Enduro

So no complaints about the original details making it sound too tough then? By the final evening our 21 original 4x4’s were down to just 11 or as near as dammit a 50% attrition rate. Three of those eleven wisely decided that having done all they set out to do then another night camping in the cold wetlands of the Kyle was not high on the agenda when a warm bed and home was the other option. Mind you driving off the site after dark and straight back to Nottingham isn’t perhaps classed as mundane either, but life is short as they say and time is precious.

The Sunday morning saw just eight crews arise to see a stag looking over us from the middle ridge, just above the tracks where, the previous night, Mick Bell and Nigel had made what can best be described as a ‘careful’ descent once the Range Rover track rod had been repaired. It wasn’t just bent it was actually well on its way back to resembling the iron ore from whence it originated, terra tyres do exact a heavy price on steering components. The stag was looking to come to lower ground because of the snow but decided that we weren’t the company he wanted, and who could blame him, so about turned and trotted easily back up the slope that the day before had seen 4x4 crews sweating blood to traverse.

Now those of you who had read my original description of this unique event should all have been well aware of what to expect which in itself leads me to believe that not all of you did read those details. For the record there were 21 4x4’s arrived and started at the gate. First casualty with a blown winch was Ian Herron his TD5 90 going for an early bath within the hour. It was, as always, interesting to watch the different approaches to the same problem. The Frost teams approach to camping was one example. Take everything, including the kitchen sink, propane bottle, 2 bags of nutty slack (coal for you youngsters) and quad. Promptly fall off the quad entering the site then park the whole lot in a heap by the gate. The cunning plan was to keep weight out of the motor (the fact that at least one of the team ran a truck cab motor with enough space for a sandwich box and flask at most might be relevant) and then walk back to the campsite when required. It takes animal cunning, and a strong confidence in your abilities to take that line but their camp did look inviting with it’s roaring fire and stereotypical British seaside stripy windbreak holding back some of the snow. Others (us included) were piled high with the little comforts of life and like the turtle we carried our home with us paying the weight penalty in the process. Us older Enduro hands (the first one was in 1997) know that gung ho rarely works on this terrain, indeed tickover and a gently, gently approach is a better, if frustrating, modus operandi. Tyres have a large part to play but not necessarily the aggressive ones. The Simex shone as always, but it’s my belief that was as much to do with the width of the tread rather than the aggressive pattern, BFG’s did it for the majority as usual.

You may have noticed the absence of Keith Bettis as the CoR backup motor. Brian Slingsby and Andy Donkersley did me the honour of taking that place for this event and an excellent job they made of it too. They are better known in our area as Four Plus 4, an independent Land Rover specialist in Leeds. Great to have my own maintenance team on hand when the electric fans packed in resulting in a head of steam worthy of the Flying Scotsman, that’s what I call service. Keith hasn’t retired but he has been a little rash and sold the long serving V8 Ninety (first seen on a CoR event in 1992). In its place is one of these new fangled TD5 Nineties and its lack of preparedness was the somewhat feeble excuse for his absence.

All those of you who were there know what it was like, and know whether you enjoyed it or not. I hope you did. There is less and less chance to experience this pure form of freestyle off roading and trust me when I tell you that those chances will get less as new government decrees come into force to ensure that no one in this sceptred isle can enjoy themselves if has anything to do with the infernal combustion engine. Whilst not trying to pick out any individuals I feel I should mention several notables. Our youngest entrant, Oliver Lloyd, teamed up with his Dad Steve in the G Wagen. They had a rough event in many ways and I know Oliver twisted his knee badly, which was part of the reason for their early withdrawal, but it is was great to be able to allow him to enter and experience first hand a tough event with his Dad, something the more stylised challenges (mine included) can’t always do. Vicky Heywood is trickier to mention. She won’t thank me for mentioning her just because she was our only entrant from the fairer sex, but yet I have to. She did the driving of their Ibex and apart from the fact that driving on this site is definitely on a par with mind altering drugs there is also the incredible feat that she did it with Richard, her partner, and only those who have attempted something similar with their spouse/partners can truly understand the feeling of awe realising they were still friends on Sunday morning!

