Greenlaning: Nottinghamshire

Exploring the forests and farmlands of Nottinghamshire

Off the beaten track in the East Midlands

Ihave a rather special connection with the county of Nottinghamshire. After seven years in the military I decided to come to the UK to play cricket for a season or two. I just basically needed a break from Africa. I ended up in the village of Kimberley, a place famous for its brewery and the fact that its cricket field has a real hill on it. I loved my time there. The people were friendly and spoke with an initially hard-tounderstand accent, but I made friends for life while there. The one regret of my time spent in Kimberley is that I did not get to see or explore much of the surrounding countryside. I played cricket four days a week and did some shift work to make extra cash. Any spare time was spent in the gym or nightclub.

A few years later, I find myself back there, with an opportunity to go on a greenlaning weekend with my family. It would be very different from my time playing cricket there, but just as exciting

The local GLASS rep Simon Wilson had kindly worked out a route for our day out, we had arranged to meet just outside the town of Southwell. I was in my Discovery 2 and Simon had assured me that we would be staying away from any boggy lanes. The last thing that I needed was to damage my Discovery as it was my daily drive. Simon would be doing the guiding and navigation. He jumped in with his son Matt, a mechanic who was driving a modified Mitsubishi Pajero SWB. Then we had Steven Fields in a Defender 110 and Mark Osborne and his son Jake in a Discovery 2. I would be the second vehicle in our convoy so that my wife Ali could photograph the Land Rovers behind us.

This was the first time I would be taking my Discovery off-road and I was thrilled, having done many an off-road mile in a Land Rover with a Td5 engine. If driven wisely they are simply unstoppable off-road. Would these words come back to haunt me?

We drove 11 lanes on the day and they obviously varied greatly when it came to degrees of difficulty. Nottinghamshire is a very green county, famous for its magnificent forests. This is where Robin Hood went about his business of robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Now we would be driving through the very same forests where he lurked, in hiding from the law.

Our first three lanes of the day lie just to the west of Southwell, I once played a game of cricket there. Fortunately for me the first few lanes of the day are of the gentle variety, this is great as it allows me some time to get used to my various off-road systems. It does not have the fancy Terrain Response system of a Discovery 3. All you really have to do is decide whether you should be in low range or high range, then when you lose traction you pray that the Traction Control comes to your rescue. Last, but by no means least there is a little yellow button called Hill Descent Control, hopefully I would get the chance to test it today. So it was really just a matter of pointing the Discovery along the line of least resistance and then hope for the best.

I have road bias tyres on my Discovery and soon they were ploughing through the muddy

“Nottinghamshire is a

very green county”

bits of our first few lanes. Some branches scratched the side of my Discovery during the first lane but nothing that could not be polished out. Our second lane had a rutted climb to the finish. I had no option but to follow them and fortunately for me they were not very deep. So far, this was Freelander-friendly country. As it had been raining in the preceding week our third lane had several rather large puddles that needed careful negotiation.

A farmer came past us in his old Massey Ferguson tractor. He stopped to collect some bales of hay before turning around and passing us again. He looked grumpy.

We continued to climb for a while before starting the long descent towards the end of the lane. So far it had all been too easy. This all changed at our fourth lane just to the north of Farnsfield. After opening the gate and entering the lane we started with a long climb. I engaged low range for the first time and had to take great care when deciding where to place my wheels. This lane too had many water-filled puddles. At last it felt like we were really off-roading now and not just driving any old non-tar track. This was easily the best lane of the day so far.

Our fifth lane was even more technical and testing. It started with a very long incline and the ruts were very deep. It also had several severe cross-axles. I could hear my heart pumping in my chest. Isaac had fallen asleep on the back seat and I aimed to keep it that way. I could feel the Discovery losing traction but luckily the Traction Control kicked in and ensured that we continued going forward

“My road-bias tyres were ploughing through the mud”

towards the top of the hill. I enjoy driving lanes where you have to think and carefully consider how you are going to approach it.

Just before the top of the incline I stalled, fortunately no one behind saw that. The rest of the lane was tame in comparison to that incline. Our sixth lane just to the north of Eakring was an interesting one in that it had some really deep ruts and mud filled holes. At one stage the Pajero virtually disappears in one of the holes. It’s so deep that one of its rear view mirrors touches the ground. I decide to drive around this hole. As for the deep ruts I try and straddle them because I am worried about ground clearance. The cross-axles are coming thick and fast now and soon I find myself bogged down in a big hole. I am not doing myself any favours as my tow hitch is really low. One of the other Land Rovers gives me a gentle snatch backwards. These ruts are too deep for my ground clearance and so I try my best to stay out of them. If this were a boxing match my poor Discovery would be on the ropes. I accidently slide into some ruts. At times they are impossible to avoid. Soon I bottom out and try reversing, I hear that horrible sound of a bumper ripping off. I need another snatch to get out. This is hardly ideal. I use some duct tape to try and patch the bumper but it will need replacing.

Our seventh lane is a east to west crossing of the Sherwood Pines Forest Park, a popular spot for hikers and mountain bikers. There is a massive sign at the start of the lane warning

against illegal off-roading. Simon reassures me that we are not doing anything illegal. We are now in the heart of Sherwood Forest and I expect Robin to make his appearance sometime soon. The surface of this lane is mostly sand and corrugations. We pass an old pay-and-play site and every effort has been made to ensure that no one ever goes in there again with a 4x4. There are some more splashes to negotiate as we make our way along a line of trees. The lane finally spits us out at the Mansfield Golf Club and Driving range.

Our eighth lane lies in the northern part of this big town and is best described as an urban lane as it is in the middle of a built up area. To our left is a field with a few unhappy horses trotting about while to the right David Wilson had just built a new estate. There was rubbish everywhere and the lane was anything but fun because of this. The severity of the lanes seemed to ease off as the afternoon wore on. Maybe Simon felt sorry for me in my bumperless Discovery? The one thing that I won’t forget about the last few lanes we drove are the thousands of solar panels that filled some of the adjacent fields. Obviously the farmers receive some sort of kickback for all this solar power that they are generating? I have never seen so many panels in my life.

Our final lane of the day finished at the Elkesley Ford, this gave everyone the opportunity to get rid of some of the mud on their Land Rovers. Simon had put together a good selection of lanes. I had definitely been caught out by the severity of the ruts and some of the holes. At least I now had a good idea about the limitations and capabilities of my Discovery.