The birthday party of my
oldest daughter was one week after we got the Discovery. So this
is in all ways a maiden trip. The party of her choice was to go on
a pick-nick with her friends. For girls of six years old that does
not necessarily mean a long trip, and therefore we went to the local
one-day public campsite, which is the border area of the Huizen heath.
Since the heath
road is technically off-road, I took some pictures of the car. and
the girls. So not a real trip (well, 100m off-road is not seriously
a trip is it), but some cute pictures. The pick-nick was a nice time
out. As it goes on such pick-nick, we played lots of games, and well
provided with prizes every girl could win at least two! And since
Dad had a unfelt but unmistaken hand in determining who actually
won, it showed afterwards that every girl did actually win exactly
three prizes. And all in fair game.
After the pick-nick
we brought the kids back to their respective house. I also found out
that it is very easy to fit eight little children and a big load of
stuff in the back of a Discovery.
Because the long summer vacation
wasn't due until much later in the year, we decided to take a cottage
in a bungalow park in the long weekend around Whitsunday. Because
we were rather late in booking, the only serious alternative was
a German park, on the Luneburger Heide. It was good that we had a
tremendously swell time in the big swimming resort, as that was also
the only thing to do there.
On the way back, we took a small detour over
the Luneburger Heide. All surfaced roads, unfortunately, but
during the lunch break I had the opportunity to park just off
the road and take these pictures.
This year's vacation, obviously in the Land
Rover, was to the Bailiwick of Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands,
off the French coast. Of course we made lots of typical holiday
snapshots, of which here the Land Rover related ones. On the way to
Guernsey, we stayed one night on a French campsite. Here we pitched
our tent for the first time this year.
While on
Guernsey, we of course needed a good map reader. Here Roderick
willingly gives directions how we have to go to the beach. Since
the map is made up by himself, it did give a very interesting
route. Fortunately, Dad knew that half mile route to the beach also,
so indeed we did get there in due time.
The kids loved it in the car. They didn't mind the
drive to and from Guernsey, still a good 900 km and the same back.
Mostly they like to play in the car while it was not driving. Why,
I haven't found out yet.
Roderick and Isolde joined me on a trip
to Den Hout, a sand quarry, often used by the Land Rover Club Holland
for a Sunday of driving through sand. This time rain during the night
had turned the paths, more claylike than the quarry pit, into thick
mud. The kids played that they were the Mud Children, especially in
a designated pool area on the sand/mud beach of the sand pit lake.
Do you see that hill? We went
upthere. When other cars can it, so can mine. Thank goodness for my
Discovery, since this was the first off-road experience of this type
for me. And did you know that what goes up must come down too? This
hill didn't have normal roads downward, apart from the one that I
came up on. Well, thank goodness there is something like HDC on my
car. I was too much holding on to my steering wheel to do anything
else besides. This made me decide that I really ought to go on a
off-road driving course, if only for the nice pictures.
Text, editing and photographs Copyright © 2000 Wim van Dorst