A few days after our last adventure the P & O comedy cruise, we were lucky enough to get our hands on second hand 4wd 2005 Ford Courier utility. I was stoked that I finally got a ute, which meant that I no longer had to bug my mates when I needed to pick up or drop off stuff. Another great thing about this buy was the fact that it is a 4x4 , making it the first one I've owned and it opens a whole new world for me and my family to explore. Overall a very good buy due to the low km's for its age and the great condition that it was in.
Today which is just over two weeks later, I got cleared by my Dr after my elbow surgery and he pretty much said "You can do whatever you want now, just don't elbow anything to hard". Great news for me as now I'm cleared to drive. So the first thing I did was drop my wife of at work and call a mate to organize a day out. We narrowed the choices down from going to see a movie or going for a 4wd to do some photography work/lessons. The second of the two choices obviously one as the new Fate of the Furious movie seems ridiculous. That's where the plan started, two hour later we actually met up and hit the road, heading up the coast towards the Glass House Mountains.
After an hour of driving down numerous back ways to avoid the massive long weekend congestion we finally made it to the gravel. After chasing a dust cloud for a little longer we pulled up, locked the utes hubs and gave each other the nod. As we started making a slow move along the trails under the massive hanging power lines, I threw my Huawei Mate 9 on the passenger seat and turned on the radio.
At first I was a bit nervous of course, being my first off-road experience behind the wheel but I had been in the passenger seat enough to slowly pick of the very easy bumps and crests. I cracked a massive smile as my mate bull rushed his Navara through the first couple of water pits which I went around cause I wasn't ready to push it just yet. After following and watching the mud drop from his tail, I psyched myself up and went through the upcoming waterholes. The going was pretty easy and cause no stress to the Courier. On the approach of a rather big mud patch I backed of the accelerator and let the Navara stamp through, which after a massive nose dive into the mud, ending up losing his number plate which casually floated out on his exit. We discussed our options and came up with an idea for the retrieval mission. He changed to his $5 Kmart special footwear, pulled up his shorts to expose his albino legs and waded in. After walking the tracks he scratched in the mud a little and to my amazement lifted his new curved plate out of the brown water. It got a little messy and he ended up coming up with what looked like a fake tan but overall the mission was a success.
The run we started on stretched a few km's and ran parallel to the power lines which made it an easy task as the tracks were frequently run by maintenance staff. A very friendly time for someone with little off-road driving skills. That's not to say that it was all flat, there were some nice little climbs, shallow mud pits and some trenches to climb. I let the big black Navara lead they way and if he made it look easy I gave it a try and before I knew it my white car and started to go brown with a new mud and dust pain job.
After the complete run of this track we decided to step it up a bit and go into the pine forest to hit up those tracks. The word on the web was they were a little more advanced due to their more rapid inclines, pits, boulders and rock climbs. It started of as a nice paced run down very flat roads and the only obstacle was the dust from the wheel in front of you. That slowly changed to rather nice climbs up rocks and dugouts. I picked the easiest looking way up most the times but when I had no choice I powered through bouncing up and down in the cabin. We reached a nice open area dubbed the motorbike playground where we positioned the cars for a few joint shots. We also read the words of those who have come before us, which helped us slowly conquered our way to a great raised opening where we decided to take a few more happy snaps and have a good gaze.
Time slowly caught up with us so we had to make tracks to get back to the main roads. We located what we thought would be a good route and started following it until we found out that the section that lead to the road was not only very intimidating but impossible to pass in my standard rig. We looked at each other, looked at the track, then looked at each other again and then both grunted "Nope" at the same time. We knew we had been out smarted by Google maps but that wouldn't stop this crazy adventure. So we back tracked and after some dirt flicking, rock throwing and my head hitting the roof a few times we made it back to where we entered the massive forest.
It was an amazing time and a great experience for myself as a first time off roader due to its mixture of mild to moderate tracks and the numerous options on trails allowing the inexperienced to go around the puddles. Through out the day we stopped numerous times and I took pictures with my phone and I'm absolutely amazed at how well they turned out. Every picture in this blog was shot on and edited on the Huawei Mate 9. I still have alot to learn about taking photos but even my photographer friend was quite happy with the way they turned out. I've put the remainder of the pictures into their own photo blog so if you want swing by next and check them out yourself.
Definitely going to hit some more tracks soon so stay tuned.
For more photos of my adventures follow me on Instagram:
@Shanwowmagic
#adventuresofshanwow
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