Cairns Road Trip Day 11: Fossicking, Figs and Falls

Cairns Road Trip Day 2 and a rock called the breadknife

I was up quite early, and had some cereal for breakfast with the Currawongs and Kangaroos. My tent was covered in ice; it was damn cold last night! I packed up camp and was at the carpark for the Grand High Tops walk by about 8:00 in the morning. It goes without saying that nobody else was there!


I spotted many animals along the walk; Kangaroos, emus, kookaburras and other birds. It was a fantastic walk across the Grand High Tops, with magnificent views of the Breadknife. I walked back via Ogma Camp and Spirey Creek and this was a most enjoyable walk as well. I saw eagles soaring around the Bluff, and also spotted some wild goats with kids as well. I passed another couple at the end of the walk, almost completing the whole walk without seeing any people, and arrived back at the carpark, which now had dozens of cards parked in it. Obviously there were lots of people following me. I wasn't hungry yet, so I drove on towards St George.


I drove through lots of pasture land today, and I made a short visit to Lightening Ridge. After a quick refuel in town, and a visit to the Opal Cave I explored around some of the back-lots where I found many small opal diggings, as well as a few ruins.


Back on the highway driving into the evening I saw many kangaroos, emus, crested pigeons, apostlebirds and also many cows and sheep along the road. The sunset was magnificent!


It was getting late, but I decided to continue to my planned campsite. I arrived long after dark, (the picture on the right is actually from the next morning!) and so I decided to sleep in the car for tonight. Shrimp Mee Goreng for dinner and another sandwich. Simple but tasty.

Cairns Road Trip woo hoooo day 1 ;-)

It was an easy drive up the Newell, bringing back many pleasant memories of previous trips in younger days. I arrived at the Warrumbungles late afternoon, with the afternoon sun lighting the volcanic cores with a warm orange glow. Cheers to magic hour.


Driving into the park towards the campground, I saw a snake on the road catching the last of the sun's warmth.


There were lots of small kangaroos in the park, and they were quite tame too. I saw lots of young joeys, which were very cute as they looked back at me quite inquisitively. I set up my camp quickly, and it was a most nice place to camp. There was a good large toilet and shower block, as well as a covered BBQ area. After the tent was up in about 15 minutes I cooked myself some simple Satay Me Goreng which is very delicious and finished dinner off with a sandwich. Then it was off for an early sleep, in preparation for my walk tomorrow.

4WDing in the Wombat State Forest

This was a day trip into the Wombat State Forest so Geoff could try out some more 4WDing in his GQ Patrol. Also, as Geoff's daughter Cindy and hubbie Bruce were out from England they came along for the ride.

But as is often the case, things don't go quite to plan. Geoff's car was playing up and overheating, meaning hill climbs needed to be taken carefully, with rests at regular intervals.

We drove along Seerery Track, and Blue Gum Track, climbing higher and higher, and playing in the odd mud puddle.

We found a side track, and set-up for lunch, and to let Geoff's car have a cool down. We enjoyed a nice bush BBQ whilst Liam entertained us with the Numa Numa Dance.

We turned down Nuggetty Track, which had a few challenging reasonably steep sections. At the bottom near Holts Road there was a very steep diversion where Geoff got to try out his trucks ability at some hill climbing.

We continued the circuit back along Bluegum, and then turned down Ratcliffe Track which took us across Middle Creek.

Number One Fire Trail was an easy drive, and we played on some forest tracks off Firth Road. I got stuck in one big hole, requiring Geoff to give me a quick snatch out. There goes another A/C compressor...

After the reminder that these holes can be deceivingly deep, I checked all future holes. One I checked, in the photograph at left was 1.5 metres deep at the furthest end. Goes without saying that we gave this one a miss.

A 4WD Day Trip to Warburton, with a scary ending

I felt like getting away and trying on some easy 4WDing, so bundled myself up to explore around the Warburton area.

I wanted to drive up Mount Little Joe, and explore the old mines indicated on my map near the summit. But all the tracks were gated, so I headed up Old Warburton Road to revisit some tracks I'd driven on previously.

Edwardstown Road, in the picture was quite rutted, but as it was dry it didn't prove any problems.

I then turned up Guidehouse Road and down a side track near the timber mill. This crossed Britannia Creek, where an extremely steep track continued up the hill side. Don't think I'd try this one with company, let alone on my own!

The track past the timber mill was also very rutted, and good fun to meander over. This track is now unfortunately closed off. More and more tracks are disappearing before my eyes, especially in the Warburton area.

This track of which I'm not sure of the name since all of the tracks around here had been realigned from what's recorded on my maps, looked a little too rutted for my tastes today.

It was somewhere in the vicinity of Britannia Firetrail, where I continued along an unmarked track.

The ruts along here were quite impressive, allowing underbody work to be undertaken if desired. I decided to take the high and low road at the same time. The angle was quite pronounced, but not enough to risk a rollover. Driving fully in the rut (or was it a dried up boghole?) would have been very tight, and I didn't feel like widening the hole with my sidebars and steps.

I passed a few good bog holes before joining up with Buffer Track. Here the track was interspersed with some large boulders, and I managed to get some good angles happening as I crawled up and over.

