Levuka 2011, Mud, trees, and recoveries!

[Psimpson7]

So March's first trip for the club was the first visit of the year to Levuka just outside of Woodenbong over the border into NSW.

We left around 6pm in convoy with Grimace and Jess in Wendy, Rod and Jacqui in Benda, and Sam and I in the 90.

We got to Beaudesert and grabbed some food for the hungry ones and headed on, arriving at Levuka at around 830pm. Went up and paid Rob and then headed up to camp.

This took slightly longer than you would expect as Grimace was putting in far more info than was required.

Car make: Wendy the Mazda
Colour: Faded gold with Silver
etc etc!

Handily our camp was easy to spot as Trav was already there and the fire was going! Also there already were Bullets in the Shorty s3, Camo and Zoe in their recently acquired L322, Grant and Mel with Elliot, and Dave (Busman)

We set up camp and sat down at the fire for a few beers. This turned into quite a late night; we finally headed off about 1am.

Still, wasn’t as late as for Guy who arrived on site at about 3am!

Saturday morning at camp:




So after breakfast, we headed straight out to the Dingo’s Run track with around 7 cars.

I was super cocky about this track, but it nailed me this time! damn it!!
The base of the climb:



As far as I got:



Everyone had a good go at the track, but no one made it up without a winch:

Grant:



Bullets:



Busman:



After getting all the cars through this section we headed abck to camp to collect the Saturday morning arrivals, in Stevo, Chris (CJT) and Ben and his dad (IsuzuRover)

We decided to run one large group out and head to rosemarys road. We got there, and it was blocked off with bunting, so we headed down a bit further to some of the slightly drier tracks for the next couple of hours:

Bullets:



Grant:



Some of the group:



Mudhole near the top:



Ben trying an unusual line:



Stevo in the same hole, on a different line, but a similar result:



Grant more of the same:



Rod and Trav, managed to get through using plenty of revs!

After heading back around toward Havoc crossing, we came to a sharp little climb, which had a hugely deep rutted section. I managed to straddle this (luckily as I think if it has dropped in it may have gone over)

Everyone else had a go, but kept slipping down into the deep rut:

Dave:



Ben however was the most spectacular! – some nice driving saw him reverse out of this!



Not to be deterred trying again!



Rod had a good attempt and nearly made it up the ruts:



After seeing Rod get so close, I went down for a go at the ruts aswell – and made it up!:



We then headed down through Havoc Crossing which was fairly drivable and we got nearly all the cars through. Some with a quick winch around the tree
Stevo:



We then headed back for lunch.



On the way back we passed Rob so I stopped and asked him regarding Rosemarys Road. He said it was pretty bad but we were more than welcome to have a try if we wanted J

Red rag to a bull springs to mind.

So after lunch we split up into 2 groups. Stevo, Chris, camo and guy took group 1 and went one way and the rest of us headed to Rosemarys road. Normally even if wet, a 40 minute drive!

The first descent was fine, through the stream bed which was very rocky and exposed on the exit and then left to the first climb. This was very washed out in the centre and covered in silt but loked driveable and we got up fairly easily.

Rod:



Dave:



Grant:



Bullets:



Needing a little bit of assistance from the series recovery team:



Once we were all at the top, we headed to the small stream corssing and were faced with a large fallen tree and some fairly large rocks:
Bugger:



More of the same:







The last few cars drove it easily after we had built up some rocks. Trav and John had no drama.

After this we hit the large rutted hill. This goes up about 250m in ruts then the final 100 or so is straight up a smooth surfaced section.

We got up ok, but Ben got hung up on the Salisbury. After a bit of digging, he got up. Next was Rod, then Dave who also got up. Penultimate car was John in the Shorty. He made it through the ruts and about 1/3 of the way up the smooth faced section when the car stopped with a backfire and wouldn’t restart.

This turned into a major recovery mission which involved Dave reversing back down after we had anchored the series, then attaching a strap between both, then winching them both up to the top.

This probably took about an hour. At the top it still wouldn’t start so after some more investigation Ben spotted that the HT lead was of the distributor. Putting it back on, and it started straight away! Doh.

Last car up was Trav.

Anyway it was now about 6pm so we headed back to camp for a break!

So Sunday dawned. John had to leave early, and a couple of others were still getting ready so a group of us decided to have a look at Rock and Roll gully.

We got the entire group through the first section, where we stopped to have a walk through the second section. This was far more eroded than normal several trees were down, and about 2/3rds of the way along was a huge rock blocking the track about 4ft up, and a hugely undercut hole.

We decided that we may be able to drag this down into the creek and get around it so I headed in.

Ben removing a tree (axe use 1)



Nasty side slope with a stump that got very close to the door. Grimace had to kick this out when we slid to about 1” from it:



More removals!



The Rock:



Trav and Chris removing trees:



Removing the rock:




Driving around/over it:



Ben heading over it:




Dave:





Rod:





Trav:











After this the group at exit 1 could nip back to the main track easily. We had a large fallen tree down that couldn’t clear so we had to take a detour which involved some incredibly deep rutted muddy sections. (and a lot of bats!)

We then headed back around toward camp:











Guy decided to try a special line, only for him!:





This was made worse by the fact the exhaust got blocked! Anyway we sorted that out and everyone else got up with some nice driving and line selection.





When we got back to camp, we discovered that Stevo’s car was running, but all the doors were locked. Grimace, Ben, Stevo and I think a few others had a really good go at breaking in but couldn’t quite manage it. They did have a good try though.


Unfortunately however the inevitable had to happen.
(Axe use 2)





After that we al packed up ready to head home.

Packed:



Plan for a few of us was to grab some lunch in Beaudesert, but the trip had one last bite for us. We were driving along the main road in convoy in 5th gear at about 100k when the revs went through the roof with some bad noises. Turns out the layshaft broke in the gearbox

Using 4th got us into beaudesert, but the box didn’t sound happy so we called RACQ. Spent 30 mins or so eating lunch with the group then headed back up to the car. Thanks to Grimace and Jess who waited with us until the truck arrived. Handily we had stopped outside a large grass area so Grimaces RC car was brought out to play
The end of our trip:



Was a great trip. We really enjoyed it and hope everyone else did. Thanks all. Was some great driving by everyone.

[Rat]

Looks like it was a great trip. Sorry I missed it but I was "enjoying" a week in Perth with the in-laws

[isuzurover]

Sorry to hear about the layshaft Pete!

Thanks for a great trip everyone!

[Camo]

Great trip report mate

Was such a good weekend for levuka.. not too wet! We had a blast. Can't wait for the next trip

Here are some pics from my camera

Camo

[isuzurover]

Brillient pics Camo, and great colour balance - what setup do you have (should have taken notice on the trip...)

[Psimpson7]

Camo, those shots are awesome! fantastic!

[Camo]

Brillient pics Camo, and great colour balance - what setup do you have (should have taken notice on the trip...)

Haha nah just my old Nikon D60.. gotta Love photoshop 5. Just create an action to give it more punch (contrast/curves then touch of saturation then slight sharpen) great for web.

Camo

[Outlaw]

Great reports and pics guys

[CJT]

Thanks for a great weekend guys and the boys had a great time covered in mud and falling in the creek.

I was more than happy with where I managed to go in the my stocker (compared to what you are all driving).

Cant wait for more trips, especially after I get the CDL in.

Should be able to put some more pictures up during the week.

[Psimpson7]

A short clip of one of the climbs thanks to Grant (Presto)

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