Toolangi again

A group 4WD trip back to Toolangi

Mark/Shane/Tony/Russell:
Nissan Patrol
Nathan:
Toyota Landcruiser
Shano/Sal:
Discovery

This was an excellent trip. There had been lots of rain in the lead up to this trip, which can only be a good thing for 4WDing in Toolangi. Shane, Tony and Russell met at my place, and we then proceeded to Yarra Glen were we joined Nathan, Shano and Sal. We weren't even out of Yarra Glen when a black ute pulled out suddenly in front of me causing me to brake heavily. I flashed my lights, which turned out to be gutsy move as it was an unmarked police car which booked Shano and Sal for allegedly doing 75 in a 60 zone. Tough call since Nathan and I both thought we were doing around 60, and Shano was between the two of us...

Anyway, back on the road and one Kookaburra later we reached Marginal Road, which finally got us off the bitumen. On our right was a link track up to Wee Creek Track which climbed steeply up the hill through the trees. This gave Russell and Tony, both on their first 4WD trip, an indication of the day to come: we were not going to be driving down many easy 2WD dirt tracks. Nathan was first up, using every trick in the book short of winching to get through some sections, then it was Shano's turn. The Disco couldn't make it, likely due to the lack of A/T tyres, and so Shano headed back down and it was my turn. We made it up without too much trouble, though I'm sure there were a few times when all wheels were spinning and I had to engage diff locks. Up the top we waited for Shano and Sal to catch up the long way, and we then continued along Wee Creek Track. The recent rain had turned the top of the road into slime, leading to some sideways driving until we passed the top of the range, and got into the more serious stuff.

Victoria Range Track was great. We soon came to two bog holes side by side. The right bog hole was too deep to attempt. The left bog hole was probably passable, but the exit point was such that there was a reasonable probability of toppling the trucks into the right bog hole, so we had to take the bypass track. The bypass track left at a right angle, which was quite hard to negotiate on the slippery track. Nathan resorted to winching in to avoid a tree, which was getting too close. Shano got in without too much hassle. I found it a challenge to get in with the truck sliding down the track. I got past the first tree with centimetres to spare, and the crawl past the second tree was even closer. Eventually we were around and back onto the track. We stopped near the top of the range for lunch, fired up the hot plates and had the usual sausages and bread. It's not a bad lunch, and it's a bit hard to fit steak and hamburgers for 4 on a 2 burner stove, but there has to be something else we can do for lunch. Maybe chicken shasliks next time...

Back onto the track, which was getting more rutted and more slippery. Another bypass around an unnegotiable bog hole saw us slide down from one side of the track to the other to the far side of the bog hole. Following on down the track with a river of mud and water pushed ahead of us down the ruts we eventually came to Spraggs Road. We continued across and up Victoria Range Track, which was much wider with no ruts but still very slippery. The area at the top of this track was cleared through logging, but looked like a bush fire had passed through. Following the track down the other side saw us through a very wet boggy section, with a GQ Patrol stuck on the track ahead. They were by themselves, and were very relieved to see us come around the corner. The truck was straddling the ruts, and was pretty well going nowhere. We all got out and bounced the front of the truck over into the same ruts that the back of the truck was in, and had them going again. We welcomed them into our convoy, and they followed us around the rest of the day.

Victoria Range Track became Downies Spur Track, which we followed until Downies Road. Right onto Downies Road soon followed by a left onto Klondyke Road eventually brought us to a link track to Marginal Road. It was amazing how dry the link track was compared to the other tracks we had been on on the other side of the range. The link track followed the spur down to Marginal Road, which we then followed to the right to Kalatha Creek Track. Past the turn off to Campsite Track, we came across a group of 10 or more trucks on a beginner's 4WD course. They were one by one negotiating a rather deep and long bog hole. The first car we saw through required snatching out at the other end, as did a Landcruiser, which died in the middle with suspected water in the engine. It turned out to be a blown air inlet hose, much to everyone's relief. A Pathfinder wisely took the easy way around, and the last of the course members made it through without mishap. I made it through without trouble, our adopted friend Brad and his family in the GQ Patrol took the easy way as well under advice (petrol, with no blind or snorkel). Shano and Nathan also made it through. We soon caught up with the course group again, who were parked alongside the same bog hole I went through from the opposite side on my 4WD course. A quick check of the bog hole and we were through, with much cheering from the people on the course! Brad, Shano & Sal, and Nathan followed through without incident. We headed up out of Kalatha Creek valley via Martins Road, and after a few more bog holes on Pine Track, we were on Two Hills Road. After pumping up the tires, and exchanging contact numbers with Brad, we were back on our way home after a very enjoyable days driving.

