Off-road trip

You're used to enjoying the stability and safety of your own 4x4 on tarmac, but have you ever considered its ability off-road? Jon Walsh headed up hill and down valley to find out...Photography: Peter Burn

We took a slow drive along the tarmac lane then turned right onto a rough rockstrewn gravel track. “So this is off-roading,” we thought, slipping the Mitsubishi L200 pick-up truck into low-ratio four-wheel drive mode before bouncing out of another water-laden pothole. Kinnaird House disappeared into the corner of the rear view mirror as our train of off-road virgins reached the hillcrest. In the lead car was devout Yorkshireman Brian Hartley, a renowned 4x4 and offroad guru. He didn’t bother indicating as he turned right off the track and onto the heather. That’d kick-in road rage on the school run, but not today.

Is he going to pull over and have a chat about what we’re doing? Is this the ‘how to drive off-road’ bit? No, we carried on, past the sheep enjoying their mineral feeds and past a slightly bemused and bearded shepherd steering his quad-bike clear of these ‘daft city folk’.

We popped up over another crest and the vast beauty of the 9000-acre Kinnaird Estate unfolded in front of us. After covering some seriously rough ground at the breakneck speed of almost 6mph we stopped, looking up a pretty steep slope. Brian gathered us around advised us on how we could make it to the top. He didn’t instruct, he gave us the options, which route to take, which sort of rocks to avoid and which to drive over, which grass we don’t want to slip on, what speed may be needed and how much bottle we need to summon up. We needed to call on
a little confidence in our cars too. From then on.....

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By Jon Walsh

Section : Scottish Off-Roading

Page number : 24