I was booked on the 4×4 Off-Road driving course. Its taken me a while from booking the course to actually being able to attend – it was cancelled due to the bad snow the last time I was supposed to go, but when I found out how bad it really was, I didn’t relish the thought of trying to get there.

So yesterday rolled around and it was time to go. I had to be there at 9:15 for a 9:30 start. This meant being out the door at 8:00, and out of my bed at 7:00. On a Sunday. Hmph! Thankfully I didn’t have to do the driving. Jen got that pleasure. An hour and 7 minutes later (according to TomTom), and we arrived. It was cold. We were something like 800-85o feet above sea level though.

I was greeted by instructors Bill and Eric, and a long with the other people on the course, we got our safety briefing and instructions on how to operate the cars – Jeep Cherokees to be specific:

I was with Eric. Eric seemed to be a bit more easy-going than Bill, but still mindful of our safety. I was right. We got talking about all sorts of things: cars, how girlfriends and wives spend all your money, the bad snow, to name but a few. Not only were we getting a top 4×4 training course, we were getting to shoot the breeze with the instructor too! This course could have easily been a very dry one, with nothing other than “foot off the gas”, “careful on this turn”, but thanks to Eric the whole experience was great.

We all got 2 goes around the course. The first time around, you do the ‘easy’ part which gets you used to the car and how to control it. The second time around, you get to do the ‘hard’ bits. When I say hard, I mean hard. Going down steep hills where you can’t see the bottom from the top, going up steep hills with loose rocks which create wheel spin and driving through a river. Not across the river, through it.

The whole experience takes around 2 hours, and when you’re done, you get a certificate to say you’re a great 4×4 driver. I thought I was going to be terrified the entire way around the course, but with Eric next to me giving me all the tips I needed, I was fine. I highly recommend this particular driving experience as a fun day out. Head on over to the Knockhill site and book it!