When the August edition of the Suzuki Club magazine got delivered we were delighted to see our little Sierra on the front cover in colour. I think this picture is of the first hill climb we did. My trip report was also inside along with lots of photos taken by various people including myself.

As I didn’t actually take that many pictures of our zook it is nice to see that other people did and reminds me I must go onto the club photo vault and see if there are any more that would be good to show here.

Ray and Sandra arrived at 10.30am and by that stage everyone had pretty much packed up camp so we decided to take everything with us. Five minutes from setting out Mat charged a muddy bog and came a cropper when he was stopped dead by a rock in the middle. A halt was called while Dave winched the Sierra out backwards with his Hilux. Mat then proceeded to give it a second go, succeeding this time, followed by Dave.

Our next explorations led us to several dead ends but we saw some spectacular scenery along the way. I especially liked the patch of Squiggly Gum forest we drove through and got out to take photos while the others deliberated over the map. We were heading for the Gun Rock Fire Trail and along the way Phil took a side track which led to an interesting mini hill climb and then looped back onto the main track. Everyone had a go on this one except for Ray and Sandra; they would have made the climb easy enough but the returning trail was a little narrow so they decided to avoid any possible scratches.

When we reached Gun Rock Falls we all parked up and took a walk down to the Creek to take in the view and more photos. We then walked back up to a ford before the falls to assess it for crossing. Mat went first and sped across easily and everyone else followed one by one, some taking it more carefully depending on clearance. The sun was out in full and it was a spectacular place to sit whilst videoing the driving skills.

Once everyone was over the creek, next up was another hill climb. This time the main track was a bit more challenging and saw a couple of people pulling out to drive up the side which was less severe. There was some nifty driving and Darren S just cruised up due to his front and rear difflocks, making it look like child’s play.

[A lack of pictures here is due to me mostly taking videos instead. Mat made it up this hill climb in awesome style with an extended moment in time spent with one wheel high in the air before finally making it over a big rock. Unfortunately my new camera takes videos in .mov format and I cannot upload them directly onto youtube without converting them to .mpg first. As soon as I have the time to figure out how to do this I will post them separately as they are pretty cool - if anyone knows of some software that will do the conversion simply and without turning a 50Mb file into a 2Gb file please let me know!]

After the hill climb we headed to our last point of interest for the day; Fitzeroy Falls in Moreton National Park. We parked up before the walking track to have some lunch and air up ready for the departure home. Then we all took the 200m walk to Renown Lookout which gave a good view of the falls and the valley below. It was quite late in the day resulting in slightly less sun than necessary for a really good picture and a slight haze over everything.

I’d like to offer a big thank you to Darren and Tim for arranging this trip and taking the time to reccie it beforehand. The weather was fantastic and the weekend was a great success. I’m sure I’m right in saying that everyone had a great time

Mat and I set off nice and early to meet everyone at Mittagong at the appointed time of 10am. However, fifteen minutes after our departure Mat remembered he had forgotten to pack the gas hose for our camp stove so decided to go back for it. This resulted in us being half an hour late and the last people to arrive, therefore by tradition, the allotted authors for this trip report

It didn’t take us long to reach the forest and not far in we reached our first site of interest, a nice hill climb with paths of varying difficulty. The site used to be an old quarry, so say, and really was the perfect start to our trip; a little playground just for us.

It was important that this trip was not too difficult, or at least had optional difficult bits, as Ray & Sandra (old members from 5 years ago or more) had brought along their brand new Jeep, just two weeks old, and were not overly keen on giving it a new paint job or anything else so early on in its new life. Brian also had to leave his SJ behind due to a previously poor welding job and was in his GV which had less clearance than normal.

After airing down and a nice little play on the hill we commenced our journey, exploring on the way. The first mishap (and fine) of the trip occurred when Brian, forgetting he wasn’t in his SJ, got stuck on his belly testing his break-over angle. He got stuck in gear and couldn’t shift it but Tim came to his aid and it didn’t take long to get back on track.

The first place that Darren had in mind for the camp site was a bit too muddy so we continued a bit further and found a nice level spot under some trees with a ready made hearth in the middle. We decided to set up camp and have a spot of lunch before going for another explore of the tracks. It was then that the second fine of the day occurred (a little harsh imo) when Phil announced he had forgotten all his sleeping gear; tent, sleeping bag, the lot. Darren Smith offered him the use of a space blanket and Phil assured us he would be ok sleeping in his car.

After lunch, around 2pm, everyone bar Chris and Sharon took off again for another explore. Although Tim and Darren had done a reccie of the site beforehand there were lots of trails that were unknown so it was fun to explore, not knowing what we might come across. The first track we took came to a dead end with a long drop off into a valley overlooking Bundanoon Creek. We all got out to have a look and take some photos and discovered a burnt-out car upended in a tree over the edge. Apart from this the view was spectacular, although it could be argued the car gave a certain artistic quality to the scene.

