Picnic in the woods May 2010 REVIEW>>>>

Here we go, a small selection of my pics from the day.

Wotcha Foggers....gonna try again.... :lol:

Well wot can I say...a blinding picnic and weekend...thanks to everyone who came and made it a success...

Saturday...
It all started on Saturday for some of us...I regathered the workers who could make it who had attended the digger weekend so we could finish up and get ready for the picnic...only fair that they had first crack if there was experimentation on new obsticles taking place..There was quite a lot to do still, and not much time to do it in....
Paul (map racing) met Sally and I up there and loaded all the piccynic stuff into the motors and headed for the woods We starting felling the clump of trees that obstructed the new lower track...Sally made a start on putting up my new tent (bought for Bala)...as I would loose my rag with it and end up with something looking like an umbrella in a tornado!!
Paul managed to bend his towing point on the front of his shorty pulling a tree stump out...snatching something should always envolve the tow vehicle getting all its wheels off the ground when the tow goes tight...shouldnt it???
Louis (the strangerover "modifier") and his mate Dean and then Jim (wiblerforce) joined us...
We then all cut a new track through and put out the marker tape so picnicers would know where to go (and where not too as we are trying not to use/damage the farm tracks)...
Then back to the clearing to finish for a brew and assualt on Kels stubborn towbar...it new resistance was futile and using various tools NOT for the jobs they were intended it came off...

My tent was already expertly assembled by sal so we set about settling down for the evening...
There was just the 3 of us staying over (Jim, kel and me) so we decided a bonfire was needed to start...but it wouldnt light...even with 1/2 gallon of petrol on it...so Jim "firestarter>twisted firestarter" set about it...using kels genny and his airbed inflater to fan the flames...I helped by throwing sticks at Jim and drinking stella...
Finally the fire worked properly and it was wicked...so we did a bbq as well...problem was we had done a few beers and couldnt find a knife...so packing on food stuff needed opening with my trusty axe...not recommended...We then discovered the swiss army spatula which really helped and was a bit safer...
We then cooked stuff (on dropped it in the ash!) and it was good even though I ended up with the ashy burger...
Then more beer..campfire banter and p1ss taking and off to bed...
Kel slept in his truck which had been attracting every insect for 2miles around with its bugzapper neons providing ambient lighting in the clearing...Jim had a contraption which resembled a citroen 2cv roof that he was sleeping on outdoors and under the stars (Kel and I had the cunning idea of painting jims face with strawbury jam to see how many bugs were on him in the morning...but jim rumbled us when we asked his to buy a jar of jam and a paintbrush from tescos earlier when he went to get supplies!)...I had my new tent to kip in...
Jim found my mallet which I had "lost" earlier under his sleeping bag when he went to kip...wondered where that went!

Got up early on sunday morning and collected jimbo's shortie and went to notcutts to meet the others...Got blinded by dust on the way in the li'll white leafer...all the windows and roof out when you havent cleaned the inside out since aquiring the car is not good a 60mph....

Sunday
Great turnout at Notcutts...we really took over the place and loadsa new faces and then headed up to the woods...
Did a briefing as always explaining the rules and safety stuff, and the changes to the site...and then off we all went to explore!!!
Mays picnicers were (in no particular order!)

Krusher
Kel and the cloud of bugs following him all day LOL...This fella has certainly mastered the lwb now, and did a blinding job on his insa special traks...This could be my main rival in the weekender tug of war...but oops we removed his towbar!!! Still laughing at kels "kebab" impression from the saturday night...quality...

Houndog 'n' co
Came for the jolly with the misses and nutty staff in 2.8lwb...Now on the hunt for a cheapy shorty to enjoy up the woods without risking the daily driver...nice to see you both again...was funny watching ya misses scale the south face of my 2.8 lwb on a loo run...tis a bit tall...

The Wilberforce fleet
Jim campaigned his shorty all day and accomplished even the craziest of freshly dug stuff...didnt get stuck that I saw, although needed half a dozen picnicers as ballast on the tail of it to get it out of the top bomb hole to have another go...Nice to see the lwb with a matched set of new styley bfg muds...do love them boots, really similar to bfg crawlers...Didnt need to use the winch on the lwb, but I am sure it will come into play when mud descends on us again...Thanks for doing the masterchef fing with Ste at the Fog-B-Q...was loverly!

mapracing
Did his thing with his "special" front diff...no cv breakages either which is cool...got to say it worked well, paul ran it in 3wd until traction suffered before then locking in the other hub and pretty much driving out of everything with not a smidge of wheel spin...worked well but had some steering issues, but they might be down to the fronts being smaller rolling radius to the rears causing bind up even when in 3wd...further experimentation is needed..watch this space...

Jammywagonwheel
the jammy crew were completely topless again, and boy was it the weather for it...Missed you going mate, hear your clutch got a bit hot...might recover when its cooled down and run gently for a bit if its glassed over...