Track Summary:

Marginal Road - Wee Creek Link Track

Medium to hard. Rocky and slightly slippery. Medium gradient.

Wee Creek Track

Easy.

Victoria Range Track - East of Spraggs Road

Medium to hard. Slippery and rutted. A number of long bog holes. We travelled West to East. This track would be harder going East to West.

Victoria Range Track - West of Spraggs Road

Easy. Slippery, but no ruts and wide.

Downies Spur Track

Medium. Some bog holes and ruts. Slippery.

Klondyke Road

Easy. Dry, and tending to overgrown in some sections.

Klondyke Road - Marginal Road Link Track

Easy. Dry, with easy gradient down to Marginal Road.

Kalatha Creek Track

Medium. Wet, rutted and long bog holes.

Martins Road

Easy.

Pine Track

Easy to medium. Some bog holes.

Bogong High Plains

A Camping Trip to the Bogon High Plains

Henric/Heather
Nissan Pathfinder
Mark/Michelle/James/Liam
Nissan Patrol

Friday

Friday we arrived at Mongan's Bridge Caravan Park in the early afternoon, where we setup camp and settled down for a relaxing evening.

Saturday

I got up early and walked down to the Kiewa River, where I caught a very good sized brown trout, which we stuffed with lemon and onion for dinner.

After breakfast, Henric and I went driving looking for some 4WD tracks.  We drove up to Falls Creek, keeping a constant lookout for tracks, but all were closed off as being part of the water catchment.  Not really a 4WD destination, this area.  More walking.  Oh well, we explored Falls Village and headed back to camp to enjoy that trout.

Sunday

On Sunday we reviewed the maps and identified a 4WD track, so off we headed.  The track however proved a little hard to locate, eventually finding it through a farmers property.  With some guidance from the landowner, we were through some gates and making our way across the paddocks and up the hill.  This was a real nice 4WD track across the top of a spur.  Henric got to use his chainsaw and clear a tree off the track.  We backtracked down through some pine plantation and came out in a lush green field where we stopped over a small creek and ate our picnic lunch under a tall gum.  Continuing on after lunch we found ourselves back on the farm.  Giving our farewells to the owner, and thanking him we headed back to camp

Monday

On Monday, Henric and I headed off looking for more tracks, and found another track out the back of a farmers property.  Nobody was home, so we made our way through and drove up a very narrow windy road to another track running along the ridge top.  Time was against us exploring further, so we headed back to camp to pack up and make our way back home.

Big River revisit

This was an impromptu trip, arranged the night before due to the cancellation of another trip that Nathan had arranged.

I picked up Mark #2 from South Yarra, and after collecting some supplies we met up with Nathan at Ringwood before setting off.  Nathan was feeling a little on the delicate side after eating something suspect the night before, and visions of our last Big River trip came to mind.  We travelled via Warburton, where we had a short breakfast stop (the Meat Pie was reportedly delicious, however on two counts the sausage rolls were too salty).  We then made a small stop at the Upper Yarra Reservoir to check out the camping sites for future trips. (the stop also provided a much needed toilet stop which fortunately seemed to set Nathan right for the rest of the day.)

After leaving Upper Yarra, we headed up Reefton Spur, which like the Black Spur is an excellent road for motor biking.  Unlike most trips on the Black Spur, we didn't see a single bike along its entire length.

We arrived at the Big River State Forest and started scouting tracks.  Following Big River Road, Mark #2, who has recently moved to Australia managed to fulfil a long held goal:  to see a snake in the wild.  Well, we managed to see the tail of a snake slide off the road into the grass on the verge.

We turned off Big River Road at Stockman's Reward campground, and after airing down the tyres, we headed up Petroffs Track.  This track was slightly rutted, and had no bog holes.  It was very slightly overgrown in some parts so we decided not to follow it further and took a right turn, which brought us back to Vans Road.  Vans Road was more interesting and had a number of wet patches that gave some challenges.  Following Vans Road back towards Stockmans Reward Camp, we took a left hand turn across the Torbreck River onto a track that is not named on either of the maps I have.  This track led to Gum Top Trail, and eventually to Reefton Logging Road.  There were a number of small bog holes along here, one of which we had to bypass as the entry point was too narrow, and would have definitely resulted in some panel damage.  Deciding not to go through this hole led to some futile steering trying to extract myself out of the slippery ruts.  I eventually needed to reverse a considerable way before being able to get back out and follow an alternate route around.

The track soon became drier, and rockier, and steeper.  We paused to check the track ahead, which was quite steep and covered in loose rocks.  This track was not really much steeper then any track I had already been up (though close), it was more that half way up the track before it turned to the right there was a large tree right in the centre.  The concern with this was that it would make reversing back down the track if required quite difficult.

