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TREKKING
BRIGHT
Leigh Woodberry Reports on a
High Country trip - June '04
We all headed to Bright at various times on Friday for our
weekend of adventure in the high country. Booked into the
Porepunkah Caravan Park, Nick Summit, Nick’s workmate, Scotty, Brad
McLaren, Jason Kitchener and Claire Habulin were in the upper end
of cabins (with full kitchen, bathroom, heating and space to
move!!), while Leigh (that’s me!), Fiona, Dylan and Matthew
Woodberry found ourselves in a very basic cabin.
Peter “Shunt” and Josh Morley and Daniel were in
their tents, and Ben and Jessy Kitchener were in their
camper-trailer. Luckily the rest of us did not have to run too far
in the cold and rain to the toilet/shower facilities! Late Saturday
morning, once we were all ready we headed into the Buckland Valley
planning to head towards the historic town of Grant. But, alas,
this was not to be! Those who had to adjust their hubs did so and
then Brad felt something was wrong with his trusty
‘Forerunner’.
On the side of the road Brad pulled off his front driver’s side
wheel to discover that the problem was not a wheel bearing as first
thought—it was much more serious. Luckily, the kids had footballs
to kick around, and the constant lure of nearby water was great for
skimming stones—while Brad sweated away on his truck. After a
couple of hours, and a temporary fix, we headed up the road for a
lunch stop. Brad decided it was not wise to continue as he was
having trouble engaging 4WD. Sadly, he returned to camp (wishing
he’d been driving a Nissan!!!!!). As we now did not have enough
daylight hours to continue to Grant we decided to stay close by and
followed some uneventful tracks before heading back to base.
The boys wanted to go down a track with water crossings we’d
seen on our January trip, which was all fine, until Jessy suggested
a track that was “just a short little one” we’d passed near a camp
site back out onto the main track. This “short little track” was
just what we’d been looking for all afternoon, sharp turns,
slippery dips, narrow track—though the blackberry bushes - I’m
sure, Jason did not need scratches on his new Hi Lux. As the track
grew longer Shunts checked the GPS to see where we were, but no
track was marked - we were on an unmarked track. At a bend in the
track Nick took a left down a side track to see if we could get
out, but the track narrowed too much to allow any vehicles through.
Then, unfortunately, for Nick, he could not get back up the track -
oops! Ben tried to snatch him out but the lighter weight of the
Pathfinder was no match for the mighty Landcruiser. So, it was now
up to Shunts to do the hard yakka. He finally snatched out Nick
after attempting to winch first. Phew!
By this time it was dark and, after advancing up the track a
little further, we decided to turn around and head back the way we
had come. Under Shunt’s expert supervision we all managed to turn
around safely and head back to camp. After filling our hungry
bellies it was fun to sit around Shunts' campfire and debate the
merits of Nissan versus Toyota with Brad’s theory “that there are
no Nissan wrecking yards that he’d seen, as Nissans don’t break
down” - this from a Toyota driver!! It was a fun evening! Soon we
were heading off to get some sleep for our next day of
adventure.
Sunday morning arrived much too soon! Nick decided to check his
vehicle as he was running out of brake pedal from the previous
night. He discovered on removing the back right-hand wheel and
brake drum that the wheel cylinder had popped. Brad ‘the mechanic’
to the rescue! He soon had it repaired so that Nick could get
safely home. That put an end to Nick’s four wheeling that day,
though! Brad was out of action, too, Jason, Claire and Scotty had
gone fishing, Ben and Jess decided to head up to Mount Hotham with
family for the day - so that only left two vehicles. With the
weather closing in we decided that a trip to Grant or Dargo was out
of the question. So, we decided to head towards Lake Buffalo on
marked 4WD tracks. We had the best day in the bush. The track was
everything we’d planned to be doing on the weekend - and with both
Shunt and Woody driving their trusty Toyota’s nothing was too hard.
Once the rain set in, though, and the track become more slippery -
more challenging.
Driving across the mountain ridges was amazing, straight down,
then straight up. Fog began to set in, too. With diminishing
visibility it was eerie. At one point we drove through what looked
like a “Telecom cemetery”—the trees had no limbs, the trunks just
went up into the fog. It was quite eerie—like being in a Stephen
King movie! We finally got out on the dam wall at Lake Buffalo—in
the pouring rain—but planning to head back through some 4WD tracks
around Mount Buffalo. However, daylight was disappearing fast and
we decided it would be safer—and more sensible—to continue on the
road to Myrtleford for supplies and then back to camp. This we did.
Unfortunately, the fishermen did not catch enough trout for
everyone for tea, so after our meals, it was back to Shunt’s
campfire to reflect on what each had done that day.
Monday morning saw everyone packed up and back on the cold, wet
road to Melbourne already planning the next big CITYWEST
adventure!
- “Woody”
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