The time has come,' the Walrus said, 'To talk of many things'

Cold, Filthy & Dirty… this is a reasonably accurate description of my reason jaunt south to Tassie.

It was my birthday and I share this Kristy, one of my new friends in Tassie. David’s girlfriend Emmas’ birthday is just 4 days after, so what better excuse is there to head to Tassie for 4 days and paartaay!!

I figured it was time to catch up with best mate Shaun who has been in Adelaide for a few years, so the invite went out for him to join me in Tassie and assist with the celebrations. Thankfully he was more than happy to fly in from Adelaide and join in.

I decided to spend as much time in Tassie as possible, so I took two days off work and made it a Fri-Mon long weekend.

I booked myself on the 6.25 am flight out of Sydney that arrived in Hobart about 8.10am. My friend Steve (aka Smack) picked me up from the airport (thanx Smack!!) and dropped me at Davids place so I could pick up the Zook!!

I then proceed to find myself some breaky at Hungary Jacks and sourced some supplies for the weekend at Eastlands shopping centre. It was then time to head back to the airport to pick up Shaun. His flight arrived at 12.15pm.

We both then headed directly to Mt Wellington. I knew it was going to be cold and windy…. but I was not expecting snow!!! It had snowed earlier in the week, but it did not stay around long… so to witness it snowing on Mt Wellington was an unexpected bonus.

After enduring the cold of Mt Wellington we headed to the Cascade Brewery at the base of Mt Wellington for a tour of the factory. I had been wanting to do this tour for may years. It was fascinating, however it was a bit disappointing that it was the monthly Rosterd Day Off for the factory, so not a lot was going on, it fact the place was very quite. I would like to go back and do the tour on a working day to see everything in action. After the tour we are given three tokens each so that we can sample three beers. The area where you meet for the tours is very nice, set in beautiful gardens. The gift shop has lots of very cool Cascade stuff. Shaun & I settled for a stubby holder each.

It was then time to head to town, find a park near the Ocean Child, where we are meeting the others for dinner. I wanted to show Shaun ‘Joe’s Garage’, which rightly calls itself the most unique bar in Australia. It’s on old car mechanics workshop, transformed into a very cool drinking facility. There are all kinds of motoring related paraphernalia attached to the walls, ceiling and floor. A very cool place to visit and have a beer.

 We then walked back to the Oceans Child were we found a good portion of the gang had already arrived. Time for introductions and another beer. A good time was had, and of course the food was out standing… I had prawns, wrapped in chicken, wrapped in bacon covered in a wonderfully creamy light mustard sauce. Pure heaven!!!!

After dinner Shaun & I made our way to Eaglehawk Neck for a much deserved good nights sleep.

On the Saturday I took Shaun on a tour of the Tasman Peninsular, having lunch at Nubeena. I wont go into too much detail, but he got to see a few of the sites, and Shaun now has a taste for the area. I’m sure he’ll be bringing his family back for a holiday.

We arrived back at Dads place in time for festivities to begin for the impending night of drinking & fun. It truly was a top night… I’ll let a few pictures tell the story.

On the Sunday we started with bacon & egg rolls , and then a few hours of 4WD’ing was planned. Cousin Leigh arrived in his Landcrusier, and Shaun & I followed in the Zook, just 10 mins up the road to Murdunna. As Leigh had other commitments that afternoon, we could not play for long. But we had a few hours to get the Zook very bogged and very dirty!!! It was alot of fun.

That afternoon we just chilled for a few hours, and then had dinner with Dad & Maz. After dinner Shaun & I chatted for hours before hitting the sack.

The following day was home time for Shaun & I. Shaun’s flight left at 1230 so we left kind of early so we could take the scenic route thru Primrose Sands, Carlton & Dodges Ferry. I dropped Shaun of at the airport and then had to occupy myself for the afternoon. First stop was a car wash to give the Zook a hose down…. she looked so good with all the mud… but it had to come off. Then I headed to Sorell where I picked up a Chips & Gravy from ‘Legs n Breasts’, which I shared with some friendly ducks at a park in Sorell.

I then had a drive around Midway Point, and a beer at the local Tavern and headed out to Richmond where I put the new camera to good use, taking some pics of the Richmond Bridge…and more ducks!!I had a snooze in the Zook… and soon enough it was time to meet up with David and head off to dinner at the China Diner before he dropped me off at the airport for an 8.30pm flight back to Sydney.