We decided to give it a go; Mark #2 walked halfway up the track to get some photos and I switched on the difflocks and headed up.  The track wasn't too bad apart from one corner where I could feel the truck slide to the side as I went around.  I passed the tree and headed onwards upwards.  I could see the top of the track, which actually appeared as a large rocky outcrop.  I was within about 50 metres of the top when I stalled the truck.  Really not interested in reversing back down, I left the truck here and walked back down to get some advice from Nathan, and/or the Tirfor.

I got down to where Nathan and Mark #2 were to find that Nathan had had similar trouble on the bend where I felt the truck slide a little.  Nathan apparently had got his truck at an angle beyond anything he had previously, and had felt certain that he was going to tip over.  He had managed to get the truck onto a safer angle, though still looking precarious and was ready to winch.  With the angle that the truck was still on, the only thing keeping the tyre on the rim was the fact that they were split rims.  Mark #2 would have gotten a fantastic photo of Nathan's predicament, however he was too busy running out of the way.

Mark and Mark hooked up the tree protector and cable to a solid looking tree, where I managed to get bitten by a Jumping Jack, again.  This is starting to become a regular occurrence on these trips.  Nathan started winching, and the tree started creaking.  We decided that this tree didn't seem quite as sturdy as first felt and so when the truck was secure we moved the cable to another tree.  It wasn't so much the size of the tree, but more the health of it that we were concerned with, and when winching we all prefer not to take any chances.  Nathan got past the rough spot, and with much tyre spinning and burnt rubber came up behind were I was stopped.

After some deliberation, and some minor track clearing we decide the best way to get me going again was to try a handbrake start and give it another go.  I turned the ignition back on, and noticed that the compressor wasn't stopping.  It should stop once pressure is reached.  Some flicking of switches confirmed that it was the rear difflock, and Nathan could hear air escaping at the rear diff.  There was no real option but forward, with or without diffs, so with handbrake on (the transmission handbrake on the Patrols is quite good), and foot extremely hard on the brake, I slowly pressed the clutch in.  The truck moved back slightly as the transmission brake gave over to the foot brake.  I started it up and gave it another go.  Letting the clutch out slowly until I felt it grab, then letting the handbrake off and then clutch out completely I sat there with all wheels spinning.  Turning the steering from left to right eventually found some traction and I got up and over onto the flatter part of the track.  The compressor also stopped cycling, so it appears that the particular position that I was in did not allow the difflock to actually lock.  It obviously did once I was moving though.

Nathan also had trouble getting past this point, with there being much spinning and the smell of rubber.  Rocks can be slippery!   Eventually though we were up the hill and driving along the ridge, which as usual affords magnificent views of the ranges and bush all around.

We came to a ‘T' junction, which was the perfect lunch spot.  Travelling through the slippery tracks earlier, and the time taken to ascend this hill had taken a lot longer than anticipated, and lunch ended up being at about 3:00 PM.  Whilst unpacking and setting up for lunch, the true casualty of the steep ascent getting here was revealed: THE BREAD WAS SQUASHED!

It must have been jostled about on the track, and had made its way between the esky and the rear door.  It was squashed.  Mark #2 was having great difficulty accepting this, and the earlier achievement of seeing a snake in the wild was quickly forgotten.  Fortunately there were some salvageable slices, and so we began lunch.  Nathan explained to Mark #2 the rites of the sacrificial sausage, and it wasn't long before we were all sitting down eating and analysing our trip so far.  Though we still couldn't get over that the BREAD WAS SQUASHED.

With lunch finished and packed away, we took the right turn at the ‘T' which eventually brought us to Vennells Camp Ground.  We crossed Big River, and turned left back onto Big River Road, and followed this to Cambarville Logging Road.  We eventually wanted to end up on the Goulburn River for our dinner stop, and I chose Cambarville Logging Road, as it's name suggested that it was a road in which logging trucks travelled.  This would seem to indicate that it was wide, clear, and reasonably graded.  None of these turned out to be true.  The track soon became a goat track, then a rabbit track.  It would then seem to clear which would encourage us to continue, and then it would all turn bad again.  Mark #2 spent a considerable amount of time walking ahead with the machete.  This was scary, as he seemed to enjoy this far too much; the machete become an extension of his hand, and with a tomahawk in his other hand he cut a path for us.