BadBoy
Finally he managed to do a meet without busting anything!!! His new 2.8 shorty did well, and only got stuck in the same places everyone did on the newly machined stuff which is hard to say the least till it gets flattened down a bit...

hobsey
Probably the shiniest car to venture into the woods, on his first time offroading...brave man, but sensible to and with some good driving got around the site and learnt a lot I think...spent a while in with some of the other loons learning how not to do it! Nice to meet you and your misses, hope to see you at the next one...

davetheraveuk
Another newbie to the gang and the first 2.5 I think to venture into the woods, although he has been up the woods before when helping me between meets...and they did well, conquering most stuff and learning loads of the regulars who as always were willing to help the newer ones so they would get out unscathed...Finally got a working CB...but managed to reverse into a tree that he didnt know was there (strange that there would be trees in the woods eh????) ...a little souvenier of a blinding day, but otherwise unscathed

djsarge 1973
Yet another newbie, and our first 2.2i I think...Did well all day but succumbed to a tree with the front wing later on...Heard him going round the woods with his K&N barking away...Took him for a rumble in the li'll white leafer so he knew wot NOT to do!
Excellent grub for the bbq mate...made up for your engine being tooooo shiny! Nice to meet ya and look forwards to seeing you at the next one..

Random Ross
And Another Newbie...Ross and his bro campaigned the 2.4lwb (our first one of these too I think!) and did blindingly...gotta admit I was worried for your shiny sidesteps, but you managed well to keep em entact...got a bit hot at one point, but thats always a good excuse to stop for a brew...nice to meet you and hopefully see you again soon...

2much
Well wot can I say...the rear window "fail" was a classic...no hurry for the one back that is now on ya car mate...
Ste as always did some impressive stuff in the snot green shorty...clearly Ste's driving ability is far better than his calender reading ability!!LOL
He helped the wilblerforce with the bbq...needed a 2man Masterchef tag team jobby this time due to the numbers...food was pukka cheers bud...

Markon72
First time up the woods for Mark, one of Paul Mapracings mates...nice to meet ya mate and your misses, did really well for first outing, getting the car through everything with Paul egging you on and giving "advice"..glad to see the ex-greg/bobbinsjob wheels/tyres working well...hope to see you both again soon...

kevin1964
Came with the better half for the jolly, keeping sal company in the clearing with Houndogs misses...nice to see you again mate was a lovely day for chilling in the woods with a bunch of loons!! Nice to see you both again...ya gotta do the weekender with beer!!

Retro Pedro
Came down to see us all and say hello...albiet frontyless at the mo, as the new diff is still not fitted in his truck...was nice of Pete to show his support as always, and join us for a little while...gotta say the new graded entrance into the woods works well..pete got his Kia sedona right into the clearing no probs...
Will be a next time very soon...cheers for coming down, a picnic aint a picnic without our Pete...

Louis and Dean
Added some more dents and carnage to the strangerover...managed to bend his steering rod to start, but we managed to strighten it enough to extract his car to somewhere it could be worked on...Louis replaced it with the rod of the black rangey that died at an earlier meet...Louis entertained everyone all day and finally killed the front diff when he got stuck after pulling me out...Got to be the funniest 24point turn I have ever seen when louis tried to turn round in the totally the wrong place and got wedged with trees in front and behind...its on one of badboys vids...its so funny!I accicently set light to the plastic rangerover that louis screwed to the bonnet of his rangey...the plan was to let in burn for 30seconds and put it out, then reshape the plastic so it was more reminisant of Louis rangey...but louis decided to drive it around to try and "blow" it out...that werent gonna work really! It looked so funny with its little burning thing on its bonnet...like an olympic flame carrying green oval!

Sally
As always was a great hostess and managed to get my tent up and down (more than I could have done!) Thanks babe as always for all your help...

Me ...
Had a blinding day...was great to meet so many new people, and the li'll white leafer got its usual dose of abuse...got it actrobatic and collected some trees trying silly stuff...did both mirrors, both wings a bit more, both rear quarters a bit more, a fog light and modified the fuel tank on a stump...suffice to say it cost less to fill up now!
Food was great and company even better...roll on the next one, the weekender....really looking forwards to spending a couple of evenings round the camp fire with some beers with you guys...seems a shame to go home after just a day...

Thanks to everyone who came, to those who helped out, to everyone who bought stuff for the bbq....was a brilliant day !!

Some pickies I took..

At Notcutts

Up the woods

Paul stuck!!

As promised people a few of the pics my bro took! Sorry it took so long to get them on, been working and trying to learn how to use photobucket!1 :evil:

So appologies for them being a bit large! :oops:

And finally I give you the much talked about and long awaited F.O.G. premier of 2much Steve's magical disapearing rear windscreen!! :dance:

Hopefully this is another magic trick that the secret of how its performed will not be shared! LOL!!

Sorry Steve but :rotfl:

quality carnage that.......

looked a good day

Don`t wanna learn that trick :shock:

The FOG Frog Strikes again, marking its terratory for the next outing!

:dance:

Have a good Hols Steve, see you at the next one

I'll give you a hand to get the windows out if you want :rotfl:

John

Off to the vx breakers tomorrow to see about getting steve (2much) a new glass for the FROG (if they have any).

Anyone else got any more pics and vids????

Just to update, Petes new axle is now in his fronty, just needs the rest reassembling so he shouldnt have to sit out the next one.... :wink:

Video's as promised!

Enjoy :mrgreen: