The purpose of taking the Land rover and the Hagglund to Coniston was for tests. The Land rover had not been in the water since July 2004 when it crossed the Irish Sea and we had never seen the Hagglund in the water at all apart from in videos. We had a couple of propellers to test - neither made any significant difference to the speed.

The Hagglund is amphibious however is not very manoeuvrable and we had a couple of scares with water coming in around the doors. The rear compartment would also be very susceptible to currents and seemed to drift off on its own accord. Compared to the Hagglund the Land rover was extremely manoeuvrable and could easily run rings round it. The weather did its usual with very heavy showers where the Hagglund came into its own being used as a mobile bacon butty van !! 

Coniston was also the first time that Sue and Roger Shuttleworth were able to see the vehicles in action and as they are interested in joining the expedition it was a good (but wet) experience for them !!

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