Words by Angela Royston

Mid August, un-broken sunshine, record temperature heatwave, factor 30 or higher, soft top down, and ready to go …. if only !!! J33P’s summer weather curse struck again with rain and wind – still at least this meant lots of unexpected mud and water to make the event just that little bit more interesting than planned.

Those with greatest distance to travel had arrived at Tuff Terrains on Friday evening, setting up camp in a field recently inhabited by sheep behind Bernie’s house. The group met up in the yard Saturday morning but being a chill out event, there was no set routine to follow so we gradually made our way to the training area for a bit of limbering up. It didn’t take long before the group set off to try out a few of the well known tracks on the lower part of the site.

The first excitement of the day came at the Windscreen kisser (now much earlier along the track than before showing how much this obstacle has “moved” over the years). As ever Cuffy got himself out there in the lead making little of anything in his path, soon followed by Mike P who decided that speed was the best way to tackle the obstacle and having got the front end over the edge, he went foot down to get the back over – unfortunately for Mike, this did not work as intended as the landing was very hard followed by a loud bang and accompanying shower of glass as the back window of the cherry exploded on impact. Iggy then took his unlifted TJ over, loosing the back number plate on his way and collecting a lot of mud at the front. Mike and Iggy decided to go back to the yard for running repairs and glass removal. Ivan was next, just managing to catch the rear tyre coming over having the effect of pushing the tyre back against the rear door creating a large unexpected dent. All of this made Zelda increasingly concerned when it came to Pete’s turn having only ever heard about what this obstacle can do from Vince Bentley in the past and then seeing the collected damage so far – fortunately Pete went through unscathed much to everyone’s relief.

The group moved on with Will making the big mistake of going where Cuffy directed and not where Cuffy had just driven – the first winch recovery of the day was needed – including broken plasma rope - along with the onset of the rain ! Not put off by rain, the group moved through the lower fields on site with Kevin W and Angela clearing out the silt from a few of the water features along the way – as ever encouraged by Bernie to keep moving the steering wheel and give commitment. Lunch then followed making use of Dave’s big blue tent to keep out of the rain. Dave completed running repairs to the Disco over lunch and we all set off again for the afternoon.

We just had to get Cuffy stuck so he was encouraged to try out a few of the deep mud holes shortly followed by Mike P and Kevin W – all of whom needed assistance to get back out again but not before giving the rest of us a mud shower and some good entertainment. By this stage, the Dragon’s Lair had become tempting – it was decided to come down from the top so we set off up the hill soon to discover that it was not going to be that easy with Will having to winch Iggy over a large wash-out area before we had got very far.

As ever, the Dragon’s Lair took no prisoners with Angela leading the way winching through the undergrowth opening up the track for the others to follow. The nasty drop-off about half way down proved a challenge for all but with Bernie expertly talking everyone over it, the whole group got through with a great sense of achievement. A short drive down the river followed, mostly heavily tilting on one side of the vehicle, this time with Pete coming off worst remodelling and detaching a few areas of body work along the way.

Bernie kindly gave us access to a large barn on site, complete with generator, for the evening barbeque meaning we were all undercover and away from the rain so a good time was had by all – that said, everyone was tucked up in bed just after 10pm showing how tired everyone was from our busy day – probably just as well given the rain during the night and the early morning visit from the sheep. Mike P and Iggy decided to set off after breakfast quitting whilst ahead and not wanting to tempt further damage with the prospect of the return drive to Essex.

On Sunday morning, we were joined at Crossgates Services by Paul & Emma and Gaz & Sarah, both at TT for the first time (and I am sure, not the last). We set off in 2 groups; Will’s group off in search of the bottom part of the Dragon’s Lair and Kevin showing Paul and Gaz where to play. Bernie soon jumped in taking Sarah and then Gaz off to drive various obstacles. A gap appeared in the clouds and it was now or never to go up the hill so off the group headed up the hill coming out on the top side-slope track – not the best day for views but at least it was dry and the side-slope did not disappoint as ever. Will took his group down into the bottom part of the site taking a few wrong turns along the way and having a great time in the process coming across unexpected areas and challenges.

Those with longer journey’s home and tents to pack up finished around 1-2pm packing up and cleaning off the vehicles. Pete collected the missing bits and was looking forward to re-fixing them onto the Jeep back at home. Kevin was concerned about the fragile steering on our green TJ so we came home in convoy with Cuffy just in case!

Paul and Gaz were last seen disappearing back up on Bernie’s hill again to make the most of their day at the site -with Bernie showing them the way so who knows what they got up to but message board postings since the event at least showed they survived to tell the tale !

In all, no-one was put off by the weather or the breakages along the way and everyone attending had a great time – certainly a formula to be repeated in coming years and you never know, it could even be sunny another time ! As ever, many thanks to Bernie for being on hand to take us around the site both days and offering expert assistance throughout the weekend.

Some pictures from the event