Buchan

4WD - Dry Weather Only

A taste of Victoria

 

26 Dec 99 - 1 Jan 00

 

Danny & Beth travelled with the Victorian Subaru Club over the 1999-2000 Christmas-New Year holiday break

This is the story of one exciting outing during that trip

Late last year, Beth and I joined the Victorian Subaru Club and over the holiday period, met up with a number of other club members at Buchan in the East Gippsland high country to get in a bit of 4WDriving ahead of the New Year’s eve festivities. After seven days of consistent rain and some exciting wet and muddy drives, we and a few other hardy individuals remained in the field to herald in the new century beside a campfire under the stars. This is the story of one of the more adventurous outings of the trip.

Beth and I set out from Canberra on Christmas Day, camping in Mt Kosciuszko NP enroute and meeting up next day with other early arrivees at the VIC’s regular campsite among the cows on private property beside the Buchan River. The group comprised Cynthia (Liberty Wagon), Grant; Camble; Darren, Justine & family; Mick & Rowena with German visitor, Sibylle (all in L-Wagons); Doug & Kate; Rick & Jackie (MY Wagon); David and ourselves (L-Turbo Wagons).

From our Boxing Day arrival, the trip promised to be a challenge as heavy cloud and drizzle set in – a harbinger of wetter things to come. By Day 2, the rain had made the climb out of the campsite for our first 4WDrive "interesting", but by the time we returned to camp, the winding muddy descent into the cow paddock had become quite treacherous. Each driver had his own fair share of problems going down. Twice I managed to turn BTS sideways on the narrow muddy slope (with a nasty drop-off to the left that caused some concern in the underwear department) and Doug turned his MY into a ballet dancer; but top score for style went to Darren who departed the track prematurely and made his own way down the grassy hillside – much to the terror of family on board. It was the first time ever that Beth’s butterflies got the better of her and she opted to walk rather than ride down the hill.

That evening, heavy rain also complicated life for the late arrivees – David, who slipped off the beaten path to make a spectacular entry down the grassy hillside (in the dark), and Rick & Jackie who set up tent in a seriously heavy downpour but ended up sleeping in the car anyway.

But the most interesting part of the trip was on the day we headed out for what the Vic club calls a moving camp. For this we left our brand-new, very comfortable large double dome tent set up in the cow paddock and took our faithful old mini-dome out for one over-nighter on the track.

Again, getting out of the black clay paddock was tricky – especially as our, allegedly terrific, Dunlop Adventurers instantly caked with mud and straw and went slick just when we didn’t need it – on the steep, windy drop-off section of the hill. But the climb up the "driveway" done, we headed off through Buchan and into the mountains. Weather was threatening but generally dry – until David, our leader, spotted a track with a sign which read "4WD - Dry Weather Only". "Now there’s a challenge", said he, as our turn into the track instantly drew rain clouds, indeed making the "dry weather track" a fair challenge.

The track started off quite benignly, with a mixture of good gravel, dirt and the occasional puddle. But as we descended, the track became rockier with more slippery brown stuff rearing its ugly head as the rain came down. I had just made the comment that it would be a good challenge to drive back up the hill some time, when we turned the corner and was confronted with a very long, steep mud slide – which was no doubt, the "Dry Weather Only" part of the track.

David made it down with a bit of slipping and sliding but Darren and family in the car in front, immediately became snagged on a fallen log and couldn’t get off as the hill was too steep and slippery to allow him to reverse away from it. Darren and I jumped out and quite easily pushed the car sideways off the log. Meanwhile, Justine had been placed behind the wheel (with kids in car seats) with the instruction to "just roll a few feet forward and stop". Unfortunately, the hill had other ideas and as soon as the car became free, it went charging down the hill with a terrified lady trying to bring it to a halt. Wheels locked up, steering unresponsive and engine stalled, it slid down the track out of control until David made a flying leap into the passenger’s seat mid-way down the hill and gave Justine a clutch starting lesson and driving instructions in the heat of panic. Justine missed all the trees – but I don’t think even she knows how.

My descent was not quite as exciting – I only left the road once and put the car sideways at the bottom of the hill. Maybe we shouldn’t go back that way after all!

But around the next bend, things got exciting again. David’s turbo developed an electric fuel pump problem which later threatened to become a fire under the rear seat. But that fixed, and in increasingly heavy rain, we pressed on.

A couple of kilometres on, our dramas really began. With rain pelting down, we were confronted with two crossings of the Snowy River. The first was relatively straight forward but bumpy. Our car had the highest profile tyres in the group so we fared well but others closer to the ground got a bit bumpy and wet.

The next river crossing was more difficult though. We had to enter the water and parallel the bank for one hundred or so metres before attempting to scramble up a steepish muddy bank. David had already found his way across and was trying to climb a much steeper and muddier slope that also had to be negotiated enroute to our moving camp site. Meanwhile, Rick walked the river to find the safest path and later stood guard in the middle to point out the danger spots as each of us made our attempt. It was relatively deep, very rocky and the rain didn’t help at all but we made it. The exit up the river bank needed a bit of a charge but the turbo handled it with no problems.

Unfortunately, once out of the drink, parking space was very limited at the foot of the next hurdle - the slippery slope that David had not yet been able to defeat - even with his turbo. Still there was no turning back.

The others behind also had little drama crossing the river, except for Doug in the MY who strayed into deep water and shorted out the electrics on his car, including wipers and demister which further compounded his problems. His engine stopped but rather than drown the beast, he opted to keep his car moving by continuously running the starter motor until he got the car out of deep water and the engine restarted. From there he came charging up the river bank with a foggy and wet windscreen but was immediately confronted by a parking lot traffic jam. While taking evasive action, he landed engine and gearbox first on top of both a big tree stump and a big rock. That encounter left him wheels off the ground, suspended by engine and gearbox, with engine mounts broken.

Meanwhile, Rick had multiple attempts at getting up the next muddy slope but to no avail. Finally, we pushed and he powered his car up the grass slope beside the muddy track, which by now had become two muddy waterfalls. David got his car up via a similar effort, as did I some time later, albeit with three men standing on the roo bar to hold the front down. The other cars were driven up the waterfall as far as their own power would allow and then double snatched by Rick and David the rest of the way. After dislodging Doug’s car off the log with an all-hands lift, we even got him up the hill. Surprisingly, he was able to complete the trip under his own power – albeit with engine rattling around loose in the engine bay. All up it took us about two hours to get all six day tripper vehicles up the last slope. Needless to say, Cynthia’s unlifted Liberty wasn’t with us.

Once up the slope it was just a short drive to our overnight camp site where we set up camp, cooked dinner, huddled under a communal tarp and sat around the campfire in between rain showers. Certainly a damp and eventful moving camp.

But there was still good cheer all round and you know what – we had a ball! Can’t wait for our next outing with the Vic club.

Danny Williams SC 412

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