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Latest situation re: foot and mouth disease.
The Quest is open to all vehicles. The site owners have
installed a disinfectant "pond" for all visitor's
vehicles to drive into, both before and after, going into the forest. There
is also a rigorous hand spraying required (picture of the "pond" on the right).
Further information from Andy Young at Langdale Quest.
The latest route and driving information 26th May 2001:
The Quest is "back to normal" except that visitor's vehicles must disinfect before and after driving the forest tracks. Previously reported holes have been filled. The disinfectant pond was taped off at one end after a Discovery driver got his tow bar stuck in one of the wooden planks and needed "Hi Lifting" out. Most routes were very dry. All hills were open, although the last ascent on the 3 hour route (near post 83?) was only accessible to short wheelbase vehicles with good approach and departure angles due to a pile of soil and rock being placed near the start to discourage vehicles in earlier wet weather!
The latest route and driving information 5th May 2001:
Due to the delays in being able to access the forest prior to the opening
date, the usual site improvement work hadn't yet been done. The result was
the site wasn't exactly vehicle friendly in several locations with very deep
holes in some descents (maybe 18" deep), several areas where tree branches
encroach on the track (although at this stage only very soft foliage) and
some tracks that may be impassible with less aggressive tyres than my BFG
Mud Terrains. On a few occasions I had to reverse and try a different rut
even with fairly new mud tyres (11mm of very chunky tread). Some of the "pot
holes" in the one descent caused my Cherokee to sit on it's sill protection
bars while putting a wheel carefully into them. One of the more difficult
climbs has been discontinued (near green post 83 on the 3 hour route?) due
to a drainage channel being dug by the Forestry Commission. I was invited
to try a new route across the forest near green post 49, this took 3 attempts
before I could get up, but it was fun and for good measure I went back down
it, ask Andy Young (of the Quest) for a few alternative routes if your tyres
are half decent.
Finding and driving the "Quest"
Before my first visit in early 2000, I'd talked to a few colleagues at work
about off road driving, they all seemed to have driven on the Langdale Quest.
Reading the Langdale Quest web
site didn't really give a feel for what the site was like, my colleagues
said it was good fun and contained plenty of steep hills, mud and water.
This sounded like a good place to visit, especially as the site says it's
'vehicle friendly' and intended for ordinary family
4x4 cars. Anyone wishing to hire a 4x4 for the day have a choice of 12 mostly
Suzuki SJ series cars. The site's Suzukis seem to be well equipped, including
mud tyres.
Langdale Quest is located in Langdale Forest, to the west of Scarborough,
in northern England. It is quoted as being the largest off road site in the
UK at 10,000 acres. Finding the site is fairly easy, although the turning
from the A170 can be tricky to find (virtually opposite a Jeep garage) -there's
a location map on the Langdale web site.
The car park and start of the quest is at Ordnance Survey grid reference
SE 909929.
On arrival you are asked to fill in a question sheet giving details of your
off road driving experience and to answer questions relating to driving up
and down hills as steep as 35
degrees.
There follows a safety briefing and details of how
to navigate the course. There are 1, 2 and 3 hour 'quests' which involves
following numbered posts around the forest tracks. The navigation is really
easy, it's 'navigating by numbers'. You are given a laminated map of the
forest with all the tracks shown, together with numbered post locations.
If you have a CB the quest operators monitor channel 9 in case of problems.
More than half the routes are hard gravel forest tracks, the rest involves
driving on dirt tracks. The total distance of the 3 hour route is approximately
26 miles and takes over 3 hours to complete, you are not charged "by the
hour", so don't rush back! Owners of less able 4x4 cars
(Landrover Freelander, Toyota Rav4 and Honda CRV,
etc) have a special one hour quest designed to avoid filling the car with
water or getting stuck too frequently. The three hour quest is easy for a
standard Jeep Cherokee, Range Rover, Discovery, etc. The organisers will
check your progress and will probably meet you at the first hill.
The tracks were very muddy on the first visit, this followed one of the highest rainfall periods in April 2000 with more than 127mm of rain measured at my house in a drier part of Yorkshire. Some areas were covered in water to about one foot deep (possibly slightly more in one or two locations) - that's not a problem for most 4x4's. On the 3 hour route there are two steep descents and two ascents (about 300 metres long each and about 30 odd degrees). The last ascent is sometimes closed due to part of the track being washed away. Each hill is accompanied by a warning poster giving a fool proof guide to gear selection and basic hill driving instructions, so even forgetful novices shouldn't damage their cars or hurt themselves. The notices are reminders for drivers of the Quest's own Suzuki cars. Owners of cars with larger engines (and manual gearboxes) will laugh at the references to using brakes while descending and selecting first gear low to ascend. A turbo diesel engined Cherokee, Discovery or Defender will climb the hills in 2nd or 3rd gear low and walk down in 1st low without any difficulty.
Provided you stick to the rutted track there isn't a problem with hitting trees. Ground clearance shouldn't be a problem for most decent 4x4s. In a few areas the differentials scraped the ground, those with wide "steering" guards may struggle through the ruts, provided you have a tow rope and a companion vehicle it shouldn't pose too much of a problem. The wet parts have overflow channels, so even in heavy rain the site is navigable. We managed without covering the car in mud and with no scratches. Parts of the route are very rough with almost constant driving over small tree roots crossing the track, this can be quite tiring and a rough ride for passengers in the back seats. The ideal number would be a driver and front seat passenger/navigator. Driving/navigating yourself is easy enough, but having a passenger/navigator is a better idea.
There are
currently no toilet facilities, although there are thousands of trees to
'go' behind and very few other people around.
There are crisps and cold drinks available at the site entrance but most people tend to take their own picnic.
I would rate the site 10/10 for being a pleasant day out in a family off road car.
Thanks to Richard Burrough for providing the 2nd, 3rd and 4th images shown above.
Copyright © D Johnson, 2000 and 2001, all rights reserved.
Page updated 2nd June 2001.
