EMU CREEK 4WD PARK

25-27 April 1997

Camo's "Shrub" through the fisheye lens on Nissan Hill

Emu Creek 4WD Park is located in northern NSW approximately an hour south of Urbenville, We, being Big Phil, Barry & Barb P, Beth & Danny, Royce & Kaye and Brad & Judy G met at Urbenville at 2.00prn and after lunch we set out for Emu Creek which I said was just down the road 20 minutes. Well,- it turned out to be a bit further than that.

After meeting the owners and sorting out the fees we went and set up camp, this being the idea of coming early and just having a social evening before 4WDriving on Saturday and Sunday. As the other campers came back to camp after a day of 4WDriving with a bit of damage we wondered what it was going to be like for our Subies. After having dinner and a sit around the camp fire we went to bed in the Hilton (Aka the Jayco).

The next morning saw us waiting for David M who was keen to try out his new Turbo engine. We ended up getting away at 9.30am and doing a loop of the tracks and coming back for lunch.

After lunch the boys decided to go and do some of the harder tracks while some of the girls stayed back at camp, we tackled some very interesting tracks which was a test of our locked diffs, turbos etc. Although a lot of the park is very rocky there were some good bits of dirt as well. Only a couple of tracks were unsuitable for us as the park changes quite a lot after rain which changes the ratings on the map.

As we returned to camp we noticed a large crowd of people at Nissan Hill which is one of the steepest hills we have come across, with three climbs with two level sections in between, with the first two climbs being approximately 45 degrees and the last one a bit more than that. The most spectacular attempt being from a short wheel base early Nissan Patrol who reared up and sat on his towbar with front wheels in the air, and all it took was for someone in the crowd to say that a Suby would never get up, for us to have a go. Myself first, I managed to get just as far as anyone else had that day (see pic) which by the way is the most vertical I have ever been and gave me a case of wobbly clutch leg. David went next with Royce next, both reaching the same altitude and running out of traction. They tell me that we got some applause for our attempts and Julie couldn't watch.

That night we had a damper competition with big Phil as judge with a four way tie as they were all good. The next day we did a scenic drive to the falls with a small cliff (huge) to descend on foot to see the falls after which we had smoko then returned via the number one track where Brad and Danny had some trouble getting up without a snig (thanks Phil), to camp which we packed up and headed back home.

Cameron Neilsen SC287