It was a sunny day in NSW today until the wind picked up around lunch time...now its about to rain...!!
There was a total of 6 4wd's out for a trip and we had a great time. The trip was aimed at people who hadnt taken out their 4wd before and most had piked it and so there was only 1 but boy did the "Playdoe" Prado do
well!!!
We had 2x L/C 80 series , GU, GQ, Hilux Trayback and the Prado and none of the cars were stressed on any of the tracks. We had a few hitch hikers and the Prado's side steps hit a
rock but other than that there was nothing else....
We met at Yalwal at 9am and after a week of not knowing whether tracks were open or not (depended on who you spoke to) we looked at sme maps and thought of a few tracks to do......but found that gates were open.....
So we did....
the power lines off Deans Gap road. Being power line tracks it was really simple stuff with only a few lumpy sections. Brians Patrol tried to get over a few rocks but couldnt do it....thought he'd try dig some holes for the rest - but then he realised that 4wd might get him over.....then getting around the burnt out car was good fun with a good lumpy
rock to miss.
Meeting back up onto Deans Gap Rd before reaching Wombat Flat/Wattle Gum trail. The
gate was open so in we went .
The only 'hard' section to the whole day was the
hill climb out of here heading to
Braidwood Road where it was rocky and rutty but with everyone taking it easy we all did it with no trouble at all....even the "new praso driver and passengers" coped and drove really
well!! There was only one
rock that was hit and that was the Prado's side step but there was only a scrape underneath...
When we reached the 'mud pit' we found that it was almost dry...only a few weeks ago it was full and a vehicle had to get whinched out of it. There was only a few logs at the bottom but it was all good....3weeks ago it was full and made a goos splash out the sides...no snorkels needed...not that bad....
After stopping for lunch(with Wisey pulling the bbq out!!) for a while up the top we headed to
Braidwood Road where we said good buy to one of the Patrols and one of the 80's and the rest of us heading down Cassia Fire Trail..
Cassia is a great tracks for motorbike with woopies everywhere you look....with lots of little rocks it was just easy going. After a right turn at the first intersection we felt like we were heading down the freeway with the track only just being graded. There was a small
creek crossing that just got the dirt and mud off our tread. We met up with 'Hawthorn' and turned right followed that for a bit with that being a nice track easy as!!
Then there was 'Spotted Gum'....I was driving and Nathan told me that the map shows that it gets pretty steep...I just kept going and didnt think any thing of it until we were half way up a
hill climb and all of a sudden it got steeper and steeper..then realised that we were still in high - there was n stopping!We managed in high 2nd and met 4 bikes also on their way up. It was push and shuv with one of the bikes - both of us not being able to stop or move over and the bike hesitating to go for but eventually did. There was no way we were going to stop - even all the breaks in the world wouldnt have stopped us from sliding.....till we heard that the Prado had picked up a hitch hiker and the 3 4b's had to stop..we were already up the top so we had no worries....but they got going with no problems...
It was the onto Messmate and then to 12 Mile Road which was only less than 1km from the Princes Hwy south of the Sussex Inlet Turn off....
Maps we used were Yalwal , Sassafrass and Tianjara Topographics.....
Everyone enjoyed the day out....and there are plans for June Long weekend down at Bendethra.......
Hope everyone enjoyed the Sunday Drive as much as we did....sorry you couldnt make it Wayne.....
Laura and Nathan B
!MPG:8!!MPG:9!