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Convoy

Trip as it happened

The day started out nice & early, with a scheduled 07:00 departure from Ourimbah. We all started out with the pre trip formalities, where we filled in the trip forms, introduced each other, picked a Tail End Charlie (which still got confusing anyway) & selected some people to do the written & oral trip reports for the Club (Central Coast 4WD Club). With hot weather predicted, I forewarned everyone about the possibility of snakes etc, so as to make sure if they are walking around at all, to watch where they  put their feet.

So we took off from Ourimbah with 8 vehicles behind me & headed south towards the Somersby Interchange where we turned off onto Peats Ridge Rd. We followed this road for a bit & turned off onto Wisemans Ferry Rd which we followed to “the crossroads” where we turned north onto George Downs Drive.

We followed this road through the farming area of Kulnura, on to Buckety & then down the hill towards Wollombi, where we turned off about 5 km short of Wollombi onto Old Yengo Rd.

This was an easy grade of bush trail with a few corrugations, the occasional shallow wash out & some slightly steep sections. We followed this trail, averaging about 25 km/h (we can only go as fast as the slowest vehicles in the convoy) until we had a relayed radio call that Tail End Charlie had a flat tyre. As it was about 09:00, we decided that this was a good a time as any to have morning tea, so we looked for a shady section of track & pulled to the side, which gave some of the others who had caught up on our convoy to get through & continue their trip.

While we were stopped for morning tea, some of the members had a better chance to have a quick chat about what they are expecting from the trip, different “traveling” setups with one of the guys suggesting he will copy my folding table I have setup in the rear door. We also spoke of my recent purchase of shower & was quite interested in purchasing one for himself, so I suggested he contact www.offroadshop.com.au where mine was purchased.

Once Tail End Charlie had replaced the flat tyre, he caught up & had his morning tea, & we then headed off once again.

We stayed on this track for a bit, until I made a small navigational error & headed 20m down a wrong track (towards Big Yango National Park) where I realized my error, due to my flat screen showing me I was on the wrong track, so I put a call over the radio for everyone to stop, while I reversed back to the main track & proceeded on. Our next obstacle was a small creek crossing, which on last visit was a straight crossing with no problems. Unfortunately, this time, due to the downpour of rain a few weeks ago, there was a washout on the entry to the creek & a bit of a washout & a hidden hole on the exit side. I successfully negotiated the first obstacle without any problems, but once I dropped into the creek, I realized there was a hole just big enough for me to break traction & stop me climbing up the other side. I decided to reverse out of the hole & take off the shovel so we could fill the hole & we also found a plank of wood which helped make it a bit more solid. I then had another go at the hole & with a little spin, made it with no problems.

Then was the Terracan’s turn. It looked to me that Dave (the driver) was lacking a little experience & from the word go, had the wrong line, so we got him to back up & start again. Unfortunately, he got himself in a bit of a pickle with a wheel in the air & resting pretty close to a tree, with the strong possibility of doing some damage if he stayed on the loud pedal. I decided that this would be a good opportunity to use my new portable recovery point I made which attaches to the tow bar & is held in place within the receiver part of the towbar. We hooked him up to the snatch strap & pulled him out, nice & easy.

Before anyone else was to have a go, the other guys decided to fill in the hole completely, which made the exit like diving a highway, so the rest of the guys made it through easily.

From here we headed up to the Putty Rd where we headed south to the “Halfway House” where those with limited fuel range topped up.

From here we headed another 5 or so km south, where we started the Hunter Ranges track. This started out to be pretty uneventful, other than the temperature was pretty high for those without aircon, one reading I had on the outside temperature was 43 degrees Celsius, while I was still able to maintain an inside temp around 23 (I love my aircon). We followed this track for a bit & as I had not done a proper reckie on this track, but luckily had manually plotted a track file, we made 2 wrong turns. Again, if it wasn’t for the laptop & GPS, we would have traveled a lot further than the 50m or so before realizing we were on the wrong track.

We followed this track for quite some way & I was tracking where we were heading on the screen, when I realized we were not going to get as far up the track as I expected before lunch, so once 12:00 clicked over, I started looking for a nice shaded area with enough room for everyone. Luckily we found one & another bonus of this spot was that it was in a pocket of the forest that was about 10 degrees cooler than where we had been driving up to that point, so a welcome relief for some of our travelers.

Once we all finished our lunch, I had a bit of a panic, as I had realized I did not have my wallet & could only think that I must have dropped it somewhere. I checked all around where I had walked at lunch & no sign of it. Oh well, I guess I will have to check all the places I have been out of the vehicle when we head back.

From here we proceeded further north along the Hunter Ranges through some rocky tracks for a few hours. Lunch must have been quite good for all, as there was very little chitchat over the radio for an hour of so. Not even many replies to my comments on the different types of scenery we were experiencing. Just after 14:30, I found a little section of track which had a deeper rut in it, so I aimed for it, just to add a little excitement to an otherwise unexciting track. The person behind me followed my exact line & apart from the fact it looked quite spectacular watching a Hyundai Terracan get a few feet of wheel lift on the front passenger wheel, he managed to drive over a few sharp rocks & caused a pair of flat tyres, both on the back. I used my compressor to pump up his passenger side rear tyre & get him under way again, while he replaced the driver’s side tyre. We were back under way in about 10 minutes. About 30 minutes later, a call came over again that the tyre I had inflated was going down again, so we looked for a shady spot & decided this was a good time for afternoon tea.

While we were stopped, I reinflated his tyre while everyone enjoyed a snack for afternoon tea. From here he was able to proceed back to the ½ way house on Putty Rd, where I repaired his tyre with my tubeless repair kit (another thing I recommend people carry as a part of their recovery / tool kit).

Once here, I had a look around to see if I had dropped my wallet here when we were here earlier & also asked the attendant if it had been handed in, to which he said it has not. Oh well, there are only 2 more possibilities, the creek where we had some small problems earlier, or maybe I had left it at home.

From here we said goodbye to Bo & Dianne, as they wanted to make sure they were home in time form the rugby game between Australia & New Zealand, while we left at 17:10 & returned via Old Yengo.

We headed down the same track as before, not having any problems with the creek at all this time (due to the road building done by the guys earlier) (no sign of my wallet there either) & our next stop was Finchley Lookout, where we stopped to check out the amazing views & get some pics

We headed from here back to Kulnura Store for a final Ice Cream stop, unfortunately the shop was closed, so we just said our Goodbyes & everyone went home from here.

When I got home, I found my wallet there, so I was one very relieved traveler.

Thank You to all who were on the trip & even with the few problems we had, it was a good trip.