TR: Toombullup Solo Trip
- El_Freddo
- Master Member
- Posts: 12506
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Bridgewater Vic
- Contact:
TR: Toombullup Solo Trip
On the weekend starting on the 5th of August at 4:30pm, a mate and I packed up and headed bush for a weekend of camping with some 4wd'n. We headed to a place I'd not been before – Toombullup State Forest near Tatong and Tolmie; at the Kelly Tree Campsite (roughly at -36.8754822,146.2347008).
Friday night we legged it out there to get camp setup and the fire going, it was freezing!
^ Saturday Morning Camp. After a bit of a look around the campground, we headed out to check out the Kelly Tree and the site of the Police Camp shooting. Pretty interesting.
Then we hit “the tracks”:
Quality 4wd tracks were few and far between, we had fun looking around and the little pockets we found were good.
There were some decent rivers and creeks in the area, especially with the amount of rain we've had recently:
Traffic report:
The irony here is just after taking this pic a local fella trundled past us – we got stuck behind him shortly after...
We hit up Middle Creek Track, it was pretty easy going for 99% of it. The area is heavily used for logging – native forest and pine plantations, so most of the roads are “bush highways” really. This was an area with some negotiation required, as usual the photo just doesn't do it justice:
Later we hit a couple of creek crossings. The first was the most interesting:
One of our activities in our cruising around was to checkout all the campsites marked on the map as this place is pretty strict on where you camp (if you stick to what the signs say). This was after visiting one of the better campsites that had a fun track in and out:
After another creek crossing and bumping into more hunters (we'd been seeing them from about the first half of the Middle Creek Track) we started to head back to camp. The hunters became spaced about 500m apart on the track as they were tracking deer in the area. We noisily cruised through the area then cut some wood when we finally found some dried out stuff.
.
Friday night we legged it out there to get camp setup and the fire going, it was freezing!
^ Saturday Morning Camp. After a bit of a look around the campground, we headed out to check out the Kelly Tree and the site of the Police Camp shooting. Pretty interesting.
Then we hit “the tracks”:
Quality 4wd tracks were few and far between, we had fun looking around and the little pockets we found were good.
There were some decent rivers and creeks in the area, especially with the amount of rain we've had recently:
Traffic report:
The irony here is just after taking this pic a local fella trundled past us – we got stuck behind him shortly after...
We hit up Middle Creek Track, it was pretty easy going for 99% of it. The area is heavily used for logging – native forest and pine plantations, so most of the roads are “bush highways” really. This was an area with some negotiation required, as usual the photo just doesn't do it justice:
Later we hit a couple of creek crossings. The first was the most interesting:
One of our activities in our cruising around was to checkout all the campsites marked on the map as this place is pretty strict on where you camp (if you stick to what the signs say). This was after visiting one of the better campsites that had a fun track in and out:
After another creek crossing and bumping into more hunters (we'd been seeing them from about the first half of the Middle Creek Track) we started to head back to camp. The hunters became spaced about 500m apart on the track as they were tracking deer in the area. We noisily cruised through the area then cut some wood when we finally found some dried out stuff.
.
- El_Freddo
- Master Member
- Posts: 12506
- Joined: Tue Oct 04, 2005 10:00 am
- Location: Bridgewater Vic
- Contact:
On our way back to camp we swung by to check out a historic grave of Emma Sophia Heller. Tough life back then to say the least.
Once back at camp first priority was to get a fire going before the sun went down and the night chill visited:
Oh yeah – this was THE BEST fire I've had in a long time:
Dinner prep – pretty important when you start on a few cans early and skip lunch – rookie mistake! Chicken Parmas on the go:
All I needed in this pic was a rum (it was in the side pocket of the chair – not enough arms!). It doesn't get much better than this:
Sunday we packed up and headed home. While airing up the tyres I had a bit of a mud splatter appreciation moment. My favourite mud splatters are on the lower right part of the rear view mirror:
Last pic of the trip – Tatong Pub on our way through to Benalla:
Another good little trip. I think next time we'll hit up the Strathbogie Ranges and focus on finding the good 4wd'n pockets, but it was fun to get out and about again for a mid term trip.
A few maintenance issues showed up on the return trip – front bearings need to be seen to very soon. I wouldn't be keen on any long trips with the noise they're currently making. Other than a few other niggling things that need doing a new set of tyres would be good.
I hope you enjoyed the read, I'm hoping to make a video of a few sections we remembered to film, we missed one awesome section – two tyre track ruts around a fallen tree in some mud where some hunters watched in disbelief
Cheers
Bennie
Once back at camp first priority was to get a fire going before the sun went down and the night chill visited:
Oh yeah – this was THE BEST fire I've had in a long time:
Dinner prep – pretty important when you start on a few cans early and skip lunch – rookie mistake! Chicken Parmas on the go:
All I needed in this pic was a rum (it was in the side pocket of the chair – not enough arms!). It doesn't get much better than this:
Sunday we packed up and headed home. While airing up the tyres I had a bit of a mud splatter appreciation moment. My favourite mud splatters are on the lower right part of the rear view mirror:
Last pic of the trip – Tatong Pub on our way through to Benalla:
Another good little trip. I think next time we'll hit up the Strathbogie Ranges and focus on finding the good 4wd'n pockets, but it was fun to get out and about again for a mid term trip.
A few maintenance issues showed up on the return trip – front bearings need to be seen to very soon. I wouldn't be keen on any long trips with the noise they're currently making. Other than a few other niggling things that need doing a new set of tyres would be good.
I hope you enjoyed the read, I'm hoping to make a video of a few sections we remembered to film, we missed one awesome section – two tyre track ruts around a fallen tree in some mud where some hunters watched in disbelief
Cheers
Bennie
The subie is looking good. So does that camp dinner. I really need a getaway like this.
Owned - 89 Brumby, 83 Wagon, 83 Leone 4WD Sedan, 83 Touring Wagon, 99 Outback
Own - 87 Brumby, 93 Liberty, 09 Forester
Offroading Subarus Facebook Page
Own - 87 Brumby, 93 Liberty, 09 Forester
Offroading Subarus Facebook Page