Intro by Mike Cuff

July 2008 saw J33P’s summer visit to Seven Sisters, an event that was soon nicknamed “Monsoon Fest”, the weekend proving to be the wettest and windiest that the club had ever encountered. On Saturday the wind completely destroying one the clubs Marquees, giving Angela another problem to cope with, just you try running a BBQ for 100+ people in heavy horizontal rain, something that she managed admirably I have to say.

Although the weather did put “a bit of a dampen” on things, there was a still a large turnout of Jeeps and Land Rovers along with the odd G Wagon, Toyota Land Cruiser, Suzuki and Unimog - the Unimog being the largest vehicle to attend one of our events.

As before the event saw vehicles coming from all parts of the UK including contingents from various other offroad clubs such as Bucks Jeep Club and RockznRutz. To give you some idea of the event and the terrain encountered by its participants, I’ve selected some of the many pictures and movies that I’ve been sent; hopefully you will find them interesting.

All in all, reading the comments posted on various forums everybody had a great weekend, most agreeing they would be back again 2009 for the club’s 16th event. Some including myself, with a new tents!

Shane Owen (aka GhostCav) from Bucks Jeepclub

Or can we call it "Monsoon fest"!

Me & Rob Sargant (aka Sarge) left Staffordshire in nice sunshine Friday early afternoon, I even had the roof down. A few hours later about 10 miles from the site the heavens started to open. Basically they stayed open until we left Sunday afternoon, although we did have some dry spells we also had 50mph winds and sideways rain plus rain falling so fast it hurt when it hit you.

Having said that, our little group had a good time but the rocks were a little slippy at times that made things "Interesting". Friday night with Jims "mad drinks (ouch 89.9% stuff hurt in the morning), even met Eddy Slade (aka EvilEd) that night and I think forced him to have a tipple. Did see Toby, but by the time Sarge told me who it was I didn’t see him again to say hello.

It was a bit of a testing trip for me as the YJ hadn’t been offroad since the extensive rebuild, few things to do like extend the brake lines again even though the ones on it are for a 6" lift!?!?! I only have 4" lift with slight shackle lift? Also need to cut my arches out on the rear more as to be honest, with brake lines and arch trimming the YJ will be able to do much better than the poor flex it had during the weekend.

Mark Walford - Event perspective from a LR owner's point of view

Friday evening saw us arrive between showers, we were there with friends from Kent. They arrived and set up in the rain, we arrived and set up between showers, as soon as we had set up it rained again ready for for our other friends to arrive. A trip to the local pub for a quick shandy and it was time to bed down for the night.

On Saturday we set off early to get to the site, a couple of 90's and a TD5 Disco nestled amongst all those Jeeps was a nice sight. As we had been to the site before we knew a few places to go and play. We set off with Tim and James in tow, taking photos as we got a few punches. To start with we went to the pond with the bog at the rear. All punches were achieved with ease. Pugwash followed on and again easily achieved the ppunches, even though he drives an oil tanker. After spending so much money upgrading my axles with Ashcroft kit I had to go and play on the rocks. Unfortuanately I managed to burn my clutch on the section, without getting 1 punch. But not to be outdone I kept going for the rest of the day only playing on the gentle bits. That night the BBQ was outstanding. A real highlight of the weekend. The atmosphere was relaxed and informal with the J33P guys mixing well with us poor LR types. Afer a few more bottles of ale it was time to turn in.

On Sunday we had another early start and time to collapse camp, again done between showers. A short drive to site and again into the fray. Clutch was doing OK but not perfect. But still managed to go and play at the posing stone. Played in the pond climbing in and out all along the bank. Then went to play in the woods trying to get the punch that had been set out. Adrian Pope went first and got stuck in the deep ruts. A winch session later the punch was achieved but a broken winch rope was the price to be paid. Then it was my turn to get the punch. I managed to drive to the punch but then got stuck in the same ruts that Adrian succumbed to. Again another short winching session and we were free again. A quick brew up on the stove and we were off to the main carpark ready to book out of the site and begin the long journey home to Wiltshire.

Eddy Slade (aka Evil Ed) from RockznRutz

Well, the weekend started on the Friday afternoon loading the TJ up in lovely sunshine. Decided to change out of my shorts before we left as it gets a little cooler in Wales it seems... 5pm and we jump in and set off for the 5 hour plus journey to Seven Sisters, so glad we were going “the other way” as the M2, M20 and M25 were all choked up in the other direction. Made reasonable time and stopped at the McDonalds to fill up the lad as he had skipped dinner to come with me. Couple of lads in a corsa (How does McDonalds manage to attract so many corsas) asking lots of questions about the Jeep. Then we headed to the campsite arriving just after 10pm. Put the tent up by headlights and then headed over to Jim’s Gazebo with the patio heater and the dodgy drinks for a quick chat before heading back over to find Phil, Gren, Toby and all those I cannot remember the name of (I told you I would forget!) to sit and have a quiet evening. I guess it was around midnight we headed back to the tent to get some sleep.

