The fog was lifting as we met at the corner of Uriarra and Brindabella roads to begin our trip. Your Trip leader was the last to arrive about 10 minutes late (after clearing a code on the Defender, perhaps a portent of things to come).
We headed towards Tumut on Brindabella Road and once we came to Boundary road we split the convoy with the camper vans and Ralph in the Hemi Jeep taking the gentler tracks and the rest of the convoy taking the powerlines road to meet again at the intersection of Bramina Road.
The powerlines track allowed several members to experiment with wheel placement and understanding the capabilities of their vehicles to get over the initial 500m of the track. We met at the end with a sense of achievement and stopped for morning tea.
After a break we headed down Bramina Road and your trip leader overshot the turnoff to Broken Cart Track by a couple of kilometers. A quick reversal of direction and we stooped at the intersection for lunch.
After lunch we headed down to Long Plain Road and just as the head of the convoy arrived on Long Plain we hear an ominous conversation on the CB that involved a trailer and air suspension. After ensuring all was under control Simon stayed to assist with the small technical problem and the rest of the convoy proceeded to Long Plain Hut arriving around 3PM.
Ian and Nicole headed back to see if we could be of assistance but only made it a few kilometers before we heard from the remainder of the convoy that they were under way with Michael’s Range Rover having its rear suspension travel limited by sitting on the bump stops and Will towing the camper with his Defender.
We all made it in to camp and decided a leisurely afternoon tea and some refreshments around the fire ring being the best idea. Michael did some diagnosis on his problem and it appears that an errant stick had made it deep within the confines of the Rangie to pierce the supply hose for the rear suspension.
Saturday morning was fine and clear after a fairly cold night with no cloud and a 10:30 start was decided. After breakfast we headed to Yarangobilly caves and some people went for a swim in the thermal pool while others took a cave tour and the enthusiastic ones did both activities.
Ian, Nicole and Baz took the river walk to the pool and saw their first wild platypus in the river as well as a couple of snakes, (most likely copperheads).
After the activities we all met back in the carpark at 1:30 and headed back to camp to check on the progress being made on the Range Rover.
After a brief stop Will and family accompanied us on a trip to Old Currango Homestead where we wandered around and checked it out before heading south past the Snowy 2.0 works and Tantangara dam. We stopped on the Dam wall to air up for the bitumen and as it turned out, the flattest , smoothest dirt road I have ever driven on between the Snowy 2.0 works and the Highway. Ralph did comment that his vehicle had a significantly rougher ride with the tyres aired up than at 30 psi, revisiting a conversation that we had on a previous trip, it seems even old dogs can learn new tricks 😊
Once on the Bitumen we headed back through Kiandra, the Court house is being rebuilt, however it is sad to see almost all of the rest of the village has been destroyed by the fires. Sunday night we had a few showers but it was a warmer night and we found out that with the application of more firewood the fire rings put out an adequate amount of heat, something that was missing the previous night. Much discussion was had on the design of the shiny new fire rings along with speculation on who the manufacturer was and how the design could be improved.
Monday morning was cool and windy. We broke camp around 10:30 with Nicole and Ian leading Ralph, Baz and Simon back via Tumut and Wee Jasper with Ralph heading home via Gundagai and the Hume and Simon and Baz taking Mountain Creek Road back to Canberra while we headed to Yass arriving home at about 2:30. David and David headed home via Adaminaby and Shannons Flat while the Thompson clan headed back up the bitumen via Cooma.
Attendees
Ian and Nicole Toten – Defender 130
David Brown – Suzuki Jimny
David Darke – Prado
Simon Nickson – Landcruiser Station Wagon
Ralph Radovan – Jeep Grand Cherokee Hemi
Michael and Lynne Thompson – Range Rover
William, Tiffany, Zoe, Alexander and Lily Thompson – Defender 110 TD5
Byron (Baz) Luck – V8 Discovery 2
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