Travelling With The Southerners

Australia Day Long Weekend

23-26 January 1999

A week or two before the Australia day (very) long weekend, Bruce Wakefield, Webmaster for the (NSW) Subaru & Recreational 4WD Club, sent an E-mail inviting us to go on a trip with them to Yadboro State Forest in the southern NSW hinterland. It took all of a minute or two for Beth and I to settle on accepting the invitation – then we scoured the maps looking for Yadboro.

Yadboro is located about 25 km inland from Ulladulla on the NSW coast. It is located in mountainous bushland, comprising Eucalypts, rainforest, and plantation pine. Alongside sits Pigeon House Mountain with an amazing outcrop that looks like an upturned female breast. In fact, the aboriginal name for this mountain describes it as just that. Regrettably, poor weather conditions precluded photography on that part of the trip, so you’ll have to wait for photographic evidence a little longer.

Danny	Geoff	Sheri

Saturday rolled around and after a rusty start at packing and getting under way, we left Canberra for the 2½ hr trip to the rendezvous point. Leaving the dry summer paddocks of Canberra behind, we set off into drizzling rain which turned to fog-like mist and then heavy rain enroute. At the other end we were greeted with lush green scenery everywhere we looked – a huge contrast to the bush capital. The rain continued for most of the day.

A few calls on the radio later (CH 15 down here), we pulled into the rendezvous point and made all the introductions. First impression was shock and horror – Subarus were in a minority, but at least there wasn’t a Hilux to slow us down. Trip leader for the weekend was Geoff, NSW club life member, in a 97/98 (?) Pathfinder (with everything that opens and shuts); Sheri, going solo in an unlifted Brumby with 13" wheels; Shawn in a Suzuki tray back; Anthony & Sandra with son Timothy in an older Pathfinder; and finally, Troy & Sandy in a lifted Forester (fitting courtesy of Scorpion Motors). I was looking forward to seeing the latter in action as I still don’t think even the lifted Forester has enough clearance for my liking.

Setting off in the usual gaggle and enjoying somewhat different reparte over the radio, we quickly discovered that every club seems to have its Heckle and Jeckle of the airwaves. At least the jokes were new to us.

We didn’t get very far before getting dirty as we came across a Holden station wagon that had slipped in some really sticky mud and run off the road and into a ditch, when confronted with an oncoming 4WD (not one of our group). While everyone oohed and aahed, I pulled out the (until then, exceptionally clean) snatch strap and towed him out of the ditch. With a nice thick coating of mud on (probably) bald tyres, the Holden did all sorts of ice skating until he finally found traction on the muddy road and disappeared. Shame about the coating of sticky brown mud we then took into the car with us – but at least I didn’t have new Pathfinder or Forester carpet under foot.

Towing a Holden Ballerina

Next stop was the picnic spot at the base of the Pigeon House Mountain walk (4hrs to summit). Low cloud and drizzle put everyone off doing the climb so we had a quiet morning tea under the shelter – until the rain pelted down … and down ... and down. That pretty much sealed our fate for the rest of the day. After setting up camp at Yadboro Flat, we had a leisurely lunch, an afternoon walk and then socialised with the new group around the evening campfire.

Home away from home

Sunday dawned with the promise of better weather and we set off across an infrequently used track that the club discovered last year. To get to it we had to cross a river that was not very wide but stony, and had a relatively deep fast flowing channel near the exit. Geoff’s Pathfinder went through ok; Sheri’s Brumby went through ok, but with a lot of wheel spin and rock displacement; so I thought I’d take it a bit easier on the throttle – oops! Got stuck for a little while and made a spectacle of myself going backwards and forwards until I finally got up the bank (minus a mudflap which was kindly retrieved downstream by Shawn). After my experience, most of the other vehicles then took a chicken track through shallower water upstream. That was crossing number one of seven for the day. Some easier, but some also much more challenging.

As we continued down track, the going got progressively more interesting, especially at the river crossings. Some of them had very stony patches on the approaches, which required careful negotiation to avoid boulders, holes and fallen logs; some had short steep muddy approaches that made the (hand) brakes screech on the way down. But by far, the most interesting was one relatively short but deep crossing which had the bow wave well over bonnet height – shame I hadn’t fitted a blind, as the distributor spark went out about fifteen minutes after crossing. That crossing also had a deeply rutted and curved exit (courtesy of larger 4WDrives no doubt), which stopped Sheri dead in her tracks. This was most unfortunate, as the Suzuki which was in front of her, failed to restart (electrical short in the starter motor) and by the time another rescue vehicle was positioned, Sheri was more than ankle deep in water and radioing for help. As a consequence, all vehicles that followed, mounted their snatch straps for a quick recovery, in the event of also getting stuck. But that simple precaution did the trick; everyone else made it through without drama, albeit with lots of mud and water sprayed into the air.

To my surprise, and probably a few others (including the driver), the Forester also made it through the exit obstacle with little difficulty, although the departure bank was definitely remodelled by the Subarus.

This crossing was where I also did my usual trick of beading a tyre. Kumos are now also off my shopping list.

With that crossing behind, we moved into the more hilly terrain of the forest and had to contend with some challenging steep muddy uphill stretches, including one that had Geoff sliding sideways in his Pathfinder. As usual, the smaller and lighter Subarus were able to pick an easier path without such excitement.

Troy

As the rain came down again, we headed off to our next camping spot, Shallow Crossing on the Clyde River, but had to stop for a few track side conferences along the way, as our Indian Scout (AKA Pathfinder) up front, got a little confused by the myriad of unmarked tracks in that part of the country. NSW Forestry really needs to put in a bit of overtime on the track marking. Goodness knows how they direct fire fighting activities.

Eventually we arrived at Shallow Crossing, and after the usual chin wag at trip’s end, most of the NSW club members headed for home – some having to work the next day, others’ enthusiasm no doubt dashed by the damp weather. But not us - we like the bush too much! Beth and I overnighted with Geoff and John, a late arriving club member, before setting out next morning for another drive and camp out along Deua River, on our way back to Canberra – after we did a few high speed runs across the causeway - to wash our car of course!

Water fun - oops, I mean washing the mud off !

Taking the Deua River drive was an excellent decision. The weather had fined up by the next day and we had one of the best stopovers ever. We got to see new and interesting birds, hand feed a Wallaby in the wild which had little fear of humans, and gaze at the stars without a street light to be seen – and only two hours from the nation’s capital. What more could you want?

Danny Williams SC412

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