After our lunch stop, we made our way to Campsite Tk, which is one of my favourites in Toolangi. Nothing overly hard but it has a nice little creek crossing, which helped wash the mud off our cars after the morning tracks, then a nice continuous steep climb. In the wet this section can get difficult but this part of the forest was as 'dry as a chip'. Down Martins Tk, another creek crossing then we made our way to Red Tk West, commonly known as Lyndells Tk. This track is a steep rocky climb the goes on forever and for some reason I have always struggled on this track...grrrr. Today was no different as I continually lost traction on the rocky surface and had numerous goes on some sections. There was one point when I thought I broke another CV, but it was just the rocks hitting the undercarriage of the Paj with many rolling down the hill towards the cars behind. As Matt suggested, I probably should have dropped my tyre pressures. Matt, Brenton and Clint had no issues on this track and we then made our way to Downies Spur. Clint and Jackie headed home as he had some packing to do for their upcoming house move.
Downies Spur has numerous bogholes, which we all avoided. A solo 4wd coming in the other direction informed us that he had wrecked his winch in one of the bogs; not sure what the attraction is of driving them, especially with no other vehicles to assist if required. From there we headed onto Wee Creek Tk. Easy run with the exception of a side track that rejoins the main track. The section is quite steep with a big angled drop off that has the potential to have your vehicle hitting the embankment very hard; we decided to give this a miss. Back onto Marginal Rd and went down a track the connected up to the old Glenburn Tk that now becomes a dead end as a result of the east/west pipeline. We then arrived at Rocky Track to finish the day.
As Matt said earlier, Rocky is badly chewed up, especially the so called easier track on the left as you arrive at the junction of the super hard section up the middle. We all got up then made our way back towards Yarra Glen via Pauls Range track and aired up and said our goodbyes.
A really enjoyable day with great company and a big 'hats off' to Hundyinmelb (Brenton) who drove all the way from Bendigo for this trip. The only dissapointment on the day was the amount of rubbish left on the tracks. Clint and Matt were continually stopping to pick up empty plastic bottles, stubbies etc etc. Suppose it is no real surprise, but there are many 4wders who have absolutely no respect for the bush. Same can be said for the dickheads who drive closed tracks, but will be the 1st to whinge when they get closed permanently.
PS: Am sure some who have read this report and watched the video may fell inclined to drive Cockpit, Blowhard and Aeroplane; a piece of advice and you can take it on board or not, especially those who have never attempted these tracks before.
Unless you have 32" MUD tyres (as a minimum), a working winch and preferably some traction aid, DO NOT ATTEMPT to drive these tracks.
A/T's will not cut it as even if there has been no recent rain, this part of Toolangi gets very little sunshine and the tracks are always damp. There had been no substantial rain fall in Toolangi for over a week and you can see how wet the likes of Blowhard were. Again, not trying to tell anyone how to 'suck eggs', but unless your vehicle is equipped with the above and you are reasonably experienced, give these tracks a miss.
Video of the afternoon to follow in the next day or so.
Reply