Gordons Country 22/23 Jan 2011

[Psimpson7]

Thanks to everyone who came to the 1st club trip of the year

Bit of an early start, meeting at Beaudeserts premier food emporium (Mcdonalds) at 630 am we met up with early arrivals, Dennis and Susan, Harry, Trav, Rod, and ourselves, along with Sams sister as an interloper!

We then headed out to Aratula where we met up with JohnR, Dave and John Hampson, and Andrew.

We then started to head over to the campsite, but had an issue with Rods car in the traffic chaos that is Cunninghams gap. We managed to nurse it down the otherside of the range and to the turn off from the main road.

At this point though we thought that we were fighting a losing battle, and Rod decided to head back which was a real shame. Hope you got home ok Rod. We met Rat and GuyG whenw e were waiting here.

So we finally got to camp:



After setting up camp we went out for a drive around, some tracks were very eroded due to the serious rains.







We had a bit of a mess about in the 'play' area:





Bit of a creek corssing:



And exit bank:



We then thought about heading up the range behind the 'play' area so tried to get back up there via a different track. This got fairly sketchy so we ended up turning around and calling it a day, heading back to camp for a few beers and dinner.

So, Sunday morning, we decided to reattempt the ridge behind the house. We had been talking to the owners and they had got their 70s eries cruiser ute stuck about 1/2 way up when checking the conditions.

About 250m past the toyota swalllowing bog hole (which we all drove easily ) we encountered this:



So that ended that plan!

We then headed back down, and decided to go up the other side, as that was thought to be open still.

Few holes at the bottom:





Trav stuck : (I wont laugh too much as pretty sure there are some pics of us in an equally embarassing situation!)



About another 500m or so up, on what are now very loose rocky tracks, we encountered a massive tree fall.







We cleared all this, thanks to Navron's chainsaw and handy skills, and about 10 people!

We then got to the top and ended up following the ridge along to a dead end. We then headed back to camp, for a bit of lunch, swim in the creek and relax.

We ended up leaving about 4.30pm this afternoon.

Thanks to all for coming, and also to Harry for leading the group.

Rgds
Pete+Sam

[harry]

a couple more pics,
a good trip, thanks to all who came along.
and a shot of the mess at cunninghams gap.

[Rat]

Thanks all for making it a great day trip for me and my mate James. Elmo went great home except the fuel economy is a long way off the Defender

[Big Dog]

Looks like a good weekend
sent the car home on a tilt tray $550 later
greg came over and confirmed what I thought that it was a failed thermostat blocking the flow and sending it back up
will replace sender and oil and that should be it
so much for some nice 5.7 ltr motors I found on ebay!

[Psimpson7]

Hey Rod, Thats good news re the car. shame it happened though

Rgds
Pete

[Presto]

Looks like we missed out on a good weekend! ...still gutted!

There did seem to be a theme though, Trav getting stuck and Rod not making it there - what were they both driving again??

[GuyG]

Trav may have got stuck but I believe he managed to get out himself plus he did no damage, not that you would be able to tell with that car. On the other hand there was shiny disco that failed to make a short climb out of a creek and ended up sliding back into a rock damaging its rear bar. It was towed out by a Defender. The next car had a few attempts and nearly got up unassisted but didn't opting for the creek track option. In its defence it was on smaller tyres that were essentially slick road tyres.

Pete thanks for organising and Harry thanks for leading the runs for a great weekend, was great to finally get out again.

[Psimpson7]

lol thanks Guy, The next car didnt get up however, it diverted back into the water. (I think if it had tried the right hand line, which we should have taken aswell, it would have made it up)

[NOZ]

Thanks all for making it a great day trip for me and my mate James. Elmo went great home except the fuel economy is a long way off the Defender

Yes but the sound makes up for it

[JohnR]

lol thanks Guy, The next car didnt get up however, it diverted back into the water. (I think if it had tried the right hand line, which we should have taken aswell, it would have made it up)

I think the biggest problem was you tried to follow the car infronts line. You should have realised and just taken the easier line, it would have been way less embarrassing for everyone. Remember you are driving a soccer mums car now (it was Alison)

Cheers,