The track rejoined Britannia Fireline, and I then started descending Ellis Track. There was quite a steep section which I made it down without drama, but the track further ahead looked very rocky, rutted and steep. It didn't feel a good idea to continue on my own, so after a multipoint turn, I eventually made it back up to the track junction. A good bit of careful wheel placement over ruts was required, but I made it in the end. The article in the March 2006 4WD Monthly on the Warburton area showed I made the right decision! Ellis Creek track is apparently quite a challenge.

The track became quite overgrown just before Taylors Track, with lots of small trees encrouching the road. Most likely regrowth after logging in this area.

I headed north along Taylors Track, joining up with Portas Road, a good quality 2WD gravel road. I passed up the shortcut of Lady Walkers Track, it was very overgrown, and headed down the mountain along Portas Road to Britannia Creek Road instead. Passing the bottom of Lady Walkers Track told me I made the right decision.

From here I drove up Justice Creek Track, which is pictured. A lovely drive through the mountain ash.

The road joined up with the lower portions of Cemetery Track, which descends quite steeply in sections down to Edwardstown Road. The spoon drains are quite pronounded, and the views across the Yarra Valley beautiful.

I decided to do one last circuit, driving up to Mt Tugwell and back down Cemetery Track before heading home. Rain was threatening, but I thought I would make it before the heavens opened up.

This was not to be. It started raining quite heavily as I drove along Cemetery Track.

The rain turned the top inch of track into slippery, slimmey, claggy mud. I felt the initial loss of traction just as I was approaching the first spoon drain before the big steep descent down Cemetery Track, and managed to steer and slide off the track into a washout. Very lucky, as the track past that drain was very steep, all the way to the bottom. I had no idea that the track could get so slippery so quickly!

Recovery was quite an effort. I let some air out of the tyres, but even with diff locks on I was only able to move a couple of metres back towards the track from the washout. The thick mud turning my tyres into slicks.

I hooked the winch up to a tree on the left of the track, and managed to winch the front of the car around so that I was at least facing back onto the track.

From there I did 3 or 4 pulls back up the hill to a point where I thought the track had leveled enough and I wasn't at risk of sliding back down.

On the last pull, a group of dirt bikes came past and offered to help, but I was pretty much there. They considered driving down the track, but wisely decided to head up and out, having enough trouble doing that on the slippery clay.

My winch siezed up on the last pull, but with difflocks engaged I was able to continue up the last of the slope, and head on back home.

4WD Day Trip to Mt Cole

Geoff had been itching to get out in his 'new' toy, so we plannedd a trip up to Mt Cole. This was a first time visit, and is a beautiful spot for camping and 4WDing. We stopped off at a market along the way, collecting a fair amount of fudge, as well as some other tasty treats before heading off into the bush proper.

We climbed along lovely track Frees Point Road which took us up to Mt Cole, with scenic views. We then continued around Mt Cole on Mt Cole Track, which took us through much wetter forest, eventually rejoining the road, where we stopped for some morning tea on Ditchfield Track.

There was a very large horse type event going on. A multiday, scores of kilometres riding event. We passed quite a number of horses during the day.

We found a few steep tracks (Manly Point Track) and passed some camping areas; on the lookout for the perfect lunch stop spot.

We eventually found it (though it was missing a river...) A secluded detour off the main track near the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. We cleared the forest litter and started up a nice fire for our Bush BBQ.

Exploring around further, the Hell Hole sounded too good to bypass. There were some steep bits of track, but nothing too hairy.

We continued exploring around, driving along Mugwamp Track and eventually returning to Manly Point Track for one last go before returning home.

A 4WD day trip to the Bunyip State Forest with the old ADSS Team!

Following in the tracks of a previous exploratory trip in this area, a few workmates and I set off for a bit of offroad exploring in the Bunyip State Forest area. First stop was the Sherwood Forest so that some of the guys out from Bangalore could get up close and personal with the Rosellas. But none of them wanted to get anywhere near them, so it was left to the Aussies to show them how it was done. Perhaps it was something to do with the current Bird Flu scare?

 

We continued on to Four Brothers Rocks, exploring around and climbing over the granite boulders. There were good views to be had, as well as many photo opportunities.

 
 

The 4WD tracks we tried were all pretty tame, even the good tracks that I had read about. There was a small shortcut up the hill, so for a bit of excitment we gave it a go. It was good, and we made it a fair way up before the boulders that were the track became too large to navigate. Reversing back down was even more fun!


It was getting close to lunch time, and I had a lunch destination in mind. On the way I spotted a bit of mud, so without any thought I veered off the road and straight towards it. We needed to get some real 4WDing in today one way or another.


Always look and think before driving into something is the advice I left back on the road. This side track had a sharp drop-off, leaving the car sitting happily on it's belly. Front wheels were spinning in the mud, and rear wheels were spining in the air.


Bhaski did wonders with the shovel and soon had us out and going again. No? Well we managed to get some trail bike riders on the radio. They came out of the mountains and had a good laugh at us, but couldn't get us going despite a multitude of ideas and suggestions. We tried digging, chocking wood under the wheels and rocking the car. We were well and truly stuck. There was nothing in sight that I could winch off, so it was looking like we either sit it out till somebody drove past, or call a tow truck. Luckily the bikers found another 4WD up in the hills which came down to our rescue.


After the excitement of thinking we'd be stuck out in the searing heat for days, we eventually made it to the secluded spot on the river for a bush BBQ.


There was some serious gourmet cooking going down with a multitude of foods from all nations. We relaxed around the fire whilst Gaurav went quite feral with the axe. There's something about an axe that can bring out the dark side of people's personalities.