GPS Event - 7th and 8th of November 2003
by Froggy

Trip Report - by Froggy

The event was initiated to instil many different aspects of 4WDing, these included leadership, navigation, trip preparation, communication skills and all rolled up into getting out there behind the black stump, getting ya gear off - ROAD and having some FUN!

Leaving in convoy from the Professional Pc Support Car Park in Balcatta at Approx. 6.00pm. Pluto and Fish meeting us up at the Hills Forest Discovery Centre later. A quick stop in at Mundaring KFC to pick up some dinner and into camp about 7.30pm. Camp organised and dinner done by 8.30pm.

The evenings events started with some GPS theory, though a few members having a rather strenuous working week found it a little difficult remaining focussed at times. However, the social aspect of the event took obvious precedents... and there is nothing wrong with that! The tester was the next days activities to see how many of the group would have retained the information delivered to keep on task. Gadget left us Friday evening due to family commitments and many thanks to Gadget for making the effort and offering his computer skills and laptop working with me closely on the computer related GPS software, thanks mate! The 4WD DVD video's were good too, till early hours :-)

After a late finish, like 1.00am in the morning, everyone's camp was packed up by 9.00am and a cooked breakfast finalised by 9.15am. Anne Stade from Magellan turned up just at the right time... just as the GPS units were being handed around and getting a fix on the first leg - waypoint - of the first route.

Names were drawn out of a hat as to who would lead the 1st, 2nd and so on sections of the days routes. Rocky & Joe in the 3.5 litre V6 Mitsubishi Pajero (auto) were the first to head us out and alas at the very first turn (which was a round-about) Rocky and Joe had us heading in the opposite direction - what a great start ;-)

The lads finally got their bearings and were heading in the right direction only to head into another obstacle... what looked like a dry river bed on the GPS was in fact the CY O'Conner Pipeline, of which NO 4WD alive could climb over. However, with the aid of the GPS units, Rocky & Joe found a way around the Pipeline and we were on our way to the 3rd waypoint. 

 Brettski being brave heading down first decent

Brettski just parking up

Fish next down after me, no pics of me :-(

Fish finding the line with a bit of help from Pome

Rocky finds some courage and heads down

Bullet taking the line beautifully

V8 100' lapping up the harsh descent

Pluto finding some daylight under the wheels

Rocky & Joe came across the first major bit of terrain to cover, an interesting descent of which there were two approaches, one totally out of the question to attempt and the other possible. Rocky showing some notable apprehension about attempting the doable descent. After some discussion between me, Brettski and Rocky directed at how to approach the descent, Brettski then offered to give it a go first up in the Shorty 40' to show how it can be done. So far as to say, Brettski got down with no problems, though very interesting wheel travel on the 40'... all good. Rocky still showing signs of concern, so to try and make him feel at ease I took the 60' series down next.  By this time, the rest of the crew had turned up looking on and thinking... what the?! <Bullet>

Fish went down next with the brand new Prado 4 litre V6 petrol. Once the powerful Toyota Prado got down Rocky then finally found the courage to get the Pajero down there... onya mate ;-) Then followed by Bullet in the V8 Land Cruiser and last, the two GU Nissan Patrols - 2.8liter intercooled turbo diesels..

The morning tea spot was a beautiful location looking over the trees down onto the deep blue water of the Weir, some seats, tables and the old long drop near by.  And as gravity goes, what must go down - must come up. Sofia & Fish led the convoy away from the morning tea stop and of course a couple of interesting manoeuvres attempting to pick up a couple of waypoints on the way. Everyone was paying real attention to convoy procedure which was absolutely appreciated by the many.

MacGyver and Brettski went up the middle of the next hill climb, the rest of us opted for the easy bit, but that was before nearly everyone got out of their vehicles to survey the hill first on foot.

MacGyver - what's all the fuss about, fellas? 

What goes down, must come up, hill - ascending

Brettski being brave and makes it after a couple of stops to admire the scenery

Rocky ascending tentatively Elbow Hill

 Rocky - very slowly

Again

Picking the line

Scraping undercarriage with a bit of gravel - rash!

Bullet was the last one to lead us under GPS up to lunch time, which took us nearly to the last leg (route). We came to what looked like a rubbish dump, plenty of sticky bush flies around there. The next waypoint seemed to be pointing us to the other side of the rubbish dump with no possible 4WD tracks to get us there. Since it was around 12.00 noon, we found a spot just back from this rubbish dump under the shade of a big tree for lunch and chilled there for at least 40 minutes. It was after lunch Brettski made his departure for home, as he had a lot of work to catch up on and it was pretty hot and very dusty out there in the open top 40' series Land Cruiser.

Next to lead us out after lunch was Pluto. Pluto tried to pick up the next waypoint, only to lead us into a residential area via the GPS coordinates, so taking the old paper based maps as a reference guide is good too!

Rocky - glad that's over - let's do it again ;-)

Fish next, picking up a perfect line

As with Bullet...

Getting the V8 Cruiser down beautifully, like an old pro!

Again...

Great line Bullet! That back wheel! 

4 stalls of the 2.8 intercooled diesel on the way down

Number 3 stall

Pome Pete was the last member to lead us via GPS back tracking on the units. Eventually we came to the end of the course and still had some time remaining. There was some interest in visiting CV Hill so I made a suggestion to the group that MacGyver take us there so we could finish off the trip at the base of CV Hill.  MacGyver and Pome Pete led us to CV Hill the long way but over some of the terrain we already had been on. On the way MacGyver added Elbow Hill in to the equation which was certainly a highlight of the trip. Many of the vehicles picking up some under-body gravel rash on the descent, but no noticeable damage sustained.

Trusting everyone had a good time and they all got something out of the weekend that they normally wouldn't have got just following in convoy. As a training provider in 4WDing, I certainly got a heap of information to work with and really appreciate the support and constructive feedback from member participants of West Coast 4X4, thanks heaps guys ;-)

Get ya gear off - ROAD < ASAP>

Next West Coast 4X4 4WD event, click here!

Approaching last tricky bit 

And makes up for it all with exceptional wheel articulation

And Pluto through

Base of CV hill

MacGyver - crowd pleaser on CV Hill

...and heading down the 2nd time

NOTE: ALL environmental issues were always taken into consideration when these photo's were taken. Without being there, no one individual can make judgment on what is or isn't environmentally acceptable (taking into account the angle of camera shot taken). With this said, no photo's from this page will be removed via request from any one person, group of peoples or organisation. These photo's have been endorsed via the committee of West Coast 4X4 (Inc) 4WD Club for publication on photo pages, any trip reports and/or the total websites related to the members of West Coast 4X4 (Inc) 4WD Club.