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Story by
John Parish
Pictures
by Carol & Allan Russell
The sight
of CITYWEST vehicles with 5 metre flag poles attached was a new
thing to behold, all proudly erect and newly attached to the
vehicles that were about to be led onto the white sands of Portland
by Captain Klenkowski.
How did
this happen to CITYWEST—the kings of Wombat and the High Country
getting up to their wheels in sand? Is inspiration to try something
different becoming a hallmark of our club? Bush fires had
reportedly impacted on the traditional planned destination for the
Labour Day Weekend trip up into the High Country and trip leader,
Chris Klenkowski, picked up on an idea that perhaps CITYWEST could
get access to the Portland Sands via the Portland Dune Buggy Club.
No harm in asking! This proved to be correct. We could share the
camp ground with some of the Portland Buggies and some members of
the Pajero Club, who have a regular booking for the Labour Day long
Weekend—and so it unfolded.
As a result
10 vehicles from CITYWEST were booked into the camping site at the
base of the sands between Portland and Nelson. The plan was to
arrive when we could between Friday and Saturday and leave on
Monday. Lots of time to play in the sand was on offer. The weather
looked to be good so commitments were made. Heading for Portland
were:
- Trip
Leader Chris “Brumby” Klenkowski and number one son
Nicholas.
- The
Walkers, Colin and Kathy in “Tonka Toy” and towing their
Bushtracker complete with toilet and shower (some
people!)
- The
Andrews’, Pajero and lovely assistants, Katelyn and
Lauren.
- The
Russell's, Carol and Allan, with luxury Pop-Top pulled by the
faithful Landcruiser.
- Anthony
“Caspar” Cassar, with Proud Prado assisted by a real
Charlie.
- The
Mizzi’s, Jim, Susan, Christine and Kimmi, in Landcruiser and camper
trailer that grows and grows.
- Paul and
Dawn Vassallo, Haley and Luke, with Pop-Top Camper and Prado, what
a team!
- Michael
and Sandra Calleja, Nicolle Calleja and along for some support
Nicolle’s friend Jamie Griffin all using a Pop-Top
Camper
It was a
good group, with a range of experience in Four Wheel Driving, and
associated camping experiences it seemed. As usual for CITYWEST,
there was a good family mix with young ones and crusty oldies, like
Colin. Rose and I agreed to meet the trip leader and travel
together down to Portland on the Friday, so we met up on the
Ballarat Road on Friday morning. A nice day leaving Melbourne
behind, which always feels good when camping is planned. Traffic
was light and we made great progress, stopping at Lake Bolac for a
brief comfort stop where we noticed another larger group of fellow
4x4 travellers. Were they all heading for Portland? Yes, it seemed,
as it was the Pajero Club, trying to beat us to the best sites.
(Little did they know we had sent Colin and Kathy Walker on earlier
to scout out the situation). A brief chat with the Paj. guys
assisted us, as we determined that we should pick up our special 5
metre sand flags, needed while on the sand, from the buggy club on
the way into Portland. Good advice.
On the road
again, we stopped at Dunkeld for a small feed on great home made
pies at the pie shop. Chris Klenkowski sure knows his pie shops! On
to Portland, where we called on a member of the Portland Dune Buggy
Club who had prepared some special sand flags for us to use over
the weekend. These were to be tied onto our
vehicles.
We were assured that the shower we could see on a trailer in the
shed would be delivered tonight along with some Wheelie Bins for
the rubbish. This seemed very generous and more so when we found it
was a good 30 kilometres to the camp site. These items were
delivered as promised. The shower is a gas shower set up on a
trailer and all that needs to be done is connect it to the water
supply at the camp site. It was very popular over the weekend, I
can tell you!
