Land Rover Explorer, Land Rover Camping, Tents, Green Lanes and Video » Uncategorized

Winter Green Laning in Somerset

kevin — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 13:18:57 +0000

A short video of a trip we did back in December, just as the snow was starting to fall for what become three weeks of some of the heaviest snow we’ve had in the UK – just when you appreciate your Landy!

Rent-a-Ramp!

kevin — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 10:44:10 +0000

Interesting idea from local 4×4 specialists Overland Autos: they are thinking of a service where you can book one of thier ramps, get your own work done with your own tools, and also have expertise on hand for if you get stuck.

Saw this on thier facebook page – have a look and they are asking for feedback as to whether to run with this idea so if you think its a good one let them know!

details here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Overland-Auto-Engineers/150731908275919

Happy Valley: North Wales Greenlaning Adventure!

kevin — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 10:24:36 +0000

Just got the video edited from our wild-camping off-road trip in the mountains for North Wales. It was an awesome adventure, as good as it gets in the U.K. I reckon! With fellow members of the North Somerset Land Rover Club we drove Happy Valley and several other excellent lanes just south of Snowdonia National Park. We drove my Defender Hi Capacity pickup, a ‘proper’ greenlaning Discovery 1, and a classic Series IIa. All vehicles were more than up to the challenges and proved that Landy’s really can “Go Beyond”… Here’s the story of the trip, including 2 out of 3 Land Rovers taken out by a nasty axle-twisting gulley!

Happy Valley Adventure: Part One:

Happy Valley Adventure: Part Two:

Strata Florida & Mid Wales Trip: Day One

kevin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 11:45:02 +0000

The full length video of Day One of our trip to Mid Wales (Day Two video to follow when it’s ready!):

April Sunshine in the Lanes…

kevin — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 11:45:24 +0000

A day out around the lanes of North Somerset – the tracks were dry and dusty after 3 weeks of sunshine and no rainfall – what happened to “April Showers?”!

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Marksbury Greenlanes in February

kevin — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 21:27:51 +0000

A day on the lanes around Marksbury Plain near Bath with fellow North Somerset Land Rover Club member Patrick in his Series III.

Winter Snow Trip in the Mendip Hills

kevin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 10:45:05 +0000

We just spent 2 days out and about in the Somerset’s Mendip hills, in the deep snow that we were lucky enough to get this year (speaking as Landrover drivers of course, everyone else is fed up of it!). Day two featured a nice rescue job for us. On top of the Mendip plateau there’s a depression at Charterhouse, where the lane dips down into a small valley, where ancient Roman and older copper mines are found and the landscape is pitted and worked making it a real magical place – in the snow it looked even more wild and rugged. So traversing this fantastic landscape in very cold and fog-bound conditions when we came around the bend in the depression we found an astravan stuck in the snow, unable to make it up the climb. He’d gotten into the valley OK but couldn’t get out at either end – by the time we arrived he’d been there 2 hours, with no mobile signal and was resorting to try and dig out the snow ahead of his vehicle, using a dustpan and a screwdriver – he’d managed about 8 feet, so only another 400 or so to go. Anyway, lucky chap the LRE crew turned up well equipped with a TD5 defender and Hicap, and Simon “The Engineer” had his tow rope out again in no time for another rescue. He’s used it plenty in recent days, delivery vans, a milk float and even a forklift have been pulled out of the snow by his trusty TD5!

Here’s the video of the trip and the ‘rescue-event’

And here the ‘rescue’:

Series IIa Rebuild Project – Kick Off!

kevin — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 17:44:47 +0000

We’ll be covering a great Series IIa rebuild project over the winter months – here’s the video to set the scene, full project-start post to follow soon…

Black Kelly Kettle?

kevin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 21:40:34 +0000

Well yes and no – it’s an “Eydon Kettle” or STORM kettle, and originates from the simple copper kettles made in the West Coast of Ireland fishing communities, the same part of the world as the more well known Kelly Kettle company kettles, but these are made in the UK by the Eydon Kettle Company founded in the 1970 and now going stronger than ever with worldwide interest in and use of these fantastic devices. The exciting news, they’re now bringing out a black version of the “Popular” model which will be on sale from Jan 1st and by all accounts it will be very distinctive. We’re expecting one in the post at the moment, and will publish a feature here on it, so stay tuned…!

[Update] – The Black Eydon Kettle arrived today and it’s a beauty! More to follow….

Buzzard Lane, Compton Martin

kevin — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 09:02:59 +0000

Landrover Exploring in Autumn starts here… Kelly Kettle Tea in the woods near Compton Martin.

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Into the lane... carpet of autumn leaves hadn't been disturbed since the start of autumn a week ago..

The Defender stopped in a small grove of trees, a footpath up to the fields to the right, a great spot to watch out for deer grazing in the fields.

The track winds around through the trees

Kelly Tea stop. Kelly Kettle (brand new 3pint stainless steel one) and some pine sticks ready on the tailgate for starting up a brew.

My Opinel knife was used to shave off some thin strips for getting the Kelly started: quite a lot of rain the day before meant the twigs on the ground were wet, so my stack of these sticks I keep in my 'bushcraft bag' came in handy. Swedish Firesteel can be relied on of course, and in the Kelly base here I used some fluff gathered from the tumble drier at home which makes excellent tinder.

Embers firing up...

The Kelly placed on the ground once it really gets going.

Feeding the flames, and looking forward to some hot tea.

Gathering more fuel - once the pine sticks had gotten it started, there's enough heat in it to use any fuel off the ground even if it's damp.

The Landrover is almost completely camouflaged with the mix of green and autumn leaf colours...

Hot tea by the brook...

Beautiful carpet of autumn leaves on the track.

Ready to get going again and explore the rest of the track.

The track emerges from the woods into pastureland at the North end.