Dwellingup Fence-lines 16-11-2024
Meeting point Dwellingup Tourist centre, it’s a good place as parking is easy.
Trip rating 3-4
Participants
Don & Jane GU Patrol (trip leader)
Sandie & George Mitsubishi Pajero (visitor)
Deb & Sean Mitsubishi Triton
Phil & Mirka 76 series Landcruiser
Wilco Lexus
Roger 76 series Landcruiser (tail)
The trip started with a promising invitation, “No through road”. Always a good starting point for a new trip.
As much as possible the plan for the day was to follow fence-lines, some we have driven before and some were new. We began the trip in a shady spot, to drop tyre pressures and lock hubs. That done, we immediately proceeded along a sandy uphill fence line track. Next, we travelled though thick bush with a delightful display of purple and blue flowers.
Photo 4980, 4983
A very steep hill had our visitor in a spin – all her dash lights for wheels came on. No go! A handy tip from Sean persuaded the auto box to kick into four-wheel drive and the hill was ascended. Now to go down! That proved just as tricky with the back end wanting to go first. And so, the trip continued – up and down, up and down with varying degrees of difficulty.
Despite clearing 3 trees on the recci there was another one to clear. Sandie promptly produced a reciprocating saw and the job was quickly done. What a way to make a great impression on your first trip!
Eventually we were back on familiar tracks, past the big 6 door shed, the huge ponds/lakes with jetties and canoes, and the swampy gullies. Along Wilco’s Road, so named because that is where his brakes failed last trip, to the one section we had not reccied. All hands-on deck to remove the sharp sticky bits of dead bushes overhanging the road.
After 3 hours solid driving, a well-earned break was taken at the beautiful Scarp Pool site. Access to the upper section has been restored and it provided an ideal site for lunch and lots of chat.
After lunch, we continued our drive following the old fence-line, but in reverse. Why haven’t we tried this before? We stopped a number of times, to clear the track of branches (this track is not driven very often) we reached the “big hill”, which when tackled in the wet from the bottom upwards, its hard. From the top this section was not very scary, that is until you are fully committed to going down the track. The ruts were so deep, I chose to drive on top of the ruts and had to change sides of the track to drive the best lines for me. A large rock step required careful wheel placement and a spotter.
Deb provided the awesome photograph of the day. Thanks Deb! A little beep of the horn alerted us to her predicament. Careful direction from Sean allowed Deb to level the vehicle and continue down the track. Meanwhile Sandie had flipped up logs under the Pajero and some jiggling back and forth was needed to dislodge them. Eventually everyone made it to the bottom with no damage.
The last major obstacle was a hard right turn uphill on loose rocky terrain. While it looks scary with careful wheel placement there is no problem just lots of dust.
An unexpected obstruction was a racehorse goanna who was reluctant to move off the track. He looked old and walked with a limp. Poor fella.
We eventually returned to Scarp Road. Here we stopped to pump up tyres, unlock hubs and finish the trip. Thanks for joining us on this trip, it was fun.
Story by Don.
