Wild Camping - The Downs and Ups

[FalklandRuss]

After record winds and heavy rain a few days before, the ground was a little softer than normal. But as the camper is a 4x4 and I'm an off-road “Guru”, the 30-min drive to Lake Point should have been a doddle. Unfortunately, the terrain round here can gobble-up a vehicle like an insect in a Venus flytrap... and it did! Axle deep in Peat is pretty terminal, the old girl was going nowhere.



The Falkland Islands Fire & Rescue Service to the rescue! Having to be winched out is pretty embarrassing but he’s our next-door neighbour so no-one will ever now…yeah right! Standard call-out charge….a slab of beer.




A couple of hours late but eventually made it to the beach. The First mate (normally white wine on a Friday) had to have a couple of G&Ts to steady the nerves and return to normality. After a Bar-b-q settled down to a wonderful sunset and star-filled night sky.



And then! What a glorious Sun rise…

[video=youtube;ahOtXqMDlyI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahOtXqMDlyI[/video]

...to be followed by the hottest February day ever recorded in the Falkland Islands. Even managed to paddle in the sea and was joined by my faithful hound Jess and a couple of dolphins.



Karen donned the wet-suit and managed to frighten them away...Not really!





The moral of the story... don't rate a trip at the start, it might get better! BTW, drove back the same route without any hassle.

 

[suneye]

Loved this post - thanks. Particularly liked the dramatic sunrise

 

[Gerry Attrick]

I had to do a double-take when I saw these pictures, as this vehicle so closely resembles my Toyota Granvia campervan conversion.

My beast is 2WD, but I still manage to get to out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-track places, and it's great for stealth camping as it's not immediately obvious to onlookers that it's a campervan.

I was serving in the RAF at the time of the Falklands conflict and was offered a posting there, but it was within a year of my demob date so I declined. I've since regretted not going - it looks to be my sort of wild environment !

 

[izwozral]

Great post, great pics and proper wild camping. More please.

 

[FalklandRuss]

I had to do a double-take when I saw these pictures, as this vehicle so closely resembles my Toyota Granvia campervan conversion.

My beast is 2WD, but I still manage to get to out-of-the-way, off-the-beaten-track places, and it's great for stealth camping as it's not immediately obvious to onlookers that it's a campervan.

As you probably realize it had to be a 4x4 down here. She's still running on UK road tyres so have to get some over-sized off-road boots on her to give a little more ground clearance and more grip.

I was serving in the RAF at the time of the Falklands conflict and was offered a posting there, but it was within a year of my demob date so I declined. I've since regretted not going - it looks to be my sort of wild environment!

I also served down here in the RAF but not during the conflict. You wouldn't recognize the place now as so much building has gone on. As always immense gratitude to those that liberated the Islands

 

[FalklandRuss]

...Particularly liked the dramatic sunrise

Thanks Suneye. It was pretty hard work making breakfast in the van for the Orchestra though!