Collie Day Trip                                 More Collie Photos

• Date - 30th August 2009

• Trip Leader - Matt S

Wellington Dam Trip Notes

11 cars met at Pinjarra Bakery for what was going to be a great day out.

The convoy headed off towards Wellington Dam where Matt debriefed all on the clubs procedures, the weather appeared to be holding out so far.  We headed off down the power line track where the fun began…. The first hill was quite steep, where the first victim Terry got stuck half way up but it wasn’t long before Paul came to the rescue and pulled Terry off?????  Everyone seemed to learn from Terry’s mistake and took a different line on the right side and made it up successfully, except for another landcruiser where a slight snatch was required to get it moving again (who do you ask? – Yes! John S).    

The first real challenge was a deeply rutted angled incline where Paul R. gave it a go, with no success and then proceeded onto the ‘chicken track’ or is it now politically correct to call it the ‘alternative route’.  The next person in line to give it a shot was one of our visitors in his highly modified Mitsubishi with 35” tyres, who made it look easy.  Not wanting to be outdone by the visitors, other members with diff locks on their vehicles (Richard K and Stamps) gave the hill a go and made it up – some with impressive air time.  Pat O didn’t want to be outdone in his ‘Poo’trol so he took his family for ransom and attacked the hill with gusto.  He got three quarters of the way up and landed on a precarious angle to where it was too risky to reverse back down, as there was a possibility of a roll over, so Richard K came to the rescue and winched his vehicle and the screaming family back to safe ground. 

Once all vehicles had made it to the top of the hill, we stopped for lunch.  We then set off on the bitumen highway and turned into the National Park where the fun began again.  The first obstacle that we came across was a bogged brand New Prado half way up the hill with his family and with no recovery equipment or vehicle backup, he was very happy to see us.  All hands and were on deck to push him out and guide him back down the boggy hill very carefully where he was required to do an eight point turn, and wait on the shoulder of the track for the rest of our club to make it up the boggy terrain (he didn’t realise how long it would take for this to happen – Quite a while). 

 Matt our trip leader was the first to attempt the muddy hill, but with no success after many attempts.  Plan B was to get another vehicle with more ground clearance (Terry ‘Coopers’) to get ahead on the track and snatch him out.  Each car finally made it through, some required snatching and others took a slightly different line which gave them success on their first attempt – Surprising everyone including Darren and Kym in their ‘Poo’trol with stock road tyres and a 3 Litre engine (it should be mentioned at this stage that D&K made three recoveries through this particular section, but we won’t mention that Darren’s car wouldn’t start because of engine issues).

A well pre-tripped day ended around 4.00, with all having a fantastic and challenging time, thanks to Matt and Amy and Pat’s assistance.