Bob Cooke – contributor
From a high point overlooking the lake it looked a bit like a little kid’s playground with Tonka toys scattered all over the place – mainly Land Rovers, since the Yarwell Quarry site near Peterborough is home to a Land Rover enthusiasts’ group, and it’s so popular that the place positively swarms with old Series Land Rovers and nicely modified Discoverys. Fortunately they don’t mind other marques joining in the fun, though the marshal who welcomed us to the site did give us a friendly warning: “There’s been a lot of rain,” he said, “So the lake is deeper than usual. Our advice is to stay away from the water – and don’t expect us to recover you if you don’t.”
That obviously didn’t apply to the Land Rovers – we spent an entertaining half hour watching snorkel-equipped old Land Rovers charging bonnet-deep through the lake then opening doors to let the flood water drain out of their footwells.
Fortunately it wasn’t all water, the Yarwell site is quite expansive with a good selection of steep climbs and drops, stretches of gloopy mud and lots of quite easy-going trails to explore, so it’s a pleasing site for anything from unmodified cars to seriously lifted winch-equipped hard-core off-roaders.
SPEC
Make: Jeep Cherokee
Model: 4.0 Limited
Mileage: 75,132
MPG: 20.2
Recent costs: £45 MoT
Arrived: July 2011
You can read more about this Jeep in the May 2014 issue of 4×4 Magazine – available here
