06 May 05
There are few justifications for a bloke like me to own a big off-roader like the new Nissan Pathfinder. I live in a teeming city (Brighton) with limited parking, and what parking there is, is often just big enough for a Smart or a scooter. I don't have any kids to cocoon. My two cats and my cat-sized dog never require more room than that on offer in my clapped-out VW Polo, either. Plus, I care about the environment so I'd never buy a car that spewed out more than my fair share of toxins. Recently I've rented an allotment, which will entail a bit of light haulage (Dutch hoes, rakes, etc), but there's no real reason the Polo can't cope with that. And if I need to transport something really long, there's always 4Car's fleet of estate cars to sample. So why am I still hankering after a big off-roader? Seems a bit daft, really, but after the weekend I've had, I've actually thought about chucking in the Polo and upsizing to a Pathfinder.
Shame on you, you say, giving in to temptation like the droves of Americans who have no grounds whatsoever to buy a hulking great 4x4. Fair enough. It's just that when you've been pootling around in a supermini, and you get to try out such a proficient mountain goat, it kind of makes you want to be a bit more active yourself. It opens up a world of possibility, makes you want to brave the wilderness, sling a backpack over your shoulders and head for the hills. And that's kind of what this adventure weekend was all about. I suppose it's not really about the car but the way it makes you feel when you've used it to its potential.
There I was before the weekend, a gelatine mould in front of the telly, eating too few green vegetables and too many lamb kebabs with extra garlic sauce. I was living, in fact, the antithesis of the much-touted 'active lifestyle' that so many automakers are selling these days. Nissan's new catchphrase for the Pathfinder is 'More power, more space, more stories', and the company makes no bones about its focus on the 4x4 sector: with six 4x4s of varying ruggedness in its fleet, few manufacturers can lay a better claim to off-road domination. So would a weekend away in such a demonstrably outdoorsy vehicle lance my lassitude and revamp my vigour? I hoped so, and I told my friends that a trip to southern Scotland was in order, ostensibly to fish and camp, but secretly to test the off-piste talents of the Pathfinder next to the world's supreme mud-pluggers: military tanks. But more about that later.
Three mates - Pete, Phil and Jamie - took up the challenge with me. Three days to remain unwashed, unkempt and unconcerned. In short, a guys' weekend.
