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Liu
the trail leader today, did not know what was installed for all of us on
this run at the back of Rayu. This whole area was once logged and is
criss crossed with trails. This particular one had not been on for more
than three years. A lot can happen in 3 years when it comes to off road
tracks.
Blues sunny skies, nothing can go wrong can it?
Both
Octaviouss driving a Prado TZ, and myself in a stock Land Rover defender
110 (save a lift kit and a few bits and pieces), surveyed the company we
were in. Two Toyota MkIIs with cropped bodies, one Daihatsu and a Suzuki
both 'jeeps'. All these were Group A competition cars and best way to
describe them was that there were 'hybrids'. All had supped engines and
35" Centipede extreme tyres.
Ruts, ruts and more ruts
This company was both a good and bad sign. Good because they can get through almost everything and also with their super powerful PTO winches, they can get both us heavy weights out of trouble. The bad news was that we have to get past what ever they get through.
Two street car, under Lau's (blue jeep) watchful eye.
Turning off the main highway, we
drove over timber 'highway' for about 10 km. This section was
particularly smooth - hard packed dirt compressed by heavy trucks and
shaved by bulldozers. The corners were banked, making it almost like a
race track. Getting past a few big junctions, we turned off into a skid
road to a log camp. It was rough, not flattened and in the wet this can
be a nightmare.
The Prado is NOT a soft 'street' car
Climbing
out of the camp, we hit unused skid trails. With second gear in
low, I climbed till I reached something that resembled flat ground. It
was from here that we saw ruts and washout gullies. The start was not
too bad, something that 'every' four wheel drive could handled.
Even competition cars
had problems with the ruts.
The redneck rodeo started
at this point as the ruts got deeper and the drops got bigger. I made
the mistake of sliding into a rut as I kept an eye on the track of the
right wheels, leaving the left ones 'out of line'. There were numerous
occasions that my none competitive mud terrain just were not aggressive
enough to cope. I was also too stubborn to drop air pressure in the hope
that conditions would get 'better'.
Progressing
along the trail, we can up to our first broken bridge. It was now a
steep V gulley. Upon assessment by the trail leaders, it was decided to
fill the lowest points with broken timber and shave the banks so that
the longer 'street' vehicles could just 'about ' make it through. After
some work, Liu went across with his Suzuki 'jeep'. A safety line was
hitched to his back and he dived into the gulley. The front winch was
hooked to a ground anchor and he successfully went through. Next was Ah
Boy's MkII which made it look like a drive in the park.
Liu's Suzuki hybrid went first across the V gulley
Then
it was my Land Rover's turn... I approached the lip of the bank and
slowly eased it down the bank. I was surprised how well the brakes
worked and how much control I had given the extreme angle. All through
this I heard people shouting around me but I could barely see Wilson
directing my line. The angles were so extreme that all I saw was dirt
and sky - nothing else. When my front bumper hit the lowest point of the
V, Ah Boy tightened up the line and winched me from the front. I did not
feel the scraping of my front bumper but it did take out a fair amount
of dirt and made the line a little easier for Octaviouss who was to come
after me.
Diving off the deep end on a Land Rover...
The
Prado TZ went down the banks with brakes that looked to be vibrating. In
actual fact it was traction control. He did more scraping both in front
and the back as it had a lower approach angle.
... followed by the Prado TZ that did a lot more bank scraping
From here, we went on to a nice
picnic spot for lunch and a little swim and continued on on equally
difficult trails. We then came up to a washed out bridge. The main log
beams were still firmly lying across from bank to bank but the centre
log was small and rotten. There was no other way to cross this ravine as
it was very deep about 15 feet and about 20 feet wide. A unanimous
decision was made to turn back. We
repeated
everything all over again but the strange thing was that it took us 6
hours to get in to the turn around point but only an hour to get out.
Ah Boy's powerful MkII equipped with an equally powerful winch.
Thank God for the two 'street' cars, the dark clouds did not turn into pouring torrential rain. It would have been an entirely different story....
Malcolm Jitam