Army adventures: part 2

See for part 1 the previous post.

So, there we were. Driving up and down Vanessa (you should really read part 1) and having fun, still keeping Bob pretty clean and alive (I can only repeat that you should read part 1), when we saw this car coming towards us:

We know the guy behind the wheel, he'd invited us to this event, and he clearly didn’t give a shit (if you’re offended, I’m sorry) about keeping his car clean. Perhaps the fact that this isn’t really his car, but it is owned by Landrover had something to do with that. Anyway, who cares. They clearly were having fun. He’d brought his sons to the event and kept them in the back of the car. Obviously there were no health-and-safety-people around. I mentioned to Landrover guy that it was perhaps a little dangerous to keep the kids in the open back of the car without seatbelts, but he answered: “Don’t worry, they are holding on tight.” Which was true.

So they ‘did’ Vanessa a couple of times too:

…and had a lot of fun. Just like these guys who were thrilled to see that I was taking photos:

…and these people who kept their van together with what looked like a huge elastic band:

And then the entire Dutch army turned up to see if everything was okay:

(Just joking: this isn’t the entire Dutch army. In case you were planning to invade us. I’m pretty sure there are more people involved in keeping our country safe.)

And then we moved on, into the woods again, to find another exciting spot for me to take photos. We arrived at another muddy patch and I was just getting ready to get out of the car and take some shots of cars driving through it, when suddenly we saw a good friend of us (who owns a couple of Landrovers too and does this sort of off-the-road driving more often) driving towards us in one of the cars owned by Landrover. He took one look at our sparkling clean Bob, saw that we were driving around in totally the wrong gear (not in dif.lock, tut tut) shook his head, got out of his car, almost dragged hubs out of Bob, jumped in, put Bob in dif.lock and before I knew what was happening we drove off.
Fortunately I had the presence of mind to immediately start taking photos:

Well… and when we came back to where hubs was left standing, friend jumped out off Bob, shoved hubs into the Landrover he was driving around the terrain, and off they went:

…and back they came. The spot where all the other cars have gathered, is a place where almost everyone got stuck and had to be winched out, much to the amusement of the people watching.
We didn’t dare to drive through that mud pit. And fortunately friend didn’t either.

So, when friend was satisfied with Bob’s muddy state, he went his way again and we went ours. Back home, because it was time to leave all the excitement behind and take care of the furry bunch.

Aww… he didn’t get to play.

Army adventures: part 1

Years ago when hubs bought his first Landrover, he got an invitation for a one-day-off-the-road-driving-course. He came back with lots of great stories, about being able to touch the grass through the open window when the car was parked sideways on a steep slope, driving through water, driving up steep hills and off them again. He did have a great day.

Then I bought my Landrover, Bob, and I too got an invitation for such a course. Since I knew it would be a great day, not to be missed, I called a friend and asked if she wanted to join me on a fun day out. And so we went into the woods to learn how to drive up a slope. Landrover have a special truck, that unfolds into what looks like a Canadian wooden lodge, and acts as a bar/restaurant. They also employ some good looking rugged men to teach you how to drive through the wilderness in cars owned by Landrover, so your own car will not get dirty and/or dented. Friend and I had a great day. And indeed, we touched grass through the open window of a Range Rover while parked sideways on an extremely steep slope. All very exciting. What made it even more exciting, friend needs glasses to drive a car and see where she’s going, but because of the handsome Landrover guys she didn’t want to spoil her good looks by hiding them behind those glasses, which meant that half of the time she was driving the car in braille-mode. Not a clue where she was going. Sometimes the driving-instructor would scream things like: “What the…!?! Where are you… ?!?”, but she kept her cool and didn’t mention her blindness. And I was just trying not to wet my pants from the combination of fear and laughter.

Of course, with the Netherlands being asphalted over almost entirely, after that one day I’ve never driven a car through any wilderness, apart from our garden, again.

But, last Sunday we had the opportunity to join a whole bunch of 4x4 car enthusiasts and drive our Bob through army-training terrain. Where usually tanks and soldiers play war, we could freely drive up and down especially constructed hills and through water, without the risk of being shot at.

And we loved it. We did start very carefully, saying that we wanted to keep Bob clean, but secretly just not having a clue how to keep Bob alive in the more challenging parts of the terrain. These guys do this more often…

And as always ‘bachelor's wives and maiden's children are well trained’ or as we say in the Netherlands: ‘de beste stuurlui staan aan wal’ (the best helmsmen are on shore).

The fanclub:

We declined an offer of one of the guys there to drive Bob for us through this mud pit, because I’d just heard him jokingly say that he’d already lost 4 cars in this pool. So, with Bob still clean and alive, we drove further into the woods, looking for two hills known by the army as ‘Vanessa’ (after a Dutch ‘singer’ who has two strong points and singing isn’t one of them).
Since I was navigating, it didn’t take us long to find Vanessa. It could have taken even less time, but hubs has a mind of his own and didn’t always follow my instructions *sigh*.

Vanessa was very popular:

(not hubs and not Bob either)

This looked like fun and also doable, so hubs drove Bob up a smaller hill and through this ditch a couple of times and then I got into the car too to take some shots while we were driving up…

…and down…

This is Bob:

This is one of my favourite photos. Aww…   

And then we saw a couple of guys we know from the Landrover dealer and also a friend of us, and from then on everything went pretty much downhill for Bob’s cleanliness.

To be continued…