DAP, Brooklyn, 24 – 25 October 2009

Friday afternoon and evening
Eric and the Poole’s happened to meet at the entrance to the camp and we proceeded to the campsite. After rushing to pitch our tents and set up camp prior to the onslaught of a forthcoming storm front, we retired to the communal hut for drinks and dinner and more drinks.

Saturday morning
After the remaining participants and instructors arrived and setup their campsites on Saturday morning we received our initial practical DAP briefing and were all asked to complete and sign some forms.

After these formalities where completed we all hopped on board our vehicles each with an instructor in each vehicle hitching a ride. After departing camp we navigated through a creek bed with approximately half a metre of water and thereafter after a short drive arrived at a grassed ravine where there were obvious 4WD tracks up three side of the gully. This was to be the site of the stall recovery practices. We then alighted from our vehicles and received a further briefing in regards to stall recovery procedures. Jeff then demonstrated these procedures in a manual Pajero.

After several attempts by all drivers and always with an instructor in the vehicle, each of the instructors then reduced the tyre pressures of all vehicles to approximately 25 psi to demonstrate how much easier this type of driving was with reduced tyre pressures. On one track a Pajero was unable to fully navigate up one of the steep rocky inclines. This was a perfect opportunity for the instructors to demonstrate the safe art of using a snatch trap. Terry in his Triton backed down the slope and the recovery session commenced and was successfully executed. After another snatch rescue occurred (this time the Triton being the victim), we all retired to the campsite for a well deserved rest and lunch break.

Saturday afternoon
After lunch we proceeded to an adjacent area to the campsite to attempt to place each of our wheels on yellow blocks to learn all about wheel placement. With the mirrors facing towards the rear wheels we all soon learned the benefits of this procedure. Afterwards we drove to another location (after some detours) where we practiced our skills bouncing our vehicles several times over a fallen down tree. Following this exercise we all proceeded through farmland, replanted forest and bushland in convoy and eventually reached a disused quarry for a look around. As this was our final exercise for the day we headed off back towards camp and happy hour.

Saturday evening
We all cooked our dinner at the communal hut or our own camp sites and then retired to the communal hut where we all ate and continued to forge and develop new friendships. During the evening Debbie discovered a rather large green tree frog in the ladies toilet bowl. This created some panic at first but it was soon resolved that the frog was harmless. He or she frog was however later blinded by 234 camera flashes directed in his or hers direction. The last anyone saw of the poor thing was it was climbing a tree to get far away from all the attention. Throughout the evening there was much laughter from the perpetrators’ of the noise of several fire crackers popping off on a regular basis and the reactions created from several of the victims.

Sunday morning
After a leisurely breakfast we were accosted by a strange man with a pink purse who politely asked for some money to pay for the use of the campsite. In order to get rid of the beggar we all eagerly agreed to part with our ready cash. We were joined by another participant in his Pajero who was completing his DAP from a previous course. Jeff then drove his Pajero into the gully adjacent to the campsite and Alan and Jeff commenced to demonstrate the safe usage of a hand powered winch.

After connection of the winch to the Pajero all participants firstly one at a time commenced to winch the Pajero up the incline. We all then winched using the double team method. After everyone was puffed we disengaged the winch and the Pajero drove up the majority of the incline under its own steam. After the winching exercise was completed we packed away the winch and drove through the National Park through beautiful natural scrub to a creek where we were briefed on water crossings. After the majority of the group removed there socks and shoes and walked the crossing we all safely navigated the water crossing.

After traversing some natural forest we reached a steep loose gravel incline where the majority of vehicles had difficult navigating up, although some of the cars who drove on the shoulders up the incline seemed to undertake the climb much easier than the others who stuck to the well defined track. After Jenna successfully completed her climb on the first attempt she promptly celebrated her victory at the top of her voice not only scaring us humans in the immediate area but also the local wildlife within a 10 kilometre range. During this exercise we were able to again practice our skills in the art of recovery using a doubled up snatch strap.

We eventually reached the highest point of Brooklyn and were able to stop and admire or photograph the magnificent view of the surrounding countryside.On the way back to camp we navigated through a dry creek bed and a difficult short incline corralled between a large rock on one side and tree stumps on the other side. After everyone successfully navigated this difficult hurdle, we were introduced to one last obstacle. We all had the option to complete a short downhill track and a difficult short uphill rocky outcropping.

After a few heart stopping moments each of the participants who participated successfully managed these difficult manoeuvres. After the conclusion of this last task we made our way to the gully where we had originally commenced our training on Saturday morning. Here we were debriefed and pondered the gully tracks we all thought impossible to navigate on that first morning – they no longer held any fear for us.

After profusely thanking our instructors we proceeded to the campsite where we all packed away and departed for home. It was a weekend where all vehicles and participants were tested to the limit. The DAP format was first class in all respects as were each of our instructors.

We all departed knowing that we were much more accomplished 4wd drivers who became much more aware of our own and our vehicles capabilities. However, it is acknowledged that we each need to continue to practice our skills in order to achieve further proficiency.

On behalf of all participants we would like to thank our instructors not only for freely and cheerfully passing on their considerable expertise but also for giving up their free time to train us. I know there will be some long lasting and valued friendships as a result of the interaction over the weekend. We just hope we don’t get to meet that strange man with the pink purse again! Thankyou to the Club for providing the forum, the Instructors and the equipment for the DAP.

Terry and Di Poole