By the time I'd knocked over a small tree half-way through the afternoon, I felt in total control, master of my machine and the environment (a sapling is planted for every tree mown down).I knew I was ready for the Dragon's Back, the final trail which blends insane drops with tight turns, obstacles and deep water, never allowing a moment's slack. By the third time round without a stutter, I was really enjoying myself, and I'd devised my own off-road driving rules: trust the instructor, trust the machine, and trust your thumbs to do as they're told.The hardware"Ergonomics" wasn't in the dictionary when they built the Series One Land Rover; whatever the technical reasons for minimal use of the pedals, they're such hard work that you won't feel inclined to use them at all. Each one mixes new tests together in a tighter area, with less breathing space - a confidence-building way to learn. The ride is as you would expect, only worse - lurching and rolling, with the occasional bang from below as the vehicle "bellies out".Progress, both across the ground and in driving technique, comes by degrees. The various stages, from Mickey Mouse and the Graveyard Run, to Shooters Alley, the Stump Run and Figure Eight higher up the hill, get ever harder. It may sound improbable when they describe it to you, but it works.The driving sensation is direct and physical. Unless you've got power steering, the wheel takes some turning, and when it kicks (thumbs up) as you drop into a big rut, there's no question of stopping it.

A mixture of driving techniques is essential: exploiting the weight transfer from front to back, then forward again by punching the accelerator; reading the terrain to ride over obstacles such as slippery rocks and roots before bringing the power back on; using the steering to rock the vehicle from side to side, increasing grip alternately from left to right. And these are inclines that would make Franz Klammer's hair curl.But you've got to get up there first. Mud, trees, troughs as deep as the vehicle, rocks and pools of water, are all connected on the steep hillside by a track of sorts.Just powering all four wheels to provide traction isn't the whole story. Humans, also, have been known to take root out there while they think things over.We tend to take hay for granted, and suppose that all farmers have made it since time immemorial.

I therefore find it curious to reflect that in southern Oman, with its baking climate, nobody had thought of trying to preserve fodder until the Special Air Service showed farmers how to do it during the campaigns of the Seventies. For centuries the locals had killed bull calves in infancy, knowing that after the monsoon rains they would have nothing to feed them on. The innovation revolutionised agriculture in Dhofar, and remains one of the SAS's lasting memorials in the area.. You need high mud tolerance, a willingness to spend all day in second gear, and an ability to obey three rules Eric Kendall goes four-wheel driving. Speed is exactly what off-road driving is not about: "If you think you can take your brain out and put the boot in, you should try bumper cars," was the gist of the briefing session, during which I learnt the three rules: 1) always keep your thumbs in a "thumbs up" position while grasping the steering wheel; 2) don't touch the foot pedals unless specifically told to do so; 3) don't stick your arm out to brace yourself if the vehicle rolls. And you probably thought the ability to drive a car was going to be an advantage.The rules make sense when you start to appreciate what you're in for: gripping thumbs can get broken by the spokes of the spinning steering- wheel as it kicks; indiscriminate use of the accelerator, brake and, most of all, clutch pedal can have unusual effects away from Tarmac; and, finally, the roll cage and harnesses are there to stop you being crushed or falling out - any limb that is sticking out will snap off in a similar but more serious way than the thumbs in rule one.The only problem is that, like the rules, most of the practice of four- wheel-driving is counter-intuitive to anyone acquainted with driving on the road.

Some of the mechanical differences are obvious: power is supplied to four rather than two wheels, and the tyres are big and chunky.But the hidden differences, such as the long engine stroke and hefty flywheel, mean that it's practically impossible to stall the engine Once in gear, that's where you leave it. You certainly shouldn't slip the clutch, even as you slow to a halt; with the drum brakes full of water most of the time, the engine serves both for going and for stopping.It's astonishing, and a mighty relief, the first time you try "first gear, no brakes" down a small cliff. It was only at the end of the day that I realised I hadn't once used the footbrake going downhill - not even a dab. Rosie, our fluffiest cat, spends hours sitting high up, lost in dreams of mice - so many hours, in fact, that when eventually she comes indoors, she too smells deliciously of hay. An agreeable, biscuity light brown in colour, it is clearly much more delicious than the old. Sheep and horses are whacking into it, and our alpacas by no means turn up their delicate noses at it, clearly implying that it is better stuff than one gets on the Chilean altiplano.Nor is the value of the bale-stack to be measured in nutritional terms only.

The chickens find it highly acceptable as a nesting site, and small children love mountaineering on it in search of eggs. Moreover, they have large, airy barns, which are ideal for storage.Their 1997 crop seems particularly good. It is meadow hay - a mixture of softish grasses and wild flowers - rather than specially-grown rye grass, which is harder, and favoured by racehorse trainers because it contains less dust. Yet our new supply is markedly superior, not only in smell but also in texture. It came from a farm down the valley, where two brothers regularly make excellent hay from their fields on what can only be called the toes of the Cotswolds - the final low humps, beyond the main escarpment, where the hills run down to the Severn plain.I do not suppose the weather there is much better or worse than higher up, but the brothers, who are also builders, watch it cannily, dashing out in fine intervals between other jobs to do whatever is needed - cut, scatter, row-up, turn and bale.