We all had a great day out yesterday. Good to see everyone had a top Christmas and a warm welcome back to Nick Calcraft, six years since your last outing with us, I looked it up, we thought it was 3 or 4! A big welcome to Paul and George attending their first Drive Round Day. It was great to see a good mix of vehicles with Martyn’s recently tray backed Discovery and Kevin JC17 sounding as loud as ever! Russell’s series was running like a dream and proved how the technology back in its day was all that’s required to get around the site – with a bit of forethought from the driver!

Bampton was as wet as ever, some very testing conditions for all. The tracks have survived the winter well, although water sections were a little deep, we opted to miss them out! The section coming up from the end of the old sunken river to the top of the fields, some 600m of slight gradient of grassy tracks proved a real test. I am not sure many did it on the first attempt – David Bowyer maybe who was at the back and could see where he needed to start the run up from? It certainly pushed most to the limit on something, as ever, that looked remarkably easy!

With a good spread of vehicles in the group the lead vehicle took some different routes in the afternoon to bypass some of the tougher sections in Middle Wood – primarily the axle twists and bomb holes which have formed over the years shaped around the various tree routes. With two shiny vehicles not wishing to push the limits to far they progressed off around Tim’s Lost route whilst the remainder I led down through Middle Wood. There are still plenty of bypass options once you get to the actual obstacles but all of them are a good challenge for driver and machine.

The Bampton site has really matured over the last fifteen or so years we have been frequenting it. Some of the tracks are now long lost to nature – possibly just a little too demanding on the vehicles, and new tracks are being opened up as the seasons progress to maintain interest for all. This year we are running a few more of our camping weekends. Open from Fri lunchtime through to Sunday lunchtime. Overland based – so you need to be totally self-sufficient. Off Roading and camping in remote places.