Binna Burra

A New Member's Impressions

16 May 1999

Sixteen vehicles assembled on a beautiful Sunday at the Mobil roadhouse. They included an assortment of L-Series, MYs, Brumbys, a Forester, a Rodeo, a Landcruiser and two Defenders. Soon we headed off down the Pacific Hwy and I promptly managed to lose the convoy. Fortunately with the help of the CB we were soon reunited with the group and were headed towards the mountains, looking forward to the first obstacle.

After quite a few turn offs the road was getting steeper and narrower and finally the convoy stopped. From my last trip I knew that this means something 'hard' ahead. We slowed, edged closer to the obstacle and I saw that it was like a steep step or jump-up with large rocks to tip the car on an angle cunningly placed to lift a couple of wheels in the air and lose traction. Mindful of scraping the new ECB bullbar, my first attempt was too tentative and ended up embarrassingly stuck half way up. Fortunately I have noticed all these hard bits have a 'coach' to lend advice, cajole and sometimes plead with the driver of the stuck vehicle on how to negotiate the obstacle. So I was advised to go back, take another line, head for this tree, turn at this rock and use the loud pedal. Hang on, the why the **** won't the car go back? Brakes off, clutch in and the bloody thing won't roll back down a 45 degree slope. That's right, the "Hill Holder", that strange Subaru invention for people who can't do handbrake starts. I make a mental note to disconnect it before the next outing. Finally to my surprise we lurched and lumbered over the obstacle. One loud bang 'Only the sump guard John. You got plenty of air' yelled David M.

Next came 'The Hill', a long wide rocky track, impossibly steep looking more like the side of a mountain than a road. The track was about ten meters wide so a variety of lines could be taken. After much experimentation it was generally agreed on what was the line for the Subarus for the day. Even watching the cars negotiate the hill from halfway up was a dangerous practise as cannon ball pieces of rock were being blasted downhill from the spinning wheels of ascending vehicles. When Julie S first saw the hill she exclaimed 'Were not going up that are we?' When assured that we were, she promptly opened the door and abandoned ship. Somehow I managed to scrabble to the top and coach Bruce said to me "How are your knees?" I replied "Shaking"

After all the cars scrambled to the top, someone looked at the Forester and said to Julie 'is that your good car ?' She replied 'Yes, but now I know why no one else has their good car.'

Further on, David's Super Brumby had ascended a badly rutted section of road and Ralph was trying to follow in his relatively unmodified Brumby. After about ten tries we decided a bit of road work was in order so we shifted a large boulder and shovelled a few cubic meters of dirt into a long rut but the Brumby still couldn't get up. Finally Ralph tried a different, line which had two wheels down the bottom of the washout and the others high up with the vehicle tipped at 40 degrees. Surprisingly, he drove straight up, so now we all know the line and those following had no trouble.

Soon we all stopped near a pretty creek for morning tea. Then it was back into it again. Down a long hill, across a creek and up a very rutted stepped washed out hill. At this stage we managed to block the track off from some trail bikes so they attempted to pass us by charging into the bush. Their fearless leader tried to blast straight through a Lantana bush only to be stopped dead and thrown off his bike. I wandered down across the creek to see what the hold-up was and found Michelle in her Brumby parked with a front wheel a metre in the air. This set of obstacles was of the harder variety with-four or five close together so it was hard to get up momentum. Soon Michelle got it right and roared up with no further trouble just lots of tyre smoke and whizzing noises from tyres struggling for traction on rocks. It was about here that I was directed to give it lots of right foot and amid the bouncing around and turning from one lock to another. I failed to notice our adventurous co-editor standing on the road trying to get a photo. I vaguely remember two figures diving for the undergrowth. Julie evened things up at the next meeting by creaming me in the fines department. She also made me write this report knowing I type one fingered at three words per minute.

The final significant hard section was located close to Mt Tamborine. It was a steep washout with large humps like a series of moguls requiring huge clearance, massive wheel travel and extra low range all of which the Forester hasn't got. Somehow Subarus were ascending it with varying degrees of difficulty. We required a few goes at it. It was quite disconcerting to be tipped back at 30 degrees only to rock back to about 45 degrees. Even son Justin was getting worried here. However coached by Ralph we managed to scramble over the last hurdle.

At this stage the large 4x4's, Defenders, Landcrusiers were at the end of the convoy but nobody was bothering to watch them as they made it look too easy..

We now stopped at a nice park at Eagle Heights for lunch. Then it was on to Binna Burra for a bit of sight seeing and coffee at the restaurant with a great view of the coast. From here we all went our separate ways, some via the Coast, and some via Waterford. Thanks to everyone for an interesting and entertaining day.

John Shera SC466