Green Laning: Shrops. & E.Wales

Saturday I went out green-laning with Chris Marsden and Richard Brownlee. We went out in Chris's neighborhood and along the nearby Welsh border areas, in some spots driving along the imaginary line. Richard ventured up from the south on Friday evening after replacing the heater core in his -R reg Rangie. (Good thing he did !)

The moring started out a bit foggy as we headed off and I joined Richard in the Range Rover, which was a bit nostalgic, even though it had a number of improvements over my old -L reg, (such as inertia reel seat belts), it retained much of the classic 2-door Rangie characteristics: anemic ankle burning heater, drafty, doors which needed to be slammed, a sticky bonnet release cable and an idle which wasn't self-governing.

As the day got going, being the only passenger amoung both vehicles, I got to hop out and open the gates. Chris navigated us about, with his battered and well-annotated OS maps - having highlighted which of the 'other' (white) roads were passable, or had been made passable again, as well as the other byways which were suitable for greenlaning.

One lane which Chris and some friends had cleared earlier in the year was filled with debris from some very messy hedge makers. One couldn't say if they'd dumped the tree limbs down into the lane as a temporary convience, or as discourage use of the path. Mind you, the path at this point was sunk well below the level of the surrounding land, and hedges. The embankments on either side fo the lane were a 1.5 to 2.5 metres high, and left little room to open doors, never mind to walk past a vehicle in the lane. Our forward progress being blocked, both drivers reversed about 150m to a point where they could turn about.

After a while, I went ahead with Chris in his disco, so that I could take photos of Richard fording a stream, and then stayed in the Disco for a bit, (not to mention it was a bit warmer).

At one point, while following the border, we were on a very broad lane - almost wide enough for two vehicles in both directions, but for the hedges being overgrown, and the occasional young tree in the way.

Eventually we did manage to find our way to a pub for lunch, and there Chris told us more about his pursuit of keeping old roads passable, and re-discovering them. (To that end, keep an eye out for the Rights of Way mailing list.)

The afternoon brought some more lanes, and great host that he is, Chris let me drive his Disco for a bit, while he hopped out and opened the gates for us. As we were approaching this boggy section he convinced me to take the wheel again. [Hoping that if it was in poor shape and I got it stuck he could blame it on me.] But as luck would have it the surface was frozen and we had no problems getting stuck, that is, until we got to THE snow drift, but the shovelling, the 50meters of tow rope, and wiring the fence back together is another story (eh Richard ?).

A tip to the wise:

remember to stick some bailing wire and cutters in your recovery kit (no, not to hold the tail lamp lenses in place, but to repair the fence )

We decided not to carry on, given that it was well past sunset, and Richard was going to head back South that evening.

It was great fun, and sparring some Canadian pinstripes and some scars from the barbed wire fence (onthe Rangie that is), it was a great day green laning.

Sunday I went back to Gaydon, to the BMIHC to see what Land Rovers were on display and take some photos for some more webpages. Though I was tempted to pick up a bunch of LR toys, I settled for a couple books.

On the way out, I stopped to take a photo of a sign, which happened to be at the rotary in front of the Rover Group entrance just up the road. Some punter leaving the works (in a 90") gave me a nasty look, but I didn't give it much thought. A couple minutes later he returned, and turned back into the works. I finished, returned to my car, and stowed the camera gear when I noticed a police livery 110" enter the works entrance from the far side. Now, these things may not be connected, but I decided not to hang around and find out.

Bill Caloccia
Orleton, Shropshire, UK
13 January 1997

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