Trip

 

What a blessing it is to have a local trip, where I get to have a late start. I should do more of these.

 

The trip began with a sleep in by my standards, with a meet up at the Dooralong turnoff at 9am. All the crew met up, and aired down from the get go, as we knew this local run being as hard as any other trip we have been on & in a few ways, technically more difficult.

 

The convoy started out on time & made it’s way for the zig zag track, with a few nice teasers thrown in early on, which seemed to test the ability of a few of the unlocked vehicles. We even made comment when we stopped about how much easier it makes it on the vehicle to be able to engage these devices, as it allows the vehicle to crawl over obstacles, rather than momentum.

 

This same track also required the first recovery of Gulliver, the budget project troopy from Australian 4WD Monthly magazine. These guys had come along to do a trip with us as a part of their club series, where they are promoting 4wd clubs & responsible Four Wheel Driving. Gulliver was being driven up this same section & made almost all the way to the top, but the top step sorted the open diffed, limited articulation vehicle (I can say this as my vehicle has a number of things in common with this one).

 

We kept following this trail along, until we found a little bog hole, which tempted a few for a play. Rohan needed little encouragement with the double locked 100 series. He seems to have a thing for water, as we saw on the Lithgow trip. A number of others also had a play in the mud, with Brett putting on a good show.

 

 

From there the wheeling was pretty good until we reached the start of the climb to the zig zag. I saw an interesting bit on the left side of the track, which others seemed to be driving around & had a little play & managed a little lift. Felt good to get my first wheel up for the day, as I knew I was bound to have plenty by days end. All was working quite well, both lockers doing their bit, keeping drive to the wheels still on the ground, unlike it’s original configuration, which would have left the vehicle stopped with a wheel in the air spinning away. Again on the zig zag track, Gulliver had some problems, with initially almost slipping off the edge of the track into a 20m+ deep drop. We snatched him out & towed him thru the rest of the obstacles on this track as it seemed to struggle a little in current configuration (Time to lock a dif or two Patski). Most of the other vehicles climbed the hill, dealing with the steps & rocks without any major hassles. My vehicle sort of losing a little momentum with both axles coming into steps at the same time, and even with lockers, it didn’t want to climb it, so I had to punch it a little to make it over.

 

 

Once this track was conquered, we were off to find a shady place for lunch. The weather had turned into a really warm day, which meant it would be too hot & uncomfortable on top of the mountain, where we usually stop on this run. While stopped for lunch, we all had a bit of a catch up & chat, and performed a few running repairs on Gulliver, with it needing new wiper blades, the old ones not able to do much in removing the mud from the screen.

 

Lunch was soon over & we then made our way down Whitmans Ridge, where Brendan had his first big moment. He was sure he was going to roll & from what I hear, it was pretty close. Apparently putting a wheel slightly wrong on the way down & the habit of these tall vehicles is to tip, especially if the nose is pointed downhill. Most of the rest of the vehicles making it through this steep, rocky section, which required very careful wheel placement, as tipping over, under body damage & the potential for slipping into one of many trees was always a possibility. There was a little damage reported on this stage of the trail, with Rohan’s lovely wife having a fall & fracturing her ankle, requiring a trip to the hospital. Rohan completed this trail with us, but due to the condition of her wife needed to get going as soon as he was near a major road.

 

 

From this point, we headed for another trail, where the Jeep club were already having a little play. We waited for them to finish before we headed down this tricky little section, across a few ruts & back up the other side. This was to be the last trail for the day, with a few of the more exuberant unsuccessful attempts leading to recovery. There weren’t too many who made it up this stage unassisted, with even my vehicle struggling on the last section due to it being too chopped up to get traction. I decided to not do any further damage to the track & straight away asked for recovery.

 

After all of the vehicles made it to the top, we decided as it was getting close to 5pm, it would be best to call it a day. Most of us said our goodbyes there, but with Brendan still needing to fuel up the troopy & we were a little concerned he wouldn’t make it, so I gave escort to the fuel station, where I aired up & said ooroo to Brendan

 

 

Many thanks to all who came along on this trip, I know I had an absolute blast.

 

Col (BT)