The Springs - Interclub trip 5-7 May- REPORT

[stikman]

Well seeing as the "Trip Leader" has not posted yet i better do a little trip report. Edit, after reading this myself apologies for the LONG winded report. I seem to get a bit excited and passionate when writting these

What a great weekend. Bolts and Xbox headed up Friday afternoon and picked a prime camping location, set up camp and got the BBQ going. I meet up with Wazza and Icefyre and we headed up later Friday night, and except for Icefyres GPS telling us to turn into an empty paddock it was a nice drive down (except for my new "Tunes by Simex" ). We grabbed dinner in Warwick and arrived at the park at about 9pm, set up camp and settled in for a cold beer in front of the fire pit.

The first drive occurred at about 10pm Friday night when we decided to go and stock up on firewood. Bolts and XBox jumped in with me and Wazza jumped in with Icefyre. A short drive and we had found plenty of wood for the night. On the drive back Bolts decided to test out my new tyres by saying chuck a left down this creek it wont be very wet, now axle deep in the thickest mud we could have found it was in with the locker and even on 40psi the tyres pulled us through (note: very happy with my latest mod ). All to bed by about 12pm, after bolts borrowed a pillow from Wazza (and this is not the only thing Bolts had to borrow, towing a caravan and still managed to forget stuff ).

Up early on Saturday morning to the site of a beautiful day, clear weather and a relatively empty park. Breakfast was cooked and we hit the park by about 9am. Bolts will have to give everyone a run down on the tracks we tackled, as i did not take a map, but Bolts did a great job of picking the tracks that would challenge the mixed group without over doing it, with everything from Easy to Very difficult tracks completed. As not many of the Brisbane and Sunshine Coast crew had arrived yet we picked up a few ringins for our first run, with Grizzly tagging alone in his Twin Locked Auto Tdi Defender (also running crawler gears) and another Brisbane member (sorry forgot his name) in his twin locked 3.9D County running 33s. With some good guidance, good driving by all, and only a couple of basic recoveries the morning was challenging but hassle free. On our way back to camp we stumbled on another couple of LR members one of which had bent a trailing arm and popped a rear spring. Not sure what had happened but they were just standing around scratching there heads. As a joint effort and in true GCLRO style we grouped together, pulled off and straightened the trailing arm and re-seated the spring. Well done guys, a true reflection of the quality of our members, our club and how we conduct our self.

Driving back into camp the place had been transformed, probably 15 cars when we left and 60 when we got back With our camp a little more crowded then we had remembered we had lunch and decided an afternoon drive was definitely on the cards. Surprisingly there was not too much traffic around the park when driving but the camp was definitely hussle bussle.

Out again and down Granite Climb and The Skids (from Memory), once again some great driving by all and all got through on their own power, great job by Icefyre on bald tyres and Wazza in the stock fender. Out past the office and off to Rock Hoppa. After a dent in his sill tank Wazza decided maybe not this time but everyone else scratched and scrapped there way through (note: thank god for sliders ). Ventured back to camp by about 4pm just in time to watch the "Mine is bigger then yours" crew attempt Beer O'Clock hill climb next to camp. We watched a number of attempts (with only a comp cruiser tray back making it) and made the wise decision to tackle the showers while everyone else cheered on the hill climb attempts, us GCLRO guys are not just pretty faces . Dinner, a few more beers and a ragging fire kept us all busy and warm. Josh, i think we need to add to the Committee member an official Fire Keeper as it gets complex when we all want to control the power of the flame Wazza ventured into Stanthorpe to have dinner with a mate and discovered that a soft top defender with the sides off travelling at 100kmh in May was not the best idea, lucky we had the fire cranking when you got back huy Wazza Except for the Cruiser crew playing there music all night (if you ever want to get under Bolts skin just take a stereo on a trip ) we all had a good, and reasonably early night.