Needless to say that this was extremely slow going, and this track is one that none of us will ever venture down again.  Also, somewhere along this track I seemed to develop an attraction to logs.  There was a log on the side of the track, which I gave little notice too.  I got the front wheel over, however it ended up with me straddling it.  The log had rolled as I passed over it resulting in an increase in its height, which then firmly wedged beneath the side step and the front diff.  After some digging and analysis on Nathan's recommendation I difflocked up reversed back a little, which enabled Mark and Nathan to shift the log enough for me to drive forwards and over it.  This however necessitated the pointing out of all future logs on the trail to avoid a similar occurrence.  We finally got off this God Forsaken track onto Ryan Spur Track, which was of a much better quality and allowed a faster travelling speed.  Ryan Spur Track eventually brought us to Knockwood Track which appeared to have seen a bush fire on the Northern slope in recent years.  It was strange that the Southern side of the track had seemed to escape the fire, as the track itself did not appear wide enough to have acted as any form of firebreak.  Perhaps it was a controlled burn?  We really wanted to stop for dinner, it was getting later and later, and this track seemed to go on for ages.

The map indicated that there were two mines along this track, however we did not see any signs of them from within the car.  Perhaps a future trip we will have to explore around and see if we can site them.  We did see a fairly solid hut however, but again we did not investigate, as we really wanted to get to the river and have dinner.  The road continued on and on without any sign of descending.  We could see how steep both sides of the ridge we were riding was and really needed to see the track start descending as we knew that our destination was 500 metres below us.  Eventually the track started heading down, and then it would rise again.  This continued for some time descending a little then ascending a little less, till eventually the track showed the most magnificent view ahead, more the rewarding as it was a significant descent and appeared to be the end of the ridge.  After reaching the bottom, we took the right hand track, which brought us through a camping ground. We crossed Moonlight Creek and joined the Mansfield Woods Point Road at Knockwood.  This was the junction with Army Track, which we had explored on a previoustrip. We turned left and headed down towards Jamieson, wanting to stop anywhere along the Goulburn for dinner.  It was getting late, approx 7:00PM, and it was a long way back out.

Dinner was at Picnic Point on the Goulburn, fishing was not fruitful, however Nathan cooked up a most delicious beef curry. After the dishes, Mark #1 and Mark #2 headed back home, whilst Nathan remained alone to camp the night and enjoy the serenity.

The trip back allowed the spotting of much wildlife.  Below is a catalogue of the animals we saw:

• A trout that followed the lure whilst fishing, though this was contested by some.
• A number of bats, one of which we believe was unfortunately julienned by the roof rack (veggie basket), or at least given a nasty headache.
• A number of foxes
• A number of wallabies
• A wallaby pretending to be a wombat
• A real wombat, which was again contested.  We stopped and drove back to gain indisputable proof, but it had wandered off into the bush.  (It was suggested that it hopped off like the previous wombat).
• An owl, which flew down onto the road wondering what we were doing looking for wombats.

I have included a picture of a wombat and a wallaby so that it can be understood how easily the two of these can be confused with each other.

Track Summary

Petroffs Track

Easy.  Rutted and dry.  Slightly overgrown at start becoming more overgrown.

Van's Road

Easy to Medium.  Wet, rutted and some bog holes

Unnamed Track

Hard.  Wet at start with bog holes.  Becoming drier with steep, rocky ascent.   Bad camber on bend of track.

Cambarville Logging Road

Medium.  Overgrown, narrow and rutted.  Logs and rocks across track.

Ryan Spur Track

Easy.  Some puddles, well graded.

Knockwood Track

Easy.  Some ascents and descents.

Jordan River Valley

Saturday 27^th January

This was a trip initially in the footsteps of last weeks trip, but an opportunity for Michelle and the kids to come along as they missed out last weekend. It was also a trip of exploration into the Jordan Valley to see Jericho and Red Jacket that I had wanted to do for many years, long before I had a 4WD to get me down there.

We stopped for breakfast at Cambarville.  We spent a little longer there this weekend, looking at the old houses, some still being lived in whilst others in complete ruin.  Prior to the time of the sawmill and the timber getting there must have been some huge trees in this area.  Apart from the rare tree surviving from that time, the rotting stumps with the notches in the side the timber getters used are the only clues to how large these trees were.  One day we will have to take a walk to the Big Tree.  I wonder which is bigger, the Big Tree or the Ada Tree?

We drove from Cambarville to Matlock and shortly after Matlock headed down into the Jordan Valley.  The turn off was unmarked, and there was some uncertainty that this was the right direction, however a little further down the track we came across an information board with some of the history and photos of the Gold mining towns of Jericho and Red Jacket.

The road down was not steep, and just bordered on requiring a 4WD vehicle.  Eventually the valley floor came into view, and was a lovely verdant green.  The nature of this green was soon to reveal itself, and it was anything but lovely.

The entire floor of the Jordan Valley was completely over run with Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area in Jericho in which to camp, but river access was pretty well denied.  Some access was available where the tunnel was, however the river main could barely be seen.  It certainly wasn't possible to explore around looking for relics or signs of the town that once was.  We headed further upstream, but the story was the same.  Blackberries everywhere.  This was extremely disappointing, as I had wanted to explore these old sites for many years.   We had always believed this area to be idyllic; we headed down stream to find our lunch site.

We stopped on the river for lunch at what was presumably Red Jacket.  I had heard that there was a cemetery here, as well as some ruins.  All we could find were Blackberries.  There was a small cleared area at the side of the track were we set up for lunch.  After lunch we continued across the Jordan to see if there was any sign of what was once Red Jacket, but apart from a piece of rusting iron, we saw nothing but blackberries.

We continued further down the Jordan, and were finally rewarded with some indications of this area's past.  There were many mullock heaps and excavations on the side of the road, stone walls and water traces as well as other signs of diggings.  We continued down towards Violet Town, where again we saw no signs of it's existence before making the steep rocky scrabble out of the valley.  On our ascent we passed a small convoy of 4WD vehicles coming down, fortunately we met at a portion of the track that enabled us to move to the side.  We made our way back to the Walhalla Woods Point Road, and headed back towards Matlock.  We passed a tin hut, in which Michelle left our names on the wall.  Whilst scanning on the UHF, we picked up a young girl (Jessica?) singing.  James talked with here along most of our trip back to Matlock.   At Matlock, we headed down towards Jamieson looking for a suitable camping spot, the plan was to stay at the same location as last week.  We might even find that missing shoe…

Unfortunately it was a long weekend, and that campsite as well as pretty much every other one was already taken.  Tunnel Bend was completely crowded, and every small track off the side of the road led to somebodies tent.  We eventually found a spot that looked half descent.  We got out and checked the river access and it was all looking good until some guy rolled up, parked near our car and got out to do some fishing.  Rather than wait and see if he was going to set up his tent right next to us, we continued our search.  I found what appeared to be the perfect spot.  Too small for anybody else to join us, and right near the river.  We emptied everything out of the car, and I started to clear some brush from the tent site, as it was a fraction too small for our 6 man dome tent.  Unfortunately one of those plants was the roof to a Jumping Jack ant's nest, and the ant on the leaf I grabbed was none too happy with me.  Those things can bite!  I've still got the sore 2 weeks later.

Everything was quickly thrown back into the car for one last look for a campsite, else we were going to drive back home tonight.   Michelle saw a promising track, which we turned back to explore.  This was the best campsite on the river.  We set up camp for the night, had some dinner, had a swim and an unproductive fish, and then went to sleep with the sounds of the Goulburn.

Sunday, 28^th January 2001

Michelle, James and Liam went for an early morning fish while I tried to catch up on some sleep.  They didn't catch anything, but the bottom caught and kept our Rooster Tail lure.  The search is now on to replace it, but we haven't yet found them anywhere.

After breakfast, we packed up and started towards Jamieson.  We kept an eye out for the lost shoe, but never saw it anywhere along our journey.  James and I fished a little in the Goulburn, but with no luck.   I saw a reasonable size fish follow the lure once, but there wasn't any action to speak of.  We also fished in a nice spot on the Goulburn Arm, north of Jamieson, but there were no fish there today.  Through Mansfield and onto Bonnie Doon for a lunch stop (how's the serenity?) and we made our way back home through Yea.

Big River

Mark
Nissan Patrol
Henric:
Nissan Pathfinder
Nathan/Dana:
Toyota Landcruiser

Saturday 20^th January

Henric and I departed from my place in Eltham approx 7:30am, and headed East through Yarra Glen Healesville, through the magnificent Mountain Ash forest of the Black Spur to our fuel stop at Narbethong Shell.

From there it was a short drive through Marysville to our breakfast stop at Cambarville.  Some houses of Cambarville still remain, and some are even still in use.  Most of the town was destroyed by fire in 1970. Close by is the tallest living tree in Victoria, and the second tallest in the world.

From Cambarville, we headed East past Cumberland Junction and turned left onto Eildon Warburton Road.  We then turned right into Big River Road, which we followed to Stockman's Reward.  Along the way we explored some bush camping sites along the Big River.  One site had our first 'water obstacle', a large puddle close to some campers by the river.  After checking for depth, and considering whether our driving through might upset the nearby campers, Henric went through followed closely by myself.  The kids watching thought it was great.

Miners Flat Camping Ground wasn't very picturesque, and was missing the single most important feature of a good bush camping site:  river access.  It did however have an interesting shortcut out being a steep climb, which again gave both Henric and I a chance to try some 4WDing.

