Just finished 7 days in paradise, AKA
Vic High Country.
Started in
Bright then onto
Lake Cobbler, down the Staircase and onto
King Hut. The dunny has been fix since the last time I was there(Nov 05) where some low life took to it with a chain saw.
The rivers were up a bit which was good as it was very hot and a dip in the river was good.
Not much more has been done to
Craig's Hut, the new fence has not got the character of the old one but it is getting there.
The Monument Track is as good as ever but would think twice about driving up it.
A lot of timber has fallen and the tracks are open but when I was down the Snowy area the big wind on New Years Day brought down a couple of tree branches. I was there 4 days later and tracks were already made around the branches.With the help of mate of
mine called Husqvana and 20 minutes latter with a few helping hands the branches were removed and the track open.
Lovicks Hut has still not been built although there has been some work been done there.
Left Howitt's Hut in light rain which made the run down the Zeka Track just that more interesting.Then we come across a convey of 7 vehicles, 6 of which had camper trailers. I heard on the UHF that a vehicle had to be snatched up a small rise. After talking to them they wanted to go up the Zeka Track in the rain with the camper trailers. One of the vehicles was a Jeep Cherokee Sport towing a T Van.
One of the vehicles was towing a Jayco Van. This was not the normal camper trailer that is seen in the bush.
After a chat I found out that they had not driven the Zeka Track at all and did not know what to except, I then advised them not to do it until they have driven it, with out the trailers. We had enough trouble getting around a corner coming down with out slipping in to a big hole, and if they tried to go up, but by the time that they would have made the turn the trailer would have fallen in the hole and dragged the vehicle back.
After that day the weather was fine again, but the run up to
the Pinnacles was bathed in cloud so the view was not as good as it should be. The cloud lifted on the way down
Billy Goat Bluff Track so that the true height of the track could be seen.
On the way back to
camp we come across some motor bikes coming to wards us. I thought the last bike rider said there was one more bike coming so I was preceding with caution when I saw A bike rider walking on the track. I asked him where was his bike and he pointed down the side of the road. About 20 ft down a near vertical drop was his bike trapped by Blackberry Bush.
I got onto the UHF and asked the tail end vehicle if they could see the other bike riders nd let them know that there mate had gone over the edge of the road.
The other bike riders came up and saw what had happened and were talking about how they were going to get the bike, which had 5 hours riding time on it, up from where it had stopped. There was now way they could drag the bike up the side of the
cliff so I offered to winch it up for them. They said that was great but how was I going to winch the bike up as the track was too narrow to turn the vehicle to face the bike.
Lucky for me the vehicle behind me had a winch so I put the snatch block on to the pintle hook on the Troopie, ran the cable through the snatch block and down to the bike. With the three blokes with the bikes they kept the fallen bike up right while it was winched back onto the road again.
The rider and bike were not damaged and were able to continue on after a bit of gaffer tape was applied to the bike to stop the front guard from flapping in the wind.
The rest of the trip was uneventful except for the great weather that we had.
The vehicles we had were varied. A Ford Courier Ute was the only vehicle that was not a Toyota. A 18 year old 60 Series went every where the Lexus 470 went with a 100 Series, a Prado and a standard 80 Series along with the Troopie finished off the Toyota range. Two of the vehicles had travelled down from Queensland and one from the ACT. Two or the drivers are in 4WD clubs and one from the Toyota Landcruiser Club of NSW.
I will have to wait until February for my next trip down there, can't wait.
Wayne