Thread: Tracks to test your FL2

Hi Mike, the fact that you are posting hopefully means you are safe from the fires that engulfed the Mtns last week. Bet you are relieve too..8)

Originally Posted by oznut

Hi Mike, the fact that you are posting hopefully means you are safe from the fires that engulfed the Mtns last week. Bet you are relieve too..8)

It really went through our street but we survived. Not so lucky for our neighbours. At least there were no human casualties up here which seems a miracle really. Cheers

Hey Mike, salute mate!
Where to next?

I'm going back down to the Vic High Country in the summer break. It's not that far, the scenery is great, the tracks are challenging and the camping is excellent. I'll be taking my Jeep on this one, give the FL2 a rest.

Originally Posted by mikehzz

I'm going back down to the Vic High Country in the summer break.

Your previous Vic High Country trip looked pretty dangerous, especially the river crossings . End of January I'm finally off to Fraser island. I saw below Crimdog and you mentioned Noosa to Rainbow Beach. Can you recommend other places to go there? I'll have a week on my own before the Fraser holiday (my girl will fly there). btw, when do you plan your trip to be?

I'm going Boxing Day until New Years and then it's back to work so only a week. I seem to recall doing some off roading in the Glasshouse Mountains on the way back from Fraser. It was a fair while ago so I forget the directions. Mt Mee is also mentioned a lot but I've never been there. Maybe someone from Qld can chime in on that one.

A couple of worthy overnighters in the south of NSW & Central Vic:

The drive into Bendethra (Dueua NP) from the Braidwood end is a good one to convince you that an FL2 is much more than a soft roader. Steep climbs and decents (you'll smell the brakes after long periods of HDC!), plus river crossings make for an interesting drive, although the FL2 does it easily. Only a few rough sections but none so rocky or rutted as to give clearance problems. Tons of camping space on or near the river at Bendethra, though I believe at peak times it can get a bit busy as the track in from the Moruya/coast end is a lot easier and trafficable by less capable vehicles. Bendethra caves are a decent walk with a short but steep climb to the cave itself, but check first if the rear of the cave is open as it is closed to access during bat breeding season.

Another must-do is the track from Licola via the Howitt road through Bennison to Kelley's Hut, then via King Billy & Bluff track down to Mansfield. Lovick's Hut and Howitt Hut are on the route as possible stopping points (with toilet facilities). Again, only a couple of dodgy areas of track, and a couple where careful vehicle placement is needed to avoid underside contact, but eminently doable in an FL2 provided the weather hasn't been too wet. The track is open Oct-April, but check dates first. Incredible alpine scenery from various lookouts, although the damage from the fires has completely altered the place from what it used to be, with huge swathes of dead snowgum stands both visible and passed through on the track.

To answer my own questions, the first 23km of the Border Track is closed from 1st November to 30th April each year. The closed section is the technical one-way bit.

Unfortunately the Freelander lost all power on its way there so it had the embarrassment of coming back to Melbourne on the back of the truck – and I had the embarrassment of facing Prado-Boy at Pinnaroo after arranging a rental car. He laughed a lot and kept reminding me how reliable his car was. We ended up doing the accessible parts of the Border Track and the southern and western parts of Ngarkat Park as passengers in his Prado. The Freelander could have easily made it around the parks with the tyres down to 18 psi. There were a couple of steep sand hills and many sections of very soft sand that I am sure would not have posed much of a problem to the car. I am just happy that if the car had to break-down that it happened on the highway just outside Ouyen rather than on a sand hill somewhere out of communication range.