Thread: Levuka 2012

Bloody hell that place had some rain, I haven't seen it like that for a while actually but made your weekend by the looks of it very interesting. Wish I was there, it's bloody dry as down here (haven't seen rain for about a month )

Bugger about your woes harry, **** happens and always when you don't want it to after a weekends wheeling

Trav

Yes folks....it's time for the Stevo Report....no doubt some folk have been waiting with baited breath for the Stevo Report to appear. So here we go.........

The Gossip

Seems Coopers Sparkling Ale and myself don't agree so will be heading back to my old fave Stella. My head space ain't the best at the moment as those close to me will know......so much so I ummmed and arrred about going camping ( hasn't happened in 6 yrs). So as they say what happens on a trip stays on a trip but my sincere apologies for my moment of narkiness on the first night and to anyone I may have upset .

Cruel and Unusual Punishment

The pic that I won't go into that Grimace showed me on his mobile phone will forever haunt me and no doubt others .

The Clarifications

Yes....Smokey did attempt to snatch up 10 tonne of D3 ......on an already slippery slope. However what is missing is that this particular D3 ( we'll call him Garry) had already had 4-5 attempts. So Smokey was called into action and nailed the section...first go .

Just like at the bog hole......first go. However...and again we will call him Garry....got first prize for the beautiful sound of berries applied and full bore to ( having being inspired by Smokey)...........finally got up and over that section. This wasn't the first time that Garry had to be inspired .

The Awesome Group 2 ( remember what happens on the trip stays on the trip)

Smokey and I were called in to lead group 2, which consisted of Chris and Diane, Garry and his better half( inserted as no hope of spelling Sharene correctly ), Craig and his missus ( Kate?), Jason and family, Andrew and his dad, and Dave as tail end ( thanks mate).

What a great crew this was (remember shush now ) and we had a pleasant drive, tackled some fun tracks.......did plenty of learning, team building and some cases of what not to do. Unfortunately a bit of peer group pressure creeped in at the Play Ground where....funnily enough Garry was showing off in the berries department and having the V8 sing at full song...but not making the track.

So again....Smokey was bought in to...well...I guess...show how it is done. Thankfully with full crowd looking on...Smokey did it. This then inspired the rest of group 2 to throw off the shackles of fear and give it a crack. Even the 2 D3's after numerous attempts made it as well .

As noted later in the day....had to rescue harry.....just before that a group of Nissans and Toyota's were getting bogged......once they got through by changing course....they sat and waited to see if Smokey would get through. Now after some of the "alleged" boggings I had earlier...Land Rover and GCLRO pride was on the table. So giving Smokey the berries ( as best as one can with a 2.5 tonne TD5) we bounced and slid our way through and made it...much to the disappointed nissan/ toyo mob who then slunk off. Jason also followed up by belting his V8 through. The pride of group 2 was well in tact.

The next day myself, Garry and Jason and families went and tacked a few more tracks. Again I showed them a few "what not to do's" again inspiring confidence and having an all round good time. So thanks group 2 for being willing partipants and jumping in to help in "certain" situations .

Other than that, for me it was great to catch up around a camp fire with Harry and Chrissie...been a long time and overall being with top folk. Normally I am the one who takes 200 pics....this time it was a self indulgent expose . Yes folks....all of that for one person...Noz kept asking me when the kids were turning up ( oh PS Noz...in case you forgot.....Byron Bay Chilli Company).



Smokey thick with mud.....fun speed wobbles on way home



That's all folks....see you soon,

Regards

Stevo

Got the Chilli sorted Stevo, bloody nice with 2 min noodle joke .

Yep had a great weekend also my first trip with out my 4 children and to be honest I felt crappy about not bring them all week end.

Got to put the Defender in Low range for the first time and I have to say I was really happy with what it could do. Lockers no doubt help but use em if ya got em I say.

Another first reving the Defender to 4800rpm whilst trying to climb some slippery hill and then sliding backwards @ a great rate, which gave me a few puckering moments.

