Mike, I feel I have to make a couple of comments on this thread. I participated on this this trip and would like to address your points one by one if I may.
Each and every track on this trip was a legal right of way to motor vehicles, the routes were researched and navigation aided by Memory Map to ensure this was the case. I ask that you determine why you think this was not the case.
The tree that was pulled from the ground during the recovery was not an intentional act and once the situation was identified, measures were put in place to minimise further damage by spreading the load across additional load points further up the hill. In a recovery situation such as this, even the pros use the same techniques. Seriously, what would you have done in the same situation? Lets not get trippy with Hindsight and it's power, all of us have learnt lessons from this.
To my knowledge, there is no law in driving a legal road or byway after sunset unless lights on the vehicle are not used, otherwise nobody could use the motorway or other rights of way at night. Please educate us all where the Law stipulates that this is not the case.
No trees were cut down, the tree used for firewood was already fallen and retrieved from the forest floor and dragged to the campsite before it was cut to provide firewood.
Both river crossings were done with previous knowledge of that particular crossing, all of us crossed the first one based on experience, the second cossing was done by Ben as he made a judgement call on previous experience. The rest of the group, not having the same experience decided not to cross. Hardly a foolhardly approach.
I am disappointed that you feel that the accident means none of the group should have been on green lanes, Ben has a number of years experience in this sport and his circumstances were a genuine accident, maybe you have never had an incident on public roads in your driving career to date, but when anyone has a situation develop it can be for a whole host of reasons. None are intended but as humans, human error will eventually catch up with us at some point, does this mean that we should never be allowed to drive again? A bit draconian in my view.
You appear to be very quick to comment on a trip based on the images and dialogue alone, you have no knowledge of the planning involved, the experience of the participants or an appreciation of the factors taken into consideration before decisions were made during a difficult real world situation, I urge you to revisit the thread and information available to you and actually put yourself in the shoes of the people on the trip, I believe your views would be more balanced and less
of a knee jerk reaction.