Wednesday
Packed up camp and headed out towards St Albans. Whilst the first part of the drive is bitumen, it is still quite scenic and enjoyable. It can be even more enjoyable if you stop at every winery along the way!
The gravel road (Settlers Rd) has seen its fair share of rain of late. There were numerous washouts along the way and Jason broke a few of his belongings in the trailer after getting caught out by one. There is a great little camping area at the halfway point, or you can free camp at St Albans itself right near the pub.
A stop for ham + cheese sandwiches and a play was followed by the short jaunt to Wisemans Ferry – I had promised the kids a ferry ride. It’s amazing the looks you get when you are towing a camper trailer – people just don’t expect you to pop out in some areas. The ride across the ferry is short and sweet, followed by the big ascent (first gear) to the top of the range.
Popping out at Windsor it was a quick fill of the gas tank before heading up Bells Line of Road. Some pencil pushing desk jockey without a life has decided to make (pretty much) the whole length of the road a 80km/h zone. I’ve travelled on worse roads that are gravel and still have a 100km/h speed limit. It pretty much wrecked every chance I had of getting run-ups for the hills, so we spent a lot of time in second gear – great for fuel economy!!!
Arriving in Lithgow we met up with my father and headed down to Lake Lyell. Protected from the elements by the surrounding hills, and providing hot showers etc it is a great place to set up camp. However for us this wasn’t the case. I had been trying to phone them all day with no success. Their phone lines had been out for the day, and they had closed the camping area down because of the wind. Bloody public liability is screwing this country!
So I took a quick run down into the 4WD area to check a couple of camping areas out. There was trees, branches etc all over the place making for an interesting navigation exercise with the trailer on the back. Deciding that it wasn’t the best idea to set up down there, we went back and paid the cost at the Lithgow Tourist Park. The caretaker here is great and very imformative. I don’t think to much of their ‘no campfire’ policy when it’s bloody minus temperatures, but other than that it does the job.
We spent the rest of the night setting up camp and watching the state of origin – Minichello had a shocker! Congratulations to Lockyer and Queensland for a bloody good performance.
Thursday
Jason + Michelle decided to head home and sort some things out before work on Monday. Us – well we’re sticking the cold weather out and we’re going to go and explore the area a bit. The Prado has been running well, however it seems to be using a litre of oil every 1200-1500km’s at the moment – only when towing and only when we’re doing the higher RPM’s during hill climbs. I think I’ll get it in for a big service/timing belt etc when we get to Townsville.
Went to the Information Centre to find out that all National Parks have been closed because of the wind. Fair dinkum this place cries a lot about some wind!!!
Instead we took the drive across to Bathurst for a spot of lunch and a tour of the V8 museum. Absolutely loved the tour, but the shop itself leaves a lot to be desired. Don’t stock stuff all and there was nothing in there for the kids clothes wise…..
Headed back to camp and basically relaxed with a little bit of sunshine that was about. Made a casserolle for dinner and then watched a movie with the kids on the laptop. Had to get both heaters going as the temps were dropping substantially.
Saturday
Everything was bloody frozen. Took 10 minutes for the windows on the car to defrost. No wind though, and a beautiful clear sky with the sun out. It’s probably only about 3 degrees at the moment, but the lack of wind and the sun makes it quite comfortable.
About to head up to Zig Zag for the 1100h tour – the kids don’t know nothing about so it should be a good surprise.
Well we went and did the tour at Zig Zag. Unfortunately they didn’t have a steam train on due to lack of staff (they are all volunteers); however they more than made up for it by extending the tour and doing numerous stops (just over 2 hours). I’ll let the photos do the talking:
Getting back into Lithgow Richard had arrived, so we spent the late afternoon catching up and enjoying a few quiet beverages in the cold.
Saturday
Well the old fella (he’s gonna kill me when he reads that 🙂 ) had to head home unfortunately, whilst we got ready for the days 4WDing. This is an old play area of ours, and I was very much interested to see how it had changed. And I was also interested in how the Prado would handle the tracks, being that it’s an area certainly more suited to modified vehicles.
We had a quick stop at the service station for some supplies, then moved on to the Lake Lyell day area to catch up with the rest of the crew. Tony and Hungry + friends (Overlander forum) met up with us around 1000h and after some quick g’days we jumped back into the warmth of our vehicles and headed off.
First stop was part way down the gravel road where we used to practice stall starts. Surprisingly there isn’t much difference to last time I was here, maybe a little easier if anything. We dropped tyre pressures before everyone had a go.
We descended down the road a few hundred metres and turned left up the short pinch. The water has well and truly been through here quite a lot, and there was a nice rut smack in the middle of the track that we had to traverse.
From here we worked our way through a slippery muddy section and then lined up the powerline trail ready to head up it. It is certainly worse than I remember it, so I moved aside and got Richard to go up first. With only minor problems Richard traversed it successfully. I had two attempts but kept losing traction when the axles crossed up. A drop of tyre pressures to 20psi and some guidance by the missus had us up successfully.
From there everyone made their way up behind us with Tony making it look as easy as a bitumen road!
The loop around back down the hill and the river crossings were navigated easily. It was interesting to see that our old river crossing hasn’t been done for a lot of years – it’s all grown over! We stopped down on the river bank for some lunch, interesting to note the damage that has been caused by the water.
After lunch we stopped and had a play at the old unimog hill. It certainly is a lot easier now days with the bank basically being chipped away, however it still can present a challenge.
From here we made our way along the track past some great views and down towards the mud/water runs. Oh and how can I forget the track clearing…..
Arriving at the base of the lower part of Mt Walker, we had to remove numerous trees/branches in the way. It was looking fairly knarly and it certainly is different to what I remember. Richard gave it a go, and after some different lines he succeeded in making it up, albeit giving his rear bumper a touch along the way.
I decided to give it a go in the Prado. I made it up near the top (tyre pressures down to 16psi), but with the axles crossed and the belly scraping I couldn’t get any further. Richard hooked me up and snatched me over gently, from where I was able to continue the rest unassisted. I was really impressed how the Prado went to be honest.
Tony came up with any major problems whilst the rest decided to turn around and meet us back along the track. Being that the time was getting on, we decided to head out back to the service station. A quick top up of tyre pressures and we bade goodbye.
Richard and our family headed to the workers club fow some dinner and relax time. It was good to sit down and have someone else do the cooking for you, whilst the kids went to the play room and had some fun.
All in all a great day 4Wding and finished with an entertaining night.
Sunday
We packed up, bade goodbye to Richard and hit the road. Instead of heading back towards Sydney, we went up to Bathurst and turned south. In short we had a really good run with next to no traffic, all 100km/h zones and found a couple of great road side fruit stalls along the way.
A quick stop in Wagga to say goodbye to some close RFS friends and then it was the short jaunt to home.
Overall a great trip with a few challenges – but is sure as hell beats a day at work doesn’t it!
Cheers
Chris