G'Day folks

Recently returned overseas after a home leave that coincided with some pretty fierce monsoons over the Top End. Hector our MY12 110 performed superbly as always and put the Land Rover grin back on my face!

First Smile: On arrival home we collected Hector out of our storage in Darwin where he had sat for six months without being turned over. As I had not disconnected the battery (terrified of PUMA electronics and risk of immobilizing, resetting or generally stuffing up the systems!) I honestly expected it to be dead and needing a jump start. But no, after six months Hector started immediately with the first crank! Awesome.

Second Smile: We had some pretty stiff monsoonal showers up our way and the at its peak 207 mm in 24 hours (thats over eight inches in old money). Late one evening we were driving home from Darwin after heavy rainfall all day and the creeks were up, up, up. We were the last vehicle to make it through the Dorat road (from Adelaide River southwards to the Daly). My wife who was counting (I was doing other stuff!) estimated we waded water coming over the road 34 times. The deepest was over considerably over the rated half metre, and all were fast flowing
streams but Hector was always sure-footed. All I did was throw a sheet of plastic across the grill to keep water off the fan... By the time we reached our property the flooding was reaching biblical proportions. Just through our gateway the water was flowing almost a metre deep, but I know that creek well and, eager to reach home having come so far, I drove it. No worries again. The last few kilometres along our access track were amazing. The ground was so saturated and creeks backed up that even on the high escarpment country there was nowhere for it to drain. The tracks were completely flooded, never seen it like that. Hector drove hundreds of metres at a time (one section of almost a kilometre) along flooded sections with his spotlights illuminating flowing water through the downpour. Wasn't too deep and of course I know my home tracks well, but nevertheless it was massively satisfying to finally pull up outside our home. What an awesome machine to get us home on a stormy night

Third Smile: Of course the rains continued and our tracks deteriorated. And the inevitable boggings began. First, two young women staggered out of the bush after a long walk to tell us they had bogged their Pathfinder down near the gate. We drove down in Hector to recover them, and a passing NT Emergency Services guy stopped by to help us. We dragged the Pathy in the pouring rain and got them out to the road, and then found the NTES Hilux was also bogged and so had to drag that too. That's how we wasted three hours of our holiday clearing the track of two bogged ricers. Now I know that "if there's no photo it never happened" and I had my camera along but I didn't have the heart to take pics of the bedgraggled girls and Good Samaritan who tried to help them. So perhaps it never happened. Hector had to winch one more helpless Jap 4x4 out of the mud on another day. Big Smile

So absolutely rapt with the Puma. It just quietly gets on with the job and does it. I also have an old 79 series Tojo ute which has just been road registered again. Unkillable, but heavy, underpowered and simply does not inspire the confidence that the Land Rover does in challenging conditions. I reckon Land Rover are absolutely nuts to discontinue production of these awesome vehicles next year....

Cheers

Alan