The Others:
Brett – GQ wagon
Bresh – GQ wagon
John John – Hilux
Nick – GQ Ute
The Campers:
Mark – Hilux
Peatey – 80 series
Harro – 100 series
And a couple of other Harro’s mates
Leaving Richmond Macca’s at 8am had us heading up Bells Line of Road through the rain and fog to the Zig Zag railway carpark.
Heading off down the Powerlines track is where Nick copped a flat. His front right had a torn side wall from either something in one of the bog holes we drove through or damaging it as we drove some slippery muddy ruts. Either way he thru on his highway terrain spare and decided he'd better head on home as he didn't want to do another tyre and have a bigger drama to worry about then.
With all of us through the wombat holes it was then down to the Pipeline track to sort the men from the boys. With Charles and John John showing us all how it’s done, Peaty decided to show us how not to drive a rut and put a nice dent in his right rear quarter and then proceeded to get stuck. Harro chose the lowest and easiest track to drive and also failed to proceed.
With Charles and Bresh working overtime with the snatch strap, I was jump starting one of the Harro’s mates trucks as the battery had conveniently died, and all the while the cold rain is falling steadily.
Onto the top of Pipeline and some good flex shots as the trucks drive the numerous lines through the large muddy ruts. It is decided at this point that ‘The Campers’ will follow behind us 4 and if the going gets too tough, they were going to turn around.
So now it’s down to another track that leads up to the Lost City via some decent ruts and a large sandstone step. It’s at this point that ‘The Campers’ pull the pin and back track to find an easier track to drive.
After some rock packing in place, Charles drives the step on his second attempt. Then John John, Bresh and myself were all up on our first attempts, albeit Bresh driving his front left up a tree and me doing a tail light and quarter!
We then moved on down towards Son of Bob and Ranger Bob. With Charles having a few good attempts at the huge sandstone bowl known as Ranger Bob we all couldn’t work out why his truck wasn’t driving up until I wandered around to the other side of his truck to find his left rear tyre completely off the bead and excavating large quantities of sand into the rim. Problem found!
Whilst Charles & Bresh aired up the remaining tyres and removed excess mud etc, I gave the bowl a go. With John John providing expert guidance and with a few attempts at some different lines, I was eventually up without any effort at all. Just goes to show it’s all about tyre placement and driver control.
Onto the final track of the day and it’s down to the Black Bog hole. We catch up with the remainder of ‘The Campers’ as Harro and Peatey had called it a day already. With a few of the lads having a red hot go at the slippery, muddy hill, the by-pass track was the next best option. After 1000+ attempts, airing down from 30psi to a realistic 15psi, taking out the odd tree, smashing a flare and adding many dents to panel work, the boys still could not get to the top of the track. So it was up the chicken track and onto the main track where we headed pack to the carpark to air-up and call it a day.