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Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Qld (Inc) |
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Crystalvale - Nov '08 |
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CRYSTALVALE 4WD PARK - Sunday, 23rd November 2008Participants
Cricket and four wheel driving have at least one thing in common and that is that rain will stop play. All week rain had threatened to stop play at Crystalvale and it wasn’t until late on the Saturday afternoon that Errol confirmed that the park would be open for play. The meeting place was at Nerang which just happened to have a bakery open which just happened to have some nice hot pies fresh out of the oven. Errol’s planning so far was impeccable. For various reasons just six of the original seventeen names on the trip sheet actually made it to the starting line which, as it turned out, was probably a good thing. The trip down to Crystalvale was very scenic and upon arrival we paid the fees and headed to the camp ground to let tyres down and get ready for the day’s activities. “Righto Navigator, where to?” said the Leader. “Let’s go along track 5 to Frog Gully and get the mud out of the way first” I replied. So off we went across a creek or two up and down a couple of relatively easy hills as the tracks had dried out quite well after the rain, or so it seemed! Next it was on to track 17, a short, sharp hill that looked fairly straight forward but proved to be quite slippery. Errol had several attempts but wasn’t getting very far at all. So it was back down for attempt number 8 or 9 when there was a loud bang from the rear. “What was that?” Errol asked. “You backed into a tree” I replied. “I didn’t see it there before” he answered. “No, someone must have just put it there” I replied. Well that must have upset him a wee bit because he flattened Old Red and roared straight up that hill and back down track 16 to watch the rest have a go at 17. The others all had varying degrees of trouble but eventually they all made it up and down in order that they could all go up again the way they had just come down which of course is what you do at Crystalvale. Now going up track 16 proved quite a bit more difficult than going down, although not for Errol who straddled the ruts and flew up. At the top he stopped on a fairly steep bit of track before walking back to guide the others up and I asked him if his handbrake was working as in the past it had not been too flash. “yeah,” he replied “I had to get it fixed because the foot brake is not working too well” That was certainly reassuring and it was nice to know that at least something was working well on Old Red because as it turned out other bits and pieces were not! Rod was next up without too much trouble, Mark got there after several attempts, Ken spun all over the place, Steve kept slipping in to the ruts and Glen made it after a few tries. Well by then it was time for smoko and it had taken us around two hours to conquer just two small hills. Smoko was on top of the Slippery Hill which overlooked hills 22 and 23 which are probably the longest in the park. After smoko Errol headed for number 22 and tried unsuccessfully to make it to the top. About two thirds of the way up there was a log across the track so he stopped and asked me to get out and move it out of the way. Well I couldn’t open the door as the ruts were about two feet deep and even a mountain goat couldn’t have stood up on that hill. In the meantime Rod had gone up track 23 and removed the log so Errol and Mark soon followed. By now there were a number of mean looking Nissans and Toyotas with big tyres and lockers milling around at the bottom and it really made Errol’s day when they all failed and the only vehicles to get up all the hills were Pajeros! We then headed back to the camp ground for lunch via an itty bitty bastard of a hill. Now this hill is not very long and not very steep it’s just a mean, vicious little hill which has caused Errol and others a lot of grief in the past. Well Errol had Old Red lunging and bucking like a mad Brahman bull at a rodeo. After several attempts I bailed out and left him to it. Eventually he gave up, but not for long as it turned out. Because after Rod went up with relative ease Errol, with Rod as his Navigator, tried yet again to beat the little bugger. At one point Rod was leaning out his side and Errol was trying to push his side off the bank. Eventually he got there and it was time for lunch. There were only two hills left after lunch and they took nearly all afternoon as it turned out. As we were driving along a ridge line I commented to Errol that Old Red was making a lot of strange noises. “Yeah,” he replied “the clunking is the bent front shockie and the whistling is from the radiator but I don’t know what the clacking and the other noises are.” Hill number 10 has always been a challenge and it seemed that this time it would beat Errol as after several attempts he gave up. Rod, however had little trouble with it So Errol just had to try yet again. Well with wheels spinning and mud flying, off he went and suddenly there was a loud bang. Strewth, he’s snapped his brain I thought and then Ken pointed out that his left wheel was pointing left and his right wheel was pointing right! Well I thought, that’s the end of that, how are we getting home? Of course I should have known better because “Spare parts” Cottrell just happened to have a spare steering arm (and just about enough parts to build a new Pajero). So out came the hammers and the spanners and in no time at all Old Red was mobile and we were heading for the “Extreme Hill”, reputedly the hardest in the park. Well that proved a letdown as it was covered with too many logs to move and so we turned up an “easy” hill heading back to the camp ground. Now this “easy” hill turned out to be the most difficult and scariest of them all! There were a couple of washouts and tree roots across the track and I was convinced we were going over and so did all the others who were watching at the bottom. Well we didn’t and made it to the top and then Errol went down to help the others up. Steve was next up and his passenger said he thought they too were going over. Ken was next and he got out with a pale face and hand over a visibly thumping heart and declared that was the closet he’d ever come to rolling. Glen arrived at the top with a big grin having taken a different line as did Rod. Mark was in big trouble but after his passengers got out and he righted the car, he eventually made it up unscathed. Then it was time to pump up the tyres but one of the noises coming from the front of Old Red had Errol a bit worried and so he drove around in circles with Glen and Ken trying to find the problem. They didn’t and we headed for home with me hoping the wheels wouldn’t fall off on the way. It was certainly an eventful day with lots of laughs and more than the odd anxious moment and I’m sure everyone enjoyed the day, I know Errol did. He tells me he’s planning to do it all again next year so make sure you get your name on the trip sheet early. The Navigator Back to Top
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