That much awaited trip report - Heathcote/Rushworth forest area with Venom

[El_Freddo]

G'day all,

Its been a VERY LONG TIME coming - sorry about that! Been a little busy…

Venom organised a trip out behind Heathcote on Sunday the 31st of Oct and Monday the 1st of Nov 2010.

In attendance was Venom, myself and a mate of mine - benji in his rangie. We headed off into the bush that I now (unfortunately) forget the name of.

A good time had over all. At one point we turned around for an area that I thought would be some fun, only to get Venom stuck in a gully:





So I went to help out - only to get stuck as well:



We ended up spending some time winching Ruby Scoo out then winching out Venom's lib - it didn't matter which ever way he tried to get out. The winch did the trick though.

Off we went again cruising around the forest then up a make-shift track to the top of Mt Brown - this is where we decided to camp for the night and it was a good pick too.



Rhys did a good job at climbing up here since he didn't have a low range. A run up and and H6 did the job though. Hope you're working on that gearbox build mate!

Here's the crew at the top of Mt Brown:





We spent some time cruising around then looking for a way up Mt Black which ironically was just near Mt Brown. We tried this track that was very rocky, I made it up after the third attept only to find out that this track petered out to nothing. We turned around - watched a motorcyclist have a go at it, got the bounces left and right before being naturally thrown into the scrub, lucky not to have it be a tree!

Benji left after this as he had to be home for work later on. Thanks for coming again mate, always a pleasure - and I love watching you cruise around in your Rangie especially when you've got your family on board as you don't change the way you drive

After some looking around we found a road up to the top of Mt Black - even after walking some sections I still got stuck in a way that required some working of the steering wheel, some revving and at times some reversing to get a better run up

[El_Freddo]

After benji left we found a track that eventually we made it to the top:



On the way back down I had to stop to take this pic - this grass tree is the largest one I've ever seen! These plants take a very long time to reach this height - I can't exactly remember how long but I'm sure its something like 1cm a year, making this one VERY old. The whole area here had loads of large grass trees in clusters which is unusual from what I've experienced in my travels.



That night was a great camp on top of a mountain - no wind to spoil our camp fire. We developed a new technique in fire wood collecting, not going to give away any secrets here as it would spoil it Here's camp on Monday morning:



We headed off after taking our time packing up yet still getting off early. After cruising around headed in the general direction of Rushworth we decided to take a look at an old open cut gold mine:



We then headed back into the bush for a bit - along the way I had a play around in a drain to test out approach and departure angles - Rhys got some video of it and Ruby handled it very well. At the bottom of the drain I had just enough approach clearance up front and departure clearance out the back that she didn't touch anything until the return in a slightly different section where I caught the tow bar as the nose started to head up - nothing to worry about though.

After some more cruising around we stopped off at one of the many dams that were full. Here's a pick of the two sub's posing:



We then headed into Rushworth - having swapped sub's to compare. Venom's H6 liberty was a very solid drive with an awesome response to a small push of the go faster pedal. Basically to get Ruby Scoo to hang out sideways I had to have some hightish revs, foot flat to the floor and some fancy steering wheel action to make it all happen. The H6 was pretty simple - point, "squeeze" on some throttle then steer into the corner to counter act the rear end stepping out. I also learned that my exhaust really isn't that loud while Rhys learned that his exhaust is really loud in comparison. We stopped off in Rushworth for an ice cream at a particular store that turned out to be closed. I couldn't help my self with this pic, I'm sure you'll work out why:



We then headed into Benders for some play at the Bendigo 4wd club's "play ground" that they look after - the old quarry out at epsom.

[El_Freddo]

I'm not sure what they were mining but this place is a white and red clay that can become very boggy and sticky when its wet. We had a play around this area before I had a go at the longer water race. It turned out deeper than I'd expected, I hesitated, shat my dacks, took on a tiny bit of water then got Ruby's arse out of there! Here's the picture sequence of how it went:



nosing out on the approach into the water:





Hesitating:



Getting out of there:





I seriously think I need a snorkel - I shat my dacks that I'd be inducing water hence why I hesitated. It was all good and I had a huge adrenalin rush. Rhys can be heard on the video of round two quoted as saying something along the lines of "this is f'd"…

This water course was my undoing though. I got my confidence up so I had a go at this puddle we went around on the way into the area. The nose went in deeper than I expected (road was seriously resurfaced less than 12 months ago so I figured it couldn't be that deep - turned out someone had literally dug it out with an excavator!) but I continued along, all going well, water over the headlights which concerned me - no hesitation from the EJ so we continued. And continue we did until we stopped moving even though the wheels were still doing what they do best - turning. I really shat my dacks as reversing did nothing. Water was coming in everywhere, I ducked in to the back cargo area to grab my laptop and some other equipment that doesn't take to water so well.

I reckon I was in there for five minutes before we got Ruby Scoo out of there via a tow from Venom. Here's a stuck and a "de-watering" pic:





There were times in the water where Ruby's idle would duck down for a second or two.

[El_Freddo]

After driving her back into town for hamburgers while listening to the sloshing sounds of water all throughout my subi I got home to find this when I went to replace the air filter that I knew was cactus:



I was VERY lucky - considering I had my wedding just over a week away I did not need the stress of a dead engine. What I got last week (about 6 weeks after the event and around 2000km) was some horribly noisy wheel bearings and some complaints from what I thought was the alternator's bearings - turned out it was one of the cam idler pulley bearings. This is what happened in the shed after she developed a miss a day after travelling 300km home from a first aid recert course:



I also had an issue with one of the seals in a bearing kit not being the correct unit. Fun fun. So now i'm hunting down a new cam belt kit. Not meaning to make this last bit of the trip report all about me - I thought it would be good for others to see the flow on effects of flooding your subi like I have.

I believe that Venom is also starting to experience some front wheel bearing complaints from his bogging…

Over all a great trip out, regardless of the mechanical failings I'm experiencing now - I just love getting out there with some like minded people and talking the night away about our goals and build aspirations around the campfire. Good times had!

Hope you have enjoyed the write up - after many promises its finally here, I'm disappointed that I didn't do it earlier as I can't remember all of the details as to the names of the places that we went to.

I'd like to thank Venom for organising the trip in this area, I'd not done a lot of 4wd'n around here - the first and last time I was in this general area was with Subaruby on our first tyre flattening outing together I'd also like to thank Benji for making the effort to come out with his young family on tow - top effort mate, even if you do drive a range rover

Cheers

Bennie

PS: plug for the next upcoming event: South Oz Robe sand 4wd'n trip - that is all