Mount Talbot 25th Anniversary Trip

Eleven vehicles (including one visitor) met at the Lakes roadhouse at 4.30 on Saturday afternoon. After a quick briefing by Martin we set off down the bitumen for a few klms before turning into West Talbot Road and the dusty dry conditions. The reminder about headlights brought a bit more light on the trip. Passing one of the dried out mud baths used as a playground on previous trips brought back memories of those who had been bogged or suffered mishaps and needed rescuing, one twice in one day. Unfortunately no water or mud so no play today.
The drivers were kept on their toes as the track had quite a few cut outs from previous run off and showed it would be quite a challenge in the wet. Martin couldn’t remember parts of the track but that was probably because Karen drove the pre-trip while he played with the computer. When they missed a turn off Karen was quick to advise everyone before Keith had time to tell everyone. Going along to the next turn we got back onto the original track.
We headed to the Mt Observation lookout where we stopped for tea, arriving at the prescribed time of 5.30 on the dot, and stayed to watch the sunset before heading off again at 6.50. There were several trees across the road which we had to navigate around. A wrong turn, 20 metres short of the correct turn had three vehicles going down an very narrow track but fortunately there was enough room to turn around easily. Karen had planned a stop at a large sandy spot in the swamp for sup-o’s but trying to find it in the dark with no moon proved a challenge so we just stopped in a reasonably open area.
After supper we headed off down another track – cut outs were much shallower than those we’d covered during daylight but the track were narrower and foliage scratchy. George and Martin had to remove a tree from the track and several more had to be driven around, obviously a result of recent storms. We eventually made out way out to Yarra road where we said goodbye to Keith and the rest of us headed back to the Lakes Roadhouse and back to Perth.
Thanks Karen and Martin for a great evening.