G'day all,
I'd just like to emphasize to everyone how critical it is to drive safely and smartly when offroad and on offroad tracks, not that the majority here being experienced 4x4'ers would need any advice but if it saves one person, then it was worth me posting this message.
Two weeks ago on the Tuesday after
Easter, me and a friend decided to go out and do some 4x4'ing in some tracks in Wombat
State Forest. We did a few tracks and decided to change areas and drive to some other tracks in an area at the Woodend side of the forest. We decided to take O'briens Tracks to get there.
For those that know of O'Briens Tracks, it is a scenic and slow driving gravel track that twists and meandors through the forest, rising pretty high at some
places and getting into very slow twisty turns at others.
As I beleive in safety first, I had my headlights on so that even if I didnt see an oncoming vehicle across a valley or further on down, he could see me and know that there would be another vehicle coming up soon. Aswell as this, many of the turns are blind corners and barely have room for two vehicles to pass slowly.
It was one of these corners where our trip almost became a catastrophe. It was uphill and approaching a sharp blind left-hander, with a
cliff face to the left of me and a very steep drop off the right hand side of the track. I slowed right down before entering the corner when an 'idiot' P-plater in an old Jeep cut inside the corner at some speed not leaving anywhere for me to go. I though instantly that if I clip him, he'd go straight over the
cliff and that'd be the end of him or I could smack my hilux hard into the
cliff face on my left.
I chose option B, scraping my tyres, wheels, brush bars pretty severely, and a few scratches on my flares, not too mention the wheel alignment being thrown up the creek and the 4-way sterring stabiliser needing adjustment which I completed today after an alignment.
My moral of the story is this - if it looks dangerous, it probably is worse than you think, leave your lights on at all times because this is what'll get someones attention first, always slow right down when approaching a blind corner and even with a crest, slow down and stay as far left as possible because you dont know who is gonna come over that
hill or around that corner and you want to be in the best position to avoid an accident if possible.
TUFF_IFS_LUX (max)