Expedition Tour North Wales

Last weekend we took a convoy on our North wales Expedition tour,  Expedition Tour you may ask yourself what is this ? 

Running a little from our normal guided tour these trips are action packed taking on some of the most difficult lanes for vehicle’s well prepared, one must include a working winch. 

The last tour certainly delivered with all the winches out at some point or other. 

Driving up 2.5 foot steps to dropping down 6 foot near virtually rocky terrain.  Made for a great eventful weekend and smiles all around from not only the drivers but all the passengers too.

Nathaniel & Nicole @defender_thebeast  in there defender getting into all sorts of angles, certainly putting there flex to the test on this lane. 

Starting the day off near Oswestry we made our way across Wales towards the coast we won’t expose the actual route for obvious reasons. In to our first lane of the day we come across a steep route with a near 2ft step, in the dry this is normally easy doable but add rain and that it’s seems someone before us lost there diesel on the loose rocks certainly made it very difficult, extremely slippy and all of us only managing to get half way up, out come the winches on all vehicles straight away. Our second lane of the day seen us taking on the very well known splashy lane a great little technical drive up a off camber route giving some epic wheel lifts, especially by dean in this surf pictured above. Heading on from here we cross lanes with deep ruts though fields, woodlands making our way towards camp, with one last lane that’s always epic and very technical, upon arrival to the lane we discovered it has recently been graded and now like a motorway you could get a car down, it’s great to see lanes been repaired and staying open for all to use, but part of me feels we’ve lost one of the best lanes in the Uk. Camp for the night was at farm with a lovely river running next to it, great facilities and also a large barn that seats around 35 people around the tables providing excellent shelter if the weather closed in and good place for people to gather and talk about the day. 

Larry making easy work of the lanes. 
@larry_90_td5

Day 2: 

Leaving camp at 9am our first stop was a river crossing which despite all the rain was at normal depth, this crossing is fairly long probably a little longer than the famous Corwen car wash but Is much more predictable and depth stays very consistent throughout the year.  Leaving here we crossed straight over in to the next set of lanes, though long grass, deep ruts and some off camber grassy turns, before a little water splash pictured above with the defender making light work of the terrain.  Moving on the next lane is now very washed out, last time we was there we had to remove a huge tree that had fallen down blocking the lane and the wash out was easy passable Althou very deep. This time the wash out has now moved back a few meters with weathering and created a 10 foot deep hole just off the lane. 
crossing this stream was a little more tricky. Not so much the terrain. But making the turn for the gate, been very narrow so a lot shunting back and forth.

Lane of the day seen us heading down the iconic Bastard Lane, upon arriving at the lane we met 2 others just reversing out of the lane, having not been there before they was very unsure, after a little chat they asked if I could help guide them though. Who were very thankful at the end for all the guidance and help getting them though the lane. 

This lane is absolutely amazing for a uk lane, but driven on the wrong lines can cause alot of damage to your vehicle, mostly on the waterfall at the end, knowing the correct line it’s possible to get virtually any vehicle down without grounding out, many bumpers get ripped off here from wrong line choice. 
After taking our group down damage free with some spectacular wheel lifts from the 90’s and surf. we bought the Ford ranger down on stock height. 

this ended our tour for the weekend and it’s always great to hear the feedback from all at the end of day with everyone going home smiling. 

Andrew in his Hilux dropping into a little technical section on Bastard lane. 

Thank you everyone that joined us for the weekend and look forward to seeing you all again soon. 

If your interested on these tours then head over to our website and check out our Expedition tour. 

Also a thank you to Abbie for coming along and capturing the moments. 

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