Bored housewife

[Hybrid_From_Hell]

Chris,

Sounds interesting, as for the name poss not the best may conjour up the wrong "Sales Image" and clients etc.

Whatever you do I wish you the very best of luck with it

Keep us informed

Nige

[cols110]

Chris, how about working out something with Simor, and cross promoting each other bussiness`s.

X-eng

X-country tours

X-country lanning

X-country travels

etc

Something along those lines, between you splitting the cost of advertising and sales stands at LR shows etc, it might work for you both.

Just a thought

[cols110]

Or just keep it simple and call it

"A F*cking Great Day out Green Lanning"

[Mo Murphy]

What about just calling it "Green Laning" ? Or "Green Lane Tours" or "Green Road Tours"

Mo

[GBMUD]

What about just calling it "Green Laning" ? Or "Green Lane Tours" or "Green Road Tours"

Hmm, greenroads.co.uk is available, how about that? Or greenlanetours.com? I prefer the former as it is shorter and gets the message across.

Chris

[Mo Murphy]

Greenroads.co.uk gets my vote

[GBMUD]

Greenroads.co.uk gets my vote

Good enough for me Mo, I have registered it.

Cheers

Chris

[siggy]

I went with Kankku.co.uk

There very good able to drive theres or tag along

do lanes that you need a permit for

[freeagent]

I'd pay for a days guided green laning, simply because i cannot be arsed to figure it all out for myself.

last time we went my mate bought a couple of routes off 'tinternet, they were very good, but now things have changed i'm not sure how up to date they were and i wouldn't risk it again.. as i dont want to run into a couple of coppers in a 4x4, when i genuinely didn't know i wasnt supposed to drive there...

you could try to get a tie-up with a local 4x4 dealer (not main dealers as they are all tied up with the landrover experience) and get them to give out flyers to new 4x4 owners, to try and inspire them to use it for what the designers intended.......

the biggest problem i can see is the fine line between being a guide and an instructor, i mean, if someone gets a bit 'out of shape' and you need to give them instruction as to how to get out of it, at what point do you cross the line..

..same with recovery, if someone screws up and you need to drag/ winch them out, you'll be giving them some sort of instruction....

seriously, good luck with it, i reckon it could work, but the key to it is attention to detail...

i'm sure a few of us would be interested in signing up for it......

[cols110]

the biggest problem i can see is the fine line between being a guide and an instructor, i mean, if someone gets a bit 'out of shape' and you need to give them instruction as to how to get out of it, at what point do you cross the line..

..same with recovery, if someone screws up and you need to drag/ winch them out, you'll be giving them some sort of instruction....

i'm sure a few of us would be interested in signing up for it......

Instead of offering instuction, you could phrase it as advice, and assistance for recovery, that way you don`t need to give instructions.

[jules]

"I wondered if anyone here has ever been on a "paid for" green lane trip"

Yes, '99 or 2000 at Christmas time, with someone who was then Derbyshire based, and who was just starting up a part time business for guided Green Lane tours, which later folded due to the expense of getting insurance.

Later I went on another Derbyshire one, organised under the auspices of a LR magazine, but run wholly by someone who makes their living out of tours in Africa and Scandinavia.

"... any information or impressions that I might find useful. What did you expect? Did the trip deliver?

How might it have been better/what would you have liked do do that you didn't?"

Trip one. I was very new, and didn't know what to expect, so had no preconceptions. The countryside was good, but anyone who says bush scratches will polish out is either lying or ignorant. When they said the route was suitable for shinies I didn't expect permanent damage to the paintwork. With hindsight I only recall one spot when I should have reversed out, and selected a different set of ruts that would have avoided a hawthorn bush. You could call that damage self inflicted, but none of the rest was.

If you are going to say suitable for shinies, the paint should touch nothing but green vegetation, brown wood should be absent. I was a little disconcerted that the guiding team, while experienced in off tarmac driving, and Land Rovers (he now writes for an LR magazine), knew so little about 38As that he didn't know where the diffs were, and that I might take a different route because of that.

Towards the end of the day I was getting bored following the same tail lights that I had been following all day.

"what would you have liked do do that you didn't".

With hindsight, I thought the running order should be changed around, with everyone persuaded to lead, with the tour leader riding shotgun in the car. Any passenger in the car that is now leading swops into the passenger seat of the guides vehicle, which always runs in second place in the queue, with the guide assistant driving. This means the guide never actually drives the route 'on the day', but in this case he had driven the route the day before to minimise the risk of unexpected surprises. This means that everone gets the experience of picking the route, and I now know a lot of people regard that as 'frightening', but with an experienced guide alongside it's as reasuring as it can be. The churn in vehicle order stops boredom creeping in, and allows drivers to observe how different vehicles tackle / handle terrain.

