Brian Hay (TL)
1497
NM Pajero
Participants
Mbr
Number
Vehicle Details
Guy Falkner + Rod Salan
1662 - 1880
Ford Ranger
NT Pajero
Rod Chapple
1814
NM Pajero
Chris Randall
1591
NX Pajero
Mt. Disappointment Explorer
Saturday, 10th of February, 2018
Trip Reports
The day started early for those participants who had to travel across town to be at the meeting place in time. All members arrived in a timely manner, stocked up on coffees and we were under way in good time. The area in which this trip was to run was chosen by me because it was closer to home than the three, four or five hour journey to get to the start of where a lot of trips that I join normally started. The idea of the trip was to explore various tracks in the area in preparation for running day trips in the future. I had previously done a day trip with my back fence neighbour who knew the area well. This had inspired me plot and travel a day trip route, hence this trip. For the most part the plotted route worked with only a couple of changes.
The meeting place was the McDonalds restaurant in Whittlesea at 08:00 am. After coffees, we travelled east along the Whittlesea/Yea Rd toward Kinglake West, diverting along the Humevale Rd for the scenic drive, then back onto the Yea Rd until we came to the Flowerdale Rd turn off where I drove straight past it. Back on course, we aired down early on the gravel both for safety and a more comfortable ride. Where possible, our route took tracks off to the left or right onto narrower tracks before looping back onto the main track in order to maximize what 4WD opportunities there might be.
One of the turn offs was into the Margaret Falls car park area. This was a dead end track out onto a spur above the Margaret falls area. We walked down the spur toward the falls but near the bottom we could hear no water, could
see no water and determined that the falls wouldn’t be running, so we turned back up the hill to the cars where we had morning tea. Scrub that one for the next trip or maybe try again if it’s wet.
Early on after we left Margaret Falls, we travelled a track where there were a couple of puddles, good sized puddles. I had crossed through this particular puddle just before Christmas, which was in itself a bit tricky. I was the first one to go through it but got crossed up in the middle on the ruts that must have been under the water. I travelled part way across it going sideways but managed to get through okay. However, the next driver to attempt it got hung up on the hump in the middle of the thing and got stuck. We soon had him out but not before water had passed the door seals and started flooding the floor. There was a chicken track around the outside which needed a little clearing, which we quickly did for the remaining vehicles.
At one point, we turned off onto a track that crossed Strath Creek. We had no intention of crossing it on this or future trips, I just wanted to show the guys the crossing. But a short way in, the track had been blocked with a barrier and sign stating that the track was closed. I knew it would be because of the creek crossing down the hill but we’d had no real rain, so why? We walked down the hill to have a look and find out. Nothing different to what I’d crossed just before Christmas but the crossing was a difficult and very tricky rocky crossing with the potential to tip over or do
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