7 Mile Diggings
September 2007
Day 1
The Imbil/Kenilworth trip was cancelled by forestry rangers, because it was too wet, so plans were changed. We decided to go to 7 Mile Diggings and camped at Yarraman Caravan Park. I went up Friday night with my mate Bill, from work. He took his Hilux and I took my L-Series. It rained all the way up but by the time we got there the stars were out. Yahoo!!
We pitched the tents, sat down and had a few beers. At about 9:30pm Darren turned up in the Brumby. We chatted for a while and then called it a night. We got up early Saturday, had brekkie, and then drove to the Yarraman State Forest - a long drive of 300m! We followed the forest tracks for a while - the red clay still wet in places and a bit slippery. I got a call from Curlie saying he was only 20 minutes away in his L Series, with Steve in his new 93 Liberty wagon following. We found a power line track which we followed up this hill. I got up ok, then Bill had a go in the Lux. He didn’t have enough pace to make it up, as it was too slippery – but that’s a typical Toyota for ya! He had about 5 attempts at it. I told him to let his tyre pressure down and give it another try. By this time Curlie and Steve arrived and we all decided to give it another go. Success at last! When we reached the top we headed to a lookout at the Tarong coal mine - quite a big hole in the ground. We headed for one of the stages of the last rally at South Nanango State Forest. We did a loop around there. The road was a bit slippery but ok.
When I rang Dave Martin to see if he was up the range yet, we arranged to meet at the Benarkin Fire Tower. On the way we did a detour along the old railway line (no more tracks on it) then met up with Dave in the Super Brumby and Mal in the Nissan Patrol. We had a chat then Bill, Darren, Mal & Steve all went up the tower for a look and a photo. When we left, Dave wanted to have a look at this track that went down the side of the range, but when we got there we found it was too wet and not very safe so we headed back to Jesse’s Well for lunch. On the way we made another detour on a track. I decided to go a different way and ended up sliding sideways till I couldn’t go any further and had to be towed out with 3 snatch straps joined together!
After lunch we headed for 7 Mile Diggings - as always quite challenging. Steve got through ok (I think he was very happy with his new toy!) It was Bills first time there and he had a ball. Darren saw this steep track off to the right. He couldn’t help himself and had to give it a go, but it was too slippery. Then I tried it - but no luck. Dave had a go, put on a good show, but didn’t make it either. We continued on. The cheer went up when Darren finally made it up a washout he had never been able to conquer before in all the trips he’s made to the diggings. We watched Curlie get up the same washout, but his gearbox went “clang, clang, clunk”. So success came at a high price. He still had 2wd (it reminded me of my gearbox at DI Point last year when it let go). We got Bill to tow him out of the Diggings and back on the main road. As this marked the end of Curlie’s trip, we said our goodbyes and he headed off, with Steve following to keep an eye on Curlie’s car on the way back to Maryborough. The rest of us went back to the campground except Dave who went to buy a sump guard for his project car (the ugly Brumby) from a guy in Nanango. As Bill had to work Sunday, he packed up his tent and headed home. The rest of us went down to the pub at Yarraman for a good feed and then back to camp for a beer or two.
Started out late, about 9:30 and headed to the top of the range, where we turned left and went along the National Horse Trail. The trail took us through some farms and ended up back on the road at Linville. We stopped and had morning tea, then continued on to Monsildale Creek Road. We came to the upper reach of the Brisbane River where it had a good flow of water – a very nice area for a picnic. We took some pics then continued on passing through a couple of gates and came to a creek crossing. Dave took his shoes off and walked it to see how deep it was. It was only knee deep but the current was too strong. Unable to safely cross, we headed back to find another way to Jimna. We were meeting up with Greg and Cathy to help set up the rally stage for next week. On the way back along Monsildale Creek Road, I saw a track going up the side of the mountain, so I decided to have a look. It followed the ridge all the way up. It was quite narrow but easy to get up. We climbed to about 400m and it felt like we were in the clouds! There were great views of the valley. On the way out we drove down to the creek to do some filming for the Training DVD on creek crossings.
When we left there, we saw a farmer who told us the road we were on stopped at his farm. He said to follow the next road till we came to a fork in the road and to take the Western branch, because the Eastern branch leads into the State Forest and there might be trees down. If unfamiliar with this track, it is also easy to get lost, so of course, we decided to take the Eastern road! (We did have a GPS – so we could navigate our way to Jimna). We drove for 20 minutes then stopped for a late lunch. We continued along and the road climbed higher and higher. A fallen tree stopped our progress at about 600m. As we had come prepared, we got out the bowsaw and cut a path through. After dragging another tree out of the way, we drove for about 5 minutes and met the main road. We drove to Jimna Forestry Office to meet up with Greg and Cathy, but when we could not make radio contact with them we decided to head home.
A good weekend was had by nearly all (sorry Curlie) and everyone agreed it was a trip worth doing again soon.
Jan Kancelarczyk SC589
