Another (5th?) ACT/NSW XC drive day

**PJ810** · 08-23-2010, 04:27 PM

Sunday 22nd August, four cars met up at the Mittagong Playhouse. It turns out to be a convenient meeting location for Sydney and Canberra based drivers, where the cars can be nicely lined up, and a number of cafes nearby for that morning breakfast/coffee to meet, greet and kick off the day.

It was also great to see that three of the cars counted children amongst their passengers.

After breakfast and coffees, we first headed into what I think was the Jellore State Forest. Checked out some trails. We encountered some rather deep mud-puddles. Seeing Myzomela sink into one with all four wheels, up to the doors in mud, then surfacing again with steam coming out of his engine bay had me hesitate for a moment. I followed, discovered no loss of traction, and came out the other end fine. SydneyV70XC follwed me with his dark blue XC, remembering his mechanic had not re-fitted his bash plate after the last service. Tank2 capped off the lineup, also negotiating the obstacles with ease.

We returned to Mittagong for a picnic lunch in the park, giving the children an opportunity to run around.

Tank2 and SydneyV70XC peeled off and returned to Sydney, leaving Myzomela and myself to explore part of the Meryla State Forest and Morton National Park. We covered some beautiful fire trails with some stunning views, but the complexity of the network of trails, combined with the fact that our maps weren't detailed enough and the GPS not too happy either, we decided to backtrack when we got ourselves lost. The chilling quiet of the bush, remoteness, lack of mobile phone reception, and a sun that's starting to set can be a little eery!

Here are a few photos, courtesy of SydneyV70XC. I'm sure more will follow.

**coastal** · 08-29-2010, 09:58 PM

this is awesome, stoked to see the Australian crew getting together once again... You've got some great terrain down there to explore!

**Matters** · 08-30-2010, 05:16 PM

Looks like it was fun. Too bad, I couldn't come with.

**netpres1** · 09-22-2010, 04:19 AM

Looks like it was a great drive.

Where are these normally announced?
I have been monitoring the thread and missed it.

I would like to join in next time

**PJ810** · 09-22-2010, 04:31 PM

Originally Posted by netpres1

Looks like it was a great drive.

Where are these normally announced?
I have been monitoring the thread and missed it.

I would like to join in next time

Either here or in site-wide news. Us NSW/ACT people also have an off-forum email circulation group. Send me a PM if you like with your email details and we'll add you to the list.

Next drive is likely to be late October, probably South Coast.