Digger Driving for Two

Get geared up for a bit muck shifting, dozing and earth moving on these digger experience days! This is your chance to drive an actual digger in a former gravel quarry. The excavator will be right at home because it's working in its natural environment and you'll be deliriously happy too, as everyone loves the idea of doing a bit of digger driving.

These digger days take place at Sibbertoft on the Leicestershire/Northamptonshire border. Before becoming a top-notch off road driving and outdoor activity centre, gravel was quarried here. That means the ground is very undulating, gets water-logged rather easily and can be very muddy. The prefect terrain for a mini digger, then!

When we say mini, this digger still weighs in at hefty three tonnes, but for aficionados in the plant and construction machinery world, if it's under seven tonnes, it's mini. This Volvo excavator is just as you'd imagine. The driver's cab sits on the rotating platform (or house) with twin rubber tracks. The boom moves up and down, whilst the 1.8m long dipper is the bit attached to it that has the force to dig into the ground. On the end of that you'll find a bucket, used to scoop up the earth. And all of these are controlled with levers inside the cab and that's your job.

What's great about driving a digger is experiencing for yourself how manoeuvrable they are. The tracks mean you can trundle along quite happily on this rugged quarry terrain. The fully rotating cab means you spin round on the spot, which is just cool. And of course, having that powerful digger arm at your disposition means you can have fun doing 'some serious damage' in the mud.

Dig a hole, make a few trenches, practice digging foundations - these are all the sorts of ground works these Volvos excel at. And we have to say, there's something infinitely satisfying about shifting earth from one side to another in order to make a big hole in the ground, before scooping it all back up to fill it up again. That's what digger experience days are all about. Let's see if you're cut out for handling some heavy play machinery in this former quarry work site!