Words by Angela Royston

The event started on Friday afternoon with the teams assembling in the bar of the Hibernian Hotel in advance of the event proper, all had made the journey over to Mallow with a combination of driving, ferry and air travel. Friday night’s warm up stage, called the Witch Hunt, involved each team being given a grid reference to drive to and find the witches mask. Both team J33P, represented by Mike and Phil, and Bucks Jeep reached their objectives.

Saturday morning saw us all gathered for the first full day with teams setting off in order and receiving their first grid reference from Jimmy Deane to get the event started. J33P and Bucks Jeep both went south to the Nagels Mountains being taken to their first section by Freddy, one of the event marshals. Our first section was a gentle warm up of one simple punch. Stage 2 became more interesting with the first winching of the day and reminding us of the need to walk the section before driving it. Unfortunately soon after, we had our first mechanical problem when Phil suddenly stopped on a steep downhill track only to find that a bolt had sheered off the Jeep’s steering. Ingenuity came to the rescue with a combination of the bolt from our winch mounting plate combined with the nut from Cuffy’s Hi-Lift so after 40 minutes or so we were off on our way again.

We continued running through several sections then found ourselves in a steep wooded valley with a small waterfall – we saw the Bucks Jeep team coming out further up the valley. Will led into the water and showed that climbing out would not be simple as the winch out involved the vehicle swinging like a pendulum as it climbed the hill due to the punch half way up. Dropping back into the river and out of the section involved more testing winching and thought to get through unscathed. Shortly after we reached a long tough hill climb which we later discovered had damaged Will’s steering (exactly the same piece as last year) – once back flat ground, a convenient rock came to the rescue with the Hi-Lift being used to straighten things out.

Late in the day we got to a very muddy bog area which gave an opportunity for power and commitment to get through, again collecting a punch half way along. Will got a little too close to a fence post shattering the glass in his passenger side door, thankfully Dan was not in the vehicle at the time. Cuffy decided to take a different line to everyone else through this obstacle so there was a lot of throttle blipping and mud flying. We ended Day 1 with about half of the available punches and made our way back to Mallow. There were vehicles in assorted conditions back at the car park but all were still running albeit with a few repairs needed.

On Sunday morning we set off to the Ballyhoura Mountains and after a short stop in the car park to examine the abandoned transfer case from Neil Redpath’s Ibex (changed there the previous day). We set off for our first section and unfortunately, Will suffered a breakage whilst simply turning round, initially we thought it was not serious but very soon it became clear it was the ring and pinion in the front diff so Will and Dan decided to leave the event early and head off home.

Our second section provided the first challenge of the day when Cuffy’s rear wheels left the ground whilst dropping into a deep ditch. Phil and Pete were quick to jump on the back of the vehicle putting on a strop to bring it back to earth, so drama over as quickly as it started. We continued through several wooded sections being careful to watch for the hidden tree stumps which are always a hazard on this event.

The route led us into a very dark and spooky wood which caused a few unexpected moments for Phil when a tree branch went through the soft-top. Again the tree stumps made for some interesting driving and winching to find the route out followed by an excellent mud run out of the woods which was very enjoyable. One hazard followed another and we then got to the deep water which infiltrated Cuffy’s engine causing it to cough and splutter firing on only 2 cylinders.

To end the day we drove over the top of the mountain, by then totally shrouded in low cloud dropping down a familiar route from a previous visit ending up on wooded area with a tricky punch through the trees. After quite a bit of manoeuvring around we decided to back out and take an alternative route as this was our last section of the day and we all wanted to keep running to the end in one piece.

Another successful event over, we returned to the Hibernian Hotel for a much needed shower and pint of Guinness. The event officially ended with the Gala dinner including awarding of an event trophy to all comers. Farwell’s were said and already some of us were thinking about next year’s return to this unique event.