Hi All,
Just got back from 4 days camping down at Lane Poole Reserve just outside Dwellingup (about 1 hr south east of Perth). Me and the missus figured while we were down there that we would give a couple of the "4wd days out of Perth" tracks a shot.
For those of you who aren't local to Perth, "4wd days out of Perth" is a local "book" produced by the people who publish the "Western 4wDriver" quarterly magazine. It covers 14 different 4wd trips that take a day Perth to Perth. According to them, most of the trips are suitable to soft roaders so are good for 4wd newbies like me and the missus.
First Day of 4wdriving
On the second day of our time down at Lane Poole Reserve we did trip No. 3 - Up the Murray. It is about a 4 to 5 hour trip depending on how fast you go. The trip notes in the book are very accurate however track conditions are slightly different from what was stated.
There were a couple of mud puddles that, based on their length and width (i.e. covering the whole track and rutted) required a little investigation but they turned out to be only about 6 inches deep <chuckle> so the missus had some fun running through them while I took photos. Nothing like a bit of mud to develop some street cred
About half way through the trip we came across a small rocky section that I decided to check out before going through. While we were at the rocky section we met up with a couple in a Navara ute with a fibreglass camper on the back. They were heading in the opposite direction and were checking out the obstacle themselves. After a bit of discussion I decided to give it a shot and without any problems at all made it through (It looked a lot worse than it was). They decided to give it a miss though and followed us back along the track for a bit.
Continuing on we got to a 3 way fork in the road. The trip notes stated as follows:
6.97km Mayer Road on RHS (Wpt 3); BR (Bear Right)
4.42km Fork: BL (Bear Left) on Keats Road
There was no reference to the other 2 forks. This caused us some confusion as Mayer road looked unused. Initially we took the centre track as this seemed to "bear right" but after 2km we ran out of track (No Keats Road). We back tracked to the three way fork and after resetting our odometer headed up Mayer road.
From this point the track started to get a bit rough but not difficult. There were quite a few obstacles across the track (e.g. fallen trees) that we either moved or went around. We had to keep a close eye on the odometer as well as this section’s tracks were all very unused. Needless to say we made it through without any problems though (just slightly sore necks from all the jolting <grin>)
Summary of Track No. 3
To summarize this track I would say that it is really simple and a great starting place for newbies with no hard sections but lots of fun. There is also a little bit of history along the way with sections of bridges from the old timber tramways still being visible.
Second Day of 4wdriving
On the third day of our camping trip we decided to do Trip No. 14 – Baden Powell to Yarloop.
This trip was a lot more challenging than the first and would definitely not be suitable for soft roaders.
Because we were staying at Tony’s Bend campsite we skipped the first 10 points in the trip notes. I should point out that the trip notes for this, and the previous trip all start at the CALM office in Dwellingup which is kind of handy as it is a good idea to check with them to ensure the roads are open. When we went through they were planning an aerial burn of the area but we got the ok to go through.
Throughout this trip we needed to engage low range and take it nice and easy. Despite the trip notes stating that the “
Trip consists of bush tracks with no extreme sections, although care needs to be taken in detouring around fallen trees off Driver road”, we found that the track conditions had deteriorated quite markedly with there being lots of rutted and rocky sections including rutted inclines and declines.
At one point, through not listening to the missus’ advice, I managed to get our front LH wheel airborne and also managed to fall into a deep rut on another section (again for not listening to the missus) almost getting stuck. Fortunately partially due to luck and partially due to the training course we took a couple of weeks ago we managed to back ourselves out of the problems without too much difficulty.
THIS TRACK IS FUN!!!!!!
What more can I say. For newbies it is a challenge and a lot of the sections look quite daunting.
I would not recommend anyone inexperienced do this track without either a) doing a good training course first or b) going with someone experienced. At the end of the trip you get a great view and, if you leave at around midday as we did, the sunset is spectacular.
As soon as I get a chance I will attach a few photos so you can see what the trip was like.
To finish off our stay down south we spent a relaxing time just sitting around the campfire eating damper and drinking beer…. Nice.. We had no major problems other than running out of washer fluid, the driver’s side central door locking mechanism stopping working and .. hehehe… much to my embarrassment…. the evening before we left I had been running our radio.. the next morning, after we had packed the Jeep up and were ready to go, we found we had a flat battery <chuckle>. This will teach me to be a little more careful in future. Lucky for us a CALM Officer (didn’t get her name unfortunately) happened to be going by about 15 minutes after we realised that we couldn’t start the engine and saved the day by giving us a jump start. (Big thanks to her).
One last word.. after a few close shaves I have learnt to listen to the Missus (Yes ladies you heard right, a bloke who listens
)
Lane Poole Reserve - Dwellingup (4wd Days out of Perth)
