In 2016, Alan and I bought our first 4WD – a 2012 Nissan X-Trail. We were quite excited with our vehicle and decided to join the Overland 4WD Club, where we felt very welcomed! (Until they realised we had an X-Trail!) Then the jokes started…. Yet we were proud of our little steed; she performed well at our Sunday drives and even sand training at Peake.
So in April 2017, we embarked on a trip to Victoria, via Penola, where we stopped for a coffee and to see the painted silos – certainly an impressive work of art.
As we progressed into Victoria, the weather deteriorated quickly, and visibility on the road got worse.
We arrived at the small town of Lavers Hill, where we had booked into a B&B where we had stayed a couple of years before. So we knew where to go, but on arrival, our hosts had barely greeted us, when (as they are both paramedics) they were called out to an accident. So we settled in by the fire with the greyhounds.
A couple of hours later, they returned, as the road was blocked and they had to wait for a crew to attend from the other side.
That evening, we went out to the local pub for a meal – thank goodness ours got cooked early. As we were about to eat, the power went off – and there were many people there for a meal who had been trapped by the weather (there was a father and daughter who were camped in swags, who then couldn’t get back to their camp.
The following morning, the heavy rain had eased a bit, so off we went in our trusty 4WD to visit the waterfalls. We got about 400m up one path, and found it blocked by an enormous tree, so had to turn round….didn’t see that waterfall! The next one had a similar story, but the tree was smaller, so we managed to clear the road and reach the falls which were worth seeing.
The next day, we travelled north, towards Cobar, and basically kept exploring, until we came to a little town called Forrest, steeped in logging history. They have spent a lot of time making historical plaques explaining the logging industry there.
After visiting Cobar, we then attempted to take the road back to our B&B – but came to a road block – there had been a serious crash the other side along the highway, so we couldn’t travel on…we had to backtrack to Cobar and cut through. We had some dinner, and progressed in heavy rain again, taking about two hours longer using back trails. When we eventually arrived at the B&B, our hosts were not there – turns out they were called to this accident, which was a mini bus of international visitors that had gone off the road in the rain. We were later to find out the reason for the road shut downs was because there had been a fatality.
We were able to do some beautiful rain forest walks in the next couple of days, one being down into Melba’s Gully, where, if you are lucky on an evening walk, you can see the magic of fireflies. Incredible.
We now had a taste for 4WD adventures, and this was just the start of them!
