Blue Navara

Mon afternoon in Wombat

2010-01-05T18:55:00.000-08:00

Well left home about 1300. Into the forest 20 mins later. Wandered up an area I had looked at on the map and found a freshly bulldozed track. About a k up it I found the dozer tidying up the track and filling some of the more gnarly bogholes. Good thing really as they are so deep and badly rutted very few vehicles would ever get through. Those that were filled were still particularly sloppy - dirt + water equals ? So there is no doubt the bogholes will return but this is a DSE thing to allow emergency access over the fire season. Got ahead of the dozer after a chat with the driver and his offsider in the assistant vehicle. Photos below are of some of the holes they were filling. Cant remember which one now but one of them was 5 ft deep. After passing the DSE guys I felt I had to continue on no matter what rather than turn around and retreat. All of these bogholes have chicken tracks around them but even then they are almost as bad and tricky to navigate. Lots of getting in and out of the vehicle to look for a safe line and to check depths. Overall though I grew alot of confidence to slowly pick my way through and to find the limits of the nav. Thumped the towbar a few times but didnt get stuck and was very impressed both with myself and the vehicle to make it through some serious sort of stuff.
This track is nothing but a loop track and so returned and found what I had set out to look for, a creek crossing at the bottom of a reasonably steep gully. We had gotten into it from the other side a few weeks ago but since Ange and I were solo and no winch we turned around. Turns out the winch wasn't necessary anyway because after walking it and planning a line in, through and out of it I did it easily. I could see where others had done it badly too with big belly drag marks and bark off trees.
Onward and out of there with a few tricky bits to navigate on the way back to the main rd - got to use the new chainsaw too!
Up to next track turn off and at the entry off the main rd there was SES baricade tape tied around a tree - I figured it was either a marker for where they had been training or where the had been for a rescue. Headed down it and it was fairly technical once again with some deep holes and some tight spots navigating between trees and staying atop and out of deep ruts. The track terminated for me though at a severe creek crossing that a standard vehicle would never have a hope of crossing (SES required?) The exit out of there looked like a lot of fun with a steep rocky climb but it was the getting to the other side that I couldn't do. Turn it around and head for home.
So that was my afternoon.
Probably do it again tomorrow
Not saying where these tracks are but they are heavily used so they definitely aren't a secret

Bunyip with Glenn

2009-12-22T17:37:00.000-08:00

Mate Glenn has been into 4x4's for many years and is in the process of building an MQ SWB into a comp truck - about the only original part remaining on it is the windscreen. He has a Bravo dual cab work vehicle and since we are similar vehicles we decided that a daytrip around his area was due - useless bugger couldn't find time to get out on previous weekends!
We Left Cockatoo about 9:00 and within 20 mins he drove us straight into a bog hole! For him this is no worries as first of all its a work vehicle and thus the most capable machine ever devised and secondly winching out of sittuations is normal for him. I was a bit sceptical but figured if he could do it without damage then so could I! Yep no worries dropped into the bog hole and inevitably ended up in the spot as him and had to winch out. First use of the winch and it worked as it should. 100 m up the track from there we decended into a wet little gully with a rutted downhill and a soupy bog at the bottom. Once again winch out. Then again on the climb out of the gull with a badly rutted track. Happy to have had Glenn there with experience and knowledge to guide me out.
The rest of the day was a bit more moderate as I stated to Glenn on the 3rd winch that I had fitted the winch just in case I might need it not just in case I went 4wd'ing with him!
We tooled around bunyip which also had sustained a fair bit of fire damage during the Black Saturday fires with some tracks still closed.
2 favourite tracks of the day were Nash creek loop and the lower section of Gentle Annie. Just enough of a challenge without the fear of damaging the new vehicle.

Winch fitted

2009-12-22T17:34:00.000-08:00

Fitted a Superwinch X9 on the 12/12/09. probably overdid it but went and got some 600 amp cable to run it

Toolangi forest 13/12/09

2009-12-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Met up with another Navara owner from http://www.navara.asia/ Ian in his D40 at 09:30 outside of Toolangi and headed off into the forest for what was a fun day exploring most of the area. Alot of the forest had suffered from the Feb 09 fires and it was good to see alot of regrowth after recent rains and also to see areas where the fire was so intense that even the Australian bush had been completely devastated.
Areas on northern facing slopes were completely dead from the heat sustained during the fire. It was 47 deg with a 60-70kmh northerly wind that fanned this fire into something that has left these areas looking like a nuclear bomb blast. We had to shift some fallen trees from the tracks and I was astounded at how dry and hard the timber was. It looked like and was as hard as kiln dried timber.
We had a great day covering tracks that were either main forestry roads and some moderate trails. We left the more serious tracks alone Such as Yea link track and Aeroplane track due to insufficient ground clearance and respect for our vehicles but still had enough tracks to keep us interested in 4x4.

Wombat forest

2009-11-28T15:51:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we Spent a good deal of time wandering about in Wombat State Forest. Entering from Bullengarook we travelled westerly across the top of Lerderderg state park looking for relics of times gone by. There are things such as old timber tramways and sawmills, disused mines etc shown on our map however we were unable to locate any. Never mind we still had fun exploring the tracks and splashing through the mud holes. The dogs were useful for checking the depth for us! We got to Blackwood a bit after 1 in the afternoon. Continued on through the other side of Blackwood and followed the Lerderderg river for a short time until turning off up Wheelers track which follows the path of the old tramway. There is a stark difference in the forest on either side of Blackwood. on the eastern side it is scrubby and dry and on the western side it is lush and green with alot of moss and ferns.
Great day all round.

Our first daytrip

2009-11-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

Kinglake - Toolangi - Marysville - Woods Point - Noojee - Home
Great fun day covering nearly 500kms in total and sticking to the more main roads / forestry trails.

Delivery

2009-11-28T15:21:00.000-08:00

Collected from Blackburn Nissan 28/09/09 one new series 4, D22 Navara, YD25, 4X4, STR, diesel, dual cab utility. Delivered with following options. ARB colour coded, smooth finish canopy with sliding windows. Nissan genuine tub liner. Central locking. Tinted windows. Tow pack. ARB / Nissan winch bar.
Purchase price all inclusive 12months reg and stamp duty $38 354.00 AUD.
Purchased to be used by my partner as her everyday vehicle for getting to and from work, carrying around our 2 large dogs and to use weekends for getting away.