Pinnacles & Billy Goat Bluff

 

Participants:

Alan and Tonee Harlow :Discovery 4

Neville and Liz Trimnell : Discovery 4

Ross and Sue Howell : Defender

 

Monday 27/3/23

The Harlows got away at 7.50am for the 9.00am rendezvous at Licola.

15 degrees and substantial drizzle… Managing 4 red lights of the 5 sets we crossed (luckily we turned left at the 6th set which were also red!), our start time proved to be optimistic, as we were the last to arrive, and found the Trimnells and the Howells patiently waiting for us.

The trip did however prove to be a treat of nature, including kangaroos, foxes, a magnificent eagle 🦅 making a meal of an unfortunate wombat, and a bull busy in the cow paddock, front and centre, whose hip swivelling way outdid any Elvis performance!

 

After greeting and briefing, etc, our little party got away around 9.25, with Alan leading and Ross the ever important Tail End Charlie.

We followed the Tamboritha Road which is still corrugated from the end of the bitumen to Bennison Lookout then on to Kelly’s Lane, where we turned off and travelled into McMichaels Hut, arriving in the rain just after 10.30 and enjoyed our morning tea in the hut.  Liz had some great fruit cake which Alan really appreciated with his coffee. The hut and area around it was in good nick as the club had cleaned up the area only 3 weeks earlier.

A quick visit to the babbling brook there, then back into our vehicles and away by 11.10.

 

We stopped a little further on for a brief visit and look around Kelly’s Hut, in the rain, and by 11.30 we’re on Howitt Road heading for Arbuckle Junction and the commencement of Moroka Road, heading for the Pinnacles.

Did I mention the rain?

We drove into Horseyard Flats for a quick comfort stop an hour later in a mere drizzle.  Horseyards was not in great condition with long grass and many pot holes.

 

At 12.47 we were on the Pinnacles Road; 12 degrees and no precipitation.

12.50 we parked up and looked forward to the chance to stretch our legs on the 350 metre walk to the Rangers station, and then onto the steep 150 metre climb to enjoy the view of the clouds ☁️.  It’s easy to describe the view for our readers, picture a blank A4 sheet as the starting canvas now don’t change that image because that’s all we could see.

Having earned our lunch, we picnicked back at the vehicles and engaged in some deep discussion on the up coming referendum.

A crew of 7 vehicles from DNW, a You Tube 4WDing channel arrived as we were about to leave. They had been filming coming up Billy Goats Bluff, so Alan took the opportunity to have a chat and check out the track conditions.  As he often has said in the past "bad move", what is bad to some is terrible or good to others. He was told it had some loose rocks but not too bad. This did not match our experience.

 

Away at 2.05… no rain…

 

Billy Goat Bluff track…

Tested our drivers and vehicles to the max, and took the passengers’ nerves on a journey of their own too.  Several wheel lifts, backend slides and front end drifts did not stop our decent in a controlled manner in the main.

The 9 kilometres took close to 2 hours to complete, though about 35 minutes of that was spent changing Neville’s rear drivers side tyre. The Discovery must be the hardest tyre to change on any car, the lift required is excessive. Luckily Hawkeye Howell realised something was amiss, approximately 5 kilometers and 50 minutes in, as, due to the terrain we were on, Neville was unaware he had an issue.

Onward ho… with downhill descent engaged and carefully choosing our ‘line’, we reached Crooked River Road at the end of the track at 4pm. Sadly here, the road sign for Billy Goat Bluff Track had been souvenired, as evidently someone’s need was far greater than that of all other travellers to the area 😠

The rain had ceased and we were just in time to see the grader and roller pass by from the direction we needed to travel, giving us a particularly smooth run to Short Cut Rd via Kingswell Bridge, and then on to the bitumen.

Our small group arrived at Dargo at 4.50, in time for happy hour.

We checked in to the Motor Inn, quite impressed with the standard and comfort of our rooms, and just a short stroll to the pub for dinner, and a well earned smooth red 🍷 (or two).

While at the pub we spotted two cars that had passed us on their way up while we were changing the tyre, which was strange as they would not have had time to get to the top and back to the pub in the time available.  Finding the drivers we were told not long after passing us one of them had a very nerve wracking experience and decided it was prudent to turn around and head back down.  With children on board this was a good decision.

The meal was great, the company more so!

Some good laughs were had over some of the more ‘interesting’ moments of the trip, such as seeing Neville’s rear tyre so far off the terra firma as he traversed a substantial hole, and Liz’s reactions to her first ever ‘real’ 4WD experience.  The general consensus of those of us who had done the track before was it was the worst state we have seen it in.  The amount of loose rock and large holes combined with the typical steps made it incredibly challenging. But the cars coped very well.

 

Tuesday 28/3/23

After a respectably early night, we met up at 8 (ish) the next morning for a walk to the General Store to buy breakfast, which we ate sitting out the front to soak up the serenity and ambience of Dargo in the mist.

At 10 to 9 we waved goodbye to Dargo.

Following a 20 minute stop to explore the Exhibition gold battery on the way out of town, we headed for Stratford where we caught up with the Roses at Wa-de-lock Cellar Door and Cafe for morning coffee at 10.30.

Away again, for home, we said our goodbyes at 11.45.  Greg and Lois having done the same trip many times where able to relive the experience once more.

The cars were very dirty so, for us, the first order of business on arriving back home was the drive through car wash, Nev and Liz headed to the Land Rover dealership to see if a faulty review camera could be checked out as ift was starting to malfunction on the trip. Sue and Ross having made sure we took the shortest way home left the rest of us in Traralgon as they headed to home in Morwell.

 

A successful trip, leaving us all with great memories and some good photos…