26/10/2025
Wild Boar Valley Challenge - ORK Kamo Oko Vidi– Report
We’re just nearing home from our adventure to the Wild Boar Valley Challenge 2025 in Buzet, Croatia – a 3,000-mile round trip! The event is a crazy mix of a prologue, roadbooks, circuit racing, a night stage, and a “super extreme” challenge section spread over six days.
Monday – Prologue
The prologue went as planned, coming second in our heat and 16th overall. We didn’t want to get too high of a finishing position, knowing the next day was a roadbook – something neither of us had ever done before. So, we were super happy to come away 16th, meaning there should be some tracks for us to follow the next day.
Tuesday – Roadbook 1
With neither of us ever having seen a roadbook before, Tuesday morning Arthur Dobbelaere gave Josh a quick crash course on how to mark and read one, and off we went with low expectations and horrendous weather conditions.
Not far in, we came to a traffic jam. With our competitive spirit and winching background, we decided to make our own track and winch around it – gaining about five positions. A little further on, we came up a creek to a fallen tree where more cars were struggling to get up the valley wall. We decided to make a risky winch pull up and across the valley wall again, bypassing a few cars.
We then had a good 25 km of clear tracks, trying to keep a good but steady pace in the harsh conditions – with broken windscreen wipers and as much mud and water inside the cab as outside. As we were nearing the end of the book, the bad conditions made the woods dark and greasy, and we made a small navigation error costing us around 15 minutes. Luckily, we managed to get back on track and finish the roadbook.
It was a nice surprise when the marshals at the end said only four other teams in the extreme class had completed the whole roadbook so far. That meant by the end of day two, we’d climbed to 6th place.
Wednesday – Circuit Racing & Night Stage
We headed off the line to complete five laps of absolute carnage. We decided the first lap was the best time to take a detour and grab the bonus punch we needed. After that, we managed to drive the first big bog hole without winching. The next obstacle was two 20-foot, square-edged holes with muddy water at the bottom. We dropped into the first one and got onto the bank between them, but there were two cars stuck in the hole ahead. We decided to drop back into the rear hole and winch through both, which didn’t go to plan.
As Josh jumped out to winch, his strap caught the isolator switch, killing the truck – normally not a big deal. Sadly, in this case, the starter switch had stuck engaged, and in the noise and rush we didn’t notice until smoke started bellowing from under the bonnet, sadly causing us a DNF on the circuit stage and dropping us back to 7th overall.
After rescuing the truck with a JCB, washing it, and assessing the damage, we managed to get her going again in quick time for the night stage.
We both really enjoyed the 26 km roadbook in the dark – a bit less winching and a deep river crossing. We managed another good time, even after five minutes of “where the hell are we?” thanks to crafty checkpoint marshals turning their torches off! 😂
Thursday – Roadbook 3
Thursday saw us take on a long 96 km roadbook in horrible wet, foggy, and windy conditions. Once again, we caught some traffic early on a nasty side slope and decided to be clever, winching off the track around the queue. However, a Romanian in a Nissan Patrol–based truck in the soft class wasn’t keen on letting us pull back onto the track in front of him. So, a bootful of throttle and a dumped clutch later… Mark rolled the truck and landed on top of his bonnet!
It turned out the angry Romanian co-driver knew some very colourful English words, which he directed at Josh while he was trying to upright us off their truck😂 Sadly, this was only the beginning of our issues – we also got lost following markers in the thick fog on top of the mountains and picked up a puncture.
By the end of Thursday, we had dropped to 8th place, just behind seamus Doyle and James Watts.
Friday – Roadbook 4
Friday brought much better weather, but also some very high creeks and rivers. What a day we had! We both really enjoyed setting a good pace, catching up to our English and Irish mates, James and Seamus. However, shortly after the excitement, we had to backtrack about a hundred meters to make sure we were going the right way.
We managed to match Seamus and James’s times, but it wasn’t quite enough for us to climb back up the rankings.
Saturday – Super Extreme
Saturdays final event – the Super Extreme – is a long and seriously tough section, much like a winch challenge, but with an unnerving number of spectators watching. Feeling quietly confident we could put in a clean, fast time, we set off. However, it wasn’t our day.
A tree pulled over by a previous car managed to get snagged over our axle, under the body, and between the wheel and coilover, bending the coilover. With both of us being passionate and competitive, we got a bit hot-headed at that point and struggled to get ourselves free. We ended up having to retire due to the damage – a bent coilover, leaking brake pipes, and a healthy dose of frustration knowing we couldn’t get the time we wanted anyway.
So yes, we ended the week pi**ed off and gutted, but still happy to be in the top 10 for our first event of this type. what an amazing experience we’ve had! It’s definitely given us a good idea of what we need to do if we decide to head back next year.
A massive thank you to Gordon for gifting the entry to Challenge South West as the first prize for the De-Cider Trophy, which we won – otherwise, this would have stayed one of those things that’s always on the list for “next year.”
Pioneer 4x4
Goodwinch
JFT Fabrication
PFG Fabrication LTD
Td5 Inside / Performance Inside
