Jeff has mentioned a site a Canford Bottom a number of times.  I’d never been there so when he arranged a trip to the site for the club I had to go along to have a look.  The event was booked for April because apparently the site gets really extreme during the winter.  On the morning of the event Jeff, Trevor and Mark met at my house at 8:30 and we headed down to the site (via a petrol station as usual!).  We arrived at the lay-by where we were meeting the other marshals at about ten to nine and once we were all there we headed up to the site in convoy.  Access to the site is though a horse livery yard and across a number of fields where horses are kept.

 We negotiated the yard and fields and headed into the site.  After a quick briefing from Kirk myself and Mark jumped in my truck and went for a roam around the site.  The site was drier than I expected but it was obvious that once a couple of vehicles had been through it would cut up and get quite challenging.  While laying out the course I came across a dead tree which was leaning on a live one across the track.  I misjudged a large lump in the track which lifted the truck just enough so that the dead tree wiped out one of the lights on the top of my cage.  First breakage of the day!  To prevent this happening to anyone else we tried to move the tree by hand with no success.  The simplest way to do it turned out to be using the winch to drag it out of the way.  As I pulled on it the tree snapped in half which meant we could then move the various pieces by hand.  Following this we continued around the site marking any areas which required a bit of care.

 It was then time to head back to the car park and await the members arrival.  Jeff headed back to the lay-by to collect everyone and Kirk, Trevor, Craig and myself spread out across each of the horse fields and each of us manned a gate to make it easier to get everyone into the site.  Once there Kirk gave a short briefing about the site and the rules for the day then everyone headed out to get muddy.  Kirk had asked me to take up station down at the soggy end of the site by the winch equipped vehicles only section where I parked up and got the camera out.  Most of my morning was spent watching and photographing the fun, offering some advice, spotting members around obstacles and yelling encouragement.  The most entertaining bit for me of the morning was watching Ben drive up the river with his truck leant over at close to a 45 degree angle.  All I could hear was his passenger screaming at him that she thought they were going to roll over.  Ben (a picture of calmness) then simply got out and started taking pictures of his truck much to my amusement, but not, I think to his passengers!

 Later in the morning I had a couple of attempts at getting through an hole that had been getting deeper all morning and no-one could get through.  I had a couple of attempts but could not get enough grip or momentum to get all the way out.  Fortunately Jeff and Kirk lent a hand to connect me to a handy tree so I could winch myself out.  Kirk called time for the lunch stop just as Pete got stuck in the same hole.  I was volunteered to pull him out so I drove around him and in doing so did not see a metal spike sticking out of the ground.  This punctured my front nearside tyre right between two of the tread lugs.  I pulled Pete out quickly before the tyre went completely flat and than drove back to a flat bit of land to change the wheel.

 After lunch it was more of the same but as you can imagine the ground had started to cut up so that sections which were easy in the morning became harder and harder as the day went on.  I initially went for a bit of drive around to see how it had changed during the day.  It was pretty extreme in places.  I then headed back to the winching area and spent quite a lot of time either winching people out of holes or acting as a anchor for them to winch themselves out.

 One of the routes (where Ben had been playing in the morning) looked too good not to try out so I fired straight up it, much to Craig (my passenger’s) amusement.  I got most of the way up but couldn’t quite climb out.  Out came the winch again to pull me through.

 Once I was out I manoeuvred out of Alan and Tony’s way and they both had a go from the other direction.  Both needed a bit of tug with the winch to get all of the way through.  Tony’s suspension dislocation as he entered the river was quite impressive but I don’t think it felt very nice from inside the cab!

 When Kirk called time for the day we all assembled back in the car park and left the site in convoy with Pete on the end of a rope being pulled by Nigel.  Pete’s battery had been run flat by his compressor when he was using it to put his tyre back on its rim.  Once we out to the road we put a set of jump leads onto his truck and it fired straight back up.  All agreed it was a good days playing as we split up and headed home.  The site is great, very like a mini Minstead.  It was tough in places in April so if we go back to the site closer to the middle of winter it will be a real challenge.  Thanks to Jeff for finding and arranging to use the site, Kirk for his sterling work organising the marshals and the programme for the day and of course to everyone else who came a along for the good natured banter, laughs and all mucking in to help when needed.

For more pictures of this event click HERE.

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