. Gordon attached his winch cable to back of Tonys 90 to stop the 90 sliding forwards. It didn’t work. Tony started to winch himself and Gordon closer to Maurice and Les. LLSteve was next into the ever increasing farce and managed somehow to drive straight into the back of Gordons 110 in the process. Meanwhile Jon Staff had arrived late and having displayed how good his bob-tail Range-Rover was on an adjacent mudhole was challenged by David Smale to drive a route on the site nobody had ever got through without winching. I jumped on board with Jon, I have long been a fan of his Rangey since it was the cover feature car in LRM some time ago and had to see it in action first hand. Mark M005 tagged along in his Disco to watch whilst everyone else stayed to marvel at the display of recovery techniques being shown to extract Les. The bog we were to attempt was at the far side of the site in amongst a wooded section. David said several people had attempted the route, some of which were using the same awesome Simex tyres Jons Rangey was sporting. Ummm, perhaps this wasn’t going to be a doddle after all. Hiss clunk, axle lockers engaged, a hefty portion of right foot set the V8 echoing around Cornwall and we hurtled into the mud. The route twisted through trees and entered a clearing where David and Mark had gathered to watch. He jumped out to recce the route. It was deep mud, very deep mud, a lot deeper than the axle clearance of the Range-Rover in fact. Jon suddenly wasn’t so cocky, "well we’ll give it a go" he said "doesn’t look good though". It wasn’t long before I had to climb out of the window and into the back to get a tree strop and Mark and I were looking for a tree to attach the Plasma12 winch rope to. Its good stuff this Plasma12, so much lighter and pliable than wire cable, it doesn’t run back onto the drum any better though, and we managed to jam the winch up. Jon climbed out of the drivers window to have a look, slipped on the muddy paintwork and landed backside first in 2 foot of very wet mud. I will leave what Jon said to your imagination…
Having got ourselves clear we set off back down to the bottom of the site with Jons trousers hanging from the rollcage drying. My wife Lucy and Jerry had both been out looking around the site and had found the water holes. We stopped for a quick bite to eat all gathered around the back of my 110, as usual Lucy had over-catered by about 400% so nobody left hungry. The story of the Les farce was told and had a suitably daft ending when Les managed to winch himself out unaided. There are two deep stream crossings on the site and a log bridge for those who don’t like water. There is also a training area next to the water crossing with axle twisters and some extra deep bomb holes, which amazingly were full of water as it hadn’t rained for 20 days! We spent a few hours larking about here before driving some of the steep descents on the site, these are only safe to drive when its dry and David now ropes them off if its wet. Apparently a few months before someone had attempted one route in the wet with a standard Disco on road tyres, predictably he had a freefall trip through the woods before having a coming together with a stout tree. Ouch, a hard lesson to learn. Les, tyre kicker Mick and Chard headed off about 3pm, Les’ LWB coughing and spluttering with a faulty fuel solenoid which had spoiled his fun in the water holes. The rest of us went back to play in the water and the bombholes until it was time to go. There is a lot of potential for panel damage if you aren’t careful here and several Landies went home sporting interesting profiles. I think it was Chard who picked up a crease from the top of his rear near-side wheel-arch to the back corner, very reminiscent of the work of Pininfarina! Jon went home minus some front lights. My side steps got a good bending again, I lost my number-plate in the stream and my trailer brake coupling was facing skywards. A couple of the 90s had bent corners here and there.
Back at the Adventure 4x4 workshop, David had set up a pressure washer to get everyone road legal before they set off. It was a long day for some, Maurice had left home at 4.30am, Jon had come from Horsham. I am not sure who drove the furthest to be there but all credit to them all, such dedication to enjoying yourselves is commendable. I had a great time and will certainly be going back soon. If you are ever down in Cornwall, give David Smale a call at Adveture4x4 and have a play on his site, it’s well worth it. It is only in its second season and was hit hard by Foot and Mouth last year. The site is varied and you could have fun here in a Freelander on a dry day although you do need reasonable ground clearance to get through some routes. David is ever improving the site so it will only get better.
Adventure 4x4 also do mail order from their website – www.adventure4x4.co.uk from the items we looked at there they are very competitive, give them a try. |
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