Alcaraz with some friends from CLRTTE

Well,

We had a blast! what a great day, great weather, great people... such a pleasure to meet fellow Land Rover enthusiasts in Alcaraz.

We arrived at Alcaraz at 9am, a little while after the introductions and greetings, we took off to the mountains.

Funny enough, for being a Land Rover gathering only 3 Land Rovers showed up, my 300Tdi disco, a Td5 Disco and a Td5 Defender 130 (very cool by the way...), the rest were some of those "other" 4x4s :P

All the way to the snack break was smooth with all sorts of terrain to entertain us:

This is the place where La Mancha ends and the Sierra de Alcaraz begins...

My photographer for this trip, working hard (and having quite some fun)

The 130 going up the hill, very nice setup:

Is that snow? we had such a gorgeous day, I didn't expect to see any snow... wait! are we heading that way?

Making new friends, is what Land Rovers is about...

Group picture

Briefing about the trip, by Elpana, our local guy. Many, many thanks to him for organizing this and sharing his knowledge of the area with us!

Group picture, a bunch of people with a love for nature and exploring our world.

What is this? foam? NO, it's *SNOW*, cool... it's not Shaver Lake Snow Run but it was a lot of fun!!!!

Volcano (the name my daughters gave the 300Tdi) behave great, despite the road tires and no lift (yet)

The white stuff

Static mud concept #1

White stuff...

Here some pictures "borrowed" from dcortesv from the LR club:

What's this? *stuck*? and the best prepared Land Rover non the less with those 36 and a half? mmmmm and that is not a Toyota, is a heavily modified Land Rover pulling the 130 :)

Some serious hole full of snow over there... nothing a little pull can't fix.

Pretty rocks worth checking out

We have just passed some interesting mud puddles on the far end of the trail...

Water falls in Los Batanes...

Then we went for lunch to some local restaurant, good food, great company, some tourism around Alcaraz with visit to the castle ruins and everything.

Overall, a great day, thanks every one and especially to elpana for making this happen.

Well, I am back

After some months of less than optimum health, I am feeling much better and I am starting to enjoy little outings with the family and the Land Rover.

Yesterday we went to a little public area not far from where we live now and enjoy a day of playing around.

The dog seems to be doing better too and he had a blast running around.

Good news is that some offroad events Land Rover club related are coming soon and I expect to be on them, but so far, I haven't been able to get the tires and lift I want, very soon I hope.

Let's see some pictures, taken with the phone so quality might be not that great:

Funny story: So I saw some coolant leak down the engine, and I thought, "Damn, it! the 'P' gasket" as it very often happens with 300Tdi, but tracing it up the engine I realized that the coolant was coming from higher up... I tried to loosen the coolant filler plug on the thermostat housing and I got half of it, it was all rotten and leaking coolant through a crack.
Good thing I had a spare, got the rest of the plug out and replaced and all is good since then. Fingers crossed, I don't feel like doing the 'P' gasket dance just yet... specially if I have to work again surrounded by snow...

Water time! after all that playing around

I swear it was just 2 mud puddles.

This was a lot of fun!!

Until next time, very soon I hope!