Muddypluggers at the beach.

We nearly didn't make it,at 4pm on saturday my front axle was in three parts as i`d bust another diff in the week. It`s now on it's third rear and second front, nearly as bad as Martin! Anyway I got it all back together in time for sunday, all done by 8pm saturday night. Martin said he was working on "The Beast" till 1am sunday morning, but that don't beat JJ, at 7.30 am he was fitting a new alternator! That’s why we were a little late getting to Shrewsbury, sorry to all those that were waiting for us. So at about 9.45 on sunday a convoy of 7 Landrovers sorry 6 Landrovers and 1 Mitsubishi set of from shrewsbury heading for the coast taking the scenic route via Llansantfraid and over the Berwyn hills, bit of a workout for the diesel powered of us but we all kept together fairly well.We arrived at the beach around midday, by 1 pm Martin and me had both been told off by the beach patrol, Martin for driving up & down and me for riding my daughters little scrambler, I didn't know they had banned them!

Shortly after a Feelander and a Discovery arrived, members of the Discovery owners club, then another Disco and a 90 turned up, members of North Wales 4x4 club. So we had 11 4x4`s in a row, sun shining and JJ lighting the barbie by soaking his hanky in petrol! Someone suggested a tug of war great idea, so Martin and JJ had a tug of war, with Landrovers! They succeeded in digging themselves into the beach, Martin got towed out by Graham while JJ practised self recovery and used his hi-lift.

After that spectacle we all just chilled out for the rest of the day, folks started to drift off and we left around 4ish. On the way home the convoy was down to 3 me, JJ and Don. About 5 miles outside Porthmadog I heard JJ shout over the CB that something had fell off my Landy, it was my amber beacon that I had put on the roof while I was packing up, it`s magnetic, it don`t stick very well to aluminium !OOPS!

We stopped at Bala `cos Don and family wanted fish & chips so we all had some! Don left us at Shrewsbury and then we were 2, I`d just turned onto the Bridgnorth road when JJ shouted me "the b****** f****** thing has cut out and it won`t f****** start!" so I turned round and went back to find him stuck on the slip road with traffic all over the place, we both looked under the bonnet and found an injector pipe split. We managed to get it going and he drove it back on 3 cylinders, 1st gear up Wenlock Edge 10 mph. Luckily he`d got a spare pipe in his garage so he soon fixed it. Why is it every time we go out someone breaks something?

So there you have it an absolutely superb day out but no mud! I think we should have an annual beach party but lets check there`s nothing else on at the same time next year!

seeya`ll soon, Mark.
On the Beach