We were at the scene of a troppy tray recovery that had hours to run
so I said to my wife, there is another way to Victoria's Mt Sunday
so off we headed via Mt Skene south of
Mansfield in NE Victoria.
The seasonal closures were just over and many tracks had little or no usage
in months leaving
debris everywhere, as shown by these 3 trees down to-gether.
Image Could Not Be Found
Our destination was to be via a beautiful gorge known as Peters gorge
about 1000+ meters up in the High country.
Last time I drove it it was a pleasant 4wd route with interesting bits but nothing to hard so we felt at ease as we left the dirt roads and entered an area of rough tracks by ourselves.
The GPS showed 25km to the destination at 3pm.
The drive began
well enough but soon we noticed an excessive amount of
fallen trees most of which lay from across the track such that you had to drive
under them. Some were pretty tight and the GU just cleared them.
We left the Barkly river track and conditions slowly got worse with the
track turning into true 4wd and tree rubbish everywhere. Small
rockslides
began appearing and weren't to bad.
I noticed a set of
wheels marks which indicated that at least 1 car had gone before us and this meant it must be ok.
We passed the Middle ridge track turnoff, and the track immediately got harder
and steep.
A fire had been thru this area and now there were many logs lying around
but the next log was about 35cm thick and wheel marks had gone right over it.
I knew that my 33 inch
wheels wouldn't allow that so out with the chain saw
and we cleared that obstackle but I began to wonder about what lay ahead.
Several fallen trees later we came out onto a very rocky steep downhill grade
and down we went, slowly picking our way.
These things usually don't go for that far but this one kept going and was followd by another which was getting steeper and the little slides began as we went further down over a rock ledge being sucked in by the good traction we had on the warm dry rocks.
I am not quite sure when I began to seriously wonder about getting back out
but it might of been as we came to a large ledge drop-off with a hole over a meter deep in it and she dropped straight onto the chassis rails and slewed a little.
I now had no choice but to continue down picking the line carefully.
Oh
well, its only 14km to Mt Sunday now and the track used to be so good
, so this must be the worst.
Off the rocky descent, we were straight into the lush green weed filled swamp land approaching
the gorge.
The hot car now entered a long
water section which sank of oozing mud
steaming off the exhaust.
Simply spectacular country, with massive fern growth and occasional small
water falls from the recent snow melt.
Beginning to watch the time now as we headed northeast away from
the gorge and we soon encountered a large swamp area strewn with fallen branches and leading straight to a small uphill rock wall.
A major tree blocked the track and a rough bypass was in place which made a tight path between other trees , deep grass and mush.
The bypass required a couple of backups and intersected with a deeply rutted track requiring an immediate sharp turn.
Got thru 90 % and as we turned the car slipped on a grassed over log and slid sideways.
The back end hit a tree damm! and put a dinner plate sized dent near the fuel filler panel.
Never in many years of this stuff have I ever done this to a car, and I wasn't feeling very good about it.
We got onto the track proper, chained sawed two more trees out of the way and now 1/2 exhausted stopped to take stock.
Soon I would need to make up some more chainsaw fuel.
13 kms to go at 4pm, I had covered about 1km in the last hour and began to get a bit of a funny feeling in the stomach. We were out here by ourseleves
well equipped but no one was going to help us and I didn't think I could go back.
On we pushed, but we were getting an obstackle every 100m or so now but still I believe a car had gone thru, so, so can I.
Next was a 150m climb in deep mud ruts, I could see the odd diff marks on the mud top and the climb looked hard.
We locked front
wheels and the car pulled itself up, I stopped and looked back, we had dragged the car all the way!
I was now convinced that whoever had gone ahead had 35's at least and probably 38's.
The steep rutted climb had torn off the passenger side mudflap and brought us to a forbidding rock wall section, with huge smooth boulders unlike the broken rock section on the descent.
Seriously concerned now we stopped and walked
the rock walls.
