BEERBURRUM NATIONAL PARK

27th February

We arrived in Woodford just as Brett Lynch pulled out of the car park to take up the position of tail end Charlie. He must of saw us at the last moment cause he allowed us to “drop in” in front of him in the convoy. This placed us behind Merv which is usually a good thing as he picks goods lines on hill climbs …..well generally.

We entered the national park via a sealed road that deteriorated into a very corrugated stretch of dust filled, shocky destroying, bolt loosening dirt road. We didn’t have to endure that for too long before we pulled over for brief hellos whilst we aired down our tyres.

Situated at the rear of the line I really only got to hear what was happening at the front of the convoy over the borrowed UHF. However I did manage to witness James Stinson, our fearless leader entertain us on how quickly Hilux’s can get stuck up to their axles in thick black mud. James had to fire up his winch to extract himself from the mud, this gave us all enough time for more hellos’ and to play with the local horse fly’s and sharpen our wits with poor humour.

James getting stuck just happened after Chris in his white Hilux had got bogged up to his front axle at the first sign of mud. This required Chris to be towed out backwards so that he could drive around the mud. Both Hilux’s stuck to their axles within the first 15 minutes of the trip, that’s shaping up to be a good trip. Surely its not driver error, must be a faulty product with Toyota, surprised they haven’t been recalled.

Several tracks led into thick bush and semi-rainforest with lantana creeping in on both sides of the track. This gave Merv, who must be starting to care about his car, the time to hack away enthusiastically at the lantana at every opportunity, however the state of the machete was in no way helping his endeavour to rid the bush of this plant. Never mind as I’m sure lantana does not take well to a sound bludgeoning anyway.
The driver who proved to be the most entertaining to watch was Chris in his little Suzuki. Chris often managed to lift his wheels whilst navigating over sections of rutted track. The rutted track tested the wheel travel of all other vehicles but for the Suzuki it provided it the means to launch the wheels into the air often coming close to a roll over. And I know about rolling zuks. At one point the rear wheel lifted so high that my old man and I figured that it was going to go over nose first and before it did Chris give it a boot full which then lifted the front tyre into the air again on the verge of tipping over backwards.

Chris was still giving it some revs and the Suzuki just launched itself over the rutted section of track on the two driver’s side wheels almost tipping it onto its side again. All this happen in the time it took you to read this.

Other times Chris needed a little help being dragged over and down section of track, once even needing to be corrected for sitting across a down hill section the track with the rear tyre in the air and the front dropping into a rut. The further forward he went the higher the rear tyre would lift.

The group managed several other rutted tracks and hills climbs without any real dramas. Occasionally Chris would have to rethink his line and give the little spook a bit more to make it to the top of some hills.

The last big hill worthy of note was ball bearing hill. This is a hill with a good climb over rocks ranging from the size of tennis balls to bowling balls with sections of rock face and a series of rock ledges up the hill. This hill must have been too much for some people because it saw both Chris and Paul Bishop taking the chicken track before the hill.

The first to give it a go was James and this had our fearless leader resting halfway up the largest rock ledge facing his Hilux off into the bush with the rear tyre over the bottom of the ledge and his nose up into the air. James broke out the winch for the second time today to pull himself up over the ledge so that he could drive the rest of the way up the hill.

Everyone made it up the hill without too much trouble; occasionally a bit of road building and a second attempt was needed to make it up. It didn’t really take long for all of us to make it up as the cheers and large dust cloud was the sign for the next car to give it a go.

Merv however came close to grief on the rock ledge as well, he ended up pointing the nose of the Mav towards the sky and I’m sure so very, very near to laying the Mav. on its lid. Apparently the Mav spat a rather large rock out the back half way up the ledge halting his forward momentum this caused his back passenger wheel to drop sharply back over the ledge bringing the front up. As I had previously mentioned Merv usually picks good lines up hills…just not this time.

It was time to have a go at that hill, it passed my first drivability test which is if I can walk up it I could drive it, however after Merv’s display I was no longer so confident. Half way up the hill just before the ledge where both trip leader and Merv got stuck I asked the old man which line I should take. He was of little use as he was otherwise pre-occupied, something about needing his pills. We made it up the hill with some pre-rock building and a little wheel spin on the rocks. This felt great however Dad reckons it got harder after the rock ledge because it was a really bumpy track and we got thrown about in the TJ.

We continued for about an hour and a half after that driving in and out of the bush and the power line tracks. The trip was generally easy at that point and was a good way to relax at the start of the end of the day.

We all pulled over at the other end of the corrugated road that we came in on, to air up tyres (for those who could) and say our goodbyes for the day. It was a good day and was enjoyed by all who attended, even if we did show up late.

Stu.