Its still a pretty epic climb but a couple of local lads (who I met, but more about that later) have done a bit of trimming lower down a some spade work on the big washout-clay canyon bit nr the top. This is pretty dedicated as they have never got their own trucks up that far yet (stock Paj and Disco)!
to give you an idea of the awesomeness of the track, we had 7 trucks:
fully locked VX on 36" simex's
fully locked Pajero on 35" KM2's with crawler gears
locked rear - LSD front Hilux on 35" silverstones
fully locked swb 70 on 33" kumho's
locked rear Rangie on 33" silverstones
locked rear swb GQ Safari on 33" Wranglers
locked rear V8 Defender 110 on 35" Silverstones (mine)
The only one to drive the whole thing without any assistance was the VX!
The Safari had to use his winch to pull himself back onto the track when he started sliding sideways in the muddy washed out corner nr the bottom. The VX and my Landy were the only ones to drive the grey shithole halfway up. The 70 and the hilux winched, and the rest were snatched through the bog. The washout/clay canyon is pretty knarly, narrow, rutted, steep, loose, off camber etc etc but driven by all. It would be a big ask for anything without a locker in my opinion.
Anyway....near the top, on a rutted piece with a rock ledge, I busted a front halfshaft...doh!! Sooo we never had a look down the back where the old mines were. There were some guys on quads there at the same time who took a look down there and came back with grey faces and said they would not take quads down....sounds like a challenge.
Drove back in 2wd with rear locker and managed to procure the necessary parts to fix it ready for the next day. Would not have been possible without help from some fantastic locals and resulted in me meeting the 2 lads who have been improving the track and their Dad who is a thoughly decent bloke (thanks John).
Cheers
Andy
Went past the trig point and stopped for a bit at the big clearing at the back. Views are awesome!
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