Our itinerant wild camper, wanderer, hedge-botherer and semi-feral woman of the woods, Lauren Eaton, talks us through some of her 4x4 adventures out in the big wild world.
A New HQ!
The things you do for the love of Land Rovers I was hoping to have some trip news for you this month but, while I’ve been all over the place in the Tithonus 110, I haven’t had time to do a write up. What I do have is a new Sunshine HQ to share with you all.
Trips Trips have been unnecessarily problematic over the last 12 or so months. I may have excitedly mentioned one or two that, unfortunately, never materialised. This is unusual for me as I’m readily available most of the time, and am able to be far more flexible than most people can hope to be. I’d also planned to disappear as soon as I sold my house, but that dragged on, and in several cases I’d planned to travel with company, and therein lay a further problem. I have cut back on leading trips after many years, one reason for this is the difficulty that is 'people wrangling' - I think I’d have more luck herding sheep! Plus it is costly. I have never charged, and I think that many people believe that if something is free that they can freely mess you about, which invariably costs you more money as well as your time. More recently I’ve tried doing the opposite, accepting invites to go on trips with other people, but they’ve been no more successful and, in fact, have cost me far more time and money. At least if I organise things I’m ready to go and can usually still get away if people bail, but when someone else isn’t communicating details, you can be left hanging, saying no to other opportunities because you believe you have prior commitments, and ultimately going nowhere. Moral of the story: if you can’t go, say so! Not being able to go isn’t a problem, it’s not saying so that causes havoc for anyone else involved. Anyway, being messed about has had its positives. I’d organised some really cool stuff to do on the 110’s first trip and was lucky enough to secure permission to drive some private trails and camp there. These are some of the most epic trails I’ve ever driven with the most stunning wild camping locations, and now I have them all to myself! Every cloud, and all that! 14
THE MUD LIFE MAGAZINE
