Morgan Quarry – August 2019

Morgan Quarry

16-18 August 2019

Lynne and I loaded up the Jurgens and the Prado for a weekend at the Morgan Quarry arriving on Friday and camping on the lovely grassed unpowered sites on the bank of the Murray River.

Only six vehicles arrived with Steve Plowman, Steve and Debbie Dalton with Andrew and Liam, Trevor and Barb Burford, Harry Malone and Gavin.

Some of us arrived Friday, with Steve and Harry arriving on Saturday morning.

We were to meet at 9am at the boat ramp, I was beginning to wonder where everyone was as I was the only person there. There are two boat ramps; I was the only one at the Southern ramp.

When the paperwork was complete we drove around to the entrance to the quarry unlocked the gate and proceeded to the quarry where we discussed the activities for the day. Gavin was the only member who wanted training the other members were happy to drive around the property.

The tracks have changed significantly over the years it has been used by 4 wheel drives. The steeper climbs and descents have eroded and now have many dips and steps to challenge the skill of the drivers and the clearance and traction of the vehicles. Some of the climbs out of the southern creek are now impossible to all but a double diff locked vehicles with raised suspension.

I led the group for some of the morning and sat in with Gavin to do some training in uphill and downhill stop and reverse recovery techniques in the quarry.

Gavin requested to do a recovery strap training exercise so we went to the Southern creek to find some sand, the original sandy track we used to use had been completely eroded and was unusable so we went further, found a soft creek bed and had to dig holes to even simulate being bogged.

Most of the group booked into the hotel for dinner on Saturday night while Lynne and I stayed at the Park as we took our dog with us.

Sunday morning I was up early, walked the dog for about 45 minutes before we ventured back to the Quarry for more driving. I asked Steve Dalton to lead the group to the North end of the area as he had driven there Saturday while I was with Gavin. Steve did a great job as leader traversing the tracks and a drive through a narrow winding dry creek where we had to do some track maintenance to get through. Liam spotted a bearded dragon near the track.

All things come to an end and we all went back to Morgan to pack up and go home.

It was an excellent weekend, those who went all enjoyed the tracks and a relaxing weekend,

I was disappointed that we had such a small number of members attend.

Peter Pyman