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!
A quick Get Out & Stay Out trip up to the Mendip hills in Somerset, driving some excellent greenlanes along the way. It was the first week of February so pretty cold, but we used Australian “swag bags” (like a ‘bivvy’ bag, with sleeping bag inside) and the “campfire tent” which stays open to the campfire and so we were pretty warm. Highlights were seeing some Roe deer up close, and cooking some fantastic local rump steak on sticks over the fire.
The tent used here is a special beast: hemp cotton canvas “Campfire Tent” based on a traditional North American “Baker Tent” design, but built with modern materials and fittings, and a fantastic modular design that’s ideal for Land rover camping, with front or side entrances, mozzie net covered windows and ventilation flaps and comes with a full inner tent and various configurations of poles etc. Easily attachable to any Landy either at the rear or side, but works free-standing too. With a campfire out in front it is THE camp experience tent as far as I’m concerned- who wants to be locked away in a plastic, noisy dome tent, missing all the wildlife and views abround you. It’s available from the manufacturer, specialist tent, tipi and tarp designers “Green Outdoor” and they have a big sale on curently so well worth checking out. I’ll be featuring the tent here rigged up to my Landy shortly.
