"Spanish Steps"

An early start saw us meeting at Richmond at an ungodly hour. Everyone managed to make it on time so out came the hat. Michele’s nephew drew out my name (ungrateful little sod no Christmas pressie for him this year). Due to the large number of attendees Wal had to split the trip in half to reduce the amount of time spent on obstacles.

Off the convoy went with John Corry’s new ride fumigating several vehicles behind on the climbs. We had a short stop in Lithgow whilst Wal went to collect the key. Onward we went turning onto the dirt and locking hubs. Travelling along the dirt road a few puddles were splashed through to entertain the kids.

A rather large puddle appeared on the track and the part Labrador in me took over and with the Confidence that Adrian was in front of me and always goes through the puddles I entered the puddle to quickly discover that it was deeper than it looked. Forward momentum was stopped and the convoy ground to a halt as everyone stopped to laugh at my predicament. Climbing out the window (the water level was above the bottom of the doors) the trusty snatch strap was retrieved and hooked up to George Cottee’s car. After several attempted snatches where my car moved forward only a few inches a new plan was required. Luckily George Stevenson was next car in line and his shiny new Christmas present, a Warn Winch was begging to be used in anger. My car was so stuck that it started to drag George is into the puddle and another car was hitched to the back of Georges and a snatch block added to the winch setup before finally my car was free of the mud! What started as a simple snatch recovery had turned into a full blown advanced recovery, fortunately we had the club trainer on hand to not only direct the proceedings but to explain to the onlookers what was happening.

After all the excitement onward we went to see if we could catch up with group 1. Catch them we did at the start of a tricky little descent. Whilst group 1 went down Group 2 stopped for morning tea. George and I guided the group down the descent and we proceeded on with myself avoiding all the puddles on the way. A call was heard on the radio saying that Joseph had got stuck on the exit of a creek. After a couple of creek crossings Group 2 reached the creek that had been the problem and George proceeded through. The exit of the creek was tricky with a sharp little rise that was narrow and that needed some road building.

Unfortunately the road building had been for Jackaroos and not Patrols as George and myself soon found out. As George exited his sidestep caught on the left and pivoted the car. Our mighty club trainer was stuck!!!!! Woohoo who’s going to care about my indiscretion with a puddle when George Cottee got stuck, I was saved. Some of Group 1 came back to see if they could help but due to the car pivoting it could not be pulled straight out and so out came the Tirfor to winch the patrol sideways. After straightening up the car with the hand winch it was a simple matter for Adrian to help pull George out.

One of the benefits of following George is that you can follow his lines over obstacles. Of course George had been a bit too far left so I adjusted my line to the right and did exactly the same thing as George but with the right side of the car. Unfortunately for George he had just finished putting away the Tirfor so out it came again. As we winched my car sideways the tree we had anchored to started to bend so we had 3 people holding up the tree as we winched!

What a day - four people stuck (well 3 people stuck - one twice) and we hadn’t even reached the Spanish Steps yet. As the rest of the convoy proceeded past the obstacle only David Dunn had a little problem and needed a little helping hand. As Tony cleared the obstacle with ease the quote of the day came from Brian (Tony and Brian had earlier been discussing Tony’s engine rebuild)

Quote “Who needs a hairdryer (turbo charger) all you need is a $200 head job!”

I have never had a $200 head job but I am sure it would improve my performance no end J Finally we were at the Spanish steps and everyone proceeded up with no real dramas. Our next incident came at the lunch stop. As we were leaving Tony had a 60 foot tall tree jump out behind his car luckily he was travelling very slowly and did no damage to either the car or the tree.

We then proceeded down a very potholed road to the glow worm tunnel where the kids had a ball looking at the glow worms. After getting lost thanks to a Ken Clarke shortcut we all arrived back at the car park and proceeded to head to the Zigzag Railway to air up. Black clouds on the horizon threatened to explode, so we all hoped we could get aired up before the storm hit. It was not to be so as a torrential downpour hit just as we got out the air compressors. We all got soaked just as we were leaving for home. Thanks to Wal for a fantastic day and I hoped that I provided enough entertainment for everyone as well as being Georges crash test dummy.

Matt Crichton,
Trip Reporter.