Off-road excursions

Ever since I got the Cherokee lifted, I was dying to take it off-road to test how it was doing. Unfortunatelly, except a small two-hours drive to a near-by, unofficial Motocross field, I didn't get the chance to do it. That was until yesterday, when me and my wife, participated in an excursion of a group of 4-wheelers, to a mountain in Northern Peloponissos.

The group consisted of the following trucks:

- A Jeep Grand Cherokee
- A Hundai Galloper
- Three Kia Sportages
- One Land Rover Defender
- A Mitsubishi Pajero Pinin
- A Suzuki Jimny
- One Suzuki Vitara
- Two Jeep Cherokees (including mine)

The point of departure was the tolls in the Southern exit of Athens, on the Highway leading to Peloponisos. We met there at 8 am, much to the displeasure of my wife, Lena, who is definitely not an early bird. After the necessary stop for refueling and coffee, we drove south for about one and a half hour, to a village called Trikala. Soon after the village, we engaged 4x4, since the snow had covered the road. Very soon, the Vitara was stuck and had to be freed by the rest of us, since it was equipped with wrong tires. The driver, left the truck at a safe area, and joined on of the other trucks, not wishing to miss the fun.

Here you can see my Cherokee, together with the Galloper, awaiting for the Vitara's extraction. The Galloper was equipped with a rear LSD and Mud-Terrains. Good selection Elias.

Another truck awaiting for the Vitara extraction, this time a Kia Sportage. Notice how much snow there is!

Me and a very unhappy Cherokee owner. Lena was tired and the early morning awaking didn't improve her mood. This is one of the few times she got off the truck.

Here you can see how well the front wheel has been stufffed inside the fender. Unfortunately, with the wheels the Cherokee featured at that time, the tire rubbed on the spring tower.

The Vitara was soon pushed to the side of the road, and the convoy continue climbing up the mountain towards a small plateau with a lake, that one of the members knew it existed up there. After about an hour driving on snowed roads, we reached a point where we had to plow through the road ourselves, in order to reach the plateau. It was a narrow down-hill road, where no truck had gone before, so the Jimny was called to the front (being the lightest of the group) to open the road.

Here you can see the Galloper going down the path the Jimny has created.

Oh yes, the day before, I had decorated the Cherokee, with my favorite bullet-holes stickers.

One of the Kias going down towards the lake.

The Defender taking its turn, towards the lake.

And the Grand is following along. I admire people who are not afraid to enter such expensive 4x4's in the rough, and enjoy it.

The black Cherokee takes the road to the lake.

Dionysis, in his Pinin is the one to follow.

It's finally my turn to follow the group.

The road took us to a nive flat area, covered with about 20 cm of fresh snow. All the kids (read drivers) were broken loose, on this playground, with the most powerful trucks doing powerslides all over the place. I didn't get the chance to take any pictures of this ... exercise, since I was trying to convince Lena, to come out of the truck and have some fun

My mistake, I should have left here where she was, this is the picture I snapped, just before a heavy snowball hit me square on the chest!

The whole group posing. In the foreground you can see the snow after the big boys finished playing on it. On the right, you can see a side view of the same parade!

And just before leaving the area, the brave owner decided to have her first try of driving on the snow. We took our turn doing some donuts on the white thing, with Lena enjoying it. Too bad the Cherokee's 2.5 lt is so underpowered it can't even spin its tail on the snow.

Below, you can see some more pictures of the trucks in our group.

Soon after those pictures were taken, the group started backtracking, and we met the frozen lake. Driving at its side was a risk I didn't like at all, I would hate to see my Cherokee becoming a submarine. We went all around it, and at that point, Lena checked the clock on the dashboard. It was already 2 pm, and we had to abandon the fun and return back to Athens, since our twins were awaiting for us to pick them up from their grandmother. Half-heartedly, we said "goodbye" to the rest of the group, and took off the way we had come. Driving down the snow-covered road was tiresome, because of the fog, but the trip back to Athens was totally uneventful.

Conclusions:

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