Jeep Driving Weekend September 2011

After months of preparation the first of our two Jeep Driving Weekends finally happened this weekend. We were blessed with good chunks of sunny weather interspersed with the odd shower, but that did not dampen spirits.
We welcomed Karl-Gunnar Noren, from Sweden, James Platt from Rippon and Steve Riley from Harrowgate who were entertained and guided by myself, John Carroll, Matt Savage and guide, Kieran Johnson. On hand to help were Will Savage and Dr. Charlie Hubert. Saturday was spent mastering the noble art of double declutching on a part road, part track around the Matt Savage Estate. Unfortunately a fault in the steering box put the Ford GPW out of action for Sunday’s Green Laning day, but the Willy’s did us all proud covering over 70 miles in the day with a mixture of drivers.
As we stopped for lunch at The Waterloo Inn am email from The States revealed we were being ‘virtually’ stalked by Jason Paterniti. ‘At the moment you appear to be on the A6 near Priestcliffe.’
Proof that the Spot location finder was doing it’s stuff.

Route research

Purely in the interests of research (!) 4x4 Peak District Guide, Kieran Johnson, who runs Free Spirit, and myself, took the Willy’s around the proposed route for our September Jeep shakedown last week. Not only was the 80 mile round trip of Derbyshire great fun, but it proved that a 68 year old Jeep is the match for most types of terrain we are likely to encounter, both on our planned Jeepery weekend in September and, ultimately, in Egypt over Easter 2012. Soft sand was a little short in supply in Derbyshire, but we had rocks, bumps, ruts and fast stretches over smooth tracks. Thanks to the nifty little Spot locator you can see roughly where we went. I say ‘roughly’ because it sends a location every 10 minutes, so the route looks a little hard to follow. All will be clearer in the desert, where it will represent an accurate description of our route The Willy’s held up very well and throughout the day I covered just over 230 miles, including fast Motorway driving (55 mph ish) and about 40 miles of off road. There are, inevitably, a few small snagging jobs to do on the Willy’s, but nothing serious and it performed admirably throughout.

Peak District Shakedown.

We are planning a major shakedown of both Jeeps over the weekend of 17th and 18th September. It is vital to assess an accurate idea of the petrol likely to be used on our 1200 mile Desert Expedition next Easter. It will be impossible for our logistics team to carry enough fuel for all the vehicles involved, so prior to the Expedition they will be running a fuel dump of full Jerry Cans somewhere down in the Desert, marked by a GPS Waypoint. The Peak District green laning weekend will cover about 100 miles of mixed driving - tracks and road, fully loaded with three people per Jeep (and a back-up Series 1 Land Rover!). Priority for the six available places will go to those who have signed up for the trip, but there may be a spare seat or two. Register an interest via the 'Contact' button on our web site. We shall incorporate a lunch stop at the famous Waterloo Inn.
The photographs are courtesy of Keiran Johnson who has considerable experience running Green Lane tours of the Peak District and will be acting as our guide in September. Keiran and I will recce the route sometime in August and the next Blog should report on that trip.

Flies in the teeth.

Will, my other son, and I, had a screen off blast south to a Steam Fair on Sunday. Great how 45 mph feels like 100 mph without wind protection. That's it!

Progress with the hardware.

A long day up at Matt’s workshop near Matlock achieved a lot yesterday. The Willy’s MB received a new Solex Carburettor, which rectified the tick-over problem, but did get rather hot on the thrash up the M1 so I think it will need a refurbished radiator to cope with the intense heat of the Sahara next Easter. It is, however, fine for now and ran well on the journey back, cruising at an easy 50 mph. The Land Rover 101 had most of the attention though. Wooden decking and a supporting framework of timber made it possible, and safe, to transport the Willy’s within the body of the 101. We finished lashing the Jeep down at about 6.30 and did a successful test run back to Matt’s house 8 miles away. The final version of this prototype configuration will have some high density rubber under the brakes to protect the cast iron drums and with the spare wheel and jerry can removed the canvas roof will fit back on leaving just a little bump for the steering wheel. Work also started on fabricating a pair of ramps to return the Willy’s to the ground in the absence of a four poster ramp. The plan is to haul both Jeeps - the Willy’s in the back of the 101 and the Ford on a trailer behind, to Venice, to catch the ferry to Alexandria next March.

Another Brief Encounter.

Jason Paterniti emailed us to say he would be in the U.K. briefly for his pal, Al’s wedding this month - Was I about?

Jason is down as a ‘cert.’ for the trip and is an enthusiastic member of the U.S. based Explorers Club. and is President and Chairman of the charity, Global Exploration & Oceanographic Society. His travels have taken him far and wide around the Globe and it is something of a relief that he has experienced Desert Travel at it’s most basic. During a very rushed hour and a pot of tea we discussed the details of our trip, fine tuned a few aspects and parted knowing we have many shared interests.

‘See you in Cairo’ was the parting cry as Jason went to get changed for Al’s Stag night and I zoomed of the Le Mans on my Cagiva Elefant!

Brief Encounter

It gave us great pleasure to entertain Karl-Gunnar Norén last night. K-G had been in the U.K. researching LRDG material in the Churchill College Archive, Cambridge, for his forthcoming book on the subject. He kindly presented me with his other two WW2 related books on Tobruk and El-Alamein both well illustrated and written in perfect Swedish!

I chose to collect Karl from Market Harborough Station in the Ford GP and return via some of the pretty villages in South Leicestershire. In common with most passengers new to Jeep travel he instinctively reached for a seat belt, then realised there were none, so just hung on. Back at base we discussed the Expedition at length and with considerable enthusiasm, with the result that he is a ‘definite’. In common with the rest of us involved in this expedition, he enjoys desert travel and feels that first hand contact with the myriad artefacts still scattered around the Sahara will add greatly to his understanding of the conditions endured by the LRDG

The evening ended in a bit of a panic as we realised he had missed his planned train to London, but if we hurried, could make to 20.50. For this return journey the Willy’s MB offered slightly more speed so we belted down the A6 at 55 mph, K-G hanging on to his hat and made it to the Station for 20.49. We both then ran up the steps and he just made it onto the train as it pulled out at 20.50. Phew! As I type this he should be on a plane back to Stockholm.