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Mitsubishi 4WD Owners Club of Qld (Inc) |
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Rover Park - Easter '09 |
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Rover Park Easter 2009As expected the roads heading out of Brisbane were busy on Good Friday morning. The journey to Rover Park via the Cunningham Hwy could have been done in 4 hours but two short stops in Warwick for food and fuel extended the travel time by another hour. This was my first visit to Rover Park and I was expecting a bushy, quiet retreat but as I drove over the hill into the park I was greeted by wall to wall tents, motor bikes, kids and 4WD’s. In total 407 cars for the weekend. A number of club members had arrived on Thursday and reserved space for the late arrivals. After setting up camp Craig called us to gather and mount our vehicles ready for the first drive of the long weekend. It would be a short drive to get to know the lay of the land. There were 7 cars that headed off. After a brief 5 minute drive Craig stopped the convoy and said this is the first bit we’ll try. It’s classified as Extreme but he went up it on his reckie a few weeks prior and it wasn’t that bad “So you don’t have to do it if ya don’t want to.” So off he went up Merv’s Hill and we all followed. It was a short rough climb up an all rock path with plenty of big holes and big rocks and then it was down the other side with Craig navigating from below as we edged each car down very slowly. “Bugger me that was a good introduction to Rover Park and my first proper weekend away with the club, but wait it got better, or should I say worse. Our tour guide Craig decided that the rocky track was a fair bit harder than when he was there last so we’ll head for a Medium track for a more casual drive. Bad idea! AS we descended Gum Tree Hill track, the hill got steeper, slipperier and the spoon drains were large and crested so much that most of the Fourby’s bottomed out on the ramp over. (We dragged our guts) We all made it to the bottom with the help of gravity and all agreed “Thank God we don’t have to go back up that way”. The track leveled out and wound its way through a thick gully of trees but after another 100 metres we came across a bit of a bog where the lead Patrol of Craig’s got BOGGED in thick gooey mud up to the floor pan. He managed to winch himself out. Car two, Mark in his 60’s series Land Cruiser, then followed and came to the same gooey conclusion but we managed to snatch him out of the bog. We only had 5 more cars to go! Gee this is going to take a while! Fortunately the next 5 cars gunned their way through the bog. Then 30m on the lead cars were in trouble again, bogged and sliding sideways into trees. Our fearless leader decided to investigate further on foot and returned to the posse of cars and informed everyone that more of the same lay ahead and that if we continued on it was a definite proposition that we would all be making appointment s with the panel beater next week. The only solution was to turn the cars around and head back up the hill the way we came. Yes, we had to winch the two lead cars around as they slipped down into more trees, the other 5 cars got out of the way to let them back through to the front so they could blast their way back just to get bogged again in the same bog hole. By this time 2 more 4WD’s had made their way down the big slippery hill to join us. These cars were from the Land Cruiser club on a club reckie, they joined in to assist us get back to the other side of the big bog and winch fallen trees out of the way and maneuver cars to the other side. Next was the climb up the big slippery hill with the huge spoon drain-speed humps that we were dreading on the way down. All 9 cars made it up after several attempts. The damage to the fleet included Dave’s Triton rear bumper bar being smashed up as he leaped off the spoon drains, Eric’s Patrol lost a tail light and a front indicator and there were dints to the lead cars from encounters with trees. 3 ½ hour to drive a round trip of 6 km!! What an interesting introduction for my wife to club 4 wheel driving. “I reckoned it was great and the new Jeep Commander loved it!” After that exciting start we continued to have a fantastic weekend. We had a giant camp oven bake off on the Saturday night where I counted 7 ovens around the fire. Dave and Craig were the judges but we never got a decision they just kept asking for more sample tastings through the evening. That night the rain did come in at dinner time so we set up a double sized giant fly structure to gather under to eat, tell stories and hear how good Land Cruisers and Patrols are. Sunday night Fat Kid Ben was in fine form with jokes that got so bad and smutty (no they were just off!) we all had to leave and go to bed. The sights we saw at the Park were the magnificent waterfalls; they got even better on Tuesday after a huge down pour over night. The wild life included Australia’s native types as well as the animal farm that kept the young children occupied with horses, deer, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, chickens etc. A cute little Pademelon came to visit on Sunday night as we sat around the campfire and on Tuesday morning after everyone had departed we had a visit from wallaby and her joey scavenging for food. She was not interested in grapes or carrot but loved the bowl of crunchy Skippy corn flakes. (true story we have the photos). The leeches were also very friendly and just couldn’t wait to climb up our trouser legs at every stop or bog hole. We even found a few ticks had followed us home. The kids had a great time playing on the super long flying fox and the huge water slide into the freezing cold dam. There was an animal farm where the Easter bunny was hiding out. The table tennis and pool tables were also good to spend time out of the drizzle with the kids. All in all it was a fantastic extra long weekend with scenic, fun and challenging four wheel driving, great sightseeing including an old Gold and tin mine, plenty of food and fluids and above all the great company with a new bunch of friends. Well done Craig and Eric what a fantastic time! Also a special note to young Matt in his Suzi who nearly had a major roll over backing down and out of a failed hill climb attempt. He controlled the car perfectly, didn’t hit the brakes and steered out of a potentially bad roll over. Well done and great viewing for us spectators. Next time wear brown trousers. Stats: 4 x Mitsubishi’s, 2 x Jeeps, 2 x Land Cruiser, 2 x Patrols, 1 x Suzi, 1 x caravan, 3 x camper trailers, 7 x children, 16 grown ups some not so grown up. Phil Day
Rover Park – the kids point of view. Rover Park was a really good camping trip and I had a great time especially since there were three other kids there. I was really excited about going because it was a new place for me and my friend from school, Lauren was coming too! We enjoyed talking about it and coming up with unsuccessful plots and plans like trying to kick Lauren’s brother James out of his tent so we could talk until we fell asleep. (Although we didn’t really talk about that one, we just came up with an idea. No plotting or planning happened sadly!) Below I have listed the activities at the park for the kids although for some of them we needed someone older to come as well: The Flying Fox, Water slide, Farm yard, Pool table, Table tennis, Air hockey, Playground I think this was a great experience for me because I had my first go on a flying fox and a water slide and I really enjoyed it! Rebecca Biles PS. When are we going back???! Back to Top
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