Thread: Defenders in the snow

Hey, this will be really obvious to those who know, but for a Cairns boy driving to Mt Hotham they are a couple of simple traps.

First, alpine diesel. I figured this one out before I got there, and filled up in Bright before climbing the mountain. Apparently normal diesel has a wax in it that freezes, in the tank and in all the lines etc. Heard some bad stories of people who had been stuck like this, and the only cure is to tow the car to a heated shed and let it thaw out. All the servos near the mountains sell alpine diesel.

Second one is really obvious and dumb, but it got me. It snowed overnight, with snow all over the bonnet and roof. Love the vertical windscreen, laughed at all the other cars having to clear snow before they could see. Took some photos, then hopped in to have some fun in the snow. Never used the heater before, but turned it on to defrost the windscreen - no air! Was a bit annoyed, thought pommie cars would have great heaters. Then i remembered where the heater inlet is, on the front left fender, wiped the snow off it, and problem solved.

9000 km road trip down the east coast and back, journey back from Hotham to Cairns in 4 days, wouldn't do it in anything but a D90 .

Yeah - we had a good week.

Tried snowboarding for the first time and consequently fell over a lot. We are still sore (and we've been back in Adelaide for 3 days now). Heaps of snow for learning.

Nothing much if you were looking for some Black Run action though.