LROC Watagans Trip
Sunday 20th February 2005

by Anonymous

The day started off so wet that I rang Bruce to determine if it was still on and he assured me he had the weather under control. Indeed by the time we arrived at the designated meet at Paruna Roadhouse the sky was clearing and the weather kept getting better until on the way home on the Freeway it begun raining again. Well done Bruce & Yvette! However it did appear to discourage Defender and Series owners as none were to be seen, what Wimps!

The Watagans are a beautiful part of our country and this trip highlighted some of the attractions. (see GPS map below). Our first port of call was McLeans Lookout, then onto Monkey Face lookout where a group photo was taken. If you study the photo you may be able to see why it is called Monkey Face lookout. (If you can please let me know!) We then headed to Boarding House Dam for a stroll in the bush and lunch. The picturesque dam, wooden foot bridge and rocky creek, rainforest and fascinating moss covered rocks and trees are a prime example of what the Watagans have to offer. They are also a reminder of the hard old days when logging camps had to be located in the forests and trees were cut by hand and transported by draught horse.

Apparently during lunch Flash and Kris picked up a friendly hitch hiking spider who took up residency in their overhead console. This sent Kris in a swell trying to drown it with insect spray and just about killing off Flash! After much fuss all the holes were plugged in the console effectively trapping their pet until they could deal with him at home. This allowed them to rejoin the convoy and we ventured along Boarding House road stopping at “The Pines Forest Park”. A very noisy place as it is apparently the home of the “native trail bikes”. It was then off to the mud down Slippery Rock Road. This proved not to be too slippery or muddy as tractors had begun widening and demudding the track, but there was still enough to get the vehicles dirty to show we did go off the beaten track. A great day was had by all and we must thank Bruce and Yvette for their great effort!