It all began about 2 weeks ago during our weekly “get together”, James had just got a new 4wd so it was suggested that we have a boy’s weekend away with our boys. Looking in the calander, we penciled in this weekend (last weekend of the school holidays) as the only one available until after cup weekend and it was set… well that was the plan up until Thursday last week!!

James realized that Josh still had two more weeks of football and so he pulled out and Mark and I were nervously watching the weather which was forecasting wet wet and more wet! I was also getting over a chest infection with a crazy cough that really wasn’t suited to a cold wet weekend in the bush.

By Thursday Mark made the call, he wasn’t going based on the weather and the fact he would rather spend the weekend getting his house ready to put on the market and I must admit at the time with my cough, I didn’t take a lot of convincing. We broke the news to the boys who were a little disappointed, but fairly understanding.

By Friday evening though… I had changed my mind… I wanted to go!!

So late Friday, I approached Zac and asked if he was still keen? Given the excited response, the trip was back on!

I spent Friday night the car ready, fridge in, camping gear in, roof rack on, BBQ, table, chairs, some warm clothing and we were loaded. Just needed some food.

We woke to a reasonable day on the Saturday, and left home about 8:30am. After a quick visit to Coles for supplies we were on our way. Now by this time, the only concern I had was that it was going to rain all night and I wasn’t really looking forward to standing around in the rain. So I made the decision to invest in a Tigerz11 rollout awning for the car. Lucky for us, Tigerz11 was on the way in Lilydale, so we made a short detour and bought a 2x3m awning that bolts onto the roof rack. We loaded our new purchase into the car and headed up through the Black Spur to Marysville.

Was as we were coming through Narbathong that I got a message from Tara and Jess, so we made a quick Facetime call from the car to say farewell. Was a quick call, but no sooner were we off the phone then I was got a message from Fi saying “were was my call?”, so a second call was made to farewell Mum who was fast asleep when we left. Was during this time that it came to light that someone in the car (and it wasn’t me…) had forgotten their toothbrush, so we made a final stop at the Marysville IGA to buy what must be the most expensive toothbrush in the world!!

We followed the road out of Marysville past the turn off to Lake Mountain, before turning off the road at the Cumberland reserve where We paused to let down the tyres for a comfy drive on the dirt. Was almost an adventure to just get here, but at last we were in the bush 🙂

The first two or three tracks we headed down turned into disasters as each time we were confronted by either a dead end or a large fallen tree that was too big for my chainsaw 🙁

Finally though we managed to break through and spent the rest of the day winding up Kepple Ridge, Rough Hill and the Four Mile Spur back down to the Stockmans Reward camp ground. Most of the day was easy going with a few steep climbs and ascents, and we found some nice muddy puddles but nothing too tricky.

While stopping for a “nature” break, Zac discovered an awesome clearing with magnificent views, so we pulled up to have some lunch. Just like last time we had bought Hot Dogs for lunch, and we setup our table and the BBQ to boil them up… well that was until I realized that I had forgotten the pot… DOH! Luckily we were able to boil the kettle and pour boiling water over them in a bowl, replacing the water which quickly cooled in the Mountain air. It did work however, and with full bellies we headed off again up the track. I took a panorama on my phone, so will try to upload it here…

Hope that looks ok!!

Anyway, probably the only challenge for the day was at the bottom of a steep descent where we came across a very muddy section of track. Again nothing too tricky, although it took 4-Lo and my foot to the floor for us to slip and slide our way through… my poor tyres were slicks by the time we made it 🙂

We arrived at Stockmans reward about 3:30pm in the afternoon and realized that it was close to the awesome campsite that Zac and I stayed at the first time we slept out. We quickly shot off down the road, and managed to once again stumble across it. This campsite was awesome, fully concealed from the road and right on the Big River, although we didn’t have to drive through two big bog holes to get in here last time 😉

Was a little muddier that I remembered it, so we went for a quick drive to check out some of the nearby sites… as they were just as bad, we felt nostalgic and so headed back to make camp. I sent Zac off to find some sticks to get the fire going while I did a bit of bushman mechanics to fit the new awning. Now I must say, this awning was the difference between a miserable night and a great night. Once I figured out how to bolt it to the roof rack, we extended it and had it ready in minutes. Instant cover 🙂 (Big Kudos for Tigerz11)

Unfortunately, Zac wasn’t so successful at gathering wood ending up with a measly pile of twigs, but luckily I had planned ahead bringing a tub of good Red Gum from home and it wasn’t long before we had a good sized fire crackling. The rain held off just long enough to cook and eat my steak and Zac’s fish, starting to drizzle just as we had finished cleaning up. Not really rain, but just enough to be annoying 🙁

We setup our swags under the awning sideways given the slight slope and only the ends weren’t covered. For the most part though we were dry so we settled around the fire for the night. Managed to get some good heat out of it and we barely noticed the rain that continued to fall.

Not so the next morning when we woke to what can be described no other way than rain. Everything was wet, and the ground was very muddy underfoot, but once we had packed the swags we were able to comfortably cook up a great breakfast under the awning, and were in no rush to get moving.

As will happen though we finally said it was time to go, so loaded all the wet equipment into and on the car. Cold and wet, we decided that was enough camping and 4wd’ing for one weekend and it was time to head home, we jumped into the car, turned the key and….. nothing!

OMG! A flat battery in the middle of the bush with no phone reception!!!

Luckily I was a good boy scout and had brought along the jump pack, so I connected it up and…. nothing!

That’s right… now we were screwed!!

I told Zac we may have to spend another night in the bush, but he wasn’t too concerned as he simply said “Yay, can’t go to school tomorrow”! I must admit I was a little more concerned. That being said, we had heard a lot of traffic up and down the main road, and I was about to tell Zac we will have to camp out by the road, flag someone down and hope they have jumper cables when the most amazing thing happened…

A white Patrol drove into our campsite… what the?? There was no reason at all for anyone to come down this little dead end track, and no one had driven in here the whole time we were here! I ran up to the car to find a Father and son, “have you got jump leads” I asked and he said “Reckon so” 🙂

So long story short, after a few tries, we managed to get the car going and were on our way. Zac later commented that it must be Karma as on the last trip we had gone out of our way to help someone else that had a flat battery. I don’t know what it was, but I was sure glad he turned into our campsite.

We followed the road straight out of the bush, pulling up just as we hit the bitumen to re-inflate the tyres. Was about then that some young kids pulled up in a 4wd. One of the guys had a flat tyre and no pump, and they begged me to follow them back to the campsite 2kms down the road to help them. My first thought was no way, as I had had enough, but then I guess one good deed deserves another, so we agreed and followed them back into the forest.

Their campsite looked like a typical young guys campsite, a massive fire with way too much wood on it, a bloke scooting through the mud on a way too small motorbike and 3 or 4 guys sitting around sinking cans… it almost felt like home before I realized that I was about 20 years too old for a campsite like that!!!

His tyre was certainly flat, sitting on the rim in fact, so we pumped it back up and were on our way. As we drove away, Zac shook his head saying “Teenagers… I will never act silly like that!” I just smiled and chuckled to myself “we’ll see son, we’ll see…”

Well that’s it, we finally made it out of the forest and home again. Another exciting adventure done.

PS – Made a quick call to Custom Fleet this evening and they sent the RACV out to fit a new battery in the car… let’s hope there are no more flat batteries for me!!!