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Vic High Country Trip report

Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 07:33

Kev M (NSW)

I arrived home yesterday from our trip to the Vic High Country. The first trip with the trailer in tow. The trip was not what you would call 100% four wheel driving, but we spent 2 out of the 5 days exploring the area around Bright, Mt Beauty and Mitta Mitta. The camping group consisted of my family, SWMBO, 3 year old daughter, Ashley and our latest edition 11 week old Peta and me, Plus my mate and his wife and 8 week old boy.
We left sunny Sydney around lunch time and arrived after dark on Thursday at Mt Beauty and stayed in a mates granny flat for the night.
Friday consisted of setting up camp on the river at the mates property and getting the last of the food supplies (ie veggies, bread and a couple of bags of ice) from Mt Beauty. A bit of explaining went in to telling the 3 year old that if she touched the fence that it would bite her ( it was electric). The mates Blue Heeler assisted in the explanation as he go bitten and enened up cowering under the trailer for a couple of hours. The fence provided us with a bit of security with Ashley as the river was only a stones throw away and she loves the water. We were going to do the hedge maze near Bright Friday arvo but the Bundy Bear made an appearance and with the number of boys in blue around we stayed in camp and Bundy on'd.
With grit and determination I battled through the night with heating bottles for our 11 week old ( up twice to do it), it's quite surprising at how cool the breeze can be at that hour of the night when waiting for the gas cooker to heat the bottle.
Saturday arrived and we made a couple of calls and ended up with another 2 vehicles to travel to Bright to go through the Hedge Maze finally. We took the route from the Kiwia Valley Highway through to Porpunkah (spelling) then on to Bright. The maze was fairly busy and I would not recommend taking a wide berth pram or stroller through it. It was a bit of a tight squeeze in places.
The return trip to camp was via the Tawonga Gap and a few tracks ending up at Running Creek at on of the participants uncles dairy farm which was good as he had to unlock the gate at the bottom of the track for us.
The track was solid going with one side being burnt from the recent bush fires and the other untouched buy to some good dozer operation and probably back burning. The dozer had made the track surface very powdery and uneven with a scattering of large rocks thrown in for good measure. We think that the dozer operator was a keep motor bike rider as before nearly every conservation mound he'd dropped the blade erratically and made the approach like a roller coaster ride.. The first section we all go through in high range. Vehicles included 1 x 2000 model diesel extra cab Hilux, 1 x 2003 3.0l diesel dual cab Navara, 1 x 2005 2.8 turbo diesel dual cab GLX R Triton and my 3.0l petrol dual cab Triton.
The next section required low range and provided some good views and interesting driving for the GLX R Triton as it was his first time off road in it. In the end he ended up with a nice little scratch down the drivers door LOL.
That night we hosted a river side party for all who attended the days outing. My mate also found out that he had to work up at Falls Creek on new years eve to pump some concrete for construction work being done up there so we had a relaxing day in camp on new years eve and attended a new years eve party at one of the other offroaders houses. Which was lucky as the heavens opened up and would have saturated everything at the camp site except that we had packed up all but the tent. We ended up staying the night in the granny flat as we decided that it was to wet to try and deal with Peta's bottles in the early hours of the new year.
New years days involved a drive over to Mitta Mitta via Trappers track and associated tracks, we checked out Dartmouth dam which is very low ATM and came back to camp via the sealed stuff to check out the old town ship of Tallangatta that is now out of water due to the Hume weir being so low.
Tuesday was the long trip back to civilisation, SWMBO was very grateful to be going home as she is currently relapsing with her MS, but was determined not to let it hinder our plans for the trip. Due to her relapse she has double vision and cant drive and she was very frustrated that I got to drive all the off road bits LOL.
We are now looking forward to getting out and about more often now and both girls travelled well.
I inadvertently left Geocachers phone number at home so I was unable to catch up with him when down there, but I'd like to thank Dave for the offer and maybe we'll catch up next time.
I also passed, I think it was, a Landcruiser with Explore Oz sticker and possibly front windscreen sticker on the Hume Highway near Marulan on the way home yesterday.

Sorry if it was long winded but that happens.

Cheers Kev
The Pyrenees
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We are in the process of moving from Calliope to Chinchilla. We look forward to seeing people drop in when we get to Chinchilla.
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AnswerID: 212982   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 08:27

Bonz (Vic) replied:

Great report, makes me want to go back up there again, NOW hahahaha. I remember the days of feeding babies, all I had to do was bring the bub to the Mum after the obligatory change of nappy, then play with the empties afterwards :).

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FollowupID: 473195   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 09:03

Kev M (NSW) posted:

She was on the milk production apparatis that SWMBO has but due to the relapse of MS, the medication that she has to take prevented feeding Peta via the boob. So we had to resort to bottle feeding.
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We are in the process of moving from Calliope to Chinchilla. We look forward to seeing people drop in when we get to Chinchilla.
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AnswerID: 212994   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 09:27

Member - Willie , Epping .Syd. replied:

Kev ,
Thanks for that report . I am thinking of going up in February , so it was good to read of your adventure .
I wish I could get a map which would show me what areas were burnt out - then I could plan my trip around that .
Cheers ,
Willie

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FollowupID: 473202   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 09:44

Leroy posted:

'I wish I could get a map which would show me what areas were burnt out '

You have to wait for the fires to finish. There will be updated maps that indicate what was burnt.

Leroy
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FollowupID: 473211   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 10:12

Kev M (NSW) posted:

To drive the tracks that have had a fire go through is also interesting as you get a good view of the area and it makes you think how difficult the fire fighters had it. Some of the tracks in the area were still closed due to the tracks needed to be assessed for damage and fallen trees. So don't discount the fact that the burnt areas are not worth the effort to do.

Cheers Kev
The Pyrenees
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We are in the process of moving from Calliope to Chinchilla. We look forward to seeing people drop in when we get to Chinchilla.
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AnswerID: 213118   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 22:05

Sarcophilus harrisii replied:

Hi Kev

Good to hear the trip went well, Great report. MUCH HEALTH and HAPPINESS to you and yours for 2007. Safe travels.

REGARDS
ANDY

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FollowupID: 473449   Submitted: Thursday, Jan 04, 2007 at 07:54

Kev M (NSW) posted:

Andy,

Many happy returns for the New Year also.
Those boxes that we got worked a treat in the trailer, except that I'll need to get another couple before the next trip. LOL. To fully lock all the boxes into place.

I was thinking on the way down there that we wouldn't get to do any tracks due to closures. But as luck would have it there were a few open although not extreme they wet the appetite.

Cheers Kev
The Pyrenees
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We are in the process of moving from Calliope to Chinchilla. We look forward to seeing people drop in when we get to Chinchilla.
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AnswerID: 213126   Submitted: Wednesday, Jan 03, 2007 at 22:54

Aandy(WA) replied:

mmm
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FollowupID: 473450   Submitted: Thursday, Jan 04, 2007 at 07:56

Kev M (NSW) posted:

mmm,
yes I want to go back again already.

Kev
The Pyrenees
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We are in the process of moving from Calliope to Chinchilla. We look forward to seeing people drop in when we get to Chinchilla.
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