4x4joe wrote:

Afternoon All

Went for a mooch about the plains on Saturday evening (near where the comp safaris are held, tidworth) Its Nye
on impossible to tell where you can/cant go, there are byway signs but some of them lead to dead ends, others have
been broken off or bashed so you cant really see which way there pointing! Is there any specific maps or websites that
dictate where you can and cant go? I did bump in to the MOD police on there patrols but they just carried on pass. I
appreciate that certain areas are out of bounds when the flags are flying but just thought id see if there was some
generic rules or outlined routes, thanks for any help in advance

http://dash4it.co.uk/lr-184-salisbury-the-plain-amesbury.html


Click image to enlarge

But even the latest SPTA map doesn't have all the updates on it.

MoD police aren't really interested in the average civvy user, unless you're blatantly driving somewhere you shouldn't be or like a right t!t. If you were off a byway and they just drove past don't take this to mean it's OK to carry on driving where you shouldn't!

Even the civvy police sometimes need to be dragged out by their ear and explained to the goings on, or what some other idiots are up to.

Rule of thumb, the "cat1" tracks, which are the graded flat smooth tracks, the MoD allow civvies to drove on, but they can be closed at any given moment.

most of the byways are marked, but grab a map and start to learn your way around (it's fun, I spent years just driving around there learning it all... I'd sometimes do 200 miles in an evening!

"near where the comp safari's are", is called the CCDA... Cross Country Driver (training) Area, or Sidbury (after the large hill)... there used to be a byway (BY13) that ran right through the middle of it past the concrete knife edge, but it was re-routed some years back to follow the cat1 track around the bottom of Sidbury hill

It's a mecca for all the nobs at weekends, quads, bikes, other 4x4s, all go out there and mess about. Sometimes they get caught (especially if I'm out there as I get straight on the phone to Tidworth community police) so don't be tempted to go and play.... it'll just disgruntle the police and MoD which (might, hopefully not...) lead to byways getting closed.