My first off-road experience

Wow! One can't know how it is to drive off-road till experimenting!

The way I looked at an obstacle thinking 'How is my CR-V going to pass that!?'

It was early September when one day my sister came have lunch on a Sunday and brought a leaflet advertising 'A 4wd trip' by an organisation called 'EventSport'.

It was just one day long in a mountain area called Geres not far from my town, good for me. As they had an e-mail I just asked them if it was ok for a CR-V as this wonderful car haven't all the characteristics of a full 4wd (here we say 'all-ground' car).

They said yes, so I took next step and wrote them a check (about USD 85,00 for 2 people, me and my older daughter and included lunch and organisation with 2 cars).

Then the next 2 weeks waiting for the trip-day were hard - it rained a lot so I became worried about the trails and my CR-V. Here in the north of Portugal is always raining! To protect the CR-V from the bushes I glued a transparent plastic around the bottom half of it. It was the same plastic film used to cover school books. Later I thought I should have covered it all.

So came the Trip-day and I went early in the morning meet the others just to found out I was the only non-hard-4wd of the lot... Well, there was one small Fiat between the big Land-Rover, Grand Cherokee, Mitsubishi Pajero and others.

It was a 2 hours drive for us all together from my town (Porto) to the mountain area. As soon as I get there I was told the first section, that was the morning section, was not for the CR-V because it was 'trial' - it was needed low gear, permanent 4wd, axe lock and a strong bottom (body frame). With regret I just got a lift in another car, a Mitsubishi Strada pickup so I could feel the difficulties. It was a very slow section where we had to pass by rocks climbing from one to another, water passing under the car, and a so narrow path that the pickup nearly touched each side. And the walls were made on stone! The area is very rocky. I felt better by not being driving my CR-V. As here there are stone everywhere, the old bridges are usualy made in stone but there are a few made in wood that looked too weak to the big cars. But they were strong allright.

So came lunch in a small typical restaurant in the village where a famous Portuguese navigator was born, Cabrilho. By the way, there's a Cabrillo Club in San Francisco, CA (USA)!

In the afternoon started the trip for me and my CR-V. With each car starting in 2 minutes intervals I had to follow the road-book what showed to be not easy for me and Mariana as we were doing this for the first time. After doing the same kilometers 2 times trying to figure out where to turn, we made it and started in a path good enough so I started thinking it was going to be too easy. After a few kilometers and after another lost way (although we had cell phones for emergencies it was frightning to not know where the others were, up in the mountain) the path was not so good anymore specialy because of the heavy rains the days before. The CR-V went all the ups and downs easy! During the way there were stops marked on the road book to see the beautiful landscape. In the middle of the afternoon then arrived the first problem - on an easy but narrow path there were 2 normal cars coming the other way! When I arrived there, there were six 4wd trying to figure out what to do. As the others were just regular cars it was decided the 4wd would climb to one side or go down to the other side, and I did just like the others. But... after the 2 cars went away, it was time to come back to the path... I tried but the CR-V couldn't make it! It was very steepy and sleepery and no room to get speed as I had a Grand Cherokee just before me so the rt4wd just couldn't avoid the back left wheel and the front right wheel from spinning at the same time. The Honda system works well from front to back but not from left to right. Nothing more to do than using a rope to have the CR-V pulled out by a Land-Rover.

With my self estime down a bit I kept going and the next path was hard with lots of small and not-so-small loose rocks and after climbing for a few kilometers then I arrived to the big wall! Well, it was not a wall, but a large and very steepy path (hill) with in half way 2 large holes (kind of) big enough to 'eat' my CR-V! I was second in row by then, so I stoped and watched the first one (the small 4wd Fiat) to make it with difficulty. It's problem was more the high to the ground because it is just a car with 4wd capabilities. With the others stoped just behind me I started the climb with rage feeling the wheels spinning loose each one in turn as the CR-V made it's way up the hill. On passing by the 'holes' we had hard time even just keeping our heads straight! But we made it! On top we could relax at last. As my CR-V has the license plate on the rear bumper as all the European models have, it lost one screw almost jumping from the support but nothing more. As can be seen by the high of the bumper, it was something to touch the ground with it! The only regret I have is not having someone taking photos!

After that all the difficulties seemed nothing special, and at the end of the day the pleasure was immense! Believe me it's worthing the risk!

Till next off-road trip!

Manuel Figueiredo

geres01.jpg (92745 bytes)