Of the bush camping sites investigated along the Big River heading towards Frenchmans Creek, only 3 stood out as anything special: Dairy Flat Camping Area (considered the best, and I also managed to catch a small brown trout here), Gang Gang Gully Camping Area, and McClelland Camping Area.  In between scoping for future bush camping sites, and since we had some time to kill before our scheduled rendezvous with Nathan and Dana, we decided to do some 4WDing and headed up Snowy Track.  The Snowy Road Camping area was another possible camping location, but not up to the standards of the spots along Big River we were to discover.  I also managed to catch a small Rainbow trout in the river here.

Turning left out of the camping area onto Ely track we headed for some off-road driving.  A short pause to air down the tyres and we were off.  The track was slightly rutted, but nothing too taxing.  We followed this track to it's end, then turned right onto an un-named track running parallel to Frenchmans Spur Track.  Proceeding along this track gave some enjoyable views to the valleys on either side, and our first bog hole.  I was in lead, and pulled up to check the solidity.  It appeared nothing more than a slight dampness of the track, looking perfectly solid.  I was about to find a stick and confirm that this was the case, but as we had two vehicles and could snatch each other out if there was trouble we just drove through.  The crust quickly gave way to the weight of the truck and the Patrol dropped into the thick mud.  Nothing that slowed us down though and the Pathfinder followed through easily as well.  That would be the worst of the mud we would see on this trip.

We continued along this track until it came to the Frenchman's Spur Track at Short Cut Number 2.  We turned left onto Frenchman's Spur, and doubled back on ourselves to Big River Road.  Frenchman's Spur Track was a good quality road, easily suitable for 2WD, at least on the portion we drove upon.

We had just investigated Specimen Creek camping area, and were onto our meeting point when we got the call on the UHF from Nathan, who was at the rendezvous point, and most surprisingly on time! (Am I a little too cynical?)  As a bonus he had received our SMS sent from Cambarville to bring roast chickens for dinner due to the declaration of a total fire ban.

We all had lunch at Frenchman's Creek Camping Area, and reviewed the plans for the rest of the days driving.

After lunch, we headed back out of the camping area and turned left onto Frenchman's Creek Track.  The track soon became a bit scrubby but was easy driving.  Our first water crossing, being over the creek was very shallow, however the exit point was steep and gave some interest.  The track continued along the creek, and we diverted left onto Monument Creek Track.  This brought us quickly out of the valley up a spur where the track followed the ridge, bringing us to an altitude of 1000 metres at the junction with Boundary Track.  We passed numerous trees bearing delicious red berries, however nobody would believe me that they weren't poisonous and so the rest of the group missed out on this bush tucker delight. Following Boundary Track brought us back down again to Frenchman's Creek Track, a drop of approx 440 metres.  We continued along Frenchman's Creek Track until Two Mile Track.  This was our steepest ascent so far, a loose rocky track that brought us out of the valley at 600 metres to an altitude of 1127 metres, in probably 2 kilometres?  The track joined Frenchman's Spur Track, which we followed onto Warburton Woods Point Road.

We continued along the road to Woods Point until we reached Pheasant's Creek Track, a sharp left turn.  This was an easy track with good views.  A smaller track veered off to the right, but keeping left kept us going in the right direction.  We eventually came to an old mine, a vertical shaft at the side of the road.  A dropped stick gave an estimated depth of 100m to 150m.  Pretty deep.  Wonder how accurate it was?

The map indicated another mine further along, but we didn't see the shaft.  There were plenty of mullock heaps along the side of the track to indicate that the area was indeed heavily mined.  The track descended as we came closer to Woods Point, and it was evident that there was a lot of mining activity still taking place; signs of Entry Prohibited, fences and tracks all over the hills, etc.  We chose the right track on the lower side of the hill at every junction, saw a very large black wallaby, and eventually came out on the track between the two toilets at Woods Point Camping Reserve.

Time for the obvious and then Henric headed into Woods Point for a refuel, whilst Nathan and I got the fishing gear out.  I caught a small brown trout in the river, my 3^rd fish for the weekend.  That Rooster Tail Lure is a sure winner – Thanks Michelle!

On Henric's return, we headed down the Mansfield Woods Point Road towards Jamieson, looking for a campsite for the evening.

We had heard that Tunnel Bend was a nice spot, however on passing it did not classify as Bush Camping.  A good place to camp with the family and kids, but it can get a little crowded.

Henric, Nathan and Dàna continued down the road whilst I turned down an embankment at a promising spot to try a bit more fishing.  Eventually the others returned and though no fish were caught, it was decided that this was an ideal spot to set up camp for the night.

