The Springs - 5/6 July

[Capella_Ben]

Thanks to everyone who came to the Springs; it was great.

The weekend started out for us on Friday afternoon. We were the first into the park and had the pick of camp sites. I picked the grassiest one near the rope swing.

Friday seems to be getting more and more popular lately as about half of us arrived on Friday. After us was Nedly, Cheesemaker, Dalmation (with Scott and Naomi) and Scooter. Friday night was nice an relaxing with only a modest fire. It was enough, though, as it was a nice warm 4 degrees overnight.

Saturday saw Dipmaker, Cuboid, Gary, Jonathan and Krn arive. It took us a while to wake up and get started that morning and by the time we finished breakfast everyone else had arrived and and we then went for a drive. Also at the park was a Jeep club and a Land Rover club, and we thought there would be a bit of congestion on the tracks, but fortunately that didn't eventuate.

In the morning Tim hitched a ride with Scooter and lead us around the park. We had a big convoy, ad we got through quite a few great tracks. We went through all manner of tracks from moderate to very difficult with no real problems.

As this is Dalmation's second home he led us around in the afternoon. There was only one recovery for the weekend and that was when Gary slipped into a rut and landed on his diffs. A failed attempt to use Max Tracks was followed by a successful winch. It didn't take much and Gary popped out of the rut like a cork out of a bottle. Probably because the winch was down hill!

Saturday afternoon is when the bravest of the brave have the chance to tackle Beer-O-Clock hill. When we arrived back the owner was waiting there for someone to give it a go. A couple of guys from a camp site across the road were successful (after a couple of attempts and a lot of dust) in unlocked patrols. Eventually I talked myself into it and decided to give it a go. However I was no mucking around with attempting it unlocked, so I dropped my tyres to 16 PSI and hit all the locker switches I had.

However, while I was waiting a Jeep gave it a crack. Seeing him flapping around up there like a fish in a tinnie made me doubt my original decision. Eventually he gave up (after digging yet more holes in the track) and it was my turn.

I had many willing volunteers who wanted to come for a ride in order to add ballast. So in we jumped and this is what happened.



That got the heart pumping!

Steve and Les gathered a heap of firewood for the night. They even found a great chimney log. Whilst looking for a second chimney log I looked into a hollow and found a tail. After banging the log on the ground to try to remove the tail, we noticed that it had claws and there was also a little tail next to it. We put that log aside for the very scared native creature to escape in the night. In the late evening I noticed that the mother lizzard was gone and the baby was still there. I guess the mother found another log in the evening and came back for baby because they were both gone in the morning.

Anyway we had a great fire and a pretty precarious chimney fire. Which was good because overnight the temperature got down to -1.9 degrees. Yes that's sub-zero and there was frost on the ground when we woke up.

On Sunday we figured it was warmer in our cars so we went for another drive. When we were at the playground, Magnus got sick so I dashed back to the cap ground and dropped Jane and the kids off and replaced them with Tim. We caught up with the rest and we drove some of the tracks at the front of the park. We eventually got to the "Brisbane Way" track which was rated as very difficult. However after discounting the original decent into the valley (which had crash written all over it) we made our way down and eventually through to the other side. There was some really good driving by everyone all weekend. Especially by Naomi who in her first drive did all the tracks we did; and did them well.

Please post up your photos as, unfortunately, I didn't take too many.

[cuboid]

Thanks for organising the trip Ben.

I only took a few photos

The obligatory group on top of a hill shot - Love Hill to be precise


Garry slipped into the rut


An unsuccessful attempt with some logs and the max tracks - as Ben mentioned, Jonathan got to use his winch to dislodge Garry


A rather frosty weed at 7am Sunday morning


Two rather frosty young women about the same time


And just in case you are still not getting that it was "very" cold


Gotta love cold weather camping - thanks all for making it a good time.

[maverick01]

Looks like we missed out on a great weekend away. It's a shame I was sick as we were both looking forward to getting away again

[BenJancz]

NO LOCKERS NEXT TIME !!!!!! You made that look way too easy. Nice one I spent Saturday afternoon replacing a power steering pump so the Fronty is up and about again. Not sure about the sub zero temperatures, I moved to Brissy to escape those mornings, infact im not sure it got that cold in the mornings even in Geelong.

[Dave]

Nice trip report Ben,

I was thinking of you all over the weekend, but the kids really wanted to go somewhere colder and further away.

Yes, beer o'clock hill looked way to easy.

I had my own challenge on Sunday revising out of the parking spot on the side of the road. Very slippery, but I had good traction control, and made it out. The pathfinder beside me didn't, and couldn't get traction on the snow.
Minus 1.9.... if only it was that warm today. I'll post a video of the blizzard this afternoon. The side tracks would have made a club trip.

Anyway, did anyone get photos of the chimney log fire? Was it better then the other one at Glendon?
Looks like it was a great weekend for all. I'll have to organise another trip to the Springs in the near future. I'm sure Tim would be keen for a second trip.

Cheers,
Dave

[RegyRocky]

Thanks Ben and everyone else for making me feel welcome on my first trip with the club.
I had a good weekend and loved the driving, the camping and all the people that made it great. Thanks Jonathan for rescuing me with the winch, I shouldn't look too far ahead until I finish the clearing the current obstacle.
Anyway Dave here are some pictures of the chimney log fire.
Cheers

Gary
Ps. I'll be back