Wombat State Forest: 25th April 2007
Participants: Henric and Mark
I'd explored around this area a little bit of late, and Henric wanted to check the Wombat out as well, so it was back up the Western Highway. Heading through Greendale, we made our way into the forest via Darcey Track. We explored a number of tracks down near Korweinguboora Creek, and had a bit of fun on some very steep tracks in this area. So steep that the trail bikers giving it a go had some trouble; a few of them falling off!
We backtracked to Colbrook Reservoir but didn't stay. There were a number of people already setup by the waterside.
Not really knowing where some good tracks were, we started heading up and down the tracks joining Binks Road to Paradise Road. These were pretty tame, though we did find a little mud, as well as some dead ends not marked on the map. Potters Track doesn't quite make it back to Binks Road, but rather comes to an abrupt end on a steep ravine.
We drove along Nevill Track and Old Binks Track and a number of other tracks eventually arriving at Blakes Mill where we explored the old sawdust heap.
We continued along Howard Track to Blackwood Ridge Road and turned down Green Gully Track.
We decided to make our way down a side track on the left which headed down the gully and steeply up the other side, but as the sidetrack turned off too sharply, we needed to continue on until we could turn around.
However this led us to take the wrong turn, bringing us to a dead end. A little exploration revealed that the correct track was 50 or so metres over a small ridge so we spent a good 10 minutes climbing the embankment.
Something wasn't quite right with Henric's truck, and a large cracking sound turned out to be a snapping axle.
I continued up the track while Henric limped back to Lerderderg Road to await me.
We drove together in through Blackwood and to Greendale where the Navara pretty much didn't want to go any further.
It was a long wait for the tow-truck, but not long enough to dampen our sense of adventure. On the way back we stopped at Deep Creek Cutting so I could grab a photo of the old sandstone arch bridge.
All was going well until we started to reverse out. The gravel river bed caught me out and before I knew it I was bogged. We set to winching off the nearest tree, however rather than the car moving closer to the tree, the tree ended up moving closer to the car! I stopped before pulling it over completely and set to winching off a tree stump on the other side of the bridge. Lucky I had the 40metre extension strap as I needed the full length. We just managed to get out before flattening the battery.