4 Wheels Driving

Well thats us back from our long weekend away. both Muasdale (on the peninsula of which campbelltown is at the end) and Bowmore (On the fair island of Islay) were lovely and remote and just the thing to get away from it all. Thanks to our hosts who were so generous in hospitality. Wood fired Barbeques are the way forward, it used an iron plate over a wood fire, the plate (as opposed to a grill) gets hot and is more flexible in what you can cook. The approach of covering the plate in olive oil and seasoning it with Garlic was also a fine addition to teh piles of cooked meat brought before us.I don't believe I've ranted about 4WD cars before on this Blog, but I'm sure I will in the future. However I have now driven one, and on Islay, where most roads are single track and many are broken dirt tracks (Although work seems to be going on to improve this). You can get around islay in a normal car but your suspension won't like some of the surfaces you may have to travel over and while I never needed the 4WD it was sunny and dry weather and I did need the ground clearence. Notably on this island there are a lot of 4WD vehicles. However the majority are mainly heavy rugged beasts with few mod cons such as Land Rover Defenders, Mitsibushis and Isuzus. What you don't see many of at all are the hulking BMW Z3 and 5 and its Ilk, you know, the ones which are so popularised by those with little taste and huge amounts of money. The ones that drink fuel like its tapwater, take up huge amounts of space, spew out tonnes of Co2 on the school run and, most notably, can't actually cope with rough roads let alone dirt tracks.Banning all 4WDs is foolish as tehre are those that need them, and those that need them should have exemptions from the heavy taxes soon to be imposed. It was good to drive one where it belonged, in the countryside, not on a school run.