Thanks for your help with the winching there Pete.

There was a great range of vehicles to watch, they all performed in different ways, those D3's are amazing considering they both only have slight offroad tyres.

Thanks all until next time.

ps Harry I will bring the Kipor to the next meeting

So glad we have a crew of camera men out there! I didn't take a camera this weekend, so have been saving all the images from peoples reports.

Also nice work on the video footage of Reggie Dave, I got to figure out a way to save you tube videos!

-Grimaces Trip Report- take 2

Ok so now that I have had time to reflect on the entire weekend and have a good nights sleep, I will try to elaborate details that have not yet been reported.

Firstly Reggie & I travelled in convoy with Pete & Sam in the 90 towing their new track trailer, which was full of 35" BFG Krawler goodness!
Pete did mention to me that he would like someone in convoy as he was a bit nervous about the 90s maiden voyage in such a long time. I gladly agreed to be the safety vehicle, but in all honestly I think it would be much more likely for the roles to be reversed, and I myself was the one that felt safer travelling with a convoy.

The first stop on the way down to the park was McDonalds for a healthy quarter pounder burger , coke & fries! Second stop was the botLO for some hydration supplies. Then all the way to the park arriving at about 9pm (I think)???

At this time the fire was obviously well under way and the amount of wood in Harry's trailer was impressive. So impressive that I believe there was still a fair bit left come home time on Sunday.

We did some 4wding on Saturday, as per previous reports. I would like to highlight that I was impressed with everyone for being so patient, it took us a while to get everyone through the morning drive, but the final result was well worth it. Everyone stepped up and drove very well. My highlights for the morning drive are;
*Dave in the D3 droving the mud bog with relative ease, and then the slippery slope back up to the grassy fields. That's my first well done for the day.
*Craig in the 110. The bog hole may have proved difficult but the slope out was driven in text book style. Well done!
*Now onto Gazza (lol) in his V8 D3, as you may have read previously he struggled a bit on the slope out, even to an extent that Smokey could not snatch the heavy weight over the first hurdle. But after Craigs text book driving, and also the fact the other D3 in the group was already at the top waiting, Garry called upon the powers of dungaspec Trav and fed all the ponies all the way to the top. On the limiter in a car that's worth more then all my possessions.... Lets just say I was impressed, and cheering at the sound that was released to the wild

Now onto the afternoon run were we split of into two groups. Group 1 was lead by Pete, followed by Harry, Noz, Gary, John, Guy, Grant, Jack & finally myself. Being at the back of the pack I missed viewing everyone climb the first section of Rosemary's road and over the log at the creek.
It wasn't until I caught up to everyone waiting at the bottom of the long hill climb that I was informed Pete had not made it and was now going to winch
The first thing that came to my head was a swear word, second was another swear word, followed closely by about seven more.
But I could see that I wasn't the only one concerned about what was ahead, so I put on my can do boots and told everyone they could make it
It almost worked.... lol.
I honestly thought Harry conquered the hill on his first attempt, but unfortunately I was deceived. Thankfully while under winch Harry kept his tyres in motion in an effort to strip as much muck from the surface of the track in an effort to expose the more tacky clay underneath.

This coming to my first highlight of the afternoon run;
*Noz in his shiny 110 was noticably concerned about the climb ahead but he put all fear behind him and done an excellent job of stretching the Puma out to an unherd of amount of rpms . Although he did not make the climb, I think he made a stellar attempt, well done!
*The first car to conquer the arduous climb was Gary in the 7 cylinder disco, how he even got to the park let alone up the hill still amazes me
*The final highlight (or low light) being my decent down dingos, which I foolishly thought I would try something different and see how reverse works in slippery ruts... IT DOESN"T!!! Final result was a fairly knarly nose dive near the bottom, a flying engel with lid wide open now on a 45 degree angle that ejected four beers and an egg. So one broken egg in car, 1 split beer can in car, another split beer can in the engel and four other busted eggs! DO NOT TRY THAT AGAIN!!!

