On September 3rd a Vauxhall Frontera 4 X 4 appeared half-way up Mount Snowdon in Wales, stopping some 365 metres from the summit.
It confused the local mountain walkers and the staff of the little steam railway that it was parked next to.
Getting any four wheeled transport up the mountain is not only tricky, but also largely dangerous. Even when there’s an emergency, it is never usually attempted.
The sole transport (apart from rescue helicopters), is the mountain railway system that uses a special safety way of holding itself to the rails on the ground to avoid disaster should a train break free and attempt to roll back down the mountain at 2,000 kph killing everybody.
I’m assuming that to successfully get up the mountain the driver literally followed the train track, probably driving on top of it, and on occasions used his winch to pull the vehicle. It gets extremely narrow in places and heart-stoppingly steep, but I guess that’s how he did it.
It turned out that the owner, 39 year old Craig Williams from Cheltenham, had put the idea of driving up a mountain on his ‘bucket list’ – the list of 50 things you want to do before you die. It took him 9 hours.
Sub-zero temperatures and bad weather closed in. The wind started buffeting the 4 X 4 that Mr Williams had nicknamed “Trusty”, and so he basically abandoned it and went back down the mountain on foot.
He was charged with dangerous driving, and is due in Court next week.
They had to wait five days for a break in the weather before it was safe to attempt to bring the 4 X 4 down.
Oddly, whilst it remained up the mountain it was repeatedly broken into. It seems mountain climbers are not adverse to committing acts of criminal damage, burglary and theft. That’s quite disgusting really, whilst driving it up there is only eccentric!
Anyway, for some strange reason, after a lot of huffing and puffing to get the 4 X 4 onto a specially adapted low-loader train carriage and a three hour journey back down off the mountain they must have given it back to Mr Williams.
Because, on September 29th, just over three weeks after the first incident, the 4 X 4 appeared once again on Mount Snowdon. This time it had reached the top and was parked behind the stone visitor centre that marks the summit, clearly displaying a note saying that it should be sold with proceeds going to the local Mountain Rescue team.
Previously, “Trusty” had been offered on eBay, attracting a highest bid of only £1,300, with details suggesting it had 98,000 miles on the clock and came with snowplough and gritter if required.
However, “Trusty” suddenly disappeared from eBay before the auction closed.
“Trusty” has now taken pride of place on top of Snowdon.
I love this story. It still has a bit to run, and I’m sure there’ll be a lot of (probably justified) tutting and finger-wagging still to come, but surely we need far more ‘fun’ stuff from ‘eccentric’ folk like Craig Williams to brighten our lives!
So, here’s to all those who dare to be different.
It’s only you that make a difference.
England's England 