Off road...

People who follow this blip journal will know that I drive a Land Rover - indeed I have not had a different make of car for more than a decade.

The versatility and rugged nature of the various Land and Range Rovers I have had over an even longer time mean that they are ideal for the vagaries of Argyll & Bute weather and roads but until today I had never really stretched my own ability to drive them in testing conditions though Land Rover encourages you to do so and even provides an opportunity .

At last today I took that up, so Cathleen and I spent the day at the Land Rover Experience Centre near Dunkeld and we not only enjoyed ourselves, but learnt a lot thanks to a great staff and particularly Duncan Webster, our instructor.

My main picture is of Cathleen about to tackle one of the very slippy and steeply curved bankings driving through which required at least one wheel to be off the surface for part of the time.

My extra pictures are of me doing the same (taken by Cathleen and showing a bit more worry) and of the vehicle we were using. That was taken in the afternoon when - after a morning of practice - we went up into the Perthshire hills where the weather alternated between torrential downpours (which left the rutted tracks literally running with water) and bright warm sunshine.

I also discovered a lot more about my own vehicle , some of which I was able to use on the drive back to Argyll .

(And yes, I did think about my Tuesday experience on the worst road in Scotland when I was on the course . The Kerrera road is , however, definitely worse than the off road test circuit !)