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Derbyshire is famous for off road sites, although most are trials oriented
rather than 'fun days'. When I saw an advert for an off road
play day at Two Dales, I was hooked. The event was run by Gary
Foster with further events planned for the summer. The site itself is quite
easy to find on the B5057 between Chesterfield and Matlock. The site entrance
is at grid reference SK289639. The cost is currently 18 pounds for a days
play, although the site is closed due to foot and mouth restrictions at the
moment (May 2001). Gary hopes to open in August or September 2001 and has
expanded the site into another field.
Contact Gary Foster on mobile 07979 255399, or 01246 277997 (shop hours).
Facilities included a decent burger bar and rather crude toilets.
Originally, the site was used as a motor cycle trial site. Some of the wooded
areas are quite a tight squeeze for many vehicles, one Land Rover had it's
cab dented on a tree branch. It should be pointed out the wooded part is
optional and Gary does warn about it not being vehicle friendly. On the morning
I visited, the site was bone dry for the most part. This made driving my
standard Cherokee around fairly
easy. The only event of note was an old Land Rover's clutch
letting go in a very awkward location that needed Geoff to recover it (picture
on the left).
Just after lunch the heavens opened with a thunder storm. The site quickly
turned into an almost impossible clay soup. Many cars just spun with mud
filled tyres behaving like slicks. My BF Goodrich All Terrains weren't too
bad initially, but
became an embarrassment after a few more cars had polished
the muddy surface!
Other than the tight corners in the wooded area, the only other feature of note in this 25 acre site was a water hole that seemed to draw a certain Land Rover 110 like a magnet (if you can say magnets are drawn to aluminium bodied Landies). The hole wasn't all that deep (maybe just over 2 foot of muddy water), but that was enough to cause a few problems when combined with the soft clay bottom to the hole. The Landie went one way through the hole but needed a tow out when driving in the other direction (Picture to the upper right). Here's an image of a slightly less dramatic water hole, although the hump and each end wasn't a pleasant option for those of us with longer wheelbase vehicles!
The usual Suzuki SJ410 turned up, this one cost only 150 pounds the day before. It was road legal, taxed and included decent off road tyres (why can't I find bargains like that?).
A few cars just had plain road going tyres, the picture of the red Landie pulling out the Range Rover is rather novel, both had road biased tyres fitted..
One
of the pleasures of these play days is meeting fellow enthusiasts, this couple's
Discovery (picture to the left) followed me around much of the site, they
assumed if my Cherokee could make it, their Discovery would. Unfortunately,
I couldn't find anywhere that I could go and they couldn't...
The number plates on these images have been obliterated to protect the innocent.
Copyright © D Johnson, 2000 and 2001, all rights reserved.
Last update 3rd May 2001