Our next stop was a large clearing interspersed with shrubs and some more burnt-out cars. There were a couple of deep muddy ruts to drive through and trails amongst the shrubs to career round. We also found some wombat holes but left these alone. After some more fun we split into two groups; one went back to collect some logs we’d previously spotted by the side of a track on the way in and the other, including Mat and I, went to investigate more tracks. We came across some more dry looking wood so loaded as much of this as possible before declaring it beer o’clock and heading back to camp. Along the way, Darren F got stuck in a muddy rut and had to be snatch strapped out by Phil (resulting in another fine?).

We arrived back at camp around 4pm to find the fire already going, thanks to Chris and Sharon. Brian had a coffee before taking his youngsters back home as he had lots of work to do on his Sierra the following day. Ray and Sandra also departed for a hotel in favour of camping due to Ray being still in recovery from flu. They would rejoin us again in the morning but accrued a fine anyway.

So that just left the ten of us with a nice relaxing evening and an intimate fire. Darren F got to test out his camp oven for the first time, getting professional tutorage from Darren S, Tim and Dave. Noah had a great time with the shovel, trying to help out with the hot coals and kept Darren and Jack on their toes, ensuring he was safe from the fire. Tim, Darren S and Jack were sharing a meal and had a slap-up feast consisting of marinaded garlic prawns as an entrée followed by a veal roast and veggies, all done in their camp oven. Mat and I had a tasty masaman curry cooked on our stove but after all the camp oven action think we will definitely have to invest in one for next time. Dave even got his going later with some beer damper (bread made from flour, beer and sugar). Mat and I had already gone to bed by this stage but got to try some of the leftovers the next morning; it was delicious!

[Day 2 to follow. I thought I would break it up as there a lot more photos from the Sunday.]

We set off at 6.30am to meet up with the rest of the group in Oberon at 10.00am and then drive in convoy to the park. We have got quite a lot of camping gear now but Mat managed to get everything packed in with room for the rear view and last minute things behind the seats. Our little Sierra might be small but she managed to get us there in good time with all the additional weight and we even fitted in a visit to the local pie shop for some breakfast before joining the group.

The weather in Oberon was pretty dismal with a chill in the wind and drizzle to add to the discomfort. We had been warned that Oberon was a particularly cold place, worse even than the Blue Mountains which we passed through to get there, and we just hoped that the rain would abate in time for setting up camp. Before we left in convoy to my delight Tim kindly provided us with the use of a club CB handheld radio so that we could tune in and keep in contact with everyone on the journey (all other people having one of the same or a proper in-car installation). I didn’t realise quite how useful this would be until we set off.

Once we got inside the park everyone pulled over to air down (let loads of air out of their tyres for better grip) and then the real fun began. We didn’t attempt anything really tricky but there were some steep up and downs which warranted each car to take it in turns as opposed to all going at the same time. This is where the CBs came in handy so as each person got beyond the difficult bit they could announce the all clear for the next person. It also enabled the first person in convoy to let everyone know what was coming up and any advice for tackling it, and the last person in convoy to let everyone know how far behind they were and that everyone was going in the right direction. As well as all that it enabled everyone to chat and joke around which added to the fun even more.

As Mat was doing all the driving I was able to sit back (whilst intermittantly grabbing hold of the FM bar) and enjoy the awesome scenery. The rain had stopped not long after entering the park leaving behind a damp misty haze that gave the trees a rain forest feel. There was so much great photo potential but unfortunately, due to the convoy situation, I didn’t feel comfortable with asking everyone to stop so I could take some pictures.

There were two particularly amazing scenes that I was transfixed by. One was the trees, dead and alive, covered with a moss-type lichen up to an inch in length, a pale ice green in colour. Apparently it’s known as Old Man’s Whiskers, though probably has many names as googling did not bring up any pictures of what I saw. With the misty atmosphere, droplets of moisture everywhere and the ice green of the lichen against the blackened tree stumps (many seemed to be victims of past fire damage) it was a beautiful scene.

The other new sight for me was an area of trees that I can only guess had been victims of fire damage again. However, these had obviously had longer to recover as instead of blackened, bare limbs each tree had sprouted new leaves. What made them look strange was the way in which the new leaves had grown. Instead of just growing on the tips of smaller twigs the leaves were shooting out from every available space straight from the large branches and even all up the trunks. I am guessing that previous fire had stripped the trees of all their leaves but not quite killed them. Then, from a need to breath and photosynthesize (which trees do through their leaves) they had shot out new leaves as quickly as they could, wherever they could. It gave the appearance of the trees being hairy and really was very strange to look at.

After an hour or so of driving we breaked for lunch by the side of a creek. After some cheese sandwiches Mat went off to talk Suzukis with some other peeps and I went exploring the creek with my camera:

Casuarinas (She-Oaks) by the creek

After taking some pictures and playing in the creek skimming stones with the children we got on our way again and after another hour or so arrived at Silent Creek campsite. The rain had held off and it was turning into a rather pleasant day as we set up our tent. We then spent some time chatting and getting to know people a bit better before starting to prepare our evening meal:

Mat at Wombat Camp preparing to cook tea

I named our tent and set up “Wombat Camp” because a) we knew there were wombats in the vicinity becuase of the large holes we found and b) on the way to Oberon we had stopped at a toilet and saw our first wombat. Unfortunately it was not as exciting as it sounds as the poor creature was a flattened squashed thing in the middle of the road, our first wombat sighting none the less.

