The weather forecasts for Sunday had been pretty dire, with warnings of torrential rain, flash flooding and gusts of up to 60mph. I checked with John Amos a couple of days beforehand and he was resolute - The Off-Road Open Day will go ahead regardless of the weather!
And it did....
Upon my arrival at the army training ground in Aldershot, and having just ridden 65 miles in the pouring rain, I headed straight for the burger van - well, it provided shelter from the rain, heat from the grill, and tea and burgers. Things weren’t as bad as they seemed.
The muster point slowly filled up with off-road cars and motorbikes. I had thought some bikers would have been put off by the weather, but the turnout was excellent. Two marques were dominant here - almost every 4x4 was a Landrover Defender and most of the bikes were KTMs. The KTM Centre fielded cars and bikes, and Essex Landrover Club were out in force. There was a handful of Discos, a shogun, and a Freelander. Bikes included the entire KTM range, some small Hondas, and a Yamaha 250cc Serow - Alan had had a similar journey there to mine - only with a 50mph top speed!
Mixing cars and motorbikes surprisingly worked really well. There were wider tracks for the Landies, full of deep potholes and water-splashes, with narrow extreme tracks inbetween for the bikes. Pretty much something for everyone. When bikes caught up with the cars, they were given space to hurtle past and there was no fighting for the same paths.
If you wanted to go nuts and really test your machinery (and bottle), there was plenty of opportunity to get stuck somewhere, and several did, giving the winch experts some work. On the other hand, there was lots of terrain for off-road novices, and plenty of experienced people happy to offer advice and give demo drives.
The rain didn’t really bother us - it just made the day muddier. The car drivers certainly didn’t mind.
But the rain did stop around midday and the sun came out, hence the photos!
Despite the rain, a great day was had by all. It was a good mix of cars and bikes, experts and novices, and everyone enjoying the amazing terrain together safely.
At only £35 per vehicle, it meant the day paid for itself, and made a little on top to go towards the cost of our flagship event 4WD Drive Force.
Go to the Photo Archive to see all of the photos currently available. If anyone has other photos please email them to me and I will publish. I’m also waiting on some video footage for this report.
Photos by Andy Stevens
