Imbil Reece

Over the Christmas period a few of us got together led by Steve Curry to do a reece trip on some tracks in the Imbil and Kenilworth area, that Jan K and Darren Woods had found a month or so back. With a few phone calls and a forum post a small crew arrived in Imbil. They included Steve Curry Hilux, Darren Woods lifted Impreza wagon with Bryan Neilsen as passenger, Curlie lifted Lib wagon, Bill Greenwood lifted L Series wagon and myself and Jan K in the Brumby.

Once we worked out our plan for the day we soon set off. Not too far in we were stopped by some fallen branches, by the time the call went over the CB, Daz Woods was there, keen to test his latest gadget a small light weight Black and Decker electric cordless chain saw. It sure made short work of the branches. Not long after a slippery side track had to be detoured Our next stop was at the cliff face look out for a short break. As we were setting off a shower of rain came over, it only lasted a few minutes and didn’t make the tracks too wet, still it made us think of the conditions ahead as there were more back clouds around.

Further on with the Brumby in front we took another side track to see were it ended up, it was steep going down hill mainly, on one of the climbs up my engine temp warning buzzer went off. The electric fans were not working, Bryan quickly found a loose connector, and it was soon fixed and we were under way again. On the next track we keep on going down and down and you guessed it, it ran out to a narrow bike track. Just as well the other cars stayed at the top because we needed them, another shower came over and made a steep rutted section of the track too slippery to get up. With a lot pushing and driving bit by bit we made to a point, where we could join all our straps together and Daz towed me up. [A big thanks to everyone’s help here, as it was very hot, humid and wet with sweat and rain]

With that adventure over we decided it was best to stay on the tracks that we knew, as the weather still looked threating. Our next stop was for lunch, just by the side of the track. We asked a group of bikes that came through, about the conditions ahead and they said it was still all good. Bryan got up the weather radar up on his 3G phone and it showed that rain was on the way. So we had a quick lunch and set of again. We came to a steep rocky climb up where you had to get your line right, which we all eventually did.

A few more kilometers further on the rain finally came, it was a storm and was very heavy, it was a bit worrying as we had a least 1 more climb to do before we reached the main track. At least this section of track was hard packed so we had pretty good traction. We finally we made it to the last climb up, it was still hard packed and the Brumby made it up which was a relief, Curlie was next up, he got stuck in a rut so we had to join up a few straps and gave him a tow. With a bit more pace everybody else made it up. We all thought if this last climb, was clay based we would probably be still there.

From there it was only a short run to the main track, our next stop was at Charlie Morelands, where we had a short break and spoke about all action of the day. From here we all went our separate ways home. Bill, Jan and myself went the back way, over the range to Peachester and on to Old Gympie Road. Thanks to everyone for coming along and to the big team effort to get through.