Imbil Weekend 2008

After hearing that Jan and his workmate Bill (he drives a Hilux – but we won’t hold that against him too much!) were heading up to Imbil at 6am on Saturday, I asked if it’d be alright to meet them at lunch time instead.  Seems Luke and Cherie had the same idea.

We had a small group which included Luke and Cherie in their Suzuki, Bill Greenwood in his L-series, Dan in his turbo L wagon, Darren in his Liberty, Bill in his Hilux (Chugger), Jan in his Liberty and me in my EJ powered L-series.

Jan takes up the story for the morning action!

We started the day at 6am heading to Charlie Morelands.  It was raining.  After reaching the first track, we realized how much fun we were going to have.  It didn’t take long before we had a problem.  Taking a sidetrack, Bill came across a slippery patch and slid into a tree (not much damage) but couldn’t get up the hill. 

SUBARU TO THE RESCUE!!!!

I snatched him up the track and got stuck myself.  With a bit of thought (and luck) I managed to get out by putting grass and leaves on the track.  The Hilux wasn’t that lucky.  We had to join 4 straps together before we got him out.  After that we made our way to Imbil to meet up with the crew.

Now back to Tommo:

We headed off after lunch into Imbil State Forest. Within minutes we were struggling with wet, clay hill climbs.  I watched Jan’s mountain goat liberty trot up the first hill and to my embarrassment, my BFG mud terrains started spinning and stopped half way up.  I let the tyres down, took a slightly different path and then had no problems.  Cherie and Luke also got help up, but I blame that on the Suzuki more than anything……..We soon came to a very well used and abused hill that unfortunately forced us to turn around – so we had to find another track.  I’m not sure if I’ll be very popular for mentioning this, but somehow the Hilux managed to conquer this hill which Jan and I could not! I think it only just make up for Bill’s efforts earlier in the morning that some of you may have seen in video form on the forum.

The rest of the day we drove along Mitchell Creek Road through some of the most picturesque scenery I’ve seen anywhere other that Northern NSW.  With the help of some recent rain, the place couldn’t have been greener.  Even had some close encounters with the local cows – thanks to Jan’s “moo” horn.  I think we should all chip in and get him a new paint job. We could call it “the bovine boxer?” “Suba-moo?”  There must have been a cow or something else in the middle of the road a bit further along because for some strange reason Jan was forced to take evasive action (in the form of a handbrake slide) on a nice straight section of the track.  Have to find that cow and send him/her the bill for the flat tyre you got soon after hey Jan.  Fine?

At the next main road we left Bill and his Hilux and picked up another Bill in his L Series wagon.  It was getting on in the afternoon, so we headed back the way we came and found Darren’s liberty on the main street, with Darren in the pie shop.  A good hearty dinner was had in the in the local pub before heading back to the local caravan park (very nice waterfront camping by the way) for more beers and lots of stories about subarus.

The morning brought another new arrival, Dan, in his turbo L series wagon.  Overall a neat looking rig with 2” lift, 27” super trippers and stock EA82T inside.  We headed off exploring some new trails, found some more slippery hill climbs and had lunch at the top near the fire tower.  Now I’m a little sketchy on the details but I believe we ended up coming down through Kenilworth State Forest in the second half of the day, all the while driving through stunning scenery.  Had some very interesting hill descents – not always as controlled as we would have liked – but exciting all the same.  With the sun going down we drove past a very chewed up looking mud hole that I just couldn’t pass up! Let’s just say snatch straps and a very muddy swimming pool in my car were the result!  A couple of shallow creek crossings later and it was time to call it a day.  Good tracks, beautiful scenery and great company made it a very enjoyable weekend.  I highly recommend going on the next trip in this area.

Cheers, Tommo. SC 615

More Pics Here Thanks to Daza