As it started to get dark everyone gathered round the campfire for drinks, toasted marshmallows on sticks and a good chat.

As we were all relaxing we were blessed by a very cute pair of visitors; a mummy brush-tail possum and her baby. I didn’t know that possums carried their babies on their backs and as you can imagine I was overcome with delight at the spectacle, whipping out my camera to take pictures. This is not an uncommon sight for Australians but even those that had seen it many times before still apreciated the cuteness of it. We were very lucky that the possum was obviously used to people and didn’t seem to be fazed by us or our torches at all. She wandered around for a long while and went away and reappeared several times during the evening.

After we’d been blown about by the wind for a bit we made our way back to the car and ended up in a little cafe in Narrabeen that we had actually been to before with Tom, Steve and Chris back in the summer. We had to sit inside this time but it was nice and cosy and I had the most fabulous huge vege burger for less than $9 with a camomile tea. If I could remember the name of the place I would highly recommend it.

After our meal we decided to go for a little jaunt and ended up driving all the way up the Barrenjoey peninsula to Palm Beach where I took the following photo:

It was very grey and atmospheric and the waves were crashing against the rocks off to the right of the headland. You can see why it is called Palm Beach from the picture from Google Earth I have included.

Palm Beach is where Home & Away gets filmed, otherwise known as Summer Bay and as we were leaving we drove past the Palm Beach Surf Club. This is actually the Summer Bay Surf Club and if we had had any sense we would have got out of the car and taken a walk round to the beach front side to see the Summer Bay sign. Alas, we didn’t, and until we go back and I get another picture you will just have to take my word for it.

As we made our way down to the south end of Palm Beach Mat spotted this girt twin-stemmed Norfolk Island Pine and exclaimed it was had the largest girth round the base that he had seen so far. Of course we got the camera out again and tried to take a picture that didn’t include the fishermen that suddenly arrived and parked next to it just as we got out of the Suzuki (intentionally included in picture so you can marvel at her beauty ):

After again, marvelling at the huge waves and the multitude of surfers that looked a bit like penguins with their wetsuits on, we continued on our way back home. We had a couple of more stops to look at various view points and pulled over to take this picture:

I forget where we were but by looking at Google Earth and the houses on the green bit of land jutting out I deduce it must have been Whale Beach which is the first beach south of Palm Beach. Unfortunately the rainbow was on its last legs but it shows what a dark and mysterious day it had been weather wise.

At some point I must get around to posting a complete and annotated picture of the Northern Beaches so you can see where everything is in relation to where we live. It’s pretty awesome and I really should start to appreciate it a bit more because I truly don’t. It’s all very well dreaming of the rolling Cotswolds and wishing I could go for a walk up Leckhampton Hill but when I eventually come home I know I will miss having the sea on the doorstep amongst other things.

Anyway, to finish off, it was nearly dark by the time we got home and after a little rest we then went out with Tom, Chris, Steve and two of their female friends that are currently visiting. We all went round to Drew & Lee’s new house for a bit of a beer fest. Against my better judgement I ended up consuming a rather large amount of vodka (Chris & Irina, you would be proud) and got the most pissed I’ve been since Mat’s leaving party back in the UK last September. It was much fun and that’s all I’m going to say about it!

We have been toying with the idea of getting one for a while now and Mat has had his eyes on one belonging to the owner of our local camping shop, The Outdoor Shack. When we were in there purchasing ourselves a new tent Mat mentioned it in passing and was surprised to find out the the man was looking at selling it shortly.

Well, the long and short of it is that we collected her on Sunday, in exchange for AU$2,000 and our word that we would spend $250 in The Outdoor Shack (something which will be all too easy as I have my eye on several items). Believe it or not this is pretty cheap for one this tidy, even though she is due to run out of Rego at the beginning of May (Australian equivalent of tax, MOT and 3rd party insurance all rolled into one).

Anyway, we took her on her first outing to Warringah Mall and here she is parked up on the roof:

It’s basically a weekend packed with events involving some of the most experienced 4×4 drivers in the country driving over the craziest terrains. I’m really excited. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get there but we won’t be leaving until at least 5pm tonight so traffic will probably be pretty nasty. Tom is also coming with us and as his Scooby Doo wagon broke down last week he will be squeezing into the ute with Mat and myself.

Here is a map showing our route which should (traffic dependant) take appoximately 2.5 hours. I have been wanting to include maps on my posts for a while now and have just discovered this handy piece of software, MW Snap, which allows you to capture images from your screen. It is free to download here but donations are gladly accepted.

Anyway, time to start work. I will give you the full low down on our weekend next week (along with more posts on our Easter weekend in the Blue Mountains which I haven’t forgotten about).