Ok in
Melbourne it was cold wet miserable and the grand final was on this
Saturday, but with a free day I headed into the Black Forrest/Toolangi ranges
alone and drove for hours without seeing another car or bike.
It was lonelier than the Simpson in a dust storm.
After 200,000km on the Patrol and with no new vehicle that has less compromises in immediate sight we thought it was time to replace the clutch.
The new standard exidy one felt so light it was hard to believe and the drive was to help get used to it.
I got wet laying under the car checking the breather hoses were replaced ok, which they were as I expected from ARB, then we were off.
First thing I noticed was a new type of
sign at
the entrance to the
well known (in Victoria) rocky track. It reads "NO GO ZONE" and is placed by the
water authority around sensitive areas along the length of the new North/South pipeline.
A few weeks ago friends went up their but now there is a lot of temporary fencing.
The weather was squally as I headed up the old SEC rd checking out several little track sections along the way. Most were effectively closed by fallen timber from the mostly burnt out
forrest, I can see plenty of track
clearing work needed ahead.
New areas are continuing to be opened post the fires including around the
Stanley homestead area.
We were soon in near Blizzard conditions , windy, 4 degrees with sleet and occasional small snow flurries.
This would be followed by breaks in the cloud cover revealing sunny spots or green valleys and some magnificent multiple
rainbow displays.
After some hours of carefully driving and paying attention to various signs I was
disappointed to come out behind a
road closed one, but considering the amount of work going on and the number of tracks they would be hard to manage.
Its a big number but I would have passed in excessive of 5000 small trees that
had been removed (cut off at base) along Ginter/Boundary/Black range roads.
Many of these are normally secondary back roads but this day 4wd and a lot of care was needed as their surface had turn to slimmy plus.
A huge downpour for us of some 100mm saw many small creeks running high and muddy and I soon found one to plunge the car into and get rid of some dessert dust.
One huge downed tree took my entire chainsaw fuel load just to clear enough space to squeeze around its end.
The smoothness of the new clutch was quite helpful throughout the day.
The family was home watching the footy on TV, but I couldn't think of a better place to be than inside a warm car testing the tracks out, and listening to a 4wd training session at a distant Landcruiser club on the UHF for entertainment.