Moitch/Ridges Check, Aug 2023

Attending in no particular order

Dave, Cindy and Podge – Prado (TL)

Richard and Naomi – Paj (TEC)

Penny and Spence – 76 series

Delys and Clive – BT50

Lee and Keely – 80 series

Louise and Mark – Hilux (guest)

Lin – FJ

Alex – 79 series

Simon and Jacob – Perentie

As part of the All Tracks Huts adoption, today was check up day.

Cindy and I decided to pick up Podge on the way through to the Huts, where I had discovered my CV boot had popped off (left pic), this must have literally happened on the way to his house, as I was under the car the week before, and had not noticed it or the grease everywhere.

I had continued on like this until the meeting point, where I had a couple really thick and wide cable ties in the back of the car. With the aid of a cable tie tool, I was able to easily and quickly tension it up tight and cut off the rest of the tail.

The meeting point for this trip was the entry track to Ridges. It’s great to see a big All Tracks turn out. After a quick chat and trip meeting, we were off.

The sandy track into Ridges was very easy. The hardest part about it, was trying to park 9 cars around the hut. It was great to see the hut was in good condition. Almost no rubbish and no new vandalism to report.

Leaving Ridges, we slowly made our way towards High Hill. I decided to try a different track this time, was all good at the start, but it turned out to be an unused track, the soft leaves wiping the dust off the car as we proceeded through.

Eventually arriving at High Hill, some were ready to play on this big hill. Our guest Louise and her partner were new to 4wding, and this hill provided enjoyment for them. From the bottom, we could hear Louise’s sounds of cheer as they climbed to the top of High Hill, YOOHOOO.

Next stop, S Bend. Its been quite a few years since I’ve given this hill a go, and like the rest of the crew, we all couldn’t be bothered letting our tyres down even more. Simon gave it a go in the Perentie, sadly he didn’t make it very far. Louise lowered the Hilux’s tyres down to 10, gave it quite a few goes, making it to the first left turn before bogging it down.

Leaving S Bend, destination Moitch Hut, the sand tracks towards the hut was soft, but not as soft it has been in the past. Turning into the track towards the hut, the gate was wide open. I was thinking as we drove the track in, ‘someone might be here camping’. Close, we must had just missed them. There was ice on the ground and a little bit of warmth in the fire pit

Overall, besides a few bottles that Simon picked up, the site was clean and vandalism free. Great to see. Taking advantage of a great hut, we stopped here for lunch aswell.

As you all know, I like my coffee, and after visiting a lot of coffee shops, I have come up with a theory, which I’m not going to share here, lol, anyway, 2 of our members had recently visited Tanzania, they had thought of me and brought me back a bag of dark roast coffee beans. Thank you so much Penny and Spence. Penny had brought the coffee beans along to the trip, so the only thing for me to do, was bring the coffee machine. It tasted soooooooo good.

The trip out was a little soft and bouncy in spots.

No recoveries were performed, and the only break down was me with my CV boot popping off before the start of the trip.

The thick cable tie did it’s job for the day, until the following day where I fixed it with a stainless tie.

A big thanks to everyone that came out to the huts.

Story by Dave .