Bob's Off Roading Adventures

Fun in a 101 - in the rain, in the snow & in the sun?

Cowm Top Quarry, Whitworth 8th Feb 2004

It was bright sunny, but COLD day. We arrived at Cowm Top Quarry (GR SD882197, OS Sheet 109 - Manchester) around mid-day and there were little white crunchy bits falling out of the sky. Not many, not enough to settle, but enough to make me think "Mad! That's what we are, mad!"

The quarry itself covers a fairly large area with plenty of scope for all types of off road vehicles from scrambler bikes to full size 4x4s like a 101 FC. It always seems busy at the entrance but there is lots of room to play and plenty of help if/when you get stuck in the plentiful mud. Amongst the numerous vehicles there were a fair few 4x4s from Mud-Club, but with an internet based club it is not always easy to match screen-names to people & vehicles.

It wasn't long before we were having lots of fun with Steve enjoying testing out the Detroit locker on the challenges of rocks, mud and bog.

Hmmm. Bog - easy to get into, not so easy to get out of .......

This was fairly deep as you can see from the "low profile", very sticky and far too easy to work deeper into it.

We ended up needing our first tow of the day to get out of this one!

It wasn't all mud and towing as the following pictures show. I know the composition of some of them is peculiar e.g. extra vehicles on top of ours, but it was too damn cold to keep my gloves off for longer than it took to press the "shutter release" (our new Fuji digital camera even makes the sound of a mechanical system as is stores the image!)

Playing in the sunshine	Some easy stuff...	...and a bit more
Plenty of water in front...	....underneath....	....and ALL AROUND!!!! This is when we discovered that the fan showering the coil and distributor with water doesn't lead to easy starting :-(
Now for something steeper	Jonathan thinks it's all a piece of cake.	When you end up grounded you need plenty of manpower to lift you off!

We were on our last loop around the site as the sun started to drop when we were asked for assistance. As we had had our fair share of help we headed straight off to try out our towing skills. This is what we found!

Despite our best efforts, and those of the resident Land Rover, this vehicle refused to be towed (forwards or backwards) out of the very sucky mud around the front wheels and everyone decided to call it a day as the deepening darkness was accompanied by crunchy ice under foot. As we went to leave the soggy Suzuki we discovered that Bob's starter motor was playing up. One more tow to get us started and another (final) assist out of another mud hole as we made our way towards the exit and we were off home with a very muddy 101.

Many thanks to Mud Club for suggesting a meet up at Whitworth and even more to the guys with all the towing experience who saved us and others from the Suzuki's fate.

Here is a link to another set of pictures as taken by a Mud-Club member http://community.webshots.com/album/116987073lMChyT

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