Gday,
I crawled out of bed at 4am and left
Cairns to do the
Creb Track through the
Daintree. The bloke with me does it on mtorbikes so we knew the track was in good nick with no rain landed, or so we thought.
The track was moist but not slippery and was very peaceful for a Sunday. We got most of the way through and on a steep incline came across a late model Patrol on its roof with 4
young blokes sitting around it. It was in a cutting with the track completely blocked, which then meant i had to go back the way i had come. Pretty disappointed.
They were fairly quiet as expected and we had to pump them for info.The driver told us the had been there over night. They were doing the track in what they said were overcast conditions on a dry track when a heavy shower of rain came through and made the red clay hills slippery as. He said they lost traction, gathered speed, hit the
embankment and hit the roof. One of them then said there was also another family stuck further up the
hill who had slid off. A tow truck was going to come and get them" when they can get in".We made sure the lads had food and water and went up to speak to the family who happened to be in a hilux. They were bleep off to say the least.
The truth then came out. The hilux had been following the Patrol up
hill at a very safe distance. Everytime the Patrol got a little sideways the driver braked and came to a stop. Hilux driver saw Patrol driver did not have any idea and got right out of his way. The patrol stopped and started several times and finally got mobile enough to do an accidental 180 degree turn on
the spot. The Patrol came down the
hill , saw the Hilux who was parked off to one side, panicked and once again braked which put him into a slide. The Patrol makes contact with the hilux sending the hilux off the track into a silt drain and sits it only two metres from a drop off straight down in to a steep ravine. The hilux is now bogged with minor damage and can not move as he could slip down further. The Patrol is now on a steeper incline under full brakes and he cannot stop the vehicle. He slides ( sometimes straight, sometimes sideways) for 200 -250 metres into the embankments and finally hits a whooo boy (speed hump) gets airborne, hits the side of the cutting and hits the roof. Family radios police to notify, but police can not get in and probably dont want to after they are told no one was badly hurt..
Result: 24 hours later and counting, one family on a longer than anticipated picnic and 4
young fellas without a ride.
We were stuck half way up the
hill behind the patrol so could not help either of them.
I can not post photos so if any one else wants to, give your e mail an i'll send them to you. Very good pics.
P.S. The Patrol was a 3.0 litre,
the spot lights were Lightforce and he had OME
suspension. He obviously had not read the tyre posts, because they were crap and i apologise for not checking out his fridge set up.
Cheers Dave