RECENT TRIP REPORT
Night Drive – Gembrook
Friday 2 nd August 2002
Peter Cooney & Alberto Pamintuan
Dave Yardley & Jamie Wright
Tony Saul & Alistair Traylen
Frank Zanetti
Ken Denelzen & friend
Mark Roberts
Tony Morris & Ron Reed
Rod Salinas
Steve Boss
Maverick
Range Rover
Cruiser
Pajero
Navara
4 Runner
Land Cruiser
Pajero
4 Runner
Twas a dark and stormy night, a good night for a
night drive with Peter Cooney. “If you don’t
have mud patterns; please don’t bother calling
for this one” said the trip notice in the magazine.
It was raining heavily as I left the city. Muddies
were the words on the drive brief. They were
going to be used tonight.
I was going with Tony Morris in the cruiser. He
had the muddies, lifted suspension , etc.
Arrived at Tony’s place and we were soon on the
road. Over to Hungry Jack’s at Pakenham we
went.
Hmmmmmmm.
Strange. Didn’t think Peter
would have left without us,
he knew we were coming !.
Few quick phone calls
followed before we realised
that the meeting place was
GEMBROOK !.
Hmmmmm again, road conditions changed,
getting slippery and boggy in places. Over to
Bunyip Ridge track and a choice of directions
saw Peter head right down what turned out to be
a short dead end track. 5 vehicles headed down
before we were told not to follow. It took a
while to turn them around and head back up to
join us. We continued on up to Blue Ridge
where things got quite boggy.
Tony found
things difficult and had to be snatched out.
Kenny also found this stretch difficult.
Bit
more accelerator and he finally got through.
Plenty of ruts and mud here.
A diversion down Andersons
Track resulted in a couple of
bogged vehicles. Things were
difficult with little room to
manoeuvre Dave was bogged
and the Paj also bogged. Some
of us remained at the top of the
hill to see the outcome. In the
end we all headed down except
Ken who had to start work at
5am or some other early hour
and Tony Saul who had come
with all terrains and decided he
was best to head home via
another route.
We hotfooted it over to
Gembrook and as we got
closer to the town could hear
the group chattering on
channel 15.
Whew.
A
quick call in and in no time
Peter had doubled back to
pick us up. They had only
just left and were a couple of
kilometres down the road,
still on the bitumen.
Down Lawless to Pines Track
and then through to Helmet.
Going was quite good.
We picked up the tail and off we went into the
forests behind Gembrook.
After the usual stop to reduce tyre pressures it
was onto the tracks.
Surprisingly we were
eating a bit of dust. The heavy rains of the city
had not hit. Stars in the sky. Very strange.
Along the Black Snake Creek Rd and up into
Bunyip Ridge Track.
Familiar ground.
September
2002
We made it back to the Gembrook-Tonimbuk Rd
and stopped for a cuppa and smoko.
Before long we’d packed up and were heading
west.
A quick trip up along Silvertop Ridge Track and
we were once again onto the slippery and
unformed tracks.
Some slightly difficult
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