Chris led
the way into Portland for an opportunity to fill up with fuel and
to rendezvous with Anthony Cassar. All this went very well as we
had just finished filling with fuel when Anthony made contact on
the trusty Channel 10. Off then to the camp site and down the small
hills into our camping area. A well established facility, it was,
too, with manufactured fire places, flushing toilets and running
bore water from plenty of taps placed around the edges of the
camping areas. Colin and Kathy Walker had already arrived and had
staked out a claim on an area away from the main open camping area,
and their choice was deemed to be most appropriate, so we set about
setting up our various means of camping accommodation ranging from
Caravan with toilet and shower, through to basic tents. We
also had time to get our 5 metre sand flags attached to our
vehicles and stand back to look at the impressive height of those
red flags.
Carol and
Alan Russell arrived and by now the temperature was quite cool.
Apparently, Carol refused to speak most of the way as Allan had
forgotten the Porta-potti. Wrong call Allan and probably just saved
by the flushing toilets close to camp site. Michael Calleja was
also in some trouble as he promised that showers (plural) were
going to be available for Sandra and the girls. Gradually the good
vibes of the camp site won over and allowed everyone to relax and
enjoy. Phew!
A nice warm
day moved into a cool night. The fire was lit, and those who were
set up waited as other campers slowly arrived at various intervals
into the evening. Trip Leader Chris and Anthony Cassar stayed up
and on one occasion had to drive out the road to find a lost
camper. Perhaps this person was lost because they were looking for
a highway that did not exist in the place they were looking. It
seems that highway C193 somehow became C192 in the directions
provided by our erstwhile trip leader. Oops! All the other
directions were OK so if you ignored the number on the main highway
to Nelson it was possible to find your way. Chris however, in
driving out of the camping area in the night managed to attack a
koala with his sand flag that he forgot was now towering into the
trees. Red flag now being worn by a koala as a nappy we
suspect.
Most of us
had gone to bed and were well asleep when we were woken up to the
noise of tent pegs being whacked into the ground. Various estimates
were spoken about the next morning, but most counted into the
hundreds of pegs. The Andrews’ had arrived at 1.30am! Chris
Klenkowski and Anthony Cassar assisted, with torch holding and
general supervision, as they had stayed up to welcome the late
arrivals. Once the pegs were in place, the air beds needed pumping
up. Many people are now willing to contribute to the development of
noiseless air pumps. If the Andrews’ were at the camp site we all
knew about it—forget sleep! Of course, Colin and Kathy did not hear
a thing! I wonder why?
A leisurely
next morning as Trip leader set out guidelines and advice re sand
driving and some went off for some basic practice. Colin Walker and
myself went on a firewood gathering trip and filled the Andrews’
trailer. Back at camp we all let our tyres down and after a small
lunch were off to play in the sand. This is a fantastic experience
as it is totally different to beach driving or inland sand hill
driving. The clean white sand is very soft and formed into sand
hill ridges which need to be driven directly up and down for
obvious safety reasons. We each took it in turns to tackle sand
hills and generally found how fast you had to drive to negotiate a
sand dune. Most took two or more goes and gradually developed their
technique. At one point, while we were taking turns at climbing the
steep sand dune, Paul Vassallo, in one of his attempts, got up and
didn’t turn left on top of the dune quick enough and went down the
other side, which had a big drop off—he ended up hanging sideways.
Mark and Chris in Chris’s truck went up to rescue him. He was
leaning quite badly but he was rescued with some shovelling of the
sand from his driver’s side front wheel. After doing a little
exploring we found the GPS bread crumb trail to be great assistance
in finding the track home for a cuppa as most of the sand looks the
same.
Our second
trip out featured our Trip leader heading up a steep sand hill but
he found himself being sucked sideways by the sand flow and luckily
came to a stop precariously leaning sideways on the sand hill. This
launched a serious recovery exercise. A real recovery! The Brumby
vehicle was tethered via a winch sideways, ensuring it
did not
slip down the slope anymore, while three snatch straps were joined
together and after two or three snatches we had Brumby back on
level sand. It may have been a coincidence but once we got moving
Chris led the way back to camp saying he needed go to the toilet.
Hmmm! As I said it may have been a coincidence.