Trip 2.

Organised by a bunch of experienced but incompetant and inconsiderate people. The wife in the office said one thing, the husband did something completely different. She agreed with my comment that there was no point of knocking the countryside to pieces, and that the route would be suitable for shinies. He clearly hadn't been told, or discounted the idea as rubbish, but no message got back to me. I did the first half of the route, to show I could, then handed him the route card back, and without shouting or swearing, made it quite clear I thought their organisation lacking. His proffessionally sunny disposition was definately clouded, his assistant looked downright miserable, and stood well back. 2 weeks later I got an e-mail inviting me on another trip !! Clearly a husband and wife team who didn't speak, or didn't listen. My e-mail response secured a one liner reply, saying they were complying with my request to take me off their mailing list. A RESULT!

The one thing I did like about this trip was the route card. This contained a Tulip diagram, which although I'd heard off, and read about, I'd never actually used before. We were briefed on how it worked, and they sent me off as number one, there being a 5 minute delay between vehicle despatch. I had intended to take a passenger, but it hadn't worked out, (a blessing, considering how the day ended) so I was navigating and driving. Others had GPS, I didn't, but the man who was supposedly putting together a list of waypoints cocked up (surprise) so that might be why I was leading, he was trying to sort things out for the others.

Clearly, it's a bit difficult translating the tulip onto the map, and driving at the same time. So, no map, just the Tulip and the steering wheel, with frequent stops to check what the Tulip said next. No chance of boredom here!! I did well, and only went off route after a couple of vehicles passed me, opened a gate and went into a field, and held the gate open for me to follow, which I did, without checking the Tulip. They were wrong, even though mob handed.

The final straw was when we got to the bit that he had briefed was narrow, bordered by trees and stone walls. He had pointed out that we could 'escape' from the route at this point, and that is what I intended to do. One of the assistance vehicles followed me in, and when it became obvious there was no space to pass, or turn round, as the leader had indicated there was, she declined to reverse the quarter mile out, down a narrow, but 'softly' vegetated lane. So, I cleared the branches that were hanging below roof height, as the male assistant clearly didn't have a saw, or the inclination to swing an arm, which is effectively the same thing. I then drove the lane, with no-one volunteering to spot for me. I did reasonably well, scratched the nearside door on a stone wall, but didn't bend metal, or crack plastic. I did fold both mirrors back against trees, without hitting the tree in either case, which if you look at a 38A indicates a pretty close call.

I think that answers your questions I've copied above.

I now Green Lane as passenger for the organiser in a local club. We are in the lead vehicle, he gets the drive, I get a clear view of wonderful countryside, without tail lights, a bit of exercise opening gates, and a map to read. I enjoy watching a skilful driver at work, and we have a good crack. It's good.

I sometimes think of driving myself, but I wouldn't enjoy just following, and there are always some lanes I wouldn't want to take my car down.

You have commented about the 'mud' element of your name.

I wouldn't even dream of going with any organisation which implied 'mud is good'. I don't mind soft ground with differential deep ruts, but I think of mud as being liquid and I have more respect for my car than to choke the radiators with mud. Nor do I think it 'fun' to have to clean them out afterwards.

Clearly, you can easily imagine I don't see much point in driving through a gate, driving around a field or forest in convoluted circles, then driving back out of the same gate. It has some purpose if you are doing training, but training for what if you aren't going to drive on Green Lanes?

And please don't get me started on 'Trainers'. In my experience, some don't have the knowledge, some do but can't translate it from their 90" vehicle to the Customers 108" vehicle, and some just can't explain what they apparently know.

I'd rather learn by my own mistakes, than pay someone for his ego trip.

"Your views welcomed."

I hope so, that was longer than I intended :-)

David,

With a 11 year old 38A, that hasn't passed through life without showing something of the experience.

I can sympathise with your experiences and I have been there as a instructor and a customer

to recall one time

We went on a club day and took a friends dad with is (at the time new LSE) on a safe for shinnies Green Land day.

at points my challenge 90 and my brothers challenge 90 were driving side by side flattening bushes and branches in a vain attempt to keep the RR body damage to a minimum.

We were both embarrassed and furious with the organisers (they put our anger don't to use being the committee of a fellow 4x4 club) Our friend Dad was completely oblivious to why we were doing it but his daughter was fully aware of what and why we were doing it as she used to come out with me playing all the time..

The organiser said he had not accounted for new vehicles to attend but in my eye's that dose not matter some one could have a S11 that is mint and still don't want to scratch it but do want to see the rolling English country side.