Meeting the Neighbours

There are some 4wding lessons here but thank goodness for camera's as sometimes I have trouble believing this stuff.

Late last year a late model 200 series with the lot, and a driver as the only occupant got hopelessly bogged on the Canning.

"Fred" pressed the "EPIRB" button, put a few things in a bag and sat on the bonnet till the chopper came.

(Exploroz members may help here as I have not verified this part of story - but you'd think there would be some references elsewhere to this - maybe even on this site ?)

Fred never looked back, and doesn't know or care what happened to the car, he got a complete payout, went to the local Toyota shop and got a new one.

Roll on time until a couple of months ago and he buys a bush block to play on near a little Victorian place called Yarck.

Many on this site would know we have a large bush block with 4wd tracks near a little Victorian place called Yarck.

On Saturday some special parts for Super Patrols re-birth didn't arrive so the kids & friends decided on an impromptu camping trip to nearby Toolangi, they arrived late afternoon in drizzle & high winds, bad idea !

About the same time Fred arrived at his new block where he had a tent and anxious to get to an unseen part of his new block.
The previous week his friend had pushed a rough track across its creek with a dozer and filled it with a bunch of loose logs.

Fearless Fred drove down the slippery approach track, he had all the right bits and thought he could make it across the creek however the traction control splurted the unsecured logs all over the place as 3 wheels sank into the Oozing mud and the 4th was left 18" in the air as the bullbar crunched a log and lifted up onto it throughly beaching the Cruiser.

Meanwhile a friend had dropped round to see me with an issue - his bosses 18 month old 200 series and stuffed its engine, apparently due to oil in the turbo which caused some serious foulups .
The engine was coming out anyway and they had been advised to replace everything including the power steering pump ? - it had done > 100k as a work vehicle.

The weather got wilder and the kids abandoned the camping, with some heading for our holiday house/ Bush block in a 3lt Patrol figuring at least the bog holes would benefit from the rain.

Unfortunately the retreat to the block cost a dent near the tail light from a badly leaning tree, they were miserable then discovered their sub-group had no food.

Back to Fred - things aren't going well, its getting dark so he walks away from his 2nd new 200 series in a year and sleeps in his small tent about a km away, but rings the parents first, and yes, they would bring up there Range Rover to rescue him the next day.

The Kids wake up late and with no supplies head down to the Yarck Pub for a late breakfast.

Freds rescuers arrive about mid morning - take one look at the situation and conclude its way out of their league, so they adjourn to the Yarck Pub for a late breakfast and to come up with a plan.
As they enter the pub they notice a the Patrol with 37" boggers on it and Fred calls out across the Bistro asking for the owner.
The Kids pipe up and Fred asks if they want to earn a cashie and rescue him (after breakfast that is).

Fred describes the directions to his car and damm if the Kids didn't note that they were the directions to my front gate and demanded to know what he was
doing on our land.
The Kids were already on the lookout for some Ferals in the area and although Freds group didn't quite fit the picture, played along and expected to find an old HJ60 or similar.

The Kids, in the well equipped and recently defused Grenade soon realized that the bogging was on a new track next door running from our fence line.

After a careful controlled descent the got to Freds vehicle only to realize that it wasn't a old wreck but a beautiful new black $130,000 worth of 200 series complete with lots of good bits and even a lovely set of remote reservoir Kings racing shocks which they could never afford.

So the story was genuine and the rescue began - it wasn't easy , Fred thru a snatch strap over the towball and told the Kids to yank where apon they took charge re-attaching the strap to a more appropriate location giving Fred a short sharp lesson in 4wding.

A hour later the Cruiser was off the logs and turned around for an exit up the long slippy hill.

Fred charged up the slope with incredible power and tore it to pieces.

It took another hour and some winching for the 3lt Patrol to negotiate the wrecked track where apon the Kids asked him what he had under the bonnet.

Its turns out he was pushing 260kw off the wheels, not that much less than Super Patrol and in another coincidence his car had been done on 4by fabrications Carrum dyno, the same dyno and in the same week that Super Patrol had been commissioned.

Cutting this short, later that day Fred honoured his undertaking and took everybody out for a meal at the Yarck pub and promised the Kids a new bog hole for Xmas.

So we have a new neighbour - and I suspect some fun with a new Cruiser ahead.

Below is a phone snap shot only, but we have some good and embarrassing video.



P.S. For the Green tinged the above occurred on private land.