The day didn’t get off to a good start for us, with Glenn leaving his wallet at home. A quick change of drivers, and Clarissa headed home to pick it up while I grabbed a couple of coffees and some breakfast at a nice little café at Pennant Hills. We also took the opportunity to text TC and let him know that we might be a few minutes late. Before we knew it we were back on the road and up to the Coast to meet up with everybody at Palmdale. With us arriving right on 8:30, we wandered over and said our hellos. It was about that point that TC asked, with a big cheeky grin, if we wanted to do the written or verbal trip report. Grumbling something under my breath, I graciously offered to do the written report – so here we are.
Trip participants: Tony Clark (No Faye on this one) Brian Ick. Simon & Cheryl Newton Ken & Yvonne MacDonald Matt & Carol Corps Jason Harmer. Glenn & Clarissa. David & Emily Ferguson Rod & Lynn Phelps Pete Thorn Bob Montgomery David Warland.
Soon everybody had aired down, and after a quick trip briefing from TC we were on the road, heading up into the state forest via Middle Ridge Road. TC was up front and Pete was Tail End Charlie. This hill can get a bit interesting after some rain, given its soft clay base, but today it was in pretty good shape and everybody made it to the top with no issues.
Turning off Middle Ridge Road, we headed down Tank Rd and things soon started to get interesting, with some deep and muddy water holes on the trail. Being at the back of the group with Pete, we had plenty of time to wait around and watch those ahead of us splash around in the mud. After some time everybody was through, and on to the next little challenge – with all of the trucks now covered in a good coating of mud “credibility”.
The next challenge on the trip was a rough and gnarly hill climb that Bob decided to have a go at. Everybody had the option to give it a go, or go around the long and easier way. By the time we go to the hill several vehicles had made it to the top, with a little effort and wheels in the air – along with plenty of instruction from Simon and Bob. We decided to make an easy and leisurely day of it, so we took the easier way around and eventually met everybody at the top of the hill. It was about this time that the message came over the radio that somebody had broken a CV on the climb, and given that we were second last in the convoy that could only have been Pete. Pete had broken something in the attempt alright, and his truck was making one of those metal grinding noises that you know is going to hurt your back pocket. It was also about this time that we realised that Pete would have to take the easy way around, and that he’d likely missed the turn off to get to the top of the hill. By the time we managed to get him on the radio, and get him to stop he was a little way down the track, so TC, Clarissa and I walked down to see if could help.
We found Pete facing the wrong way down the track, after having climbed down some pretty slippery steps. After a little time trying to work out what was wrong with the truck we concluded the best thing to do was to get it turned around, and winch it back up the trail and then get it back on to the main road. So, three winch pulls later and plenty of track building we reversed the Patrol up a slippery and muddy track with Pete in tow. We eventually got Pete to a point where he could drive up to level ground. A little diagnostics proved that the Navara only made the wallet smashing noises when in 4WD, so we made the decision to hook the Navara up to the snatch strap and pull it out to Middle Ridge Road behind the Patrol. Once on the main road, Pete decided to head home to pull the truck apart, starting with the suspect broken diff (not CV) and we headed back to join the group. We also assumed the role of Tail End Charlie, at the back of the group.
The rest of the morning was spend playing in and around some of the trails deeper into the State Forrest, before we all stopped for lunch on Scaddens Ridge Rd, at the lookout under the power lines. After some friendly banter over lunch, we all climbed back in to the trucks and headed back towards the mud holes we’d all negotiated earlier in the day, eventually finding ourselves back at Palmdale by mid-afternoon, where everybody aired up.
It was a fun day for all (well, maybe not for Pete), and everybody had a great time. We also had a few new club members along on the trip, whom seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves – great to see. As always Faye and TC (minus Faye, ‘cause she had another commitment) put on a fantastic trip.