Bright and early Saturday morning I set off to meet the others in Gembrook.
It was still raining, just like the previous 7 days.
I met the others and after waiting for 10 minutes to see if any of the others were going to show up we left Gembrook and drove the short distance into Bunyip State Forest.
We stopped to air down.
Loving Mikes 80! But more on that later.
We were soon off again.
The truck in front driven by Yarn (the guy who lent me the 31" tyres) was having some trouble getting up the first slippery climb.
His front wheels wernt getting any drive, so he decided he would have to call it a day and head home.
So he pulled over and we carried on.
The first climb was ridiculously slippery, and the Jeep in front of me just about managed to get up with plenty of sideways action.
It was so wet and greasy that it was a struggle to even stand up and walk on it.
The little Sierra (SJ) was struggling a bit on its tiny little all terrains and required a snatch recovery as they had slipped off the track.
LJ managed to get up fine with the 37"s and rear air locker.
When the Disco snatched the Sierra back the little zuke started going sideways and if theyd kept going would have tipped over as there was a big hole. Luckily they stopped in time, and we re-positioned the snatch strap on the front of the sierra and pulled it up.
After stopping to regroup and check everyone was OK we carried on.
Soon we came to a very big, slippery hill climb with 2 Nissan Patrols struggling to get up.
It was quite good to watch, they were flat out on the throttle with all the tyres spinning and very slowly they were moving forward inching there way up.
We stood for an hour watching and chatting while the 2 Patrols fought there way up and ended up winching the last section.
So our group...............................
The trip leader Justin, was driving this red Ford Maverick (Patrol).
My mate Tony in his tricked up Jeep.
Mike in the lovely 80.
My mate Craig in his Disco.
My friends Natalie and Gav who are normally in there big white 105 LandCruiser (they helped tow me on the Licola trip)in the little Suzuki which is Nat's truck.
After seeing how slippery the conditions were I decided to take another 10psi out of the tyres and drop them down to 10.
With the other 2 Patrol's safely up the hill it was the turn of out trip leader.
He wheel spun all the way but did get moving.
Managed to avoid sliding into the tree.
He got so far up but then had to winch the rest.
It was raining off and on and I was glad I brought my brolly, as were a few of the others who huddled underneath it.
The Jeeps turn next.
He too was soon winching.
Mikes 80 next.
Slipping sideways.
He then ended up in one of the rain run off ditches that you find bulldozed off the sides of all the tracks over here.
He gave it his best shot to get out.
The Jeep was still fighting his way up the hill.
With the pyro gauge reading very high exhaust gas temps from loads of right foot trying to get up, Mike ran his winch rope out and winched himself out.
Shit those high mount Warn winches are quick! Got to get me one of those!
Mike managed to drive his 80 a fair way up he hill, and I then got LJ to the bottom of the climb.
I walked up to see how Tony was getting on in his Jeep.
Clearly enjoying himself.
After Mike got up it was my turn in LJ.
I should have given it more right foot from the bottom like the other guys, but I thought Id just crawl up in 1st low.
That approach worked well for a while but then I lost momentum and just sat there spinning the wheels. I went backwards and forwards a few times trying to get up but the front end slid round and I was now positioned sideways on on the slippery steep climb.
It felt bloody unsafe so I radioed for help and some of the guys came back down.
They put a strap on the front of the truck and anchored me to a tree to stop my front end from sliding further and hopefully me from rolling.
(Apologies for the rubbish pics, the camera got condensation in between the lenses.)
With my front end anchored in place I was able to carefully back up and get myself a bit squarer on to the hill.
The only problem now was that my rear wheel was up on the bank making LJ feel very tippy. I tried reversing and that lifted wheels off the ground. I tried going forward and again wheels came off the ground. It felt very tippy and unsafe.
Tony and Gav tried pulling the rear of LJ back onto the track while I tried spinning the rear wheels.
