On Sunday the 9th of July a group from the club went to tackle an ambitiously long trip starting at the Sussex Inlet turnoff and intending to end on Albatross road – a trip distance of almost 55Klm.
We kicked off with a meet at the rest area at Nungarry with three cars piloted by brand new members and a large group of others – 12 vehicles in total.
We started out with a track of mud bogs and erosion control mounds – the mud proved too much of a lure for some with james being stuck fast in the first 10 minutes with a reverse pull soon getting him out.
The track meandered down towards a small creek crossing with plenty of branches down from the recent winds providing pinstriping opportunities for those shiny new cars amongst the group.
The climb up the other side had some decent maneuvers required but even the newbies handled it with ease.
Some solid downhill sections followed with some opting for the steeper section, some on the easier side which was still quite steep.
We then came across the hill that took much of the rest of the day.
There were two options – the hard side, and the other hard side.
I took on the hard side first and made it look much harder than it needed to be. After several attempts and rescues on the winch, I finally got through. James and Al managed to make the hard side look decidedly easier than I made it look with impressive runs to the top. Some were keen to tackle the slightly less daunting side but some were keen to take a diversion altogether and avoid the hill. New member Sue decided that this was exactly what she came for and she was having a crack. Her enthusiasm soon caught on and everyone was getting up there come hell or high water. Some great drives saw some cars scoot up like it was easy, some cars worked harder for the goal but everyone got to the top and earned their lunch.
By the time lunch was done, it was a bit late to tackle the second half of the days intended route.
Most headed home, a small group went on for a bit more dirty work.
Stay tuned – the second half of the trip will be scheduled for around November – only this time, I might do a pre-trip inspection.
