…and didn’t it.
Had a great camp last night, kicking back around the fire toasting marshmallows as the river bubbled away in the background. We really did pick a great spot to camp!
Zac was amazed by just how many stars you can see in the sky away from the light pollution of the city, but wasn’t keen enough to sleep with the top of his swag open. As for me, I fell asleep under a starry sky in my swag 🙂
Our camp site was really secluded, and with my car strategically parked across the way in, no one bothered us all night. One 4wd came down about 10pm, but as soon as they saw the car they headed off.
I awoke about 7:30am (old man bladder), and was on my second cuppa and had already eaten my pancakes and maple syrup for breakfast (yum!) before Zac popped his head up around 8:30. He was still tired, but I suppose I can excuse that given he did spend all last week on School camp in Canberra.
Was just before 10am by the time breakfast was done, camp was packed and we were on our way with no real destination in mind.
We quickly found our first 4wd track up the side of Rough Hill. A steep climb to 965m, then along Kepple Ridge towards Lake Mountain. We even stopped on the track and tested the winch (even though we didn’t need to!) . Now Zac understands what a winch is and why we have it… pretty cool in his words!!
As we wound our way back down the mountain towards Lake Mountain, we made our first mistake, missing a turn off and headed north away from where we thought to go. We were a fair way down the track by the time we realised, so we just kept going even though it cost us about an hour. We headed around Mt Bullfight, the doubled back along McFadyen track and back up Mount Margaret… at a height of 1290m, was the highest mountain we traversed on this trek.
Was along this road that I saw my first snake. Was zooming along a gravel road dodging sticks, when I realised that one of the sticks was long and black and moving just before it dissapeared under the car. Not sure if I ran it over or not, as I wasn’t game enough to stop in the dust and check… hope it was ok, I tried to put the wheels on either side of it.
Anyway, up on Mount Margaret, we drove through the regrowth from the Black Saturday fires. Was very eerie with all the dead trees looming over head, and there were a lot of sticks we had to dodge. Was hard in spots to see the track, and we started heading down the hill along what was a bulldozer track with many fallen trees. I swear they were all about to fall on us, so I wasn’t too happy when we hit a dead end and had to head back up again. We had just got back to the thin track that was actually where we were meant to go when a 4wd burst from the track and made to head down where I had come from.
I leapt from my car and ran over to tell the guy that there wasn’t much point heading down there. Was a nice old man and his Grandson. He asked how the Pathfinder was going, and I said great, would you believe it is only a week old?
He laughed and said his car was only 3 weeks old and so was the one behind him!
I asked about the path he had just come along, and he told me it was low range and slow going, but would get me through to Kepple Hut which was where I was trying to get to. He said I might want to wait for the other car though, as there is no way you can pass on that track! Was about then that the second 4wd appeared with Mum driving and the rest of the family. They were all navigating on a picture the young fella had taken on his iPad, so I showed him memory-maps on mine and let them find their bearings before we headed off down the track they had come from.
Was a tough track, rocky and thin and slow going, but we eventually made it to Kepple hut where we stopped for lunch. Kepple Hut is an old stockman’s hut, built in the late 1800’s that can be used as a refuge for campers in the area to light a fire and stay somewhere dry for the night. We poked around a bit until Zac found the wood splitter that he thought was an awesome weapon and wanted to start chopping wood. That was about when I said “ok, let’s go!”
We had a quick bite to eat then got back on the road, winding back into the Catherdral Ranges, and popping out not far from Taggerty. We drove to Buxton for a refill, then had the great idea of heading back through the Black Ranges and Toolangi State Forest so as to not have to follow all the traffic through the Spur.
So off we went, and wound our way around Mt Tanglefoot on a lot of the tracks that I know well. Most of the smaller bogs were dry (like most everything else on this trek), and the larger bog holes didn’t look all that inviting (took a lot of will power), so it was pretty easy going, simply having to watch for good sized ruts.
We headed up along aeroplane Tk where we found our most challenging rutty track so far, and had great fun as we drove along the ridge top. It was on this track that I announced to Zac that this would be the last 4WD track today, as when we get to the bottom we will follow the road out.
That was when we made our biggest mistake of the entire trip… cruising along the dirt road, I saw a little shortcut track that met up with the road we were on further down the hill, and we decided one more track wouldn’t hurt… oh my god were we wrong!
The track was steep and thin to start with, no worse then anything else we had done until about a quarter of the way down when the track turned very very rocky and steep. There were a lot of large loose rocks, and we constantly bottomed out. There was no way back (and I mean no way back), so we had no choice but to push on. It got worse and worse.
I rode the hill descent the whole way down as slowly as I could, although in one spot, the brakes locked up and we slid about 2m down the track. I think Zac nearly crapped his dacks… I know I almost did!
Luckily, instinct kicked in and I released and reapplied the brakes so the hill descent would kick back in and slow us down. Zac was freaked, and I promised him I would never go down a track like this again… and I actually mean it!
We finally got to the bottom, and I pulled up to inspect the damaged caused to my nice new car…
As I walked around the car I thought “Wow! How had we escaped with only a few dings in the bash plate at the front?” That was when I looked under the car and saw a steady stream of fluid… A rock had pierced the fuel tank 🙁
With nothing else we could do, Zac and I jumped in the car and bolted to the main road. This was when I saw our second snake crossing the road, but by this time I did little more then think “cool, a snake…” as I didn’t even pause.
I had some chewy lollies in the car, and I made Zac hold one in his hand until it was soft. As we hit the main road, I noticed on the map that we were near the Glenburn roadhouse, so we quickly drove down the road there. As I got out of the car, I noticed a nice stream of diesel behind us, and it was quickly pooling beneath us. I grabbed the lollie from Zac, climbed under the car and plugged the hole… it worked!! My hand was covered in diesel, so I move the car out of the way, and went inside to wash. As we came back out, the pool was back. The lollie had dissolved 🙁
Back into the roadhouse, we found some fuel tank putty, and manged to properly plug the hole, slowing the flow to a very slow drip. I had lost about a quarter of a tank 🙁
Anyway, the putty held and we headed straight home. A fantastic weekend with a sour ending… hopefully there will be enough fuel left to get me back to Nissan tomorrow morning. Will be an expensive mistake I think… not one I want to repeat!!
Below are some photos from the day… sorry none of the nightmare track or the damage!
Mount Margaret
Kepple Hut
Not sure how clear it will be, but here is the breadcrumbs from our trip… Just under 200kms day 1 and 209 kms Day 2.
