It’s like driving on wet concrete
We have lahars in New Zealand – but nothing like this. Rob Maetzig drives a Ford Everest SUV through some monsters along the Philippines’ volcanic landscape.
Twenty-five years ago the world blew up in front of the residents of the Philippines province of Pampanga.
It was always known there were volcanoes in the region, but up until 1991 they had quietly slumbered just like our very own Mt Taranaki – volcano-shaped mountains that formed an ominous but attractive backdrop for those living and working on their lower slopes.
But then in June 1991 one of the volcanoes erupted. It was Pinatubo, which in an extremely violent event that killed hundreds and forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands more, blew 10 cubic kilometres – yes, kilometres – of material into the air.
Pinatubo really was a massive eruption. Pyroclastic flows poured down from the summit and destroyed everything in their paths, ash falls destroyed or badly damaged thousands of houses, and heavy rain mixed with the ash deposits to create giant lahars that completely changed Pampanga’s river systems.
Visit Pampanga now, and it is obvious that even after 25 years the region is still feeling the effects of the eruption. Whenever it rains the lahars still flow, forcing construction of giant dykes to help prevent the volcanic debris from inundating farmland and urban areas. These dykes – called megadykes by locals – are big and long enough for highways to be built along the top of them.
But there are some interesting upsides to all of this.
One is that the lahars are providing all of the raw material for the Philippines’ road construction industry. Another is that the lahar beds themselves have created a unique tourism attraction – they’re great for fourwheel driving.
And that explains how we’ve just been behind the wheel of a Ford Everest on one of these lahar beds, using all the big SUV’S onboard 4WD technology to battle our way through surfaces that range from rock-hard to as soft as quicksand.
That’s the thing about lahars, you see. They’re primarily made up of volcanic ash and rock fragments. If there’s little water around, their surfaces can be hard. But if it rains – and in the Philippines it can rain a lot – then the lahars become as viscous as wet concrete and flow like a freshwater stream.
Ford has been using Pampanga as the base for an Asia-pacific media event called the Ford SUV Experience Adventure, which has involved journalists sampling four of the brand’s SUVS – Ecosport, Escape, Everest and Explorer – on a series of assignments ranging from driving through congested built-up areas, to scooting along the mega-dykes and spotting the remains of houses poking out of the lahar beds.
‘‘We’ve created this programme so journalists can experience the diversity of Ford’s SUV fleet,’’ said a Ford spokesman at the start of the event. ‘‘We’re not necessarily talking about kilowatts or diff ratios – but a day in the life of an SUV. It’s the fastest growing vehicle category worldwide, and is expected to account for 40 per cent of all new vehicle sales by 2020,’’ he added.
Journalists were told that at their hearts, SUVS need to be both capable and versatile so they can go almost anywhere and do more than other vehicles. Today’s motorists want a vehicle that fits seamlessly into their lives, and that has resulted in growing demand for a greater variety of SUVS.
There was quite a range of the Fords there. The smallest, the little Ecosport that is sold in New Zealand, proved the ideal SUV in which to pick our way through urban areas jam-packed with cars, motorcycles with sidecars, and the unique and very highly decorated Jeepneys that are the main means of public transport throughout the Philippines. Escape, which will be the new name for our Kuga when a new model is launched in New Zealand in a few weeks, was more suited to cruising the countryside. And the big Explorer was a luxurious beauty for powerful touring – it’s a pity it is only built with left-hand drive and so will never be available in New Zealand.
And then there was the Everest, which proved the ideal vehicle for the sorties along the lahars.
New Zealand is familiar with this big SUV – how it was largely developed in Australia off the Ranger ute, which is New Zealand’s most popular vehicle.
It’s a solid SUV with body-onframe construction, a ground clearance of 225mm and a water wading depth of 800mm, and it offers 143kw of power and 470Nm of torque via the same 3.2-litre five cylinder turbocharged diesel that powers the Ranger.
Everest also has a terrain Management System that lets the driver choose from four pre-set settings ranging from sand and snow to rocks. and the 4WD system’s transfer case can be locked into low range for increased control in extreme offroad environments.
On the lahars, we needed all of that. There needed to be a grunty sort of 4WD vehicle for such an assignment, because the lahars can quickly bog down the unwary. Drive too slow and you could get bogged. But you don’t want to drive too fast either, because the surface is undulating and varied and potentially dangerous.
We bashed and crashed our way upstream, stopped for morning tea at a location below towering and obviously unstable cliffs, then headed downstream again, all the time following strict instructions not to let our speed drop below 30kmh or to get above 40kmh. Truth be told the assignment wasn’t that hairy for anyone with 4Wding experience, but it was certainly sufficiently different to be heart-in-the-mouth stuff for some of the young lifestyle journalists there. It must have been – because the experience immediately sparked a blogging frenzy.
And, as was outlined in background material supplied by Ford, the obvious off-road talents of the Everest allow it to be part of a modern family of SUVS that fit into a huge range of lifestyles – from young urbanites to adventure seekers.
These vehicles flatter the novice and reward the expert driver, all at the same time. The drive along the lahars of the Philippines certainly proved that.