Evoque - to the Rescue

Blackseries · 23-04-2012 12:28am

or I could have called this thread .... Not Just A Pretty Face.

I’d been visiting doctor friends of mine this weekend, they live next to an area that people use for skiing in the winter and walking in the summer, when there was a knock on the door. A neighbour explained that they had had a phone call from another neighbour up on the hill who had fallen and broken her leg (it was actually facing 180 degrees to the other one - ouch). The neighbour at the door had contacted the ambulance service which was on its way but the specialist mountain rescue team would take at least 45 mins to arrive .... and could we help. Having been on the Eastnor Evoque off road session only a couple weeks ago I was pretty confident that the RRE would be able to assist so we all bundled in to the Evoque and off we went – the area where the walker was stranded is approached by a green lane which gradually deteriorates, so by the time we reached the bottom of the hill it was a quagmire. The people with me thought we ought to turn round and try another way in but I was confident we would get though and so we did – as each wheel lost grip the power was diverted to another wheel until we were heading up to the top of hill towards the stranded walker. Once I had deposited my Doctor friend and the neighbour we heard that the ambulance had got stuck in the green lane below so I returned the mile or so to the bottom to collect them. We loaded the boot with all the paramedic stuff .. including gas bottles and stretcher ..... the 2 paramedics then got in and off we went again ....... up the wall of mud. After the Paramedics had been delivered to the injured walker I dropped the back seats ready to transport the recumbent patient back down to the bottom.... however due to the patient taking rather more pain killers and trussing up than normal, by the time the patient was ready to descend the official Mountain rescue vehicle (a Discovery) was on the scene ... so the Evoque could step down. I think everybody that got into the car today was genuinely surprised at how capable the Evoque was .... including myself. There was always that sneaking suspicion that the cars at Eastnor are somehow fettled .... but here was my 20” wheeled Evoque acting as Mountain rescue vehicle and for nearly an hour was the only vehicle that could get up the mountain until the Discovery arrived.

I felt very proud of my Evoque today ... and now know I own a VERY capable vehicle.