Green-laning in the Yeti

[Freshacre]

There were four participants, plus our excellent leader who, interestingly, was not in a Yeti, but turned up in a Land Rover thingy! However - all was not as it seemed for there was method in his situation....

Kindly Llanigraham had offered to lead any Yeti driver who wanted to attend on a gentle ramble across country, and four of us acceded and duly turned up at the Elan Valley Dam carpark. Our leader is an experienced off-road green-laner, and it showed - but more of that later.

We all got to the appointed spot by the appointed time, with those living nearest being latest to arrive. The Plumber had left his U-Bend before the birds were awake in order to be there with us, and had had a 4-5 hour journey before we started!! Aerofurb had travelled a fair way too. Anyhow, the first hour sped by in a haze of cross-reference of stats and specs and tyres and boots and snow-chains and brakes and fuel - until someone suggested coffee in the cafe!! Whereupon the discussion continued apace!

I firmly believe that if we'd stayed there and moved not one inch we'd have had a great day too!. Conversation never flagged as we swapped tales of the un-Yeti. We spent quite a time looking into boot spaces as the cars we'd assembled had a good cross-section of spare wheels or not. Lady P ( in keeping with her persona had an immaculately stuffed boot, utilising every inch of space and every net Skoda ever invented. (It turned out later that the contents of her boot were mainly the PIMMS and lemonade for all of us.) Thanks Lady Pee.......

The Plumber showed us how the headlight washers worked by virtue of the pressure of the jets, and Aerofurb and Freshacre swapped notes about the brilliance of the sound system upgrade (though neither demonstrated it, so as not to frighten the sheep.). We also compared the Freeloader and the Yeti, and it was decided that it was no competition!! Llanigraham, over the course of the day, firmed up on his decision to enter Yeti ownership.

There were few negative points, though both Freshacre and The Plumber spoke of some vibration when travelling. We were, as you can imagine, happy Yeti types.

Then we set off, having dragged ourselves away from the chattering!! Up and around the dams (see the photos on the originalk thread) gazing at the beautiful scenery whilst avoiding kamikaze sheep and lambs. The roads got narrower and more wooded till we stopped at a vantage point overlooking the dam that the dam-busters trained on. Scary stuff, flying in that steep, woody valley. Then it was onwards and upwards until we reached the huge Caerwen dam that towered above us. What a place. Still - there were loos here to be used, and more pics to take, and more discussions - before we moved off again, but not before we had a proper briefing about the correct way to tackle the terrain before us. It was impressive stuff, and gratefully received. We climbed up to the height of the dam - and saw what lay ahead. There were over 12 miles of dirt track road ahead of us, some of which was hewn straight from the rock face.

The track would have been excessivley pot-holed but for the fact that they'd been filled quite recently - using loose "boulders" of slate type stone that abounds up there. There had been no attempt to flatten it or even it out, oh no! That was our job!

The sheer drop into the dam was a bit worrying, as were the tiny little bridges at the heads of the inlets! And the dust - oh the dust. You can see in our pics how dense the dust was, and yet the Yeti heating and ventilation system allowed none to enter the cabin. And each of the doors sealed the car effectively, too. What was interesting was that the front wings of the cars remained completely clear of precipitation, yet the rear end was inches deep! The plumber even kept his arm out of the window, brave chap.

Speeds never got much above 10 - 12 mph such was the roughness of the drive, and we all tried out our 4*4 buttons on descents - very effectively. I still managed to stall mine twice. Grrrrrr.

Our leader stopped in one or two selected beauty spots en route and we picked up our conversations about the cars and their abilities. And at the far end of this huge lake we came to the spot for PIMMS and lunch - accompanied by inquistive donkeys, horses, cattle, sheep and the odd passing cyclists.

By the time we'd done all that it was way past three and time to head back - to, for me, one of the most amusing sights. As we left the dirt road and hit tarmac again and built up speed, each Yeti was seen to be billowing great clouds of dust as it drove along jettisoning all the acquired stuff to the wind of movement. Surreal. And throughout mine did about 34mpg.

All in all a great day and a good reassurance that our chosen cars are really competent on rough-ish terrain. Llanigraham's mind was made up. "I want one" he said. "We've GOT one", we all said!!

And I think white is the best colour (as an Aqua Blue owner!).

Thanks Graham for donating your time and expertise and sharing your knowledge with us, and to all the others for their friendship and camaraderie.

[900000]

Brilliant report thanks Freshacre. My first owners club meeting with the A2 was also amazing. It was a club day at Gaydon. All manner of clubs were assembled (with only the stuffy Rolls Royce club allowed on the grass with their crystal glasses and tables). Anyway, the A2 club looked best since all 13 cars looked exactly the same bar the colour. And thus my point: when we meet next and have more Yetis together it will make an ace photo opp! I can't wait!

Edit: added link to pictures of that club day from my computer since I could not from my iPhone.

Edited 6 June, 2010 by 900000

[ernieb]

Great report - thanks

ernieb

[Lady Penelope]

Excellent and entertaing report Freshacre !!

... and great photos on the other thread too!

:cocktail: to the next one!

Lady Penelope :sun:

[Freshacre]

I forgot one thing. TP noticed that his driver's window rattled when open and he was driving along. None of us had our windows open due to the dust, so we couldn't answer. He also said that when he closed the door the window rattled alarmingly in the door, when open.

I tried today, TP to replicate it - but my beastie was as quiet as a mouse, window-wise. No rattles and clonks at all.

[octy888]

Cracking report there freshacre, sounds like you guys and gals had a lot of fun! Guessing most of you spent today cleaning your Yeti's having seem TP's new colour scheme!

[Freshacre]

and I was asked to post my "off-road" experience - so here it is!!

ENJOY!