strata florida 30th dec

Hi all
me and my mate in his 110 and me in my 90 are coming up from the south. We have allways wanted to do this lane,especially with all the youtube vids we keep watching and being my birthday on the 30th i thought it would make a cracking bday. Were thinking of staying in a local travel lodge for the night.

The plan is to be in the wales area nice and early around 8-9, hit some of the trails onto pub then to travel lodge or whatever then up early out the next morn till lunch and head home. I would very much appreciate it if anyone could give us some advice on what to expect, also any local knowlege would be good or and gps ref points would be the best for any other lanes in the area, nearest hotels anything really many thanks

by the way we do have suffieient recovery gear etc and are allways respectfull of where we go

Bit late now since you're on the way but we did the route yesterday in my Series 3, a Series 3 with a 200Tdi, Bobtailed Rangie and Disco.

Reasonably heavy snowfall when we did it but was easy going. Had almost no trouble a few little slips and slides here and there. A bit of a scraping on a different track (Soar y Mynydd which started off near Blaendothie Youth Hostel and finished up at Soar y Mynydd nearish Llyn Brianne). River crossings were no deeper than the tyres and the bomb-hole was "attacked" and surmounted.

Also ran into someone stuck in a Mitsubishi Delica, they were suitably admonished for attempting it in the snow with one vehicle and from a group of 4 leaving the 1 girl with the vehicle which the other three going for help.

Ironically, yesterday Strata Florida was easier than the first route, Soar y Mynydd in my opinion. There were a few hairy gullies on the final descents, although there was a nice biggie on Strata.

We finished in Strata, if you go the other way I'd be curious to see how you manage with that, you'd drive through a gate, then a puddle and there'll be a more or less 90° right-hander with a deep gully (~3-4ft) deep on the right, once you get to the top there's then a "trench" with another puddle. If the snow hardens into ice then it's going to be tricky to not slide into the gully with likely tub damage.

Hope you enjoy yourselves, we did.

Here are some photos of the trip ed.poore is on about. It was a good trip and we even rescued a damsel in distress stuck on Strata in a Mitsubishi Delcia

nice pics looked a bit cold there

It was chilly! Note in the last picture the snow is blowing almost horizontally.

fenby1976 said:

It was chilly! Note in the last picture the snow is blowing almost horizontally.

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where was my invite mate

fenby1976 said:

It was chilly! Note in the last picture the snow is blowing almost horizontally.

Click to expand...

Surprisingly I was quite toasty in mine, although at that point it was snowing inside the cab...

Did I see a Disco in the bomb hole ???????


I wouldn't take mine through there after 90boy thumped his tow bar on the ground in his 90

90boy said:

where was my invite mate

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Sorry mate, but I wanted to stick to a max of 4 vehicles. Ed emailed me saying he was up for a bit of laning and then I bumped into Paul at the supermarket the same day, he and his mate Lee were into the idea too, so that was it. Anyway where was my invite to that laning trip to Happy Valley? My Land-Rover was in bits at the time, but that's not the point - cùnt. Paul and Lee are keen to get out laning again soon and Ed spends most of his time in London so I'll give you a shout next time we've got a trip planned.

Tim.C said:

Did I see a Disco in the bomb hole ???????


I wouldn't take mine through there after 90boy thumped his tow bar on the ground in his 90

Click to expand...

The Disco did loose a rear-mounted light...

ed.poore said:

Surprisingly I was quite toasty in mine, although at that point it was snowing inside the cab...

Click to expand...

My heating system was not too clever - air lock perhaps?

Tim.C said:

Did I see a Disco in the bomb hole ???????


I wouldn't take mine through there after 90boy thumped his tow bar on the ground in his 90

Click to expand...

I was surprised he got through that with only a smashed reverse light. I was glad to get through the bombhole without blowing the poor old SIII transmission to pieces with my new 200 Tdi engine conversion - first time out laning since the conversion.

fenby1976 said:

My heating system was not too clever - air lock perhaps?

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I think you've got a better chance of turning the Landy into a space-shuttle than air-lock it...

I've been pleasantly surprised at how well the heater warms the vehicle, maybe it's because I'm missing that bit of hose on the passenger-side demister so all the hot air escapes into the cab.

Am going off scavenging for a bit of hoover tube to see what effect that has. Will be positively balmy once I have doors that don't have holes mounted. (And I'll probably use the new doors for green-laning - too lazy to swap them ).

fenby1976 said:

Sorry mate, but I wanted to stick to a max of 4 vehicles. Ed emailed me saying he was up for a bit of laning and then I bumped into Paul at the supermarket the same day, he and his mate Lee were into the idea too, so that was it. Anyway where was my invite to that laning trip to Happy Valley? My Land-Rover was in bits at the time, but that's not the point - cùnt. Paul and Lee are keen to get out laning again soon and Ed spends most of his time in London so I'll give you a shout next time we've got a trip planned.

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nice one john i shall see you next time

Hey fellas... nice one on the four motor limit! And the bobblies keep telling us we are irresponsible!

Great pics... looks like you had one hell of a time...fair play.

Sound's like everyone's having fun in the snow then. What were the roads like up there? I'm heading from Hereford across to Snowdonia tomorrow with a Micra following. The only reason I'm going from Hereford is so he's got someone to tow him if needbe...

Any photos silverfox101010?

Group of us from Essex doing the strata florida 3rd W/E in Jan...looking forward to it..

Tim.C said:

Did I see a Disco in the bomb hole ???????


I wouldn't take mine through there after 90boy thumped his tow bar on the ground in his 90

Click to expand...

I've taken my Delica through the bomb hole but mine does have a 4" lift.
You didn't get the name of the people in the Delica did you?