As some of you may know, I’m not really one for driving our four-wheeled cousins … I didn’t even get a licence for them until quite late, then I tried a variety of styles and performance and came to the conclusion that they just didn’t do it for me – all except the Land Rover / Range Rover. I had so much fun in a slow old clunky Series 3 hand-me-down that I ended up buying the P38 Range Rover primarily for off-road work when here in Italy. Best buy I ever made, smooth and comfortable on the highway and 95% as capable as any standard Defender when off-road ……. and don’t believe all the press bullshit about reliability either! 😉
So when Eric, founder and event director of muddychef.com got in contact regarding a Caponord matter, I was immediately curious about what Muddy Chef is …. well in short, it’s a marriage between Land Rovers and cooking!
(quote) “off-roading and a vehicle based gourmet cooking challenge (think Top Gear meets Top Chef).”
Unfortunately I’m no cook. I can cook, but I just don’t seem to enjoy it – even the BBC’s Hairy Bikers only got 10 minutes of airtime before I changed channel! But I can appreciate good food, especially the time, dedication and skill required to prepare it from the back of a vehicle in the woodlands! I think this meeting of two different interests is fantastic and truly hope the muddychef challenge goes from strength to strength over the coming years. So if you haven’t already clicked the Muddy Chef link to get away from my drivel – do it now!
So here we are at seven thirty in the evening with two Capo’s stripped while we try to jump start Mike’s bike. After a couple of false starts we get it running, but he can’t use the lights so he follows me home glued to my tail. The poor thing has a battery voltage of 11v and a total lack of charging system. 24hrs later we had the Capo up and running again no problem. A new battery, 30A fuse and a quick tinkle with his mapping has the Capo purring like a fine Swiss watch. We decided that the next day would be a ‘test’ day in the Gran Sasso mountains.
In the end the ‘test’ covered about 220km and re-established Mike’s confidence in the Capo’s abilities; considering he’s 10 days into a 5 week trip that puts him in Barcelona next week and Morocco a few days later, he needs to have 100% trust in his bike. Although the low cloud was broody and the stiff wind on the chilly side, we had a great day. We even managed a coffee at Castel del Monte and a chat with a group of BMW GS riding Germans!
The long and the short of it is – we don’t do anything new, yep … gran and gramps did it all long before us, even defeating forward-facing speed cameras with a ‘dummy rider’ – brilliant idea!