Thought it was about time to let you know how the trip went:
Fri got away about 3.30 spent some time in the carpark that is sometimes called a freeway out of Melbourne.
Fri night we stayed at Meyers Flat camping area. Nice enough spot, on the road into the area, near Dargo so it suited well.
Sat - Crooked River Tk was good, but slow going, lots of river crossings
First crossing for the KK
Conway Track (dropping downhill back to Kingswell Bridge) was very steep and dirt / clay based would be a challenge in the wet. Stayed at Collins Hut heaps of fibro board, smashed windows and rubbish left around, shame people cant look after these huts better.
Standard terrain in the lower sections
Sun morning – straight up to Billy Goats. Fantastic climb, there are a few spots that slightly challenged the KK (ie a bit of scrabbling for traction) but a great drive. The scenerywas mind blowing!
View from top of Billy goats
After Billy Goats Bluff (recommend going uphill (East to West) for Billy Goats), you MUST go out to the Pinnicles – amazing 360 degree views and only a short detour. We took a slight ‘shortcut’ from there, it had short stretch of slick, slippery rock ledges to go down – a good bit of fun and a recommended ‘short cut’. High speed dirt (60-70km/h average) from there via Dimmick’s Lookout to Howit Hut for our third night, glad we made the hut as it was very cold by this Queenslanders standard.
Early morning shot to get me acclimatised to VIC
Mon – We headed back down to Caledonia River Track this has some steep, slightly off camber and recently bulldozed decents. Could be dangerous in the wet.
Track drops steeply from above the snowline, through sub-alpine bush, typical Aussie bush, and finally wet / river and almost rainforest vegetation on the river at the bottom. It also transitions from mountain track to riverside track, then has several shallow river crossings and even a few bog holes. A very diverse and interesting track.
Another crossing probably 32 of 35
A little slippery in parts
This is just before I ended up sideways, I was glad I built some sliders after this section
From the Sth end of Caledonia River Tk, we went East, up Dingo Hill Tk. This was the most challenging tk of the weekend. Probably rated ‘double black diamond’ on the Vic High Country system, but I would rate it Medium to Hard. That is all in the dry of course. In the wet it would possibly be impassable in the KK without lockers and mud terrains.
Very steep in sections and definitely worked the traction control but the KK just kept going I was very impressed
Some interesting angles and tight corners on very steep sections
Overall a great trip, my first real hit out in the KK and I was very impressed with its performance, I have already booked on a return trip with the Jeep Club in November. Dingo was definitely the challenge very steep in sections and traction was an issue it would have been a real challenge in the wet.
I will try and put a video together in the next couple of weeks to show how good it was and will update with a link.
Victorian high Country in a KK Cherokee
