Crows Nest Area-Sun 18 April.

The meeting point for this trip was the Benarkin School. I arrived right behind Ron Penfold at 9am sharp to find four subarus lined up and ready to go (more or less). After a brief meeting with Ron outlining the day’s itinerary we headed off at around 9.40.

The line up was Ron in the Prado, myself in the Outback, Joe & Cheryl Reeve in their Outback, Curly in his Liberty, Bill Greenwood in the mighty L series and Dave Martin in his Forester as tail end Charlie.

The first leg of the journey was a short loop to the north of Benarkin which Ron had found on his GPS but hadn’t previously recee’d. This would turn out to be the most challenging part of the trip.

The track started off ok but gradually deteriorated, becoming rougher and a little more overgrown. We soon came to our first obstacle- a small mudhole (or so it seemed). Ron went through first, skirting around to the left. Yes, it was deeper than it first appeared. I took a slightly different path and managed to clamber out without too much difficulty. Not so for Joe & Cheryl. Joe tried to take the same line as me but ended up sliding into the middle and becoming stuck. It was decided that Curly would pull them out backwards. The cars were all hooked up when Curly decided it would be an appropriate time to take a toilet break. This seemed to make Joe a little agitated-not sure why, I think it had something to do with mud seeping into the car, or something like that! It took a couple of attempts to pull the car out but once that was taken care of Joe’s second attempt was much more successful. Everyone else then made it through without too much drama.

Our next challenge was a fairly sharp dry creek crossing with a badly rutted approach. Ron opted to use a bypass track which rejoined the main track just before the creek. He then went ahead to make sure it was ok. Once he was safely on the other side I proceeded onto the bypass track. Things were about to go pear shaped for me, however! Upon rejoining the main track the ground opened up & tried to swallow my car!! Actually, I didn’t see the enormous rut until I fell into it, RH front first. With the RH front wheel hanging in space & the L rear several feet off the ground the only solution was for Joe to snatch me backwards. My second attempt was much less exciting, and once over the creek I opted for the less challenging bypass track rather than the rutted main track Ron had used. The rest of the crew followed the same path as me, with the exception of Dave, who showed how easily a Forester can follow a Prado’s tracks. Very impressive!

We were soon back on the bitumen and completed the loop into Blackbutt for our morning break. Joe & Cheryl went to the servo to wash some mud out of the radiator while the rest of us checked out the tourist info centre.

We were soon back in the cars & heading towards Crows Nest. After a few kms of  smooth unsealed road we turned off onto an old stock route. This was an easy drive down into a valley, past a very picturesque campsite with a swimming hole and then back up to the top of the range through some long grass and past lots of termite mounds. Many gates were opened & many lollies were exchanged on the way. Once back on the main road it was a short drive through some very scenic farmland to our

lunch stop at Crows Nest.

We had lunch in a park in the middle of town sharing the shelter with some of the local teenagers. Curly had a little chat with them about the use of appropriate language & they returned the favour with an impromptu rhyme with “Curly” as the central character.

From here we headed towards Toowoomba but turned off about half way to do a small 4wd treck which Ron had read about. We had a laugh about the “4wd only’ signs as we were driving along the bitumen, however as we left the sealed road & started to descend, it became apparent that had the track not been freshly graded, it could, at times, be quite difficult. There were lots of bike & 4wd trails leading off the main track & it would be interesting to spend some more time exploring. This trail eventually led us down to Murphy’s Ck. We passed through town and continued on another small loop which had some more steep climbs and descents. We then passed through town once again & headed out towards the main hwy.

We regrouped at the Helidon rest area, said our goodbyes and headed off around 3pm.

Thank you Ron for an interesting & relaxing day.

Rod Viertel SC102