Portland 2007

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)