nissan patrol « Photography Blog of Watcher Romano

Archive for nissan patrol

There’s no such thing as SOFT with Oresti

Posted in LifeStyle with tags 4x4mania, cheia, cheia offroad park, nissan, nissan patrol, offf road, offroad, offroading, oresti, patrol, vheia, y61 on 24 May 2009 by Watcher Romano

Cheia Offroad Park had an ‘open weekend’ on May 23rd and 24th. This weekend was the ‘soft’ trial. But of course, there is no such thing as “soft” with Oresti. In my opinion, the minimum requirements for completing the track on you own were Simex(like) tyres and a winch.

Here’s how it looked like – and keep in mind, I was not able to shoot the ‘heavy parts’ as I was driving:

: Teamwork

: Portrait

: Mission Impossible

: Marius Lupu Style

: Just Before

: Luigi in action

: Luigi in action

: Luigi in action

: Luigi – Damage

: Kaiser Fun

: Rescue Op

: Uite-atat

: VolkerV

: I am not stuck

: I am not stuck

: NOW I am stuck

: NOW I am stuck

: Roll out the cable!

Leave A Comment »

Luana – Paths into the Unknown – May 2009

Posted in Travel with tags bozioru, g-klasse, luana, mercedes, mercedes g-klasse, nissan, nissan patrol, off road, off the road, offroad, offroading, patrol, y61 on 19 May 2009 by Watcher Romano

Last weekend (May 15th – May 17th), beautiful Bozioru hosted a traditional offroad event: Luana – Paths into the Unknown.

Participants arrived late on Friday evening and socialized untill all the palinca was gone.
Saturday was the day for offroading. We split in 2 ‘classes’ – I went for the ‘open’ which was advertised as longer. They also told me that I would have problems crossing one point in the ‘extreme’ track, because the car was too wide.

As any responsible person would have done, we turned the ‘open’ into ‘extreme’ too
Here are the pictures recorded with my camera at this event:

: Semaca

: Rotty 1st ascend

: Navara

: Navara

: Iulia – ‘ravena’

: Teamwork

: Iulia Stuck

: Teamwork

: General Clatita to the Rescue

: Teamwork

: I wanna wreck my car too

: Goganu 1st ascend

: Nasu Mare – Ditch

: Semaca

: Funny?

: Crossaxle

: WCR – Ditch

: Mud

: ‘Ravena’

: ‘Ravena’

: Through a river

: Narrow Road Ahead!

: Niku Iorga Repair Shop

: Uite-l ma ce a facut!

: Maaamaaaaa!!

: Rotty Jr

: Election Year

: Leader

: Babyface Assasin

: Cat and Bear

: Croitor

On Sunday I went back home on alternative routes, and there will be another post with those pictures

If you want to see more pictures from the event, this is the official pictures thread.

7 Comments »

Outdoor weekend

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags adventure, bucegi, carpati, diham, expedition, nissan, nissan patrol, offroad, paraul rece, patrol, piatra arsa, poiana izvoarelor, sinaia, y61 on 13 May 2009 by Watcher Romano

I just could not brnig myself to name this post anything with ‘offroad’. Last weekend I took a trip to Paraul Rece, for a meeting. With a little help from some forum colleagues (thank you!) I took two pleasurable trips in the area:

from Paraul Rece to Diham and then to Poiana Izvoarelor (first 5 pictures) – funny, interesting, easy with just one difficult part: a steep and closed turn covered in deep snow. I had to find an alternative path (quite steep and verry narrow, with nothing to the right)
from Sinaia to Piatra Arsa (next 4 pictures) – the scenery has imprinted itwself in our minds – there were literally acres of crocuses and no noises, just the wind and the greatness of The Mountain…

Pictures

: 4 x 4

: WCR on the track to Poiana Izvoarelor

: Purple Meadow

: Bucegi Panorama

: Bucegi Panorama

: Piatra Arsa – Directions

: Purple Meadow

: Purple Meadow

: Yes, I did go there

: Real offroading

: Took some work

: (W)inching out

As you may have noticed, there are more than just 9 pictures posted Yes !! I did do some real offroading: Saturday evening I just entered into the forest, trying to see how far I would reach. It was soliciting but rewarding because:

there was just one car (broken rule #1)
there was just me in the car (broken adagio to rule#1)
I had no idea about the track, conditions, etc.
I made it up – not far away, but after some struggle (moving dead trees, winching, and trying to find a place where the trees were wide enough so that I could exit the forest! )

I also tried to go to Poiana Izvoarelor on Saturday evening but I got a wrong track so I got stuck and had to return, but that gave me some adrenalin too:

lateral inclination
very narrow path – that’s why I had to stop – at a point it became to narrow for the Y61
getting dark

Leave A Comment »

How to wash your car’s underparts

Posted in Travel with tags 9000xd, carwash, nissan patrol, under pants, under parts, underpants, underparts, warn winch, winch on 15 April 2009 by Watcher Romano

That’s underparts, not underpants for all the guys that were mislead to this article! This is how in 5 easy steps:

Correctly install an adequate winch.
Find a carwash with a strong ceiling.
Winch your car’s front off the ground.
Wash, rinse.
Winch the car back down.

