Thread: A Break

cheeky mongrel...

enjoy, while you can!

Grrr... I'm still at home cleaning the car

cleaning?

a defender?

you sick puppy!

Eh? Report? Who me? Bugger.

We started out as 4 vehicles as there were a couple of dropouts before the start. Thanks for those who SMSed to say they wouldn't make it.

We were me (300+), Weeds, RoverFJ1200 and a mate of mine in a Prado.

The trip was easy for me as we were following the dirty weekends guide and my mate who was navigating was paying attention to the directions. We had a topo map GPS but didn't really need it.

The first few KM of the trip are rocky and there are places where it is very slow going to save your tyres. Some nice scenery though. We then got to the dust. Lucky there had been some rain yesterday which had dampened it down a lot compared to last weekend when I did the recce. Along side the track the bushes are all covered with a fine powder coating of dust. It looked very surreal. Almost like a strange snow had fallen. Then it got really weird. Something was making spots on the windscreen. Wet spots. What can it be? The question was answered when the auto wipers on the D3 cleared the screen. It was actually raining slightly! I was beginning to think I'd never see rain again unless I went to Melbourne.

Once the track got a bit more undulating and we were in low range the Prado driver radioed that his son had been sick in the back of the car. Not good. We pulled over in the first clearing to allow them some air and they decided that heading home was the best plan for them. As luck would have it we were at the furthest point from tarmac that we would manage all day.

As we went on the track got more and more interesting. We looked at it and Weeds decided that he would give it a go in the Defender. With a bit of wheel waving and some spin he got to the top. Next up was Richard and more wheel waving ensued.



Apologies for the fuzzy photo.

I broke out the stauns and dropped the D3 tyres to 27 psi and went up with some more wheel waving & some traction control allowed wheelspin. There is a video of this which I'm looking forward to seeing. Interestingly a couple of Nissans went up behind us. One had a significant lift (can't have been legal in Qld!) which didn't allow much wheel droop. He seemed to be having more trouble than the rest of us getting up. Which is a bit embarrassing as I had a stock D3 with road tyres and he had spent a packet on a shiny Patrol.

There we made a quick trip to Diana's bath where there was a very eroded section I didn't try, but the other two cleared with ease. The lifted Nissan gave up and went the easy way round.

Then it was up A break and time for lunch beside the derelict truck. I received an SMS from the Prado. "Kids are home infront of TV, I'm at the pub. All good". I hate it when people don't have a good time on my trips so I'm glad they got back OK.



A quick trip to an amazing view and then it was time to head back. Passing through Samford something amazing happened. A real rain shower! This washed off most of the dust which we had collected during the day.

Until the next one.

Steve

Thanks for the day out steve will get some vid of the 3 up soon. When I get the vid off Weeds will make up a vid for us.

Steve would love to get some of those shots..

E-mail roverfj1200@aapt.net.au

Thanks

They are all in RAW at the moment so I'll convert them to jpg then put them on my website for you to download.

Give me a couple of days.

I quite like this one as well.



Cheers, Steve

Should have called the RACQ