It was certainly a top weekend, made even better by catching up with Shaun.

I am now much more certain that my impending move to Tassie is the right thing to do…. bring it on!!

As a member of the Suzuki 4WD Club of NSW, I’m fortunate enough to be able to engage in a wide scope of activities. One of these became available on the of the 16th & 17th May. Our club was invited by the Sydney branch of the Land Drover Owners Club (LROC) of Australia to attend their yearly ‘Khanafari’ event. It had been a while since I had participated in some friendly 4WD competition, so I decided to pack the swag and go along.

The Khanafari was held on private property near Bathurst and included some basic 4WD events, as well as a couple of more challenging courses to navigate. Unfortunately I did not take my camera, so I have no pictures, however I did find this video of the event on YouTube as posted by a member of LROC.

I had a lot of fun on the weekend… catching up with Suzuki Club members and well as making new acquaintances with LROC members. The banter around the camp fire was particularly humerus

After completing the fun events on each day, I decided to take the Zook through the ‘difficult’ courses. As the courses were designed to be ‘more challenging’ for the larger Land Rover vehicles, it was a stroll in the park for the little red Zook!!! However I was amazed at the amount of comments I received about how surprised people were that the little stock Vitara conquered the 2 difficult courses with ease.

The only down side to the weekend…. on the way home crossing the mountains, the clutch decided to die. So it was a very slow drive the rest of the way home.

On a positive note, at the following club meeting I was presented a trophy… First Place Suzuki @ Khanafari 2009…. nice!

First Place @ LROC Khanafari.

It’s well past the time for a blog update….

Since my last update relating to my trip to the Victorian High Country with friend Kim, I have been to Tassie again, attended a 4WD event at Bathurst, been 4WD’ing at Lithgow and visited cousins near Newcastle…. and all hell has broken out at work!!!!

Let the blogging begin!!!

I woke with surprisingly no hang over, yet still alot of pain. Was time to unfortunately end this trip, head home and get to the dentist.

We packed up our stuff, left the dollars for the hotel owner we never saw and headed towards Cooma to find some brekky.

Just for something different we had Macca’s for brekky at Cooma and decided it was time to head our separate ways.

At this point I would like to thank Kim for coming on the trip…. yes it was cut short, however we did get to do some memorable 4WD’ing. Next time we’ll be able to get to these areas we missed out on this time. Thanx again

As I was in a fair amount of pain, I decided to take my time to get home and take a different route, just to mix it up a little.

I headed towards Canberra, but diverted off the Monaro Highway at Michelago and headed up Burra Road to see what I could see.

Was a nice diversion, great scenery, cows on road etc etc.

Eventually got to the Old Cooma Road and headed towards Queanbeyan. Got on the Kings Highway at Queanbeyan and headed towards Tarago and then onto Braidwood Road and headed strait for Goulburn.

I wanted to see where they moved the Big Merino too… I found it, got a couple of pies and a can on ‘V’ for lunch and had a break.

Continued towards Sydney on the Hume Highway, but only got as far as Marulan… and I needed to stop for a sleep. 4 hours later it was time to make the last stretch home… which was uneventful.

This concludes this epic adventure. Only thing left to say is…. the next day I had root canal therapy!!

The night was VERY cool, and we both regretted the decision to not put a tarp over the swags. A frost had descended on the valley during the night and everything was frozen. Opening the swag was like bending cardboard. Getting the fire going was a challenge, but there was one cool element. As we had breakfast and watched the sunlight slowly come into the valley, we witnessed steam rise from all that was frozen… the swags, the Zook & the Jeep… very cool to watch.

Frozen Jeep!

Frozen Grass!

To be honest, I did not have a good night. My tooth was killing me… the pain was extreme…. pain killers where no longer working. I was more frustrated than pissed off.

I was using a bit more fuel than I had anticipated and I was just a little concerned about making the whole trip on one tank. So I suggested to Kim we head out to get some fuel. The plans that were in place we scrapped and we decided to see where the road takes us.

We waited a little while for our swags to dry out, then packed up and left the Poplars. I don’t think I’ll return.

We started to make our way to Suggan Buggan, where we thought there was some fuel.

On the the way to Suggan Buggan

On the way to Suggan Buggan

Awesome tracks in the Victorian High Country!