How to wash your car's underparts

3 Comments »

Cheia Offroad Day with 4x4Mania team

Posted in Travel with tags 4x4mania, cheia, jeep, kaiser, nissan, nissan patrol, off road, offroad, patrol, y61 on 12 April 2009 by Watcher Romano

Alfonso has convinced me to be a pilot on Saturday April 11th (instead of a copilot), so I joined the 4x4Mania team in Cheia for a day in the forest. Driving through the forrest, on muddy steep hills, following 42″ ruts, passing between trees wide enough for the car WITHOUT mirrors was very fun but also challenging , so I only managed to snap a few pics. I hope my photographer copilot will help me post some pics with ME in action too

: Radu Preparing

: What I have put togehter

: Steep Descent

: Rescue Op

: Pottery

: Landscapeing

: Kaiser Fun

: Front locker on, car on it’s fron axle alone, reverse, gas, BREAK

: This happens like everytime!

: Camouflaged Kaiser – memories of its original purpose

1 Comment »

Phoenix – Song of the Swan in Sibiu

Posted in Travel with tags 1st prize, nissan patrol, off road, off road competition, offroad, offroad cometition, patrol, river on 4 April 2009 by Watcher Romano

Between the 27th and 29th of March, Cabana Nora in Raul Sadului, Sibiu was the host of the “Phoenix – Song of the Swan” memorial for Bogdan Patru.

The meeting was organized as a competition with two classes – Open and Extreme -, roadbook, specials and qualifications. The first day was the prologue, having us (the Open class) descend through a mountain creek with HUGE boulders, in order to establish the starting grid for Saturday. On Saturday, we had 80km of track, with some 150 positions on the roadbook. The track was very easy, with literally no problems beside the roadbook.

Both my copilot and I were at the first encounter with a roadbook, and we had a GPS program simulating the TerraTrip . The program was allrgiht, but we did have some trouble following the roadbook, especially at positions 24, 57 and 107. Position 107 was also where the day was cut off, due to some problems with an area the track was supposed to go through.

That is why the final standing was drawn using the times in the special. Luckily, both my team mate and I ruled the special (under 1 minute as opposed to ~ 10-15 minutes for some contestants) so we were designated winners of the Open class :-O .

It was a lot of fun, we had a 10 minutes break to confer with a friend that lived in Sibiu (yes, we did take a detour and went to his house in Sibiu!), we managed to find a checkpoint hidded in some bushes, and we used a roadook for the first time. Driving all day long however, was not a proper setting for pictures, so there are only a few:

: After the second checkpoint

: Potrait Work

: GOG & WCR

: Goganu

: And now, Where to

I am also using this picture somebody took with a mobile phone to show you what followed immediately after the second checkpoint (actually, it was the third, but NOBODY got the first one )

After the second checkpoint

Leave A Comment »

Calugareni offroad revisited

Posted in LifeStyle with tags calugareni, jeep grand cherokee, jeep wrangler, nissan patrol, off, off r, off road, off-road adventure, offroad, Romania, rubicon, wrangler rubicon on 23 March 2009 by Watcher Romano

Sunday March the 22nd, 8 members of the Club4x4 forum were joined by one newcomer with a stock Mitsubishi Pajero in a trip to Calugareni, for a few hours of offroad fun. Images speak volumes, so here they are:

If, by any chance you would like to read a (Romanian language) recounting, this is the forum post on the dedicated thread.

As always, If you like these pictures and would want to see more, you are invited to subscribe to my blog.

PS: special thanks to Daniel, my replacement photographer for the day. Most of the photos are captured by him with my camera.

2 Comments »

Balotesti Offroad Day

Posted in LifeStyle with tags balotesti, cross axle, crossaxle, g-klasse, gklasse, jeep, kaiser, landcruiser, mercedes, mercedes g-klasse, mercedes gklasse, nissan, nissan patrol, off road, offroad, patrol, Romania, steep descent, toyota, toyota land cruiser on 3 March 2009 by Watcher Romano

Sunday, March 1st, beautiful sunny day in Bucharest.

What could one do but go out to Balotesti, meet some other 4×4 enthusiasts and:

(there are 2 categories of pictures – “forum” – 800 px wide and “web” – 1200 px wide)

If offroad is your thing, stay tuned for more (RSS or EMAIL) because you can bet there will be more to come!

1 Comment »

Paraul Rece Winter Fun

Posted in Beautiful Romania, Travel with tags Beautiful Romania, bran, calugari, forestier, iarna, la calugari, landscape, malatesta, malatesta kayman, nissan patrol, off road, offroad, paraul rece, patrol, peisaj, predeal, Romania, siemx tyres, simex, snorkel, warn, warn winch, winter, winterscape, y61, y61 nissan aptrol on 23 February 2009 by Watcher Romano

After a work meeting in the Paraul Rece area the weather was incredibly good so I could not miss the local offroad opportunities.

Starting on DN73A (from Predeal to Rasnov), at the bottom of the descent there is a small road to the right, going “up” to “the priests”. I firs took that road, which was taken care of, almost completely cleaned of snow.

However, I suggest wearing chains if you go on snow, because I did get stuck with the Simex tyres after one 180 degrees turn – the tires were polishing the icy snow and the car was stuck. I had a winch so I was able to move the car to get some snow under the wheels.

Here’s the track, the sinuos road to the left is DN73A (Predeal – Rasnov), after descending from Paraul Rece

Track to "la calugari"

It was fun for a warm up, and also a great opportunity to take some (nice?) photos:

Panorama shot from "La Calugari"

Winter Tree

Car Winter Portrait

Very quick we went back because the action until now was NOT (!) enough For convenience we took the same road, did not bother to explore the possibility to go directly downhill:

Return from "La Calugari"

Back on the DN73A road we turned right, and headed to Rasnov, where we were instructed to take “Drumul Glajeriei” up to it’s end, and then on a forest road to Tohanul Nou. I am having a rough time trying to draw this on the map (I can not find enough points and I did not have GPS with me), so I will only be able to show you the beautiful sites I encountered: