MEMBER TRIP REPORT
Difficulty Level / Vehicle Requirements There were no special requirements of vehicles other than to be 4WD with low range capability , although a little extra underbody clearance proved to be advantageous but nobody seemed to have any clearance problems . The roads around and through the Park were mostly unsealed with gravel , rocky and sand surfaces and some bitumen . Many roads and tracks could be easily traversed by a normal two wheel drive vehicle . However , the 4WD tracks were a different matter . They varied from easy ( Green circle ), with many sandy sections needing to be negotiated , progressing to the upper limits of medium ( Blue square ), with a few sections being slightly steeper and rocky in places including fairly sharp diversion humps ; which added more than a little interest to some tracks . Selection of 4WD was advised to be used throughout the park with only a few sections actually needing low range . All-terrain tyres were all that was needed for traction . No traction boards or winching was required or even contemplated .
Tips , Notes and Special Remarks On our initial arrival at Halls Gap on Wednesday the 3 rd of February , before the start of the trip ( on the following Monday ), we were greeted with an illuminated roadside sign advising us that the main road through the middle of the Park , Mt Victory Road , was to be closed for road works for the duration of the trip , Monday to Friday : DISASTER . All the roads and tracks that we were to navigate led off either directly or indirectly from this central road . All the planning and advising trip members of the intended routes was now defunct . So it was back to the drawing board , or should it be said , the computer and the map board . The first task was to ascertain exactly where the central access road to the Park on the Western side would be closed . This would have a profound effect on alternate travel routes and distances as well as on which attractions we would have time to visit and view . Mt . Victory Road was closed as far West and included the turnoff to Reed lookout , which could only be determined when we got to that point on day four .
It was time to conduct a new recce , which was done starting on Thursday the 4th , in company with Russell and Alan who had arrived earlier in the week . For the first day on the tracks , the solution was to follow the initial plan for the day but to finish the day by skirting back around via the Western side and end of Mt . Victory Road , back out through Wartook , then along Roses Gap Road and down Mt . Zero Road back to camp . This added an extra hour of travel just to return to camp at the end of the day .
Saturday , the recce for day three , was done in company with Sue , my co-leader and ever-patient wife . This was to be the quickest recce day , visiting the tracks and attractions in the central part of the Park . Access would be by travelling the extra hour via the Northern circuit used for the return trip on Thursday ; via Roses Gap Road and Wartook . However , we cheated and used Mt . Victory Road while it was still open , completed our recce , then back to camp via Rosea Track , Stoney Creek Road and Silverband Falls Road . It had to be done this way because a considerable part of Silverband Falls Road is one way leading out of the Park , which meant no entry to the Park via this road as an alternative to using Mt . Victory Road . The distance travelled on day 3 of the actual trip was longer however , due to the distance added by detours .
Sunday , the recce was conducted by Sue and me again and needed some lateral thinking . It was decided to recce the proposed day ’ s travel in reverse order of the original route and once again finish the day by exiting the Park via Silverband Falls Road . The day ’ s route was further complicated by the closure of Redman and Mitchel Roads on the Eastern side of the Park . This meant finding an alternative route travelling via roads and tracks outside of the Park until they joined up with the Park roads once again further South . A further part of the overall day ’ s route included the Victoria Range Road in the South Western part of the Park . The recce revealed that this so called Road , had deteriorated beyond the higher end of Medium into the lower end of Difficult in various places , this also rendered the track rather slow . The overall trip had been advertised as Easy to Medium , so this route was ruled out for the time being . It became apparent later that most trip participants would probably have enjoyed it . However , the day ’ s travel time would have been excessive and as it was , the recce had traversed some 227km for the day .
After the first day of the actual trip out on the tracks , Kerri suggested that days three and four of the original proposed trip be swapped around to put the longest travel day in the middle of the trip and not at the end . This was because people would be driving home after a long day on the tracks and could be weary . This made sense to me and Sue and was adopted and will be implemented in future trips . It was also suggested by Laurie that the following days start earlier , at 8:00 am , as this would beat the heat of the day on our walk up to Fish Falls the next morning . That was another sound suggestion which was implemented and will be incorporated in future changes to the trip .