Tents were soon up, and after a swim in the warm Goulburn River, dinner was served. Thanks be for BBQ Chicken.  Henric's car fridge also afforded us the luxury of ice cream and raspberries!

Henric's difficulty in finding some condiment that was on the centre of the table all along brought forward the classic line, “Are those eyes painted on?”

For some reason the watching of a DVD on the laptop never happened, and one by one we all made our way to our tents.

Sunday, 21^st January 2001

Morning brought bacon and eggs (the fire ban was off), a most refreshing river swim (which one member of the group did in secrecy of the others for reasons unknown), and an interesting tale of goings on through the night:

Nathan had gotten the call of nature in a big way through the pitch black of night.  I guess he just new that this was not the sort of "steamin' demon" to plant within smelling range of camp, nor was this the sort of beast to leave above ground if given the choice.  A pit toilet was called for, and recollection had one not too far down the road at an established campsite.  That was the plan.  Dana recalls Nathan leaving at about 01:00, and was woken by his return at 03:00.  It was an overcast, star-less, moon-less, light-less night.  Somehow Nathan found his way back up the path and embankment and onto the roadside.  The walk to the pit toilet however was longer than the urge allowed, and the rest would be obvious.  Why he didn't take a torch????  Anyway, somehow he made it back to camp to tell the tale.

Packed up and on the road again, we drove into Jamieson.  We stopped in the reserve by the Jamieson River for a civilised toilet stop.  It was then observed that one of Dana's shoes was on Nathan's bull bar.  These things normally travel in pairs.  The other was somewhere between Jamieson and the campsite 30 kilometres back up the road.

A stop in at Granny's Flat was called for to check out how steep one of the access tracks was.  It was steep.  The Landcruiser with heaps of engine braking and an extremely low low first had no problems.  The Patrol got down without too much drama, but the wide tyres contributed to some slide out of the back of the truck.  The auto PathFinder also had no major issues.  A quick look around Grannies Flat, which is a magnificent camping area, and then we drove through the Jamieson River and started making our way towards the Howqua.

We headed up Master's Track, up the spur and came to Stony Creek Track/Mitchell's Track (depending which map you look at, which we followed a ways and headed down Symes Track.  A flying log took out the rear wheel flare on the Patrol, there is a lot of plastic on these cars. But again this is beautiful country, as was the drought affected Howqua at Running Creek Camping Area, where a river crossing brought us to a picturesque lunch location.  Apparently BBQ chicken and ham off the bone is an acceptable sandwich combination.  A swim and a fish later, and we were back in the cars looking for some action.  The river crossing at the other end of camp had a steep entrance, but posed no problems.  Nor did the river, which was as shallow as all the other rivers we had crossed that weekend.  The other side of the river held some tracks, which pretty much went nowhere.  We drove down the river bank and came out on a stony river flat in the bend of the river.  Henric believed the embankment exit too steep to afford a passage, and started heading back, however I decided to give it a go, and the Patrol went up no problems (Diff locks were used, just in case).  Seeing this, Henric gave it a go, but the Pathfinder ended up spinning its front wheels and sitting on its tail.  Good thing that driver's side window was closed!  A quick snatch and it was up, our first recovery for the weekend.  The Cruiser made it up a little further back down the bank at another exit without any drama.  Back across the river, and that steep exit also proved just a little too much for the Pathfinder, requiring another quick snatch up.  The Cruiser also had some troubles (“it was all wet, and river pebbles had been moved around”), but luckily the embarrassment of the Patrol snatching the Cruiser was avoided.

We left the camp area and headed up Steiner's Road towards the upper Howqua.  Steiner's Rd was an easy drive, and if it wasn't for the crosscut drains, quite suitable for 2WD cars.  We also saw a Blue Tongue Lizard, crossing the road.  We turned down Howqua Hills track heading towards the river, which was much more of a 4WD track.  There were some steep sections but again, nothing too hairy.  The drive along the Howqua was great, with various flats we never new existed and some worthwhile shortcuts to explore when next we are up that way.  We soon arrived on the road between Sheepyard Flats and Fry's Hut.  We drove up to Tunnel Bend before calling it a day, and heading home via Mansfield.

Lazarini Spur Range Rover Club Trip

Mark/Michelle/James/Liam: Nissan Patrol
Many others from the Range Rover Club, Land Rover Club, and Pajero club in various vehicles.

This was our first club trip.  Technically we hadn't yet joined the club when we went on this trip.

The trip was organised by John Hasler and Jim Parker, and I was so impressed that I plan to go on many more of John's trips in the future.  We had to alter the planned itinerary of this trip due to the heat and risk of bushfire, which meant that we dropped most of the planned activities for the Saturday, and moved straight onto what was planned for Sunday.

