Twenty vehicles, a heap of members and four visitors. Two trip leaders and a couple of tail end Charlies with two convoys... it was shaping up to be a ripper of a weekend.

Almost everyone headed down Friday evening with many getting very lost, the mud map supplied obviously not detailed enough, or was it the lack of signage? hmmm! I suppose if one made the Harvey Quindanning Road, they knew they were really lost ;-) But at least the GPS coordinates was smack on.

Also, there was a bit of a mix up with the key for the gate at Icy Creek which was all eventually sorted thanks to Fish and Vilma for getting back to CALM Dwellingup and picking up the key later that day. 

Sofia and I headed down Saturday morning, left a little late than expected but managed to make the tail end of the drivers meeting just outside the rotunda at Icy Creek.

I think MacGyver was very happy to see us turn up and it would seem to be in the nick of time as he was pretty eager to pass onto me the leadership of the first convoy of which I was happy to help out with. But it was going to have to be a team effort in terms of driving the mighty 62' series. Last Friday I had an operation on the left shoulder which in medical terms was a rotator cuff operation - very, very painful. Simply put, I could NOT use my left arm, so Sofia had to be the shifter and the radio liaison officer.

We moved out of camp at 10.00am with the 1st convoy on UHF 10 and the other on UHF 11. It was a great drive heading South with no real dust to speak of, very wet under foot. One of my biggest concerns was keeping up a good pace and synchronising that pace with Sofia next to me changing gears and at the same time communicating information to the convoy behind. It had to be a concerted team effort.

We drove for about 40 minutes heading south till we came off the Junction Form Rd and onto the main gravel - Driver Rd. There were some in the convoy that were looking for a P stop and the only decent spot I could think of to stop at was at the river crossing on Driver Road. We stopped there for at least 30 minutes, we had a late morning tea there and waited for MacGyver and his mob to show up.

Gadget, KC and MacGyver had to have a go at crossing the river. The river was flowing quite fast, but it was a good chance to get the camera's out and take a few pics. KC did the right thing and tried to cross on foot, but turned back half way saying that he lost feeling in his feet due to the water being so cold. All concrete bottom so traction was not going to be an issue.

After morning tea, I managed to pick up the track that would take us to the lunch spot where we could fit in 20 vehicles comfortably on the River. Couple of interesting spots along the way causing some drivers to loose their vehicles sideway, or was that deliberate sideways movement? You'd have to ask the drivers that ;-) Nice hill decent and into low range and then a muddy bog hole to negotiate and again another loo stop, unbelievable! But hey, time I went anyway.

Sort of lost my balance after giving ol' percy a couple of shakes and ended up landing on me butt, not good considering I only had use of one arm. KC and Ug Boot walked passed on the track, I was on the other side of the windrow. I asked them to help and they responded, na! she'll be right mate. I had to say again, na fella's I really need a hand here! So far as to say, my left shoulder was very sore as a result and it took both KC and Ug Boot to get me back onto my feet. Thanks fella's ;-) See? The members of this club would just about do anything for ya ;-)

Got back into the truck very tentatively and proceeded to negotiate the muddy bog hole with Sofia selecting low range, she was getting pretty good at it too! and then onto the lunch spot just passed the river crossing. I asked Macca to check out the River crossing before moving onto the lunch spot, but he got lost for awhile finding us. 

We tried to get down to the River but the water was too high up the bank of the river, so we set up for lunch just behind the first tree line off the River. Beautiful spot and great place to hold up for an evening and set up camp. Plenty of room here for everyone as well.

We couldn't cross the river here, and we could not get to Gully Rd without crossing the river. The only other option was to head back the way we came and cross the River back at Driver Rd. And that's exactly what we did, headed back up the hill we descended on and back though the boggy hole but mostly up hill. We got Gadget to check out a couple of spots that maybe possible to cross, but his sphincter was getting a little excited at all the possible crossings.

I sent Gadget over the crossing first at Driver Rd and had him set up as recovery vehicle on the other side just in case someone had a mishap. Sofia and I was next and took the crossing in our stride, a lot of water movement but the 62' held ground with no problems, all windows up just in case. I dropped Sofia off just on the other side with the digital camera and moved up the hill far enough to allow 20 vehicles to pull in behind me, double parked which ended up being a little tight, I couldn't move the vehicle as I lost my shifter.

Once all over, MacGyver proceeded to take the lead, but alas... he pointed his Nissan in the wrong direction and started to head off, hehhehe... ya got to give it to him for the attempt ;-) Anyhow, once Macca realised his momentary geographic disposition, we were all heading up the fire line track for Bayden Powell.

It was a nice drive heading back with the River still on our left, the sun was breaking though the clouds now and again and the tracks were still very damp, no dust at all... very pleasant driving and everyone keeping up too. One more P stop along the way. The lads were given the opportunity to take some more challenging tracks on the way back. Fish was kind enough to go pick up the kitchen key back at CALM Dwellingup, others pulled into Bayden Powell to check out the awesome rapids and then headed back to camp. It was a very enjoyable day out. 

That evening inside the rotunda after the evenings meal, we proceeded with the club "HOOK' nominations. It got a little ugly towards the end as members and visitors a like were clutching at straws as no one wanted to end up with that jinxed hook! In the end, the Ug Boot had the gonads to accept the hook and take it home with him. Good on ya matey... takes a brave man to accept such an award ;-)

Sofia and I headed home at 1.00am in the morning, arriving home at 3.00am because of some medical issue, but happy to report everything is fine now ;-)

Thanks to all those that attended this event and thanks to Bullet for the show he put on as well. Hope everyone enjoyed the weekend as much as Sofia and I did ;-) Looking forward to the next one now.