Friday (New Years Eve)
Friday arrives and some quick work to the Landy to get it ready and packed and we are all ready to go. A few of the guys met us at my place and we headed over to Opposite Lock in Wodonga to drop the Prado off.
From there it was a run down to Glenrowan where we were stopping for a bite to eat. Along the way Andrew (Wholehog) gives me a call and asks where I am – he was still at Macca’s in Albury waiting for us. Apologising for the confusion I mentioned where we were up to, so the decision was made to meet at the Information Centre at Mansfield.
The run down the highway was completed without any major problems and we turned off and headed along to Mansfield. Again the run was quite good and minimal traffic.
Meeting up at the Information Centre in Mansfield with the group we moved up the road towards Mt Buller and turned off on the Howqua Hills Road. Making it down to Sheepyard Flat we set up camp, cooked dinner and had a soak in the river.
Admin move completed!
Saturday
A quick chat to the ranger and we headed up Brocks Rd with a late start around 1030h (it was New Years Day). The trailers were back at camp as we were doing base camps and exploring from there. The climb up was easy enough and the river looked brilliant. We turned left onto Bluff Link Rd and continued on to the turn-off to Bluff Hut.
The climb up to Bluff Hut is always a good run, and we had some brilliant weather so the view across to Mt Buller was exceptional. We stopped at the hut and got the obligatory photos and then retraced our route back to Bluff Link Rd.
Due to the lower part of Bluff Link Rd being closed we had to go down 16 Mile Jeep Track. The run is an easy downhill in low range with minimal braking required. We stopped down at Bindaree Hut for lunch at around 1300h. Whilst there David (Toy42) had a branch drop down from one of the trees and land on his Patrol.
From the hut we made our way onto Bindaree Rd stopping at the falls for a look. Due to the recent rain in the area it was still running Ok and quite a few photos were taken at the time. The walk is a little steep at the start but it’s only a small distance and well worth the effort.
From the falls we continued up Bindaree Rd turning off onto the Monument. The Circuit Rd was closed to the left so that wasn’t an option. Climbing up to the top of the Monument (low range required) we turned right onto Clear Hills Track and on to Craig’s Hut. Andrew (Wholehog) kindly mentioned to my missus that the last time we were here the Landy was the only vehicle amongst Landcruisers, and that he had to take a photo of it with the bonnet up!
Photos aside we continued down the Clear Hills Track and turned left onto the Circuit Rd. It was around here that the road started looking interesting. We had earlier been advised that the track was open, but we were finding no other traffic (which is weird for the Circuit Rd). We also came across a number of wash-outs, one only leaving approximately a lane wide available.
However we got through without any major dramas and came across a road closed sign near the Black Landing Track turn-off. (Note I did speak to the ranger the next morning and he advised that someone had gone through earlier and moved the road closed sign at Craig’s Hut!).
Following the Circuit Rd we continued on joining onto Mount Stirling Rd, and then Mount Buller Rd. We decided to go an alternative route to camp so we turned left onto Doughety’s Rd. I don’t remember meeting anyone on this track for the length of it, and it certainly isn’t a shortcut.
The one thing I’ll remember of it is that it isn’t that hard, but ‘u-turns’ and ‘conservation mounds’ are everywhere. And pretty much for the length of the whole track too.
We grabbed some firewood and got back to camp at approx 1800h – one long bloody day but damn we had some fun.
Another soak in the water and some dinner and it was off to bed early.
Sunday
Was meant to be a short day. A nice easy run with a resupply at Mansfield and then back for a lazy afternoon (damn I love plans that don’t work out quite exactly as you expected!).
The original plan wasn’t able to be completed so we decided to do another track instead. The beauty of this plan was I had no idea what the track was like (in hindsight I should have looked at my Rooftop Map as it did show me……).
We headed out of camp at approximately 0930h and turned up Howqua Hills Track. It certainly is a good low range run and I did meet some other vehicles in some interesting places (there is quite a few places where you can’t pass another vehicle).
We continued onto Steiners Rd (running South not West) and then turned right onto Mitchells Track (West not South) at the Slate Mine).
There’s only one way to describe the track – and that’s brilliant. It gives you a bit of everything, in particular rocky ascents and descents. You’ll certainly be in low range for this track, and it even had the guys putting lockers on. We were down on approximately 20psi of pressure in the tyres for one particular climb where I was concerned about getting everyone up there.
At the time my compressor wasn’t working which meant no lockers – another words open diffs all the way. However after some looking and discussing David (Toy42) said that we’d be fine – and he was spot on.
We got Andrew (Wholehog) to go up first due to having the electric winch in case it was required. However everyone made it first time without any major issues.
The track continued in this fashion all the way until we turned left onto Masters Track and dropped down the hill to the small river crossing of the Jamieson River and into the Grandy’s Flat camping area.
From here it’s a nice easy high range gravel road down into Jamieson where we had a late lunch (after 1300h….).
From there the afternoon was left up to everyone’s own decision and the majority of us travelled up to Mansfield for some supplies and then back to camp.
Phil (Philm) however decided to tackle the Three Chain Track on the way back to camp. By all accounts it was some more fun similar to what we did this morning, but bigger holes along the way. I’m quite sure he’ll have some sort of trip report on the Overlander Forum anyway.
Again the afternoon consisted of soaking in the river, having a drink, dinner, campfire and bed.
We also noticed that some people had decided to move into the area where I had our camp set up. In actual fact I reckon I could take 8 footsteps from the front door of my camp to the start of their’s.
The thing that really pissed me off was they decided to yell and carry on until 0230h in the bloody morning, with their music pumping. Absolute arrogance and typical of late where people don’t understand common courtesy to others.
The missus ended up going out at 0230h and advising them that she didn’t appreciate their actions considering we have a 7 month old baby (that’s putting it kindly).
A disappointment to a great first leg of the trip.
David and his wife also left this evening to head back to Sydney. It was great to have both of them along, who between them have vast experience not only in this area but all over Australia.