So I had a bugger of a week. We lost a very experienced driver in our company due to an accident, another truck driver lost his young daughter when she was hit just after getting off of a bus, and it ended last night with a horrific crash ending with 2 casualties and 1 very shook up log driver (thinking of you Lenny).
The weather turned worse throughout the night, and on the return from Hobart we were driving through a combination of snow and sleet. In particular crossing Spring Hill and St Peters Pass. Thankfully the road was still quite wet from the earlier rain so it wasn’t settling in any areas on the highway.
Getting home I decided to get a couple of things done, as it wasn’t long until sunrise. With the 3 youngest at the in-laws and the missus and eldest working, it was always going to be an exciting (or dangerous if you’re on the missus’ side) proposition leaving me home alone.
I must admit that it all started off quite innocent. I was even nice and made the missus a cup of tea. Then dawn arrived and I saw (nearly) the most exciting thing this year:
Oh yeah baby!
Now this little black duck had managed to scam tonight’s shift off as an RDO. Yep, I was terribly upset around about that stage!!!!! 🙂
So again I did the honourable thing and bade the missus and boy goodbye:
I noticed it was a tad cold at home:
I started getting thirsty. Now you folk on the mainland that haven’t had the privilege of experiencing Tasmania might not quite understand, but there’s a couple of ways you can enjoy a Bundy.
The first is the boring option – crack a can at home and drink by yourself.
The second is have the damn thing at the Great Lake – hell yeah!!!
So I packed a couple of beverages threw the camera in and took off. I decided to go the back way, as it’s a more enjoyable run. Only problem was this:
Now this isn’t anything unusual, and I normally deal with it without even mentioning it on these trip reports. Problem is dipshit here left his 3 chainsaws in the shed. Now I will admit that I thought of Reese Witherspoon during my predicament. The reason: well my saws look damn good in the shed, they are fuelled up, clean, sharp and oiled up ready for good. I did consider that there was 3 saws, and only 1 Reese Witherspoon – then I realised that this is my fantasy dream – and 3 x Reese Witherspoon works in my head.
Anyway, getting back into it. I figured stuff it – I’ll go straight up the hill. There was some great views along the way:
I started climbing Poatina and it got progressively better (or worse dependant on your opinion) as I got higher:
The signage requests you only do 65km/h through here at night:
Another sign advising that conditions may change on this road (really!!!):
I ducked down to the Lake itself:
This sign advises that you shouldn’t swim within 20 metres of boat ramps. I figured that was good advice today!!! 🙂
The smaller bodies of water were ice:
It was approximately minus 2 degrees whilst I was up there, but if you considered the wind chill factor (30-60km/h) it felt like minus 10 degrees – and I totally agree with the BOM readings. You know it’s cold when you struggle to get a full breath, and your legs are cold even with proper pants on (had nothing to do with the Bundy – I swear!).
I started heading back towards home…………..slowly………..
I want to highlight the following picture for a good reason. A lot of people come up into the snow and think they should follow the wheel tracks of previous vehicles. The thought is the bitumen provides more grip than the snow.
In actual fact it can be the opposite. What happens is the first vehicle goes through and compacts the snow (i.e disturbs it). What is left is quite often ice, so the second vehicle goes through in the same wheel tracks and finds they are spinning the wheels or sliding. If they shifted their vehicle slightly to the left or right onto fresh snow, they would find life a lot easier:
Second to that, I saw a lot of near-misses and silly behaviour later in the morning. Excessive speed was the number one cause. Seriously if you come into these conditions, back of the accelerator, switch on the patience and enjoy yourself. Dropping a few psi of pressure in the tyres helps as well, and definitely engage 4WD. Going downhill is always more dangerous than uphill – go slower down than up (choose the next lowest gear to what you initially think).
There was some good water flows in places:
And there was some remnants left before arriving back home:
To sum up – jeez I needed to get out and do that. There is nothing like having a Bundy whilst it’s snowing up at the Lakes – nothing like it at all. You feel so alive and you just can’t be shitty with views like that!
I did do the right thing and phone the missus to advise the conditions on top of the hill, as well as advise that Bundy does stay quite cool in those conditions without needing them inside a fridge – I’m not sure if I heard he right, but it sounded like she called my a prick and then an arsehole – think my hearing is struggling again! 🙂
Cheers
Chris