I reckon I could have winched myself up given time, but we didn't have time and then my wife pointed out a long mark in
the rock.
If they made this mark it really would mean that my car would have to be dragged up.
It was to much - what should we do ?
Caught between two difficult rock climbs, I couldn't go forward and I couldn't go back and was without other support, and had already damaged the car.
Can't remember such presure for a long time, and found it a sobbering experience in a morbid sort of way.
Whatever I did would be my call and needed to be made carefully else I would be spending at least the night here and no tow truck was ever going to get me out of this.
Factors I considered were that I really didn't know what was ahead.
Maybe this rock wall was it and it would be easy after it?
Maybe the car that had left wheel marks had never even made it either and turned back.
I had 3 hours of sunlight left and knew that only
the rock ledge we had descended earlier would stop me all the rest was just time and care.
Made the call to turn back, primarily because going on was into the unknown.
In the back of by mind I knew it would be easier to climb the rocks while warm and storms were forecast. Rain would seriously compromize us.
We turned and drove down the muddy
chute formed by the wheel ruts, it was about waist height on the car and we had to get out of it at the bottom to bypass some trees and this is when I think we tore out the gearbox breathers.
But despite this I noted an interesting feeling, as soon as I had made the turn around descision I felt better, even though we knew what was ahead.
At least we had a definite object and purpose in mind.
Through the swamp holes and minor climbs we were now at the base of
the rock ledges section. (UTM 55H 0449130E 5860044N).
5pm and no time to mess around so we put in both lockers and began the climb in 1st low.
The bighorn muddies were in good condition @ 18psi and the warm rocks meant traction was at max.
The first three ledges went
well with just a bit of scrabbling and the odd retreat.
Then we saw the huge step in front. I'm sure it looks bigger when your on edge but to me it really looked mean.
Taking the best line the front
wheels rose sharply up the face, grabbed for traction, lost it, grabbed again then gave up and car sank back down.
Tried again on a different line but we sort of sat their with the
wheels turning on
the rock and the car sort of bouncing around as it kept grabbing and letting go.
Going nowhere and with the car developing a side angle I called it and turned the engine off.
Got out, and looked around, what could I do, there was a winchable tree ahead but it would be a hard pull straight up, looked at the tyres , maybe we could drop pressure a bit more but the drivers rear was already badly depressed by a sharp rock the car rested against.
Last thing I need to do right now was tear out a side wall so I left the tyres alone.
Hanging on the side of this
hill we stopped and my wife insisted we just take the time to have a drink and calm down.
As we are sitting there I glanced over the track edge. There were a dozen or more soft drinks cans right there including a half full one sitting on a rock.
This had clearly been the site of a previous struggle.
My wife then made 2 comments, first was she would get out, taking a few things as
well and hence lighting the car, and second, the Toyota dealer had only rung again yesterday and she just looked at me and said.
"Robin, can you really see yourself right now, in this situation, with a new Prado in place of this car".
The resting was good and I decided on a plan. I had brought a full sized
mattock with me. Just the thing for smashing into rocks.
We repositioned the car and began rebuilding the track one rock at a time.
6pm now and we were ready to roll.
Lined up the car so one wheel would be over the now straightened track edge but was aimed right at a tree. Carefully we took off and up the car crawled, the scrap on the passenger mudguard was little price to pay as we overcame
the rock wall and the feeling of relief was almost to much.
We were threw and stopped for a minute, then proceeded on up again as there were still rock sections above.
One caught us out and required 3 backups before we got it.
Now we were genuinely threw and stopped much relieved and in need of another strong coffee.
Some hours later as we approached our place in the dark we saw 3 Koala's seperately walking the road.
One jumped up at a roadside tree, missed and fell flat on its face dazzeled by our headlights.
Yep, it had been a hard day all round !
NOTE - If your in the Peters gorge area take care as the track has deteriorated to the point of being undriveable without backup and support.
NOTE 2 - Usually we take more photo's but this got forgotten this time.