The trip to Suggan Buggan was uneventful (accept for my bloody tooth ache). We arrived to find no fuel. I must have got my wires crossed. Kim then had the outstanding idea of continuing to Jindabyne, find some cheap accommodation, find out what the weather forecast was like and make plans from there… awesome idea!!! We were both in need of a shower and a good nights sleep.

Along the road to Jindabyne which more or less followed the Snowy River we came across a great lookout to have some lunch… and more of that awesome Blue Tongue Ginger Beer.

View of Snowy River from lunch stop on Snowy River Road.

We continued to Jindabyne, stopping at another lookout which had information about the 2003 fires which devastated the area.

The view from Snowy River Rd, somewhere between Suggan Buggan & Jindabyne.

Some locals on the way to Jindabyne

On arrival in Jindabyne we topped up on fuel and endeavoured to find some cheap accommodation. We had no luck, it was not the ski season so the places we drove past at East Jindabyne were all closed. Kim suggested we continue to Berridale, we might have better luck there.

On arrival at Berridale we come across this small motel with a note on the office door. We first tried the B&B next door, but they did not answer. So I rang the number that was on the office door of the hotel. The owner was in Sydney, but said the keys to room one should be in the door. We could have that, just leave $65.00 in the room when you leave….. I could not believe that. How trusting!!!!… and it was cheap!!!

The room had 4 single bunks and a double bed. Kim was kind enough to take one of the bunks and left me the bed (Thanx Kim!). The room had basic facilities… tea & coffee, TV, heater and and big shower!!

We both got ourselves all cleaned up (after 3 days without one, the shower was awesome!!)… but we continued the camping element by heating up dinner on the gas cooker. We uploaded our photos to my laptop and had a look at those.

I we saw the weather outlook for the next week… and it was not good. Nothing but rain was forecast for the coast. We decided we should quite while we were ahead and head home the next day. If it was not for my tooth, I would have suggested we find something to do for the next couple of days…. but I needed to get to a dentist, I was in agony.

I then got stuck into the Cowboy cask I bought for the trip, and Kim got stuck into a bottle of red wine. Not to long after I was on the pissed side of tipsy, and the pain from the tooth ache was less annoying.

I don’t remember much after that

…………to be continued.

I first woke… I’m guessing at about 5am. The bladder was not happy, so I stumbled my way out of the swag… and what a gorgeous site I found.

I hate mornings

This is the 'early in the morning, sick of the rain' version of Kim.

A slightly damp camp on the morning of Day 3

Stunning views... but very, very naughty of us to drive on this grass, I found out afterwards.

I think this is the crossing at Charlies Creek.

A collection of wood for the nights stay at The Poplars.

Waiting for the Bendigo 4WD Club to go by... a 13 vehicle convoy.

The shitter at The Poplars... say 'Hi' Kim!! (yes, she was in there!!)

Camp site at The Poplars

Enjoying a few cold ones before dinner.

I awoke quite anxious to get going… I just wanted to get there, but at the same time I would have quite happily stayed to hang out with Tubby for a bit longer… but we had to make tracks.

We said our goodbyes, chucked some fuel in the Zook and made our way to Cooma.

I liked Cooma… it seems to have this tranquillity about it that oozed niceness! We stopped here to pick up our final lot of necessities, like bread, veggies etc. I forgot to bring a pillow, so I purchased a new triangle one, with a black pillow slip. Considering we were going into the High Country, I had to have the proper head gear, so I got myself an oilskin stockmans hat… and I love it!!!!

We said goodbye to Cooma and made our way to Jindabyne where I topped up with fuel. We had lunch next to Lake Jindabyne, where we heard a strange noise coming from the back of the Zook… my heart dropped. We decided to have lunch then head back to town to see if there was a mechanic about. We went back to the servo were I fuelled up, and by the time we arrived, the noise had stopped. The guy from the servo seemed to know what he was talking about, and after having a look underneath, he could not see anything obviously wrong… so we decided to go for it anyway!

We took a drive through Thredbo, and I must say it’s a lot smaller than I imagined. I though it was this huge thriving town… but it’s tiny, and to tell you the truth, really did not do much for me. I imagined a shit load of people all crammed into this small space… and I did not have nice thoughts. However, as I have never experienced proper snow, I think I may force myself to make the journey there during this coming winter… just so I can say I have been to the snow!

The noise from the back of the Zook reared it’s ugly again, but I decided to march on! Luckily I have not heard it since. I’ve put it down to a stone or other foreign matter in the rear brake drum.

