By Cecilia L
Drive 1 – Sunday, 1 November
Drive 2 – Sunday, 8 November
Traditionally, we have held a Sunday Meet and Greet following the October Adelaide 4WD Adventure Show/Boat and Fishing Show, in the hopes of attracting one or two potentially interested people, and introducing them slowly to the joys of 4WDing. This year, after a bumper number of folk showed interest and filled in our survey, we were pleasantly surprised to have a positive response to the invitation to come on this drive. As Trevor said at the General Meeting, we had so many new visitors (15 newbies!), that Peter Pyman managed to book a second trip and made that trip up with mostly members and a couple of new folk who couldn’t make the first one.
We met up at the usual Price’s Bakery rendezvous at Golden Grove, where Peter gave some general instructions, split the group in two and headed off. Peter and Lynne led the first group, with the Alan & Cecilia as tail. Barbara and Trevor led the other, with the Greg & Maria as tail.
We had perfect sunny weather, with about 25 degrees forecast. We travelled to Williamstown, some of which was dirt, using off road tracks, we then travelled on to Mt. Pleasant which, of course, has a great bakery, so is always a stop when our club is in the vicinity!
After morning tea, we then travelled (31.3 km) on both bitumen and dirt to reach the forest.
We were lucky enough to have permission to use the fire tracks that are not open to the public. In the forest, the tracks were getting a little more rugged, but everyone managed the tracks pretty well, including two rather steep descents and ascents!
Our group stopped on the side of the track to have our lunch, where we were able to hear birdsong –beautiful. We then left Mt. Crawford, and travelled through Mt. Gawler Forest. The tracks here are more narrow and not used very often. We met up with Trevor’s group in a clearing, near the wreck of an English Vanguard, to check on how everyone found the trip. We had such positive responses from the visitors that we felt some really would like to join the Club.
Thank you to Peter P for the great effort he put into organising the day. It involved many meetings with Rangers in the forest, and convincing them that we are a group of respectable 4WDrivers! The trip planning also involved some reconnoitre trips by Jim Corbett, Greg Dean, Trevor Burford and Alan L.
Gavin and Big Jim attended at the starting point of the drive to assist the visitors with the paperwork, and Gavin had so much fun doing that – he decided to come with one of our new members! I’m sure they appreciated his expertise!
The following Sunday was Groundhog Day… They did it all again!
Photos from Drive 1 – Mt Crawford Forest
Photos from Drive 2 – Mt Crawford Forest