On Saturday got up just after 7am and got sorted ready for the day ahead. Popped into Glyn Neath for a fill up before heading onto the site ready for the start. Grouped up with Phil, Toby, Gren and so on, we headed out in a convoy of 7, but not for long... Gren was the first incident of the day, his electric cooling fan decided it no longer wanted to spin, as it turned out, it wanted to melt itself down and fill the motor with molten plastic... So they headed off up to the top again and off to get another fan. We managed to find most of the usual haunts although the main waterfall section has had a bridge built across it and is now looking more difficult than ever to get out of. They decided to use this as a special stage this year, so no playing was to be had on the rocks there, but we were on the lookout for some more interesting tracks. Some point later in the afternoon, James said his steering was feeling a little loose, so we headed up to the carpark up top to have a look. In a nutshell, yes, his steering was loose! I was also getting funny noises from my fan at this point and opened the bonnet to find both the top “pull through” cable tie things they give you to mount the fan had broken and the fan was leaning back against the old VC fan mount and the serpentine belt. Some cable ties later and it was back where it should be. James unfortunately decided that his day was over and got his XJ back to the campsite ready for a trip home on the Sunday. We also got Gren back at this point with his new fan. Which, still did not work... It appears that the thermostat is either incompatible of had given up the ghost too. So a quick wiring bodge and Gren had a switch under the bonnet to turn his fan on or off (hey, it meant he could still play).

Around 4:30pm we decided not to push our luck and head slowly back to base and be out nicely on time for the Marshals, then we found ‘Eddy’ trying to winch an XJ out of a hole halfway down a hill. Having steel rope I offered to winch it up as his plasma was starting to cut into the ground and I know Plasma is not happiest in that environment and so I backed the TJ into a hole and double lined the XJ up the hill. Pretty uneventful pull, but it did mean it was gone 5.00pm before we got back to the carpark, not sure if we were the last or not, but this is 2 years out of 2 that I have not made it out on time there.

Did anyone mention it rained a little during the day...

Well, the BBQ was rough... When we got back to the site we found that one of the two Marquee's had gone. To try and provide some where dry a couple of tarpaulins were setup above the BBQs and later on, the largest tarpaulin I’ve seen in a while was rigged up using everything including a unimog to hold it in place and above peoples heads. It seems a lot of people headed direct to the pub, but those of us that lingered were treated to huge quantities of sausages, steaks and so on along with the strawberries, cookies, crisps and so forth. Met loaded of lovely peeps as well, but after 2-3 hours of driving rain and being already wet through, we headed down to the pub for a quick one (or two) with Dodster and James. Before heading back to the campsite for an slightly earlier evening.

Sunday we decided to pack up first thing and load the car as for a short while it has actually stopped raining. Had a couple of tiny showers while packing up, but was relatively dry before heading off to the site once more (with a slightly heavier jeep).

This time I offered to lead and took us to the north east of the site where I have never been before. Here there were a number of steep and rocky hills which we played in up and down. We even managed to find some tracks that looked like they had not been used in a while. I have to say that Toby did an amazing job of getting his XJ to follow almost every where we went AND he showed judgement about where not to try. Right near the end we found a little rocky trail to drive up and a few of us drove up there slowly. At this point, Phil said he really needed to be heading off, so we decided to head back to the carpark. Off go Toby and the JK, but Phil decides to just drive back down the rocks before heading back. I follow him down wondering why he turned left at the bottom when we were heading right only for Phil to get out complaining of a steering problem. Yep, he managed to pop the bottom of his nearside spring off it’s base and it was sitting between the knuckle and the wheel. So Phil’s TJ was moved so that this wheel was down a ditch, and the highlift and full stretch lifting the jeep was still not quit enough to pop the spring back in. So, out with the ratchet strap and it was just enough to pop the spring back in place. Then it was a run to the top and air up, put the disconnects back on and say the farewells. The only excitement on the way home was when I got to the M25 and found a spark type problem whereby one of the cylinders was not running as it should which resulted in me dropping to ~40mph on steep hills, but still able to get to 60 on the flat and 70 down hill so it was possible to nurse her home.

Other mentionable events, and don’t ask me when they occurred. Were, Gren and Phil, winching through a muddy, gooey hole to get a punch. Me sitting in a river for a wee while, Toby getting almost sideways on “That hill” (Where the XJs and Gaz/Cheeky got stuck last year with the washout on the right hand side). James trying to go back up that steep hill and failing only for Toby to drive straight up it.

And finally, I really thought I was pushing the TJ this year, only to find it happy to do everything I threw at it.

As per last year, many thanks to those that organised the event, and to those that came and made it such a social even too. It was nice to see so many RnR stickers about.