We left Thredbo behind and made our way via the Alpine Way to Tom Groggin. We stopped here to let the brakes cool after the decent from Thredbo. We said hello to a Kangaroo, had a drink, grabbed some fire wood and went to find the crossing of the mighty Murray River.

Gday Skip!!

After one wrong turn, we eventually found the crossing of the Murray River. Ever since I have been into 4WD’ing I have wanted to do this, you could say it’s one of my ‘bucket list’ entries! So as I approached the water, I took a quick moment to take it all in and see what the depth was like. The water looked refreshing and so inviting… but my purpose was to drive across the mighty Murray!!! At first it looked a little deep, but al the advise I had previous assured me it would be all good… so I made sure I was in 2nd gear, low range and dived in!!!  What a thrill. Simply the most fantastic water crossing I have done, over taking the crossing of the Kowmung River many years earlier. I was now in Victoria.

After the crossing I grabbed the camera to catch Kim & her Jeep do the crossing, which she achieved with no dramas at all. I really wanted some pics of my crossing from the front… Kim agreed to take them, so I had to cross the Murray AGAIN to get back to NSW so I could cross the Murray AGAIN so Kim could take some pictures. AWSOME!!!! 

Approaching the Murray River crossing.

Kim crossing the Murray River

On my return to NSW.

On the way back to Victoria

Any deeper and I'd be worried!

Nice bow wave!

On interesting think I did note… on the Victoria side of the crossing there are signs warning you that the crossing could be deep and to check the depth before crossing. Nothing at all like that on the NSW side. It’s a good representation of how NSW runs things and how Victoria does it… and Victoria obviously has some clue, while the NSW govt (now and past) have no idea at all! (That’s just my humble opinion).

Signs on the Victoria side of the crossing.

After the excitement of the crossing it was time to head to Davies Plains Hut, the destination for the first camping spot of the trip. It was an uneventful drive there. Some steep driving requiring  1st gear-low range… nice stuff, I love that sort of driving.

We arrived at Davies Plains Hut about 3.30 – 4pm. I fell in love with this area right away. I could have camped for a week or more. This was my first experience with a Snowy Mountains Hut… I was not sure what to expect.. but I was astounded at the beauty. Thank christ that it’s so remote. I’d hate to think what would happen to a place like this if those ‘arsehole’ vandals from the city ever made there way in here.

The area is a huge flat grassy area, ideal for camping. There is the hut of course, as well as a whole in the ground toilet and a few pre-designated fire places. I liked the fire places. They have a circle of rocks cemented on the ground with a device hanging over the top that includes a hot plate and hooks to hang billys from at different heights. I’ve never seen anything like that in NSW!

There was only one other lot of campers here, so we decided to set up our camping spot at the furthest fire place from them. First thing to do was to collect some fire wood and get the fire going. We then set up the rest of the camp, heated up some dinner, had a beer… and relaxed while we listened to the thunder and watched the lightning in the distance. I could feel it in my bones… we where going to be in for a wet night! Then the rain came…. it was not a downpour, but it was constant. We called it a night. S et up the swags and bunked down for the evening. I watched a few episodes of Heroes on my media player and then drifted off to sleep… listening to the rain……..

Davies Plains Hut

…… to be continued.

Easter Friday… YAY!!

The first day was more or less used with getting closer to the High Country. Good friend Tubby and his wife Linda where going to be in Canberra, visiting Festi Stu. So I decided this would be a good time to catch up with Tubby and finally get to meet his lovely wife.

After battling the outgoing traffic from Sydney I met Kim at the Pheasants Nest servo. We got some supplies for lunch and continued our way south.

I decided that we would break up the trip to Canberra by calling into a place called Charleyong. This is a lovely camping spot on the banks of the Shoalhaven River, not far from Braidwood. We stopped here for a relaxing lunch and the first of the Blue Tongue Ginger Beer….yum!

Lunch at Charleyong, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River

Although this area does not have the best camping, as the soil is very sandy and there is not any real grass to talk of, this area has become very popular. There were plenty of families camping here. I cant wait to go back.

After lunch we continued the trek south to Canberra via a piss-stop in Braidwood.

