Up until April, I had owned a 1997 300TDI Defender 110 SW. I loved it and was really sorry to see it go, but go it had to, for several reasons.

At this point, I’ll peddle backwards a bit.

The defender had had a fair amount of work done to it last year. New bulkhead, replacement engine to name the two expensive items! And though I really enjoyed the car, I wasstarting to look elsewhere - it was pretty noisy, the kids are growning up, and the leg room in the back is not brilliant - and the rear 6 seats were off limits most of the time for kids, being side facing.

I looked half heartidly at the Discovery 3 (D3 is what it is often called), but decided the limitations of the space taken by the third row of seats put me off. The garage I had do a lot of the work, suggested the Discovery 2, but having sat in one, decided it wasn’t for me.

Then I won (It wasn’t hard!) a 1/2 day off road experience day with Land Rover Experience (LRE) and I went up to the site in Cheshire with my parents at the end of March.

And I’d chosen the Discovery. It turned out to be a brand new Discovery 4 HSE, with all the trimmings - and 35miles on the clock!

Suffice to say, it was a fantastic day and it was not long before I was looking for a second hand D3.

It wasn’t long before I found one just down the road.

It was a 2006 2.7TDV6 SE Auto, with a few extras.

To say it has been faultless, would be a lie. But so far its all been fixed under warranty.

One of the things I got for my Birthday from my parents, was the money to go the the LRE Snowdonia adventure day. Basically, you take your car with a guide and other likeminded people for a drive around the forests of Wales in the foothills of Snowdon.

 The picture, above, was the hill we went up to start the day - it took me 3 goes to get up - a combination of not knowing what the car would do, and not enough speed to get it over the top.

It was a great day out and is something that I will do again.

As I mentioned earlier, the car is not spacious for luggage, when there are 7 seats in place - and as we do take my in-laws on holiday at least once a year, a solution had to be found.

I looked first at roof bars to take the roof box I already have. But the limitations of weight - and getting the stuff in the box, made that idea sit on the back burner.

So a trailer was sort. Brendrup seemed to be a decent make so ebay and the new dealers were looked at to see what was about and how much.

A new one was not out of the question, but in the end, with the help of Joe, a friend of mine, a reasonably old one was found on ebay and purchased.

It came with a spare wheel, lockable lid and jocky wheel.

The lid also has gallery rails, which meant my old roof bars from the Audi could be mounted and the bikes put on top, once suitable racks were obtained from Halfords.

It was quickly named “Tilly”

A third rack has now been added, so that I can also take my bike as well.

Quite a bit of work had been done by Mallory Park to make the venue suitable for Rally Cross, namely adding an off road section on the start finish straight and another section on the far side after the first long corner.

The Mini’s above and the Fiesta - a fire breathing 550BHP 4×4 machine, capable of reaching 60mph in around 1.9seconds! - were taken on the latter off road section.

The start finish straight was not a easy as some thought - with quite a few having the odd scare!

As ever, more images are available on the main website http://www.mark.colston-online.co.uk/index.html

Battery Technology 1

Battery Technology 2

For further information on the attached ideas, please contact Tim Birt on 01362 698829.

The kids have had a good time, which is the important thing. I had a few odds and sods, though I had to get a new computer the other week as mine decided not to play anymore.

Spent the day at The Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Kent on Saturday 25th October with friends from the Digital Photography Group.

 Had a fantastic time, I took nearly 2000 shots during the day and Jane a further 500! It was well worth the visit, but we were so lucky with the weather - stayed dry all day - the same couldn’t be said about Sunday!

More pictures will be available on my website soon.

Mark

My photographs can be seen on my website