4X4 Adventures Challenge 24th November 2007 , Culmhead , Taunton

 The familiar site that is Culmhead was not so familiar to the usual competitors on the last event of the 4x4 Adventures’ season . The organiser (James Trembath) had plans to make things a little different on this concluding event, and set up a course of stages with sub-sections on three parts of the site that had little seen little use over the past year.

The stages or punches were very well set out within a taped off section with the majority using the entrance as the exit, The sections required a great deal of driving skill to obtain the punch or punches within them. It made it a lot more interesting than a straight punch hunt event.

The drivers briefing saw 16 vehicle teams which varied from Standard, Standard +1 and Modified.

We all got away shortly after 9am, after receiving our map and instruction sheet at scrutineering we headed for the furthest section being the quarry. The first two punches were done by driving over what appeared to be a demolished building and then down into a tightly taped off section which had 6 punches. A lot manoeuvring and directional winching was needed to clear the section.

Top quarry was the next section, this was a new section to the event , 5 punches situated, 2 on vertical climbs,1 on a low bank and the rest on the banks of a small pond .

As this was a new section we were unaware on the depth of the water in the pond, so we drove down the bank and traversed along to the punch, a very short lead was on the punch so a bit of sideways winching clinched it for us, on the release of the winch the whole vehicle tipped the opposite way further down into the water where as the driver I found myself with the water level up to my right shoulder, Bearing in mind the outside temperature was struggling to reach 3 degrees, It was damn cold, so after Lardy composed himself after fits of laughter we winched through to drier ground.

We then had to reverse back into the opposite side of the pond to achieve the last punch of the section. The water was not so deep this side and only came up as high as the door handle, but none the less it still required some technical winching to achieve the punch which was at knee level (Must get James some punch cord for Christmas). Disaster struck us for the first time in the way of the rear winch rope snapping, this was quickly re-attached to the winch enabling us to get the punch.

A 20 min break was required to check all systems on the truck as it was up to the dashboard in water, also to empty out boots and ring out socks and change a of clothes. The final section of the quarry was 4 punches on “Rabbit hill” So called because there was a dead rabbit on top of it, so I suppose it had some relevance.

Rabbit hill was a bit nasty with a 250 ft drop within inches of the O/S wheels, two punches were easy enough to the left of us, the third was half way down the side of the hill, We lowered down backward to get it as lowering down on the rear winch was a dodgy option after previously having the rope fail.

One more punch was achieved on the way out.

The quarry section was now completed, back onto the road to Widcombe Moor were we discovered the clutch badly slipping on the truck. Maybe water ingress into the bell housing?? We pulled into Widcombe Moor and dropped out the bell housing wading bung, but we discovered it was dry inside, so we made the decision to proceed with caution until the clutch gave up .

Punch #1 was a taped off drive in and out section. The entrance being between two large pine trees situated some 5 foot or more gave problems to the wider wheeled vehicles. At a squeeze we just popped through, leaving a nice bruise on the front wing bars and pushing the Nearside front tyre off the rim. Out of the 10 punches in the whole section we only managed to collect 8 due to a couple of standard vehicles badly stuck on punches 5 & 6, As time was now against us we opted to miss them out and head for the final section Ian’s Bog.

En-route to Ian’s Bog we collected two easier punches, 11 punches in Ian’s Bog were to be had. We had seven more driveable punches done within 30 mins.

The time now 2.30 we had an hour to complete and get back to the parc-ferme. We charged the truck into the notorious bog and got within inches of the 8th punch, where the final distance had to be winched through the bottomless bog. We decided the best route was backwards after obtaining the punch.

A single line rear winch started us moving back towards drier terrain, Then it happened again, the rear winch rope snapped, So after a quick decision we decided to go forward through the bog, we set up a single line pull and proceeded through, on the climb out of the bog the front rope snapped and fell to the floor, Doooh!

The time now coming up to three ‘O’ clock we had to get a move on, Marshall Ian Gildersleeve (The Bog was named after him on a previous event) made a suggestion that he remove the score card and conceded the challenge, we thought about it but declined the offer. We re-spliced the hook back on to the remaining rope on the drum and made a quick exit back to the finish leaving 3 punches un-collected.

We arrived back at the parc-ferme with about 15 mins to spare. Rather than forfeit any penalty points for lateness we were safer not attempting any more punches.

All teams were back within the time, and after talking to a few , it seems that most had their fair share of problems throughout the day, the most popular was winch lines snapping.

It was a cracking event to see the season out, Roll on 2008 , For the OEC International & X Eng challenge series which is to be run by James Trembath of 4X4 Adventures .

Jase & Lard

Team OEC.