Sunday was much the same, with a few ringins again the areas of the park we had not yet tackled were completed. Once again what a testament to our club when people prefer to come with us then to go with there own group. XBox managed to keep the Defender Vs Disco revelry strong by venturing up a little rutted hill in front of the Brisbane crew. After being told he cruised up it and that i "must follow" (well i have to obey the trip leader) up went the disco, first low locked nice and slow. Almost to the top and the Pedes hit a soft patch, god those tyres like digging holes. After the cheer from the Defender drivers had subsided i reversed down and drove to the top, with a little more right foot. I'll pick the hill next time Louis

After lunch XBox and Wazza packed up and headed off. Bolts, Icefyre and I packed up but decided on one last drive. Icefyre and Torrin (his son) jumped in with me and we headed off. We tackled Brisbane Way from top to bottom (as a group we had only done it from half way) and headed back up Second Hill climb (also done previously). After being impressed with my new tyres all weekend i once again discovered that they love digging when halfway up a soft section they started digging and left me in a hole. With a drop off on one side and a tree behind me after a couple of attempts and a few more holes Bolts was called back for a snatch, oh well only one snatch over the weekend for me is not all that bad We then ventured down to a new track called Snakepit which was a little rock climb down onto a waterfall up another rock climb into a little gully and then back up the hill. What a good way to finish a great weekend.

Thanks again to Bolts for leading a great trip, and to XBox, Icefyre and Wazza for helping make it a great weekend. Some more pictures below and the rest here http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...gs%20May%2007/ . I also have an hour of video footage to go through (Thanks to XBox, Icefyre and Wazza for assisting with the camera) so will post some soon and put the rest on a DVD for those that attended and maybe viewing at the next meeting.

[x-box]

20 Landrovers, (10 Defender/110/county/ute's/and a D3), and an array of other brands. The landrovers had the best camping spot and did the best as far as offroading goes (saw a few jeeps and other makes not make it...) Very dry and dusty, the tracks were loose and unpredictable. The campfire was enough to make any greenie cry and the banter and stirring next to none. Of course i forgot my camera (but got good video on Stikman's machine) and as mentioned added some character marks to the left front door (not real happy about that) and broke the mirror off. But apart from that it all went well... at least i did not get snatched up that hill!!!! Also met some great guys from the Sunshine coast and Brisbane clubs....
Ok, so anyone know where i can get a mirror "stem" ??? the bit between the mirror and the bracket on the door.....

[Wazza]

Yeah ok i admit i needed to be assisted maybe once or so. Great weekend everyone and you all are my witnesses that Megan agreed to a rear locker and new tires.

Thanks to X box for his help and support on Saturday and to Bolts, Stikman and Icefyre for a great weekend. Took heaps of pics which ill try to get loaded in the morning but unfortunately i don't have any of the so called snatch recoveries that we "practiced" and there is a carton of beer in it for anyone else that DOESN'T have pictures as well. Right Stikman

That will be the last weekend i will be on for a while as baby is due in 2 months or so but i look forward to keeping in touch with you guys and maybe a day trip out somewhere.

Cheers

Wazza

[Wazza]

just a few pics from the weekend

Enjoy

[IceFyre]

Really good weekend.

Both Torrin and I enjoyed our first real 4WD weekend away with the club. Thanks to all who made it so and hats off to Bolts as trip leader who did a great job.

Some pics Torrin took on the Camera-Phone:

[stikman]

a few more

[harry]

wow what a report, thanks . looks like you boys had fun, good to see.

[bolts]

Morning all

Well thanks to stickman who did a great job as tail end charlie theres not much more I can add to the report that he has not said already, just to say that as a GCLRO we flew the colours and had a great time. Thanks to x-box, wazza, icefyre and stickman for a great weekend.

The camp fires were very good with cold nights, cold beers, good company. To those whom didn't make it - all I can say is you missed out on a great couple of days even if it was very dusty.

[stikman]

OK, a quick teaser video. This was the last run on Sunday after XBox and Wazza had left. Will continue to break down the other hour of footage into bit sized chunks.
http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...dGearClimb.flv
Enjoy

[stikman]

OK, some more Videos

Leaving Camp - http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ngCampDay1.flv

First Track - http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...tDriveDay1.flv

Morning Part 1 - http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...ay1Morning.flv

Morning Part 2 - http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y1Morning2.flv

Cross Axle - http://s11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...1CrossAxle.flv

In the process of a few more so will continue to put them up.