Shakedown Trip #1

Now that The Boogie is nearly finished (are they ever though? 😉 ) it needed a couple of shakedown trips before joining the rest of the group on longer trips when things return to normal… i.e. after the COVID pandemic and when the lockdowns start to ease…

Speaking of which… the Welsh Government recently changed the restrictions we are under (in Wales) from “Stay at Home” to “Stay Local” with the recommendation that we stay within 5 miles of home…

**I’ve obviously “photoshopped” this image** 😉 But
Mark Drakeford the First Minister of Wales said in a recent speech that we should **Stay Local**, in our local community i.e. within 5 miles of our homes.

So I pulled out the local map – Landranger Sheet 116…

And drew a circle showing a five mile perimeter from my home

I’m familiar with most of the local greenlanes, but still reference Trailwise2 just to check 😉

So I decided to drive a couple of “BOAT”s to the east of St. Asaph –

Two BOATs at Tremechion, less than 5 miles from home…

… knowing these were safe and legal for me to drive on my own to give the buggy a test run out…

My iPhone indicated the weather was going to be reasonable… particularly after eleven…

So I started the day with a nice long early morning walk for our two Labradors (Buddy the Chocolate one, and Milo his Golden twin)
This is a local Bridleway close to my home where they can roam safely, as there’s a horse gate at the top before the main road.

Then a quick bacon and egg muffin…

And a quick trip to Booker Cash & Carry to pick up some stock for the shop…
That’s my daily driver, a New Grand Vitara with a 2″ lift and some All Terrains.

And then out to the first of the two greenlanes, starting with the lower one on the map shown above…

The Boogie out on the ‘lanes for the first time 🙂

This beautiful ‘lane leads up to the horizon on the left side of the photo…

At the top of the first ‘lane… you can see the “ByWay” sign in the background 🙂

Top of the second ‘lane heading back down again

Through the gate and walked back to close it…
(Where’s Alan when you need him?! LOL)

A nice day for March! I even had the soft-top back! LOL

Pausing to say Hello to a few of the locals…
Ummm, don’t tell them we’re having Lamb Shanks for tea!!

At the bottom and the end gate of the second ‘lane…

A good first shakedown trip then!
The onroad and offroad gearing seemed fine, no real problems to report… except,

There’s quire a lot of mud sprayed up by the front tyres…

I’m going to have to make some front mud flaps methinks!

Yup!
You can imagine on a wet muddy day
it will spray up the doors more too…

All good really then, no major issues…
The only other thing I noticed was that at speed there was a repetitive banging noise from the passenger side… 😦

The seatbelt flaps round in the wind at speed! LOL
A clip will fix that then 😉

You may have noticed that the “X 8GGY” plate isn’t on YET… I can’t find the blummin’ entitlement certificate from when I bought it! LOL and will have to wait for the DVLA to send me a replacement… God knows how long that will take thanks to COVID working practices in Swansea HQ!

3 comments

Dave Wright says:

21st Mar 2021 at 3:50 pm

Crackin first drive out to give it a light testing

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Brett Dukes says:

21st Mar 2021 at 3:56 pm

Fantastic views … shame that blue thing was in the way 😱😂😱😱

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Phil T. Paperboy says:

22nd Mar 2021 at 11:44 am

Awesome, want one (for the paper round!)

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