Levuka 15-16th May 2010 [Recovered]

[Capella_Ben]

Well I'll start this report and Mav can finish it.
First things first, I would like to thank everybody who helped me look after Anita for the weekend, she is certainly getting used to this camping -4 wheel Driving caper and it certainly was great having her there and seeing her interact with the group. As she gets older I'll eventually be allowed to wonder off to the loo by myself without her company but apart from that it was pretty relaxing with her.

The weekend started for Gary and I on Friday night, arriving up there at about 0915pm we set up camp under the head lights the park was pretty quiet and the temp was dropping very quickly. After supper consisting of cheeseballs, bread and milk, Anita retired to the tent as her eyes were hanging out of her head and redder than the oldmans, she braved the night sleeping in her clothes under FOUR blankets, she had three woollen blankets underneath her self inflating mattress.

Gary and I relaxed under the shed quenching our week long thirst also eating cheeseballs and Bounty bars, we passed on the bread and milk. The temp was getting a little silly by this stage, so we decided to call it quits and get some much needed shut eye time.

Sat morning came around a little way to early for me as soon it was daylight those little eyes open up and it's all over red rover get out of bed, Anita chooses to wrestle with me first thing in the morning followed by a book reading session. But it didnt take long to relize that I was running low on Caffeine and I needed a top up, bring on fresh brew on the gas cooker, Gary finally removed himself from his cocoon and Anita ran quicky away from his tent after seeing what came out, yes Gary in the morning is pretty frightening for a little girl. We had brekkie and hopped into the truck and headed off to the farm house to payup for the weekend that is when we caught up with rest of the group, they had just finished paying up...................

[Capella_Ben]

[MAVERICK01]

Then from there maverick,capella ben and neville tured up around about 9:15 am saturday morning, we finished setting up around about 10:30 but wasnt soon after that we ventured on to finding the tracks. Before we managed to get away from the campsite somehow tim mangaed to hit my door, but after some very much appreciated help from the rest of the crew it was all fixed.

I left Tim in charge of leading thr group around the park as he knows it better than i do, We came across a shallow mud hole that Tim wasnt going to have a go at but after some encouragement he gave it a go but i will say it wasnt much of a go but he was the only 1 that did give it a go. The group then had a leisurely drive around the park until lunch, which we all headed back for a quick bite then about 2pm we found dingos run.

Tim had a the first crack at it and made it, then i was next and went to give it a crack but unfortunately the lockers were playing up and wouldnt engage so i had to then pull out. By this stage it was about 3:30pm and i ventured back to the camp while Tim,Capella Ben and Gary continued on up the track.




Saturday night was a nice and warm night thanks to Ben and myself for such a great fight. Gary tehn decided who to dish out the fines for and sorry Gary but i cant remeber who you issued these too.

Sunday Tim,Myself and Ben ventured onto the tracks and left Gary in his Little Yellow Duckling pack up and head home.Tim managed to take us up some interesting tracks where he had to be recovered which then led into some more interesting tracks but nobody was game enough to give this track ago.

We all headed back to camp around 11ish to start packing up and neville and myself ventured off around 12:30pm.

If anyone else from the trip wants to add anything feel free to.

I also want to add thanks to everyone for coming along and to the rest that never.

WELL YOU MISSED OUT ON THE BEST TRIP EVER

[Capella_Ben]

[CHEESEMAKER]

Some interesting stats from the weekend, there was;

5 snatch strap recoveries among us.

Breakaway members participated in freeing one good size rock from a Landrover Discovery that it had tried to mate with.

Weather was below 4 degrees on Friday night early Sat morning. But otherwise the Park was fine- no rain.

THREE PEOPLE WERE FINED BY THE SARGENT OF ARMS FOR
Careless driving- Getting a branch caught up between the Rock sliders and body.

Careless attitude- Giving into Peer Group pressure and taking on a ridiculous obstacle with not even a slight chance of success.

Improper use of a 4x4- Deliberately trying to splash a member while watching the vehicle traverse a water crossing.

Damaging someone else’s car- Ok! I stuffed up
We saw thousands of Fruit Bats in one of the Rain forests on the Sunday that was very interesting.

