We arrived at the Sawyers Valley Hotel for a 9am start and the trip leader
(Paul) gathered everyone around for a quick chat. A very short time into the
trip we all stopped to put our tyres down (about a dozen cars in
attendance). We were travelling along the power line track and got to the
first real obstacle of the day, some deep ruts, when tail-end Charlie (Pat)
got stuck going over the first bump in the ground. It was a fairly busy day
on the track and there were immediately cars behind us waiting to pass us,
one of them kindly pulled Pat backwards and then headed around and between
our convoy to catch up with his friends.
It didn’t seem like we had gone very far when Piers got hooked up on a rock
and held up the track for a while. Some manoeuvring and guidance from the
rest of the convoy and he was free and we were off again. We got to a steep
hill and Paul made it up but most others either didn’t try or didn’t make
it! It was decided at this point to forgo morning tea and proceed along the
track (which was fairly slow going, due to heavy traffic and lots of
diversions to explore). Shortly after this we drove past a pit of cars, some
stupendously stuck, but we proceeded past them as there was already a huge
number of cars and helpers and ropes and spectators. Paul found an odd angle
in a “little” rut which could easily have been bypassed, but why bypass a
perfectly good opportunity to test out the car’s capabilities. Just to be
sure it really was an odd angle, Pat proceeded through as well, the rest of
the convoy found an alternate path.
We found a nice spot under the trees for lunch, had to sit in a few
groupings so that everyone had shade but it was very pleasant. Lewis and
John played some nice background music on the guitar while the rest of us
ate.
The afternoon proceeded in the same way as the morning. It was a fairly slow
journey with people choosing their path carefully. Drivers were often
assisted in navigating through rocky patches and deep ruts by other members
of the convoy, which helped minimise damage to vehicles. Considering some of
the terrain covered, both navigators and drivers did an amazing job in this
regard. Shortly after lunch we came across a group that were towing a Disco
up a hill to get it out of the way. They were then going to have to tow the
vehicle out (probably retracing their wheel tracks for a couple of
kilometres) due, they thought, to transmission trouble. It took a while to
pass this area as the rescued vehicle blocked the easiest path and there
were cars everywhere. One member of the group looked like they left a panel
in a ditch shortly after this, but on closer inspection, all was (mostly)
well. A short while later we travelled an area that we didn’t think the
Subaru in the group would make it through and the trip leader retraced for a
while to find a good track for them. John, on his first “serious” 4WD trip
in the driver’s seat, seemed to be having a good time with David jumping in
and out of the car to make sure they were going to make it through. At one
point the convoy approached a hill with three tracks, all bad (or so it
seemed from the passenger seat), but everyone made it through.
We stopped at the end of the track to pump tyres back up and one member,
after reinflating his tyres, promptly got stuck in a hole as he left the
place under the trees where we had stopped to pump the tyres up. He was
winched out, I think just to test out the capabilities of the winch, rather
than through necessity, and we all headed for home.
The highlight of the day, for me, was watching all the members of the group
guiding one another through the obstacles. For the kids (even some of the
big kids) it was probably the icecream at The Lakes on the way home, which
gave the drivers a chance to debrief about their day, wipe the side of their
cars to see if it was a scratch (or just dust) and a chance to laugh at some
of the trickier parts of the trip - now that everyone was safely off the
track. Thanks to Paul and all the members that attended for a great trip.