Newnes
& Mt Walker Trip - Sat 8th & Sun 9th March 2008
Trip Leaders:
Brett McCurley & Colin Bicknell- GQ
Participants:
John (Harb) Harbor & Murf - GQ wagon RB30 turbo
Michele & Serena Harbor - Otis the Zook V6 Commodore
Sando & Tony - GQ dual cab trayback turbo diesel
Ulysses - 80 series Landcruiser turbo diesel
Max, Steph & friend - GQ
Glenn, Sarah, Brad & Jordan Russell & cousin - GQ
Troy Gray & friend - 4 Runner on coils
John John - the usual ride
Day 1 - Sat 8th:
I met up with Harb, Michele, Serena, Murf, Sando, Tony & Ulysses
in the Zig Zag carpark at 8:30am on Saturday morning. Murf, Sando
& Tony were down for a couple of days from Coffs Harbour and were
very keen to tackle as many challenging tracks as they could fit
in.
We headed out along the Old Bells Line of Road then veered to the
left to follow the Powerline track. A heavy downpour overnight had
left a few muddy holes to play in and kept the dust down which was
most welcome.
As we approached the well known wombat holes we saw to our amazement
a Mitsubishi Delica people mover van being driven through the wombat
holes. It made it the whole way through unassisted! That's the first
time I'd seen one of them actually offroad!
Next stop was the Pipeline track. We drove the lower track first
without a hitch and got some great photos of our trucks as they
flexed over the last rutted sections. We then looped back round
the State Mine Gully road to the beginning of the Pipeline track
again but then took the left turn up a sandstone rock step to do
the upper section.
Our first problem for the day stared here with Otis splitting a
power steer hose and leaking all the fluid out of the reservoir.
A couple of loosened nuts and bolts had the reservoir off and spare
hose ready to go on. Then Harb accidentally snapped the fitting
clean off the reservoir as he attempted to remove the old hose.
Bugger! A quick 20min trip into Lithgow saw him return with a second
hand reservoir from the local wreckers. 10min later Otis and its
power steer were back up and running.
We
continued up the track to where we had the choice of 3 different
lines to get to the top. The middle was decided the best challenge.
Harb was the last to drive up and as he neared the top he stopped
and had to roll back slightly for a better angle. Unfortunately
the angle become worse as he rolled back and we all watched as the
front left wheel rose skyward and the GQ gently fell over onto its
right hand side. Fortunately Harb was OK and the GQ suffered only
minor damage with a windscreen crack, a bent 'A' pillar and roof,
a dented bonnet and a modified rear quarter with a few scratches
for good measure - still drivable! Just a little upsetting only
because the GQ was a very tidy and very straight truck at the beginning
of the day. We winched it back onto its wheels, removed the spark
plugs, cranked the oil out of the cylinders and were underway once
again.
Heading
towards the Lost City, we stopped once more as Harb's GQ was making
an awful noise from the gearbox. A quick check on the oil level
showed there was nothing left in the box as it had drained into
the transfer while on its side. The second trip into Lithgow for
the day was made and 4 litres of gear oil was pumped back into the
box so he could continue driving.
We followed the Powerline track a little further and drove up the
'moon rock' (this is what we call it anyway), then down to the Lost
City for a short walk and some photo taking for the tourists.
We
headed back up to Son of Bob and Ranger Bob. We told Sando he had
to drive the Ranger Bob sandstone bowl and as much as he really
wanted to it was looking even a little too difficult for him and,
as it was now after 5.00pm, he painfully decided to leave it for
the next time he was down this way.
The last track we drove for the day was the black bog hole hill.
A couple of us tried the newer left hand side track but the two
wet and slippery rock steps, that caught up a long wheel base vehicle
perfectly, couldn't be driven. A short play in the boggy mud and
we decided to call it quits for the day and decided to go set up
camp.
We
camped 10min north of Bungleboori at the old Correctional Facility.
There still stands a huge recreation hall which is the size of a
large warehouse. We were even able to drive our vehicles inside
and set up our swags on the Astroturf concrete floor! A perfect
spot for when the weather is bad.
Our planned night drive was unfortunately cancelled as Sando had
split a rear lower arm bush. Harb said he had a spare arm at home
and generously drove 2 hours home then 2 hours back again so Sando
could continue wheel'n on Sunday! That's someone who is definitely
passionate and dedicated to 4wding!!
Day 2 - Sun 9th:
We met the rest of the AT4 group at the Shell Servo at 9:00am. Heading
off up Magpie Hollow Rd and past Lake Lyell we turned off onto the
dirt at the usual spot to air down and then headed down the first
track towards the Coxs River.
15min into the drive we stopped for a photo opportunity as each
truck took it in turn to drive out of the river and up the very
soft, sandy river bank. A few decided to tackle the more vertical
line to the right which proved to be impossible to climb. Michele,
who was driving Otis, took to excavating the right hand side edge
with her front tyre and bar work in an attempt to construct a better
approach angle but it was all to no avail. Unfortunately it was
Sando's last attempt of about 10 that proved unlucky as he ended
up snapping his front right hand side axle in half as his truck
landed heavily after launching up the bank and getting big air under
the front wheels.
30-45min was then spent removing the front hub and broken axle,
cleaning out all the broken metal and putting it back together again.
Rather annoying for Sando seeing he had only just repacked the front
end a few days before coming down to Sydney!
We
then made our way over to Mt Walker. We drove the lower large rocky
section first, and with some guidance from Colin we all made it
up ok. We then sent three trucks at a time up the climb to Mt Walker
and the trig point.
Our final track was at the eastern edge of the Lidsdale Sate Forest
Pine Plantation. A fantastic amphitheatre containing three steep
shale and rocky climbs greeted us. Most drove the middle one with
relative ease while Otis had a couple of very good attempts at the
harder track to the right but without any success.
Airing up on the flat at the top of the climb concluded our fantastic
weekend of wheel'n. The guys from Coffs Harbour were thrilled with
the great tracks we have down here and invited us to come up their
way for a drive as they would be only too happy to return the favor.
I would just like to say a big thankyou to Tapper for asking me
to lead the trip that he had originally planned to do. I met a great
bunch of people who are mad about 4wding and we all had an awesome
weekend. Thanks also to Colin for assisting as Trip Leader on Sun.