We all met at Cumberland Junction, near Marysville.  This was a large convoy of trucks, with some 18 various trucks making up the trip with members from the Range Rover Club, Land Rover Owners Club and the Pajero Club.  We headed towards Matlock on the Warburton Woods Point Road, and John gave us much interesting commentary over the radio on the area, with details on the construction of the Thompson Dam, flora in the area and some of the mining history.   We drove down to Woods Point where we stopped for morning tea, then continued on down the Woods Point Jamieson Rd until we reached Knockwood, were we turned off the good quality gravel (though very dusty) road, and got into the 4WD terrain on Army Track.  This track was a little scratchy, and was also overgrown in some sections with blackberries.  We followed Army Track onto Lazarini Spur until we came to the Goulburn River, where we stopped for lunch.  Seeing the Goulburn here made me regret not bringing the fishing rods.  We tried a little gold panning but the kids had more luck catching tadpoles.

One by one we made our way over the river crossing, with varying levels of success on the exit.  I think only one car required recovery, but many had some difficulty.

If I can get my video converted to AVI, I'll add some more multimedia to these pages.

Further on we had another crossing, the track down had some steep ledges to travel over, and another steep exit cut into the bank.  One of the cars hit the embankment with its rear; a lessoned to be learnt is never assume that your wheels are straight before heading off.

We continued along Lazarini Spur Track, which took us up some steep sections as we climbed to the top of the ridge.  There were some magnificent 360-degree views at a helipad on the track.  This track took us through many varying forest types, woolly barked gums, smooth barked gums, and snow gums.  Some parts of this track were quite intimidating as the amount of dry fuel amongst the gums was horrifying.   The practise of no controlled burning is sure to lead to a repeat of the 1939 fires which destroyed much of the bush in this area.

Lazarini Spur Track eventually led us to Mt Skene, where we all stopped to enjoy the views across the high country.   From there we continued down the Jamieson-Licola Road towards Jamieson and our campsite at Grannies Flat.  The track we took into Grannies Flat was very steep, though some members on the trip reported going down steeper tracks that could not be climbed back out of.

Grannies Flat is a great camping ground, and I plan to go back there for a weekend some time soon.  I think the boys would love to float down the Jamieson River in some old inner tubes.

This was pretty much the end of the trip due to the extreme heat and fire danger, so everybody headed off their own way in the morning.  After the boys had a swim and the tent was all packed up we headed back to Melbourne via Mansfield.   We explored the Running Creek camp ground on the Howqua River, but after seeing Grannies Flat, I wouldn't bother with Running Creek given the choice.  We stopped for lunch at Bonnie Doon, a regular lunch spot for us now when returning from this area.

From Yea, we detoured in search of the Cheviot Railway Tunnel, which is on an abandoned railway line which follows the road virtually all the way from Mansfield.  We found the tunnel taking a gamble when the road ended at a number of gates.  Luckily we chose the right gate, which we presume headed through crown land, with the track taking us right through the tunnel.  Once through the tunnel we continued through some beautiful dry pastureland before returning onto the Melba Highway and back home.

Cathedral Ranges

A day trip to the Cathedral Ranges North East of Melbourne

This was a getaway trip for just Michelle and myself.  The kids were all up at Mum's for the week, so we could just drive without the 'are we there yet…'

We headed up to Murrundindi. I wanted to investigate if it was an easier route through to Eildon by heading up the Melba and crossing the Black Range across to the Taggerty area rather than heading up via the Black Spur and Narbethong.  We ended up heading down all sorts of tracks so I never really determined if this was an easier or quicker path.

We drove along Murrundindi Road by the river and looked at all of the campsites along here.  They were all very nice campsites, and you would probably only choose one over another based on the number of other people already camped there.  We drove down Bull Creek Rd, and planned to shortcut along Jackson Tk, however this track was way too rutted, muddy and steep for us to tackle, especially on our own, so we continued down Bull Creek Rd until we reached Black Range Rd, which we followed to Friday Creek Rd and out near Taggerty.

We then headed into the Cathedral Ranges, which has many fine camping sites and was quite popular (lots of people camping here this weekend).  We followed Tweed Spur Rd, a 4WD track leaving Cooks Mill campsite.  This was a fine 4WD track, with lots of challenges to keep it interesting, but nothing too serious to have us worried that we were on our own.  This track eventually got us out onto Blue Range Road, which was a good quality gravel road, winding along the edge of the range giving us magnificent views.   We followed this north until we came out near Rubicon, and then we headed back home on the bitumen via Black Spur.  Black Spur has to be one of the most scenic roads in the world, meandering among the tall Mountain Ash Forest.