Mt Walker Tuff Trip
29th May 2005

It has to be said I have never been witness to the need for on the spot repairs before the tuff trip had even begun in the past but such was apparently the case as I rolled into the Lithgow Shell to meet up with Max, Geoff, Andy and Gordon. All that could be seen of Gordon and Andy was legs as they fitted a shiny new set of rear radius arms with seemingly unbreakable shafts to Gordon’s Rangie which made the late model Range Rover items look like a pair of tent pegs. These certainly put a smile on Gordon’s face and thus we set off to meet up with those who had camped overnight. At the campsite we found Paul and family, Pete and Marissa putting the finishing touches to breaking camp. Once completed we set off for the first obstacle which was fortunately about 10m away. Now whoever said we would be changing tyres by 10.15 am needs to buy Paul a beer or preferably a new tyre. As he set off (he was, I must add, the first to tackle the hill) there was a depressing whoosh of air as a sharp rock made short work of his passenger side rear. After a short delay we all made it to the top of the hill although after one refusal by my poor old Rangie I decided that chickening out and going the easy route was indeed the better part of valour.

Now it was time to make tracks and so off we went to Unimog Hill. I’m not sure who coined this name but they were on the right track although it seems that Max Andy and Pete can also add their names to the list, the rest of us having to be content with a photo shoot with our front wheels on the rather dramatic rock step a the bottom. We continued on up the hill and passed a pleasant morning doing what comes naturally to our Landies (and one Nissan). We even found some water crossings, which I am informed would have been over our heads in better years. In fact it was at one of these water crossings that we witnessed on of the most unusual sights I have ever seen in all my years of rovering. As we descended the hill to take lunch by the river Pete spotted some frantic waving. On closer inspection we discovered that the wavers were the owners of a mid 80’s “4WD” Tarago running 12” road tyres tied to a Hilux running what I think were 38” Boggers. The recovery equipment of choice was blue nylon string doubled up for extra strength. The tyre pressure of choice was approx 45psi. This combination had lead to their spending about an hour in the river before we arrived both of them up to their axles in sand and up to their seats in water.

Due to their lack of any recovery points at all we had no choice but to wrap our recovery gear around the strongest looking part of the Hilux (the leaf springs) and hope it was stronger than the owners planning abilities. The Tarago was in a trickier position so we gave them a shovel told them to dig and we adjourned for lunch at a safe distance. It was about this time that I had to put my rear springs back in for the second time of the day, Luckily the Toyota boys had significantly upstaged me with their predicament and I think I got away with it!

Having tired of watching them dig Andy pulled the Tarago out with his winch and we set back off up the hill to tackle Mt Walker’s summit. This drive is notable for having lots of large loose rocks on it’s trickier sections and I can vouch for the fact that this makes for alarming reversing. Andy can vouch for the fact it makes it hard to get going again once you’ve stopped and have a rear wheel in a big hole. To prevent the 110 becoming any more precarious a quick winching job was executed and it was the turn of the next comer. The next comer was myself and not spotting the chicken route I once again tested my ability at long distance downhill reversing. By this time we were joined by a large party of Toyotas who were taking a more leisurely route to the top. I followed them up only to discover that the others had successfully made it up the track, chicken route or otherwise. This left only a 150m to go. We watched and chatted as the other group made their bid for the top and then watched Andy as he set off to settle an old score with the track. (I believe that the story involved the phrases “8 hours” and “Snow”)

Following Andy and Paul up to the summit I hitched a ride with Max to survey the route. Having made the sensible decision not to attempt it, I witnessed Gordon’s Rangie make it look easy courtesy of a locked rear. Reasoning that a locked rear with a LSD in the center must equal a locked center with stock rangie axles, I decided I was not going to be shown up and had to make an attempt. On the way down I was passed by a couple of 100 series cruisers who had decided queuing was not their cup of tea. Having waited for them to vacate the limited parking at the top, I once again set off for my high altitude reversing practice. As the guys made their way back down Geoff announced he was going to head home to Bathurst and after the usual goodbye’s promptly did a formidable impression of a steam whistle as one of his tyres rolled off the bead. This didn’t set him back too much though and we were all soon back at the campsite so I could show everyone my 14 dollar tyre pump, I could tell they were impressed, so much so that I think I could soon be in line for the clown award Paul had been sporting after his impressive achievements earlier in the day.

Thanks go to Andy for guiding us through the day and to Toyota for providing the cabaret.
Chris Gilpin