Volume #37 Issue #3 | Page 72

TRIP REPORTS Not A Disappointing Wander 24 May 2020 Participants Member No. Vehicle Details Ian Fieldhouse 1888 Mitsubishi Pajero Sport John & Kristine Abfalter 1841 Mitsubishi Pajero GLS - 2012 Chris Randall 1591 Mitsubishi Pajero David Boutchard & Virginia Gilhooly 1785 Toyota Landcruiser 200 Nas Foscarini 1933 Mitsubishi Challenger Terry Barbie 1906 Mitsubishi Pajero It was a cool but pleasant Sunday morning when we met in Whittlesea in anticipation of our first trip in a few months, not to mention the first trip booked through Wild Apricot, the new membership software. Ready for Disappointment The trip advert was A Disappointing Wander? With plans for green and blue tracks with perhaps a black one thrown in. The unknown was the track conditions after 10-20mm of rain in the past week. We soon found out all about the track conditions, attempting to pass through the gate onto Phone Track we were held up for a few minutes on a very muddy uphill corner, which got everyone’s attention. Having successfully got past the first obstacle, Phone Track continued to throw some very soft surface conditions at us, which saw our longest serving member spend a short period off the road and requiring some assistance to return to the intended path. Muddy climbs We then headed down the far more pleasant Harpers Creek Road, after which the plan was to follow Escreet Road down to Sunday Creek Reservoir, however as this was marked as black on Newtracs and was clearly quite steep, we elected to take a more sedate route along the main roads and then Watering Creek Road that was marked as blue, however this had been closed already for the season (contrary to advice). At this point David and Virginia found they had a flat and short stop was had to switch to the spare.