EXCEED March/April 2019 Vol 36 No:2 | Page 53

TRIP REPORTS Tallarook-8 8 th March 2019 Participants Neil Phillips (TL) David Cartwright David Robinson Chris Wright Nothing is certain at this time of year with a walk cancelled the previous weekend because of heat and the fire risk. For a few days leading up to the trip we had been watching reports of an out-of-control fire in the Callen Range southeast of Avenel and we knew that with the right (wrong) winds it could head towards the Tallarook plateau. Fortunately, this fire remained where it was and towards the end of our day of 4-wheel driving we had a very good view of the rising smoke along Callen Range from a vantage point at Warragul Rocks. Friday 8 th was ideal being warm and with light winds. Right from the start, there was an air of enthusiasm hanging over from the recent Proficiency course, and today was a day to take our time and practise some of the newly learned skills. Chris Wright took over leading us from Tallarook, and David Robinson volunteered to be Charlie. Up Landscape Rd to Seed track was a good start to get used to a few bumps, then slowly up Cadell track, look around Mt Hickey summit, descend Magazine track and a rest at 1ARC Freeman camp. Bills track was considerably slower with some very large bog holes and then a rapidly fading track with fallen branches. Eventually we made our way through, then onto Henry track, some link roads and down to the Reservoir for lunch in warm sunshine. After lunch we climbed East Falls Rd to Warragul Rocks then Tassie Camp, down Brockwell track to Falls Creek again and back to Main Rd via Falls Link tk. At that point, we parted company taking our various ways east, southwest and north. For those heading back into Member No. 1744 1928 1833 1914 Vehicle Details Patrol Patrol Grand Cherokee Pajero Melbourne at the start of this long weekend it was nice to see all the traffic going out of town. Neil Phillips 1744