Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them

A 2017 meeting

Sorry Chris I must have misunderstood about the job thing. Thought you dropped straight into another.

Just thinking out loud. I didn't realise it was suppose to be for the guys up north to have a meet up. I thought it was more of a club thing as we don't get to see the guys from up there.

Depending on numbers maybe we could have so many groups and just do the lanes rarther than the forestry stuff.

Just ideas.
 
Oh I have Karl, I start new job on the 1st, but it's not been easy trying to leave one role nice and tidy and start the new one. I've had to go to London 4 times just for interviews. Been very busy.

We can only have so many cars in the trip. Now we could find a place to meet and camp where 50 trucks could turn up, but it still doesn't change the fact that we'll only have something like 10 vehicle spaces on the convoy. It's all private. There's no lanes as such in Scotland.
 
I'm beginning to think, despite my early enthusiasm, that this is not going to be for me for various reasons. Thinking better of it. Maybe on the reserve list perhaps.
 
OK guys, a bit of an update. Firstly we'd be looking at something like, in the region of, approximately a dozen vehicles. The Forestry Commission have said yes to this but there's a couple of caveats. We'd need to get a access licence separately agreed in the name of the Club. That's not hard. So don't damage you noddle thinking about it.

The second thing is that they'd allow us to sort of wildcamp in the trees at a defined spot. No not a car park at the edge of the A75 but, we'd have to hire a portaloo. As it would be genuinely remote they won't tolerate us shitting in the woods, even if we dug a hole. Now this should be good news for the women folk. That isn't hard to arrange either with local contacts.

The host of all of this would like to charge us a bit but wants to donate he whole thing to the Mountain Rescue team so would appreciate the opportunity to make a but of a do about it with the forum members and so on presenting a cheque perhaps. For those of you in the 4x4 response system this should make sense I guess.

All sounding great I know, but there's a stumbling block. And that is the date. When would we want to do this? Doubtless everyone will have a different diary. The idea as I have said is that it's firstly for the Northern lads, so you'd need to be able to get there Friday evening or first light Sat, then be happy with leaving Sunday breakfast to get home. For anyone up that way, that's a sneaky early finish on Friday. If you live on the I.O.W then you'd be leaving Tuesday sometime. This is supposed to be a weekend slotted in costs you nowt in terms of holiday.

Now if people want to come up from the South and there's spaces, you'll need to understand the travel commitment and / or tag something else on like a holiday in the region. No good bitching that it's a long way to come for a day's laning.

How's that sounding? Any particular weekends to avoid? High summer will be buzzing and the sky won't be dark. We could do a Spring trip sort of April time.

Suggestions welcome, especially if you live within about 4 hours drive of Dumfries.
 
Everything looks good there Chris, obviously Northern chaps should have first dibs. Any date should suit me.
 
Hi Chris, I'm all in and having to pay a little to have some fun isn't a problem here as it will be going to a good course.
April is possible, maybe the weekend of the 7th to the 9th? My boys last day at school is on the 7th so I will be able to get a reasonable early start from Northern Ireland. For now it will be the 2 of us.
 
Don't like the adverts?  Click here to remove them
April could be doable, need to check work calendar. In the company's I work for we get alternate Fridays off and can swap it, to fit with weekend, meaning no annual leave needs to be taken
Guess it would be a base camp then ? Suitable for ground tents ? I would use Tentipi this time of year

Thanks again for looking into all of this
 
OK, April might be a first good look then. Ground conditions, I can't say at present Andy. No idea, but as we firm up the meeting that can be one of the details. I'll be in a roof topper myself.
 
I'd be interested. I could probably do the weekend of the 8th/9th or 22nd/23rd in April, but not the other weekends.
 
Ok I'll see what's what with an early April date then.
 
Just heard about this meet so i'd be interested in going if there's still space. April would suit fine.
 
I'm going up to see the chap this week.
 
April can be a bit damp in the forest but it's spring, warm-ish and no midges to speak of. I'm interested :)
 
Edit. Having told SWMBO I am now reliably informed we will be a definite - I think :). We've done some terrific drives there over the last couple of years, so I'm looking forward to getting to do more. Kirroughtree Hotel as a posh base, anyone???
 
Weekend 29/30th not the best for me, but can make it at a push
 
jeezes, pyrenees are shorter distance away than that! french wive and cheese vs huge mozzies? lol

have fun, it's gorgeous up there!
 
What's French wive? I was under the impression we took partners not found them there?

Is this where I have been going wrong?
 
OK I'll update later, just got home. April is out. Early May isn't going to work either. We might have to push this back or even forget it for now. Shame because the routes look great. But we can't do it without the leader. He's either booked or driving around in Portugal.
 
That is a pity, we were looking forward to this. Please let us know if there are a possibility of other dates and thanks for trying to get this organised.
 
So was I but I think that once we're into June, people have family hols, overland trips and so on. It's disappointing. The plan would have been to split into a couple of groups, following on. The camp site sounded good and toilets were priced up. The whole price for camping, toilets, vehicle access permits etc came out at about £90 per vehicle. To some that might sound a lot, but my contact was giving his part for free other than fuel.

It's not a dead duck yet, but the lack of traffic on the thread from up North doesn't inspire great confidence that many are actually interested. There's more interest from the Southerners really and that wasn't quite the point.

I think March is too early and could be poor weather. We've a Lincomb in April in any case.
 
Back
Top