Only one lady attended the trip

Four children were in attendance, ok five Greg was there.




I just got this email from the Yellow Duckling (Gaz)

I wanted to send you the details of the fines I imposed on the weekend, I will add them to my fines book when I get one. Not sure if you want to post these in the next club letter or on the forum. I thought that as this was a club thing I better make it all official and stuff, so I have come up with my own rules and fines.

·Tim for trying to drive over Greg’s car and bending his door out of shape – $1.00

·Tim for falling to peer pressure and attempting a mud hole we all knew he wouldn’t make – 50c

·Greg for attempting to splash the Sargent at Arms (Gary ) while driving into a mud hole – 50c

·Gary for damaging his car by running over a tree branch – 50c



FINES ALLOCATION

The Sargent at Arms will impose the following fines to selected members of the club at any time on club outings when and where he or she deems reasonable and justified. A club member may also provide the Sargent at Arms with suggested fines in instances where the Sargent at Arms has not seen or heard the accused club members alleged finable incident occurring. The Sargent at Arms has the right to change the fines at any time without consultation with any club member as he is the Sargent at Arms, any member who disagrees with this clause will be fined accordingly. All fines will be allocated to the club account.



ALLOCATION OF FINES

Swearing over the UHF – 50c

Making an idiot of yourself – 20c

Damaging your car – 50c

Damaging someone else’s car - $1.00

Falling to peer pressure – 50c

Acting in a manner unbecoming to the club - $1.00

Causing a small injury to yourself – 20c

Causing a large injury to yourself – 50c

Loss of a limb - $0.00 (you don’t deserve a fine)

Causing any injury to another club member - $1.00

Burning your dinner – 20c

Burning someone else’s dinner – 50c

Alcohol abuse – 20c

Couples who dress the same - $1.00

Forgetting the punch line to a joke – 20c

Not socialising and being a wet blanket around a camp fire – 20c

Being a pyromaniac – 50c

Not being able to light a fire – 50c

The trip leader forgetting to bring club items required to be brought on all trips - $1.00

Any racial, sexist, vulgar, derogatory or defamatory comments - 0.0001c

Disagreeing with these fines - $100.00

Other (determined by the Sargent at Arms) -20c



Had a great weekend.

[Capella_Ben]

Purrty Piccs

[Capella_Ben]

[CHEESEMAKER]

I've been talking to a bloke via another forum regarding 4wdriving and he just sent us this little snip-pet from their club magazine, hey does'nt hurt to help your fellow 4wdriver when their in the poo or in YOUR WAY.

2 hours later we staggered back in to camp after traversing some difficult tracks and having to do a long-winded recovery on Neil's Discovery II. I'd taken us through the muddy tracks directly beside the campsite area and had turned up the rocky creek bed of Rock'n'Roll Gully. This was marked on the map as difficult (level 3) so still quite do-able for a vehicle without lockers—and indeed it was, albeit very challenging requiring good wheel placement and careful progress. Neil was doing fantastically well and we were insight of the exit when he got caught up on one of the rocks. Forward and back, he was well and truly stuck. Having a look underneath the vehicle I could see the problem, the rock was wedged with 2 points under the vehicle—one on the chassis cross-member and the other against his exhaust muffler. Bugger. To get it off we'd not only have to lift the vehicle but then also get underneath it to move the rock else he'd just get stuck on it again. Bugger bugger bugger.
Fred and Rose had an exhaust jack and we tried using that only to find that the rock had put opened a hole in the muffler so we couldn't get any air pressure in to the exhaust jack. It was at this time that another group of vehicles came up behind us and they were very helpful. As we were getting out the hydraulic jack they offered a trolley jack and some helping hands to go with it. After probably close to an hour of trying to lift the vehicle we finally managed to lift it enough to roll the rock down relatively flat—enough at least that the remaining vehicles could walk over it. I don't know who those guys were but if they ever get to read this then thanks heaps, they did the majority of the work and we were happy to leave them to it offering assistance and pointers where required.
There were a few other points where Neil just needed guidance on his wheel positioning but no other incidents, as he had a 2003 Discovery II his traction control and centre diff-lock combined to make a brilliant combination.