That didnt work and still it felt tippy. So they anchored my bullbar to the tree. So my front end was now anchored low down off my recovery point to the base of one tree, and the bullbar was anchored higher up to another tree.
I learnt an interesting technique where by you can hold a vehicle quite safely by just wrapping a strap around a tree a few times and then holding on to the strap to make sure it stays taught. A bit like how a winch rope stays on the winch drum due to it having a few wraps of rope/cable which causes friction.
Worked really well and is a super quick way to anchor an unsafe vehicle.
This time, after unlocking a front hub so I was in rear wheel drive I was able to spin myself off the bank.
Next it was my turn to get winched a little way up the track, just up and over the next water run off hump that I was struggling to get over before.
Justins truck in position ready to winch us up.
After being winched for a few meters I was then able to drive the rest.
The Suzuki then amazed us all by driving all the way to the top!!! Stock standard and running tiny little 28" all terrain tyres!
Who says you need lockers and 37"s!
Craigs turn next in the Disco.
Not easy but with his twin locked truck and new 36" Simex tyres he got himself to the top.
Thick red clay!
I didnt get many pics of the Disco or Suzuki getting up as I was trying to video them but the video didnt work on the camera again. :-(
Justins truck then needed winching back up as he was just spinning all his wheels and going no where.
It was a struggle to drive with huge clods of sticky clay stuck to my boots.
And finally we were at the top and off the track. 4 hours it took us to get everyone up!
The others were still having problems getting up the last tiny bit of the track.
A few pics of Mikes beautiful 80.
LED strips work very well and light everything up well.
I also liked his fridge slide/30 second kitchen.
We had a quick stop for a chat and a drink then hit the tracks again.
The next section of track proved a lot of fun! Apparently a lot of the track used to be like this small rocky section but its all been graded and filled in.
After driving up the rocks and then deciding we loved it so much we drove it again! We carried on.
The Disco was having engine problems.
It turned out the LandRover patented anti rust system, where by it constantly drips and leaks oil all over the underneath of the truck, had used all the engine oil up.
5 litres of oil later we were on our way.
I like these big storage boxes Mike has got for his 80, they work well.
The little Suzuki had a few problems on this next section of track due to not having enough ground clearance.
A quick snatch recovery and we were on our way again.
The convoy stopped and we all got out. Ahead was a huge bog hole.
Non of us wanted to get stuck in it, so we stood there for 10 mins trying to decide who should drive in and try and cross it.
I'm not a fan of bog holes, especially after the one at Lincomb destroyed so many parts of LJ last time.
In the end the trip leader decided to have a go.
Try as he might he could get over some raised roots between the trees.
After he reversed back out another group turned up, and one of them said hed try.
He was unsuccessful too.
He tried going the other side of the trees but got totally stuck.
So Mike hooked his winch on and dragged the Patrol out.
By this point it was getting late and would be dark soon so we decided to call it a day.
On the way back down the hill in the dark, one of my tyres popped off the rim.
We attached Mikes winch to the back of LJ, I then jacked here up to take the weight off the tyre. We removed the valve core and using Mikes compressor, and with 3 of us pushing and kicking the tyre we managed to pop the bead back on.
I tried to scrape as much of the mud and grit out from between the tyre bead and the rim but air was still leaking out quite quickly as I couldnt get all the crap out.
We inflated it to 50psi and carried on.
Coming back down some of the tracks in the dark was interesting.
Mike slid and hit his drivers wheel hard, and bent his steering rod.
We stopped to air up and I was impressed that my tyre had stopped leaking and was still holding 50psi.
I let some air out and then used Mikes compressor to air up the rest of them.
Hes mounted it under his drivers seat and it fits nicely. Hes also got an air tank mounted underneath.
Was an awesome day!
Really need to get my front locker re-fitted and get a winch!
Trip report for Sundays trip to Telangi with the Suzuki club to follow.
Looking forward to this Ben 
!!