The Challenge part of the event wasn’t necessary to prove the worth of the site but it did throw up a real test for those who took it on. Winners of the team trophy were brothers Karl & Dale Frost teamed with brothers Adrian and Paul Martin & friend Martin Ecob, both using Tdi Nineties. Second team was Vicky Heywood, Richard Ibberson teamed with fist time challenge entrant Matt Blakey. Apparently not only was this his first event but he had the ‘advantage’ of traction control… lucky man. Ian McArdle deserves a mention too. He brought a bog standard 90 TD5 with real 4 wheel drive, on BFG All Terrains, and though no one is going to pretend that he didn’t spend a good deal of time on the end of a winch rope (indeed there cannot have been many, if any, who could truthfully claim otherwise) he did accompany myself, Brian and Andy and later addition Kristian Nicholson’s V8 Discovery. We were all delighted to pass the 330m mark (that’s a more impressive sounding 1082 feet in Imperial) before allowing gravity to take us on the faster route back down.

Memorable moments. Looking over from punch 30 to see if anyone had taken the hard route through the intervening valley. On the far side, like two ungainly 4x4 flies stuck to a wall was the Range Rover and Suzuki, apparently defying gravity on a very precarious route. I only discovered later that gravity did finally get the better of the SJ at one point though not with any terminal effect. Watching Karl and Adrian winching up what was like a house roof with nothing behind but a long slope to nowhere and wondering what butterflies taste like. Looking back down the central valley as one of the many snow storms lifted to watch Hugh Balfour Paul BBB going backwards and forward trying to get up a banking far below. It looked from that distance for all the world like one of those little electric cars that turn round as soon as it touches an obstacle, how long he and Tom Gilmour persevered I don’t know, the snow descended again and blocked the view. Murray Shadwell’s antipodean lilt over the CB. The incredulity at hearing of the frost covered results of a hard nights entertainment in the Wormald/Phillipson camp. The sight of the North eastern hills swathed in snow and backlit by a bright Sun. The sheer relief at being loaned the Frosts quad to fetch the punches back in and save a wearisome trek back up the hills on foot. The feeling that this really is the toughest event in the calendar and I hesitate to say it but I reckon that includes French events too. The Croisiere is far, far higher and deeper snow, but it is on tracks and there is accommodation each night. The Enduro is what it says on the title, an endurance event. It was once again a pleasure to be your nominal leader, in spirit if not in deed, for this fabulous 4x4 feast. My sincere thanks to Martin, our host, for his perseverance when things went belly up after the gales and my empathy to those who couldn’t make the date change, it was unavoidable and if nothing else convinced me that it is worth another one more crack at the Enduro in its present form. This letter has been sent to original entrants who couldn’t make it, not to cause you distress but to try and make up for the disappointment. Now what’s that saying; when the going gets tough, the tough just keep going.
Driver Co driver Vehicle

Adrian Martin                                  Paul Martin/Martin Ecob        L/R 90 1st Team
Karl Frost                                        Dale Frost                               L/R 90 1st Team
Vicky Heywood                                Richard Ibberson                    Foers Ibex 2nd Team
Matt Blakey                                                                                   L/R 90 2nd Team
Tony Wilson                                    Paul Wilson                           Jeep Wrangler 1st Solo
Kristian Nicholson                           A Bainbridge                           L/R Discovery
Alan Wormald                                 David Needham                      Jeep Wrangler
Nigel Smith                                      Byron Mellors                        L/R 110
Mick Bell                                         David Williams                      R/Rover bobtail
Robert Phillipson                             Situation Vacant                    Merc G Wagen
Murray Shadwell                              Richard Mann                        L/R 90 V8
Steven Keay                                    Alan Fraiser                           L/R 90
Hugh Balfour                                   Paul Oscar Balfour Paul          L/R 110
Tom Gilmour                                  Robert McCubbin                    L/R 90
Ian Mcardle                                    You must be joking!                L/R 90
Ian Herron                                     Brian Cutter                            L/R 90
Steve Lloyd                                    Oliver Lloyd                           Merc G Wagen
Brian Hartley                                 Harry Haigh                            L/R 90
Andy Donkersley                           Brian Slingsby                          L/R 90