TRIP REPORT
Day 3 , [ Nick ].
Wednesday morning started off crisply . Eagerly people hurried about our camp , getting ready for a day full of adventures . Unfortunately though , that was not quite what Alan had in mind . For him it was a trip to the physio to mend a stiff shoulder . I ’ m still not sure if it was due to the way that he slept , or how eagerly he had been casting whilst fishing the day before .
At 9:27 , the fog horn sounded . We all started our engines and headed up the ‘ Gallows Track ’. Unfortunately , that was about to be the end for me . As I made a hard-left turn near the top , Rob tells me over the radio that I have a flat – my rear left tyre had a 2cm slice on the outer side , not through the tyre , but enough to let the air out . Disappointedly , I put on my spare , which was my best highway tyre from my first set of tyres on the car . I almost wished the tyre shop had not done a special for me on 4 tyres ... I should have bought 5 !
Great team work , saw the tyre changed quickly . Tom letting the tyre pressure down , Rob helped me put the jack up , whilst Tony discussed with the other team members the option of going to Jamieson earlier in the day than was originally planned . After a slow trip to Scot ’ s shop in Jamieson to see if a better tyre could be sourced , or the damaged one fixed , oh and of course a coffee and fuel for those in need .
With more disappointment , I headed to Mansfield where I had incorrectly been lead to believe there was a equivalent replacement to AT3 . After the half hour trip to Mansfield , I discovered it was in fact another highway tyre . I was still no better off after two and a half hours of ringing around as far away as Seymor and Yea , and visiting a further 2 tyre shops ( total of 3 ), I had settled for a second-hand road tyre . This would have to take the place of the old spare . I was not happy , until I had a steak , bacon and cheese pie at the Mansfield bakery at between 3:30 and 4:00 PM . After doing a little shopping , I returned to camp , only to have salt rubbed into my wounds when I found out the details of days driving that I had missed . It sounded challenging and exciting , but I had missed it ! After I left for a few hours , the other continued on for the rest of the day climbing up the very long and rocky Moonlight Spur Track , initially named by the convoy as Stairway to Heaven but renamed to Stairway to Hell by the halfway point . Then a mix of other tracks back to our campsite .
I ’ m hoping that something similar can be organised again soon . Thanks Tony , Nick Parsons # 1824
Day 4 After a cool night and start to the day ( maybe 8 degrees ) we packed up quickly and were ready for Tony ’ s final day ’ s drive at 9.30am .
We started with one less vehicle as David and Rob in the Jeep decided to go and look at future camping spots on the Howqua River and then go home via Mansfield .
Tony had a full program mapped out and we started on Snake Edwards Divide Track and travelled a nice ridgeline for quite a while before a steep decent to pick up Holylands Tk then Army Tk and came out on the main road near Knockwood . We travelled this dusty main road towards Woods Point made worse by several LARGE trucks coming the other way carrying ore for processing out of the AI Gold Mine .
At Scotts Reserve we picked up Morning Star Tk which becomes Pheasant Creek Tk and avoided Woods Point as Tony will always take the 4WD track as opposed to a main road .
We had to do some main roads but Tony soon had us turning off at Oaks Track and a couple of others before we eventually emerged onto the Big River Road not far from Stockmans Reward .
The only small drama was whilst on Oaks Track we somehow ended up in a working logging coop which was a new diversion and a dead end . The workers politely told us how the get back to the original Oaks Tk so we retraced out steps for a bit . We did however hear these guys on their dedicated UHF channel predicting that we would get lost , but Tony was too knowledgeable of the area for that .
It was good to hit the bitumen again near Cumberland Junction and get away from the continual dust . We had a farewell coffee at the Marysville Bakery .
Thanks to Tony for his organisation of a very pleasant four days . Alan Mai # 277
© Vol 34 No . 2 - March 2017