Well give the Army boys a chance to get out of camp to do some good and they’ll jump at the chance. Got there for 8am and sat around drinking tea and chatting with the Welsh Guards. Eventually, there I am driving through the jungle, followed by a green ‘Wolf’ Land Rover, replete with half of REME’s tools and 3 huge VHF aerials, charging through mud and negotiating ruts. Until I get whacked in the eye by a branch flicking through the open window and I can’t stop crying down half my face.

Here comes the tricky bit of mud. Apparantly, the Army guys weren’t trained for the type of terrain, so that’s why they got their Wolf briefly stuck and my Defender sailed through. It makes me realise how when it comes to expeditions, people that support expeditions as a job can surpass even the Army in their expeditionary skills, because we do this sort of stuff all the time. I rubbed it in a bit. The retort came, "we do it only in training[!]".

The guys were a good laugh, and got the steering rod off in no time at all. I learnt a few mechanical tricks. ‘Lefty loosy, righty tighty’. Time to leave and a nervousness about going back through the mud. There’s soldiers sprawling all over the Mountain Pine Ridge and Vaca area. Feels kinda cool driving past a bunch of soldiers in a Land Rover. It’s the little things.

Went a bit faster than I should have so the shock absorber trumpet is starting to shear off. Lots of clanging. Same old same old.

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