That night
the Mizzi’s arrived and joined us all around the campfire, where
many discussions were held and bottles of wine shared, before we
headed off to bed for a good night’s sleep. Not so good for our
Trip Leader as someone in his tent recycled their dinner.
Apparently this is not a good thing when the tent is all zipped up
and it is reportedly hard to find two zippers in the
dark.
The next
day it threatened rain but didn’t. After lunch Chris led a reduced
team off into the sand hill as those who remained at camp monitored
their progress over the hand-held radios and cooked up a damper for
afternoon tea. Much yelling and cheering indicated they were having
fun, and on return it became evident about what all the fuss was. A
small sand dune enabled the players to get all four wheels off the
sand if tackled at the right speed. They positioned the
photographers and now we all have video and still shots of many of
the vehicles flying through the sand. These images will be
available to view endlessly into the future. Chris Klenkowski is
claiming legend status as a result of all this. Alas—we’ll never
hear the end of it.
On this
same excursion, they were at another dune that was steeper and
looser than the Saturday one and it took Mark 11 attempts (yes, 11
attempts) before he finally got the Paj up the dune. Tyre pressure
can make a difference! Anthony Cassar got almost everyone doing the
Toyota jump as a result of him making it up after a couple of
attempts. On one occasion, Anthony joined Chris in his vehicle and
when they got up the dune, they both got out and did the Toyota
jump together, banging guts together. Not a pretty sight. As a
result of Tony colliding with Chris (coz he’s so small compared to
Chris) he went flying backwards and rolled over twice. Chris
apparently also fell backwards.
Another
nice camp fire night and, unfortunately, we had to pack up and
leave the next morning. Kathy and Colin stayed one more night but
the rest of us slowly made our way home.
Portland
sand hills will become an annual event, for sure, and unless you
have driven this type of sand you have not experienced all that
Four Wheel driving can offer. It was great fun, a great weekend,
and I suggest as many as can put aside the time for next
year.
Big thanks
to Chris Klenkowski for the planning. Thanks to Natalia for letting
Chris do the recce on your Birthday! Thanks to all the participants
who made the trip a great trip, indeed.
Postscript
Another
aspect of the weekend was the Recce carried our by Mark and Chris a
couple of weekends prior to the long weekend. They decided to carry
out the Recce in one vehicle, Chris’s Toyota. After they had
finished their observations at the camp ground, they got back into
the 4WD to head out, only to find that they had a completely dead
battery. As Chris does not have a fridge, he doesn’t have dual
batteries. They checked for mobile phone reception and of course,
no network down there. So, they locked the truck and started
walking out. They walked the 2kms to the base of the steep climb
out. At that point, Chris decided to say a prayer to our Lord in
Heaven, and asked that they be rescued—could he please send another
vehicle their way before he walked up the hills. Prayer finished,
Mark and Chris started walking up the first steep rise. About one
third of the way up, Mark says he has mobile reception. Chris
checked his mobile and he had full reception. As Mark only had poor
reception, he kept walking to the top of the rise to see if he
could get better reception. Chris got on the phone to the Police
and was taking care of business when Mark started waving his hand
up top and made some sort of gesture that indicated a steering
wheel. Sure, enough, another 4WD came over the top of the hill.
They were rescued. Interestingly, the mature aged couple that were
in the 4WD said that they were on their way to Nelson and weren’t
going to turn into the area that the boys were in at all, when
suddenly something just made them want to go in. If that isn’t our
Lord at work, then Chris declares he is a monkey’s uncle! The good
Samaritans “jump started” the Tojo and escorted it to the highway,
before they turned off for the border. God Bless those people! By
the time Chris got a new battery in Portland, Mark and he had lunch
at 3:00pm and didn’t make it home until 9:00pm. Mark and Chris
thought that as they were on sealed freeway and highways to Sand
Dune area turn off, that only one vehicle should suffice – WRONG!
Never again says Chris. It’s two vehicles or no recce at
all.
- John
Parish. (#032)
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