Antonio Manega and I decided some months ago to enter the Chile Challenge off road competition in Las Cruces N.M. after hearing about it from fellow club member Ken Mendez.

So after very little deliberation we signed up for the EASY trails, to hopefully maximize the fun at the level we were comfortable at, without incurring panel damage or worse to our 1975 ex British Army LWB Series 3.

We left Houston around 6pm on the Wednesday evening and set a course for N.M. After driving through the night at between 60-70mph and after a breakfast and sleep stop we arrived at the fairgrounds in Las Cruces around 2pm on the Thursday. A big thanks to Ken who made us very welcome and comfortable in his mobile accommodations.

Well the next two days of wheeling were excellent, the weather was cool but sunny and for all the folks out there who want to play but DON'T want to risk damage to their "pride and joy" the choice of the EASY trails was the one to make.

But please don't get the idea that they were boringly easy, they were challenging, with beautiful scenery and good company.

The whole event is worth attending as well for mixing it with the other predominately Jeep folks who were great, to view the other rigs and also the food and facilities were excellent.

Well we set back on the Sunday morning at 5am with Chris Urquieta who very kindly offered to travel with us 'just in case" and we arrived back in Houston around 9pm that night having covered a total of 1,825 miles and I'm very please to say with no damage other than the starter.

So folks the next big Land Rover event is the Mid Atlantic Rally (MAR) in the Fall, who's up for it ??

--Fraser Gourlay

THANKS to Fraser Gourlay for taking and providing the pictures and providing the write-up for our Web site and Chris Urquieta for providing the pictures for Page Two.

Chris' pictures available on Page Two - Click here!

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