We arrived at Festi Stu’s at about 3.30pm to find Stu in the final act of washing his Discovery. We made a quick trip to the local bottle-o to get some grog for the evening and then waited for Tubby & Linda to arrive. Before long Tubby & Linda showed and the beer started to flow… and flow it did! Soon after Stu’s other half Ceaser arrived home and it was time to head out for dinner.

We booked a Mutli-Taxi and made our way to the Helenic Club for dinner. It was not as busy as I though it would be as we got seated right away. We ate, drank and get more merry as the time passed… accept I held back as I did not want to be hung over with a big drive the next day.

Kim & Linda acting the fool at the Helenic Club.

Festi Stu never ceases to amaze me with some of the stories he tells. This particular evening I got to be part of one.

To get back to Festi Stu’s place we were forced to get two Taxi’s. Kim & I shared a cab with Festi… The driver was a cool bloke! As we approached one corner to make a right hand turn, the lights turned orange… Festi said “Floor it mate, she’ll be right!” The driver floored it!! The way it flowed, it was soooo funny!!! I guess you had to be there

On our return, more bevies flowed and then there was an attempt to watch Slum Dog Millionaire. I was knackered and really wanted to be refreshed for the next day, so I called it a night… quite early by my standards. Kim also called it a night, and we both crawled into our respective swags in Festi’s back room. Before I knew it I was in the land of the Z’ds.

As a member of the Suzuki 4WD Club I have seen plenty of pics and trip reports of members trips to the Victorian High Country. The scenery has always looked marvellous and been something I have wanted to lay my own eyes on. The huts are something that I have been particularly interested in seeing.

I decided that before I move to Tassie, that it’s something I should do. So I did!

At first I wanted to go by myself, but knew in the back of my mind it was not the best idea, but I certainly did not want to be part of a large group. I started to think about who may want to come along.

My first thought was someone who I had worked with at UUNet many years ago, and who I had recently made contact with via FaceBook. Kim had recently bought a 4WD (a Jeep Wrangler) and she had been hassling me for ages about when we were going 4WD’ing. So Kim was first cab of the rank with the ‘Do you want to go to the High Country‘ question. It was a spur of the moment thing… I really was not expecting the positive response I received. Kim was thrilled with the opportunity!

At first I planned to just take a couple of days off after Easter, but then we both figured it would be better take the whole week off and really make a trip of it.

Over the next few months a had to get the Zook ready. What had prevented me from going camping over the past few years is the fact I have sleep apnoea and I use a CPAP machine while sleeping, hence I need power! So the first thing I needed to do was sort out a power source from the Zook. This meant a second battery and an inverter.

Good mate Darran helped out with the installation of the second battery. As the only logical place it could go was behind the drivers seat on the floor, it required that the draw behind the drivers seat had to be shortened to leave space for the top of the battery to pop out of the fake floor.

The draw gets shorter to make way for the 2nd battery.

Darran installing 2nd battrey into the Zook.

I then was lucky enough to source a 1000w inverter at a VERY good price (Thanx Squik!). This gave me more than enough 240v power to run CPAP machine, a fridge and still be able to charge my laptop, camera and blue tooth headphones. I love technology!

Next on the agenda was some new shoes for Zook. The old Goodyear Wranglers had given me many good years of service, but they had to be replaced. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd then announced that just about all of us would be getting some ‘stimulus package’ dollars… sweet!! That will pay for new shoes for the Zook. So I had a budget of $900 for 5 new tyres… the research did begin with earnest.

After a few weeks of phone calls to many tyre retailers, I finally found some good tyres that where within my budget. I really would have preferred another set of Goodyear Wranglers, but no one would budge towards a good price. Everyone had them for around $240 each, which was beyond the ‘Rudd Bucks’ budget. I eventually settled on some Cooper Discoverer ATR’s for $199 each. So, for only an extra $100 on top of the Rudd Bucks I could get the 5 new tyres. SWEET!!! These were fitted the weekend before the big trip.

New shoes for the Zook.

After renewing some worn out or lost camping gear, and borrowing a car fridge (Thanx Pagie!) I was finally ready!

Kim and I had during this time been mainly communicating via email and had agreed on the proposed route… so everything was just about ready!! Only thing that remained was the all important beverages to consume…oh, and some food!

……to be continued

Yes… it’s been a while.. but I’ve been a very busy lad.

I’ve been fishing, I’ve been to Tuff Truck and about to head to the Victorian High Country, Bendethera, Yawal and the Easter Show!!!

I promise when I get back, all will be revealed!

See ya soon!