Many of us choose to drive 4WD vehicle these days which bridge the gap that exists between typical passenger vehicles and recreational/family style vehicles, but how many of us have experienced what some of these 4WD’s are really capable of?
I happen to be the proud owner, with the help of finance of course, of a Land Rover Discovery 4 and had received a Father’s Day gift voucher last year for a one on one 4WD training day with John Cantrell’s “Australian 4x4 Driver Training” (a Registered Training Organisation - National Provider Number 91518).
After several cancellations, only because of the wet weather, at the start of the year, I finally got to experience what turned out to be an absolutely thrilling and challenging training day AND with no damage to either my vehicle or my self esteem.
My wife, who decided to be a brave passenger, and I left home 5:45am last Friday morning, coffee in hand, for the trek out to Great Western Highway near Lithgow and Bowenfells to meet with John Cantrell to lead us to our destination for REAL off road training for the day. No man made ramps on this trip!!
You couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. We drove into the bush to 4WD tracks in the National Park and the Cox’s River located in the Central Tablelands, Blue Mountains, and Macarthur regions of New South Wales and then the fun started!
We stopped at the foot of what looked like an old rock quarry full of ruts and rock and dips and crevices and under John’s careful guidance considered on foot how to tackle this terrain. I have to say it was steep and challenging! John came with me on my first attempt to guide me through this terrain. I selected Rocks & Ruts systems, raised the suspension, turned stability control off (Yes off!), engaged low range and off we went with my wife filming from the safe surroundings outside. We crawled up and then slowly descended down this rocky landscape without incident and I am pleased to say the person behind the wheel did not fail the vehicles incredible capability on this stage. Having started out with quite some intrepidation I found myself feeling a whole lot more confident having managed this first test.
Throughout the day we traversed different areas of slippery, dirty, rocky and rutty landscape had lunch, tackled a mud hole, a river crossing and then cleaned off the Land Rover with a trip up and back on a cobbled section of the Cox’s River through about .7of a meter of fresh running water.
This awesome day finished off with a lesson in vehicle recovery and you know what, we never saw another vehicle or person the whole day, just some incredible scenery and a few huge Kangaroos.
We shook hands and said our goodbye’s and headed off to our friends place in Bathurst for the night.
What an experience!!
If you’re looking to buy a new 4WD vehicle give us a call on (02) 9954 5044 and we can help you finance it.