I must have been in fight or flight mode for the rest of the wheelin adventure cause I can't recall to much of it. I'd say the adrenaline was clouding my mind

I do however recall being back at camp, chilling with great company, adults & kids alike. Harry had started the fire and with the combined help of others we managed to keep it going pretty well. We made a cool log chimney and it kept us entertained for a short period of time, right up until it collapsed.
Young JohnJohn had a go of the chilli biltong (like jerki) which I shared around for those game enough to try I am gonna be such a great dad

Sunday morning we said some goodbyes to the early movers, and then a small portion of the original group 1 headed out to complete a track which I have now forgotten the name of... bah.
It was an excellent track and my highlight of the trip all together. It provided just enough of a challenge without to much of a hassle and I am glad we all made it to the top.
I would like to say that although every one drove really well, I put a special mention to Guy who I personally think showed a much higher level of confidence in the field, well done mate!
Last well done for me goes to Elliot who was the only one cheering for Grant as he tried to take a slight detour on the nasty climb out

After all the above we headed to the play area, which was relatively easy going for everyone except myself, as prior to reaching our destination a little voice appeared from my radio telling me to try and drive a certain section of mud ruts... it was a dare, which I foolishly accepted
So I was now stuck and required assistance
Thanks to Grant in the disco for giving me a tug
Thus allowing us to proceed on to the playground and back to camp!

So i'll rap this report up now by saying thanks to all for the excellent weekend! Good to see such a good turnout of members, both new and old on the first club trip of the year. I hope to see you all, on many more trips to come.

Over, chhhhhhhssshhhhhhhhh!

p.s. the trip back home also resulted in a McDonalds stop for three cheeseburgers, chips and a coke

Getting down to Levuka was fun actually, I have had a blown exhaust gasket for a while so I was not phased by the noise of leaking exhaust, I just lowered the two windows and enjoyed the drive.
Whilst filling the tyres with wind before leaving the park for the return adventure, I noticed that the exhaust puff, puff, puff noise was under the car not behind the left exhaust manifold in the engine bay where expected….
Rolling under the car I found a clamp between the headers and exhaust had lost a nut. Pete kindly delved into his assortment of spare rovers which he carries and found me a nut.
I did feel a bit awarkquard asking Pate for one of his nuts…. but needs be.
Pete’s nut reduced the exhaust noise down to a large din
So we headed off feeling good, unfortunately the new found quite from the exhaust leaks allowed me to hear the noise that the tappets were making.
Some of the noises climbing the hills in third gear were truly terrifying; around Lismore I really doubted if she would make it home. That and the down on power was also concerning.
There is a small hill after a set of traffic lights, which were red, when they went green, I attempted to move off, only to find that it was more than the old girl could manage, I thought I was driving a series rover for a while, I thought of snatching low range, but slipped the clutch and just got her rolling again.

Any rate she made it home under her own steam, and all the tappets stayed in the block.

One thing of concern this weekend was that Cheeky was officially declared Dunga Speck……
I am not quite sure how to take that, at first I was alarmed but on reflection I think I am proud now..

Sorry I could not stay for the whole weekend, friends 50th on Sunday, but we enjoyed the day Saturday, Thanks to all involved.

PS I had Hungry Jacks in Lismore, onion rings too.

See my infulence has well and truly been embedded in GCLRO folklore even in my absence

Trav

An awesome weekend was had by the Presto crew! ...unfortunately I had to fly out to Sydney 5:30am this morning (yes I'm knackered), hence the lack of report!

Could I be the only one who suffered damage? I ripped a rear flare off going through a very tame "puddle" - just wasn't watching my quarter!

I should be able to get some pics up next week when I'm back, but wanted to say a big thanks to Pete for organising the trip, and everyone else who attended making it a typical GCLRO trip to remember!