Trip: Wednesday, 17 Apr 2024
Trip Leader: David Darke
Participants:
- David Darke: Toyota 4runner
- Quentin Dempster: Toyota Prado Kakadu with Russell as passenger
- Sue Alexander: Toyota FJ45
- Margaret and Bob Anderson: Land Rover Perentie
Meeting place – Murrays Corner on Paddy’s River.
Dave originally organised this to start at 9am but upon request, and with support from other participants, the start time was delayed until 9:30am. This still didn’t help! As this was the first time I was passenger on a club drive in this area, I needed a coffee before we started so here I am writing the trip report.
I tried to get Quentin to overtake the Perentie on the windy two-white-lines road out of the Cotter reserve, but he wouldn’t. Didn’t bode well for future instructions from the passenger seat…..
It was lovely to see Sue Alexander at the meeting point as I was not aware she was attending. Sue had decided to come up for the day to attend the drive, the last club drive for her in the FJ45…anyone interested in buying it?
So, we introduced Quentin to the group and vice versa before taking a bit of wind out of his sails (or air out of his tyres) and departing Murrays Corner, at half past, back towards the Cotter on the blacktop.
The first bit of dirt driving was left onto Pierces Creek Road, below Sugarloaf Hill, and it wasn’t long before we encountered some rangers who were undertaking a large baiting program in the area. Onwards we travelled, taking some left turns onto Pipeline Road and passing the Vanities Crossing road on our right, before turning onto another track…..
Hang it! Here is the route in the words of the trip leader……
“Ok not all roads labelled, but after the Vanity Crossing Rd turn off we accessed Pipeline Rd then we came back to Laurel Camp Rd, then Tidbinbilla Range Rd, sth parallel with Oakey Ck Rd, sth then onto Oakey then along the property (Cong Warra) & Tidbinbilla reserve boundarys heading Nth up onto Black Hill for lunch, back past the mineshaft to Murrays Corner, across Bullen Range to Cotter.”
Below is the map to give it more pictorial elegance…….I think we took the thin dark blue line and I apologise if you are colour blind. It seems to be different to my recollection.
Somewhere in there we travelled along Grass Tree Road and stopped to look at some grass trees. Interesting flora.
Around 50km for the drive plus there and back.
The drop down onto Laurel Camp Road from Pipeline was Quentin’s first white knuckle moment but all went well.
There were two ways to travel up to the top of Black Hill for lunch. Two vehicles went straight up the short, but steep and softish route whilst the other two took the longer, less steep route. Margaret decided to show Quentin that you can get up there in two leg drive, although she stopped half way up on the pretence of taking photos (you don’t see any from there in this report…), but I sense it was really to give her transmission time to cool!
Note the second photo showing Bob almost to the top in the Perentie but he must have been too excited to pick up Margaret (circled) on the way up!
The second option only appeased the newbie for a little while until he saw the ruts and rocks on the way up…. Dave advised later that the second route was the more technically challenging.
After lunch a quiet meander back down the “easy way” before a few turns and a stop at Mineshaft to see what has become of it.
Looking south over Namadgi
No one is driving down or up there anymore.
We arrived back at Murrays Corner around half past and Sue decided to take her leave and head back home to Malua. Was great to see her on another club trip.
The remaining three vehicles headed up Bullen Range Track (which I think Quentin is calling Bullying Range Track) to the obligatory stop at the top of the climb which provided us with magic views northwards over the Cotter Dam and south towards Namadgi, before descending and crossing back over Paddy’s River at …. Paddy’s River Crossing. Drive finished by 3pm and we all made our way home via various routes.
Thankfully Quentin did not see this sign until we could not turn around…
Thanks Dave for leading this midweek trip and what a good idea to allow people to get out and about without the weekend traffic…..
Hold on! Did I mention the Scout Jamboree being held at Government House. 2000 scouts with GG only expecting a few hundred. One of their activities was being driven around the Cotter area. Fortunately, it seemed to be only centred on Bullen Range so it was only the last section we had to deal with traffic.
Quentin was a bit apprehensive of going over the edge so I felt I had to show him that it was not an issue, by walking over the edge.
Author: Russell Speldewinde
Acknowledments: Special thanks to our newbie, Quentin Dempster, and his patience with the screams from his passenger.