EXCEED March/April 2019 Vol 36 No:2 | Page 45

TRIP REPORTS Tallangallook-4 22 nd -25 th February 2019 Participants Neil Phillips (TL) Arthur Day Rod Chapple (Charlie) Peter Dodson Janelle Dodson Rod Phillips Catherine Phillips This was the fourth shakedown trip in the eastern Strathbogie Ranges in advance of a trip to Central Australia. The respective parties set out from Wollongong, Yass and Melbourne on Friday spending the evening in Benalla and in Glenburn. The Benalla group were accommodated courtesy of Gordon and Gail Davis in their house there. The Glenburn group were also guests of Gordon and Gail on their Kalatha farm beside the Yea River near Glenburn. They had prepared a small area for camping beside the river which was ideal for testing camping gear and processes. We decided not to light a fire given how dry the remaining grass was and the moderate wind. Camping on the edge of a paddock at Glenburn On Saturday morning, all assembled in Bonnie Doon, headed north along Dry Ck Rd before turning off on Hell Member No. 1744 T1518 1814 T1516 T1516 1913 1913 Vehicle Details Patrol Patrol Pajero Discovery Discovery Prado Prado Hole Tk and reducing our tyre pressures as we talked through some protocols for travel this weekend and for later in the desert. Shortly we turned east onto what we thought was Black Ck No. 2 track, but it turned out to be a vaguely familiar dead end not shown on our main map. We then pulled out the 1978 1:25,000 map and it revealed that we had turned too early onto a parallel track. Shortly we found Black Ck No. 2 and followed it to the main Ferrari Road and onto Black Ck No. 1 which we descended steeply towards our destination for lunch on Tallangallook Creek. This track became steeper towards the bottom and Peter got out to guide his driver and, in the process, lost his footing on the steep loose gravel. He started to walk and then was running out of control downhill before an arrest as he fell just behind one of the vehicles. He was badly cut up and bleeding, so we put him into the nearest vehicle with one of the doctors driving, assessed that he had probably not broken anything, drove him 300m to the bottom and parked at Tallangallook Creek which had been planned as our lunch spot. There we set up a camp chair on (or in) the creek as our two qualified doctors proceeded to stop the bleeding, assess the injuries by tackling the more important ones first, clean out the dirt and gravel and start some bandaging. Meanwhile everyone else offered support, lit a fire and made tea, and learned from the experience. The casualty had a challenging array of grazes and cuts to both shins, both knees, elbows, arms, hands, nose, face and forehead. For us mortal first-aiders it was a great lesson as the professionals worked through