When we were looking for routes where we could test our little off-roader and break it in a bit, we hardly found anything in our home zone. However, Marco quickly came across the so-called “men’s playground” in Knüllwald, near Kassel. In an active open-cast mine, off-roaders can let off steam to their heart’s content. There are pretty much all levels of difficulty you can imagine. So, get over there!

At the entrance, you will be briefed, given a map of the site and the “house rules” with instructions on protecting nature and your own safety. For an entrance fee of €35 per day and vehicle, you are free to explore the site and rummage through the various routes. We quickly realized that we couldn’t do much with the plan 😁. However, even though the site offers many different options and we hardly saw any other vehicles despite the good weather, it is not so big that you could get lost.

After an orientation round on the main trail, we ventured off-road – see for yourself in the gallery at the bottom of the page! 🤗

We bought walkie-talkies in advance, which we also wanted to test. That worked really well here. You’re not too far away from each other, so you can easily instruct the rider (in most cases this is Marco 😉) on difficult sections. This is absolutely sensible and advisable in addition to going over critical sections beforehand. People often underestimate the deep ruts or overestimate the vehicle – ground clearance is always an issue here. We were really impressed with how easily the relatively small Vitara worked its way through the terrain. Mud and puddles are no problem with four-wheel drive and thanks to the gear reduction, the little one tirelessly climbs up and down all the slopes we tried.

At the end, there was a proper shower with a high-pressure cleaner to remove the worst of the mud and dirt. Five minutes cost 3 euros, but without this you are not allowed back on normal roads. Understandable 🫣. Nevertheless, it was only enough for the worst, back home we had a second session in the wash box and got some more mud under the Vitara. Awesome! 😳

If you want to know more or “play” – The evil wolf in the Knüllwald forest

Conclusion: There really is something for every off-roader here, depending on the weather, you can practise your skills on more or less muddy and deeply rutted forest paths or put your vehicle to the test on a number of slopes. So much for a man’s playground – the girl on board had a lot of fun too! 🤩