Big Boys Adventure Park

10-12 June 2000

With the weather looking ominous, the Maryborough Subaru contingent, namely; us the Petersen family in BFG Forester, John and Val Schliff (proprietors of 6 Star) in separate cars.  Keith Peters with daughters, Lee and Rebecca in the RX Turbo, and Bill Templeton and his brother Sandy with their nephew thrown in for comfort (or I should say ‘discomfort’) in Bill’s 3 inch lifted MY.  We took off at a very comfortable time of 8am.  We only had one hour to travel – Big Boys being only 85km’s from Maryborough.  The skies opened and the rain began to fall.  There was much conjecture as to where to apportion blame for these foul conditions that may have been a repeat of the Byfield’s trip at Easter.  We like to think it is John and Val’s presence, though a lot of finger pointing was at me.

We arrived and booked in at the park entrance, noticing a number of improvements since our visit last year as well as special enhancements for the Gymkhana that was to take place over the next three days.  Also arriving with us was Geoff and his wife from Daddows Subaru, Gympie in their Forester and caravan and some friends in L Series and caravan.  This made me a little nervous concerning any future warranty claims after Geoff observes my antics in the BFG Forester.

We moved on down to the camp grounds to find some “Hoodlums” namely (Rex and Maree Hood) L Series, Liberty motor and camper, already set up along with a friend of theirs, Nigel in a Triton Ute.  Where are the little girls Maree?  Rex?  What?  Left at home?  Too wet you say?  Give them plenty of space I say.  Don’t camp too close!!  Then along comes David Martin, Turbo Brumby, who has kindly brought our son Trent from boarding school up for the weekend.  Greg and little son in a Bravo.

Pat and Arnold in the XXXX truck arrive and demonstrate their new hi-tech slide-off camper system!  Now all the boys need to do is erect the Subaru Big Top marquee on loan from Subaru Australia.  Some lunch and off we go on the Goat Track, normally a medium in the dry.  The BFG Forester had two goes at one of the hills, and everyone else made it up easy including Geoff’s standard Forester (Blast!).  After smoko it was off to the Wicked Woopsies, which were impossible to get to (so we were told).  We could not let a challenge like this go by, and as usual it wasn’t completely un-Subaru-able.  It was very slippery in this drizzle, but Keith in the RX went straight up, then Bill’s MY was up, then Dave.  BFG Forester only halfway to find a nice big slash in the sidewall of one of my week old tyres.  Slowly back down to the bottom to change tyres in a very tight spot.  What a comedy of errors – the Forester falling off the jack – I’m not having fun now!  A bit of a re-think and some man-handling sees the spare in place with lots of wheel spin and they all head round for some fun at the Woopsies.

Dusk is upon us and we head home as the rain sets in.  Happy hour proceeds as well as a warm fire for some laughs and relaxation.  A long wet night follows.

Day 2, Sunday morning and we wake to a wet sleeping bag and bed.  Jenny yearns for home but the weather improves and we are able to dry things out a bit.  Bill and Sandy with nephew did some swimming in the night as well.  John and Val were christening a new camper they had bought and were fine-tuning.  A 6 Star customer, Chris arrived in his standard L Series and hitched a ride later with Keith (was this wise?).  After a fine breakfast kindly put on for us by 6 Star Motors (John and Val), the 2WD tracks around the camps were flicking mud in all directions enticing some great fun as we headed off to do the Rainforest Drive.  Another couple, also 6 Star customers arrived in their brand new RX Impreza.  They had just migrated from England, six weeks previously.  After lunch we all congregated in the marquee for the ‘awards’ which John and Val wished to bestow upon such a worthy team of Subaru drivers that were present.  (Cool – I finally got a Forester cap).  We all headed over to watch some of the action at the Gymkhana as Keith showed the V8’s that big isn’t always best!  But doesn’t Keith always have to prove this?!!  Soon after, he managed to break the engine stabiliser bar.

A few of us stayed on watching other competitors muck about and bought hamburgers and beers from the local Bush Fire Brigade.  We waved goodbye to the Hoodlums and their friend, Nigel.  The weather unfortunately kept away a lot of spectators/ campers, so the band was cancelled and we went to enjoy a cold but dry evening by the campfire.

Day 3.  A fine day dawned so of course we headed directly to the mud run.  Everybody got bogged (except the BFG Forester, about bloody time) and all enjoyed snatching and pushing in the mud.  Then off again to try some harder tracks.  Most tracks were beginning to dry out and there was more fun and games as we slid down one particularly interesting hill!  And that is just about it.  By the way, you do know that BFG stands for BF Goodrich tyres and not Bloody Fantastic Grunt or Beautifully Finished Greatness as Jenny had assumed.

After lunch, the pack up and head home for a huge clean up.  A very big thanks to Auto John and Val from 6 Star Motors, as well as Daddows Subaru Gympie for support and prizes.  I’ll be back next year.

John Petersen SC269