4wd weekend trip, Bluemoutains? stockton? watagans?

Hi Jack,
ah no, thats a real shame considering its so close to where i live. I guess ill have to get out and explore as much of it as i can while its still open.

Hi Steve,

I agree but the simple NPWS and greenies dont want you to use anything or enjoy yourself in anyway. Dont worry a change of government will fix it.

Cheers Wilko

Which change of government will fix it? There are only about 6 parks Australia wide run by the Commonwealth, all the rest are run by state governments.
I went through the Watagans a few months back and couldn't believe how bad some of the yobbos at the campsites were. It was a talking point with our group at a meal break and has rarely come up on other trips. We had to reverse out of 3 tracks that were impassable unless you had 35's with a 6" lift. The firies don't have that so makes it hard to get to fires.

I like to take my dog for a drive when I go away so usually NPs are out of bounds for me.

I know there are a lot of yobbos that don't give a stuff but that's just how it is.

National Parks don't have to fix any tracks except main access roads generally but if a track gets used too much they gate it.

If I get to an impassable track I either turn around or have a go, depending on what I'm up to at the time.

I find it frustrating that there are so many people whinging about tracks that are cut up from people having a good time. To each his own I reckon. Australia is a huge place. If you can't get down a track go somewhere else and have a drive.

As I said before, Mother Nature will take care of the place like she's been doing for billions of years. Do gooders locking up tracks and whinging about "damage" to the environment should get out more, literally.

We just got back from a 13,000 km trip across the country.
When you look at those old hils and rivers through the centre and over west, it makes you realise how totally insignificant us humans are. We've been here for a blip and we reckon we have control of everything.

A cut up track today will be history in 100 years and forgotten in a thousand.

Go out and have fun.

Hoo roo,
Steve

Mate they are called fire trails for a reason. They are cut through to give the firies access and an escape route. Like I said, they don't have 35's and a 6" lift. They didn't cut the trails for our entertainment. Some of them are gated because idiots go in there and start fires by doing things like ashing their smokes out the window. If everyone did the right thing then there wouldn't be a problem. Blaming the government or greenies for reacting correctly to the actions of an ever increasing number of idiots is not correct in my opinion.

No worries, but they're not all fire trails.

A lot of them tracks in the Watagans are logging tracks. They don't log them areas anymore because felling native timbers is frowned upon, so we use pine from Australia and NZ.

Anyway, it doesn't matter. We don't all have to agree. You have your view, I'll have mine. Just define what "the right thing"is....

Sure starting bushfires isnt very nice but I really don't believe many people start bushfires, no matter what kind of vehicle they drive.

I will complain about Governments controlled by greenies for overreacting to get votes but.

One mans idiot is another man's mate.

Hoo roo

Cheers mate.

Hey Steve

Sounds like a lot of fun ill just have to make sure im not working that weekend. I was actually up that way not to long ago with family in the newnes area. How many guys do you usually go with? Do you guys have extremely modified 4wd's or pretty stock?

Cheers Sam.

Hi Sam,

this year we only have about dozen I think - a mix of fathers and sons.
My son is taking his KTM to ride and another fella and his two sons are taking their motos.

The fourbys vary. Mine is a pretty stock 80 series through to one bloke that has a Jackaroo with Nissan running gear, 6 inch lift and 33s (maybe 35s) with lockers.

There are heaps of tracks up there that vary from wild to mild and if you don't want to do the tracks, there are ways around. It's a greta place to learn what to do and what your vehicle can do. Great scenery too.

I'm heading to the 4WD Show at Eastern Creek next Friday morning then coming back to the Coast to head up to camp Friday night.

Let me know if you can make it.

Steve

Friday week? 12th-14th.

OK, so I'm not going to the 4x4 Show this weekend.

Thanks for picking that up. I kept meaning to check my dates but didn't.

That makes Friday easier, I do some work then go bush.

Thanks again,

Steve

very dissapointed, Ended up having to work this weekend and the next. Hope it was a fun weekend.

Cheers sam

We ended up at Mt Airlie, near Capertree.

Awesome place to go, great scenery, great 4wding and the old bloke there, Col, is a real character.

My alternator packed it in so that slowed me down a bit on Sunday but it's a really good part of the world.

Steve

Mate, did he mention that it had only just been reopened after some people went through and did the wrong thing in muddy conditions and wrecked the track a while back? He couldn't get his car through anymore until it was repaired. There was talk of it being closed permanently as a result.

He said National Parks were talking about taking control of the area but it's declared a conservation area now. He has the lease now and it was paid for by the coal mine up the road.

The Lithgow 4wd Club have done a lot of work up there diverting water to reduce the damage to tracks from running water.
He has a lot of machines there, some pretty old, that are used for some of that work. Col appreciates the help he gets from a lot of 4wd Clubs and said that's how the place stays open.

The road up from the house is in excellent condition. Col reckons you could drive a motorised wheelchair up there at the moment and he's pretty right too. It's like that for about 5 km then it starts to get "interesting".
I drove mine about half way up the mountain from there, up through a sort of cave. After that it was only the three vehicles with locked diffs that got any further and they made it right to the top.

It's a really scenic and interesting area. I'll be back up there for a weekend as soon as I can work it in.


Hoo roo,
Steve