Its cold, drizzling & foggy, a ripper combination for a day of Hardcore 4WD in the hills around The Yarra Valley. We’re out the back of Buxton as we turn left off the main road and head down a steep winding track that has water running down it.

“Boy its Slippery and there’s no turning back now” came a voice from the four car convoy. “Why can’t we turn back?” came the reply from a passenger from one of the other vehicles. “The vehicles are loosing grip going round the tight bends and with two trucks without winches, it would be impossible for them to go up this track”.
At the end of this track we turn onto a main gravel road and head for a campsite to meet another vehicle who knows the tracks around here fairly well

During this briefing, we decided that only vehicles with winches would attempt the next track as it is in three sections with the first stage having some deepish ruts and a slippery clay surface. The Wrangler was first to go and at first sight Ben decided to add more rocks to the ruts as other people have done before. Three quarters the up the ruts and the Wrangler stopped unable to go forward so more rocks were needed and success with the Jeep through stage one. Dave’s Short wheelbase Patrol cleared this section without any problems.

The second section looks a bit easier however you are confronted with one long zig zagging rut which needs to be straddled. Phil’s Wrangler isn’t quite wide enough to straddle the start of the rut so with a few tries going up it, he was able to get momentum to straddle the rest. A bit further up the track and round a bend Phil came across some loose rock with a couple of ledges making it very difficult for the Wrangler to get over. Once over the ledges Phil kept going while back down the hill, Dave started making his way up in the Turbo Diesel Patrol. This vehicle has 35” Maxxis Creepy Crawler tyres and the lugs get a great grip in the damp track surface. With virtually no effort the Patrol powers up over the ruts and rock ledges and has soon caught up with the Wrangler again.

With the BFG muddies showing a lot of wear, the Wrangler has many attempts going forward. Finally after backing off the track line a little it powered up a section only to come to a 4 wheel spinning halt and with a little more determination was able to go a bit further before sliding sideways a little and almost coming to rest against a tree. From this point on it was decided to use the winch. So much for using the chicken track. Back on the track proper again, the Wrangler winched itself up over a few boulders for about 50 metres until it was able to complete the track without the winch.

After clearing the boulders, the Wrangler’s tyres became chocked with sticky surface mud and made the wheels spin meaning the winch had to come out yet again. Thankfully this section was only a short one and was then able to get to the end of the track. The Patrol powered up again and with the surface mud flying off the Creepy Crawlers, had no trouble getting up the slippery sections and over the boulders to the last point where the Wrangler had to winch again. With wheels starting to spin and the Patrol beginning to slide off camber and with the right front wheel off the ground, Dave decided to use the winch for 30 metres and then was able to reach the top.

With everyone at the top of the track having a well earned smoke and talking about the morning, it was time to head back down to the campsite for a well overdue cup of coffee and lunch and then head off over to a track near Kinglake State Forest.

The track between the black top and main gravel road is a bumpy one with a couple of puddles but round a bend and oh boy you have to stop and take in whats ahead. At first looks, what you see from the top of one bank looking through what was a creek gully with one track going and three tracks heading out with the far left track being the most difficult diff scraping one of the three. The middle track out of the gully is what caught everyones interest and it wasn’t long before the Patrol Diesel took off and made it to the top in one go. Next up was the Wrangler and again no problems, third up was the Prado which needed a little more power but made it up, yours truly in the Mazda (lacking power and sagging springs) was next which got ¾ way then spun the wheels. Reversing back I decided to take the easy track to the right and in 2nd low I

gunned it watching out and keeping left of the rut on the right hand side but I forgot about the tree stump on the left which sent my left side up in the air. My reaction? “Damn not again”. The Patrol wagon was the last vehicle to come through via the easy track.

At the start of the days last track, we waited while Dave repaired a broken brake pipe and bleed up the brakes again before heading down a ledge and following the steep track down to where it branched into a chicken track. The Patrol wagon went down the main track while everyone else took the chicken track.

With bull bar hard and right side hard up against the bank Jim only had one option and that was to winch out taking part of the bank with the corner of his bull bar. Following each other down and through the ford, ew got out on the other side and surveyed the tracks going up the steep hill.

The Wrangler took what looked like the easier of the three tracks up which was the left hand one. Three or four goes at a double ledge and he was up and heading for the top.

The Patrol tray then decided to go straight up the guts. There were big rock ledges and outcrops all the way to the top, but this truck was amazing in the way it clawed its way to the summit.

The Prado then had its turn up the left track. About seven or eight tries at the double ledge saw it on its way to the top also. The Bravo tray ahd a number of goes next, but just didn't have the suspension or the go to climb the ledges.

Finally the Nissan wagon decided to have a shot. A number of high speed attempts finally saw the Nissan wagon lift wheels and bounce over the ledges and reach the other successful vehicles at the top.

The weather was starting to close in again so it was decided to back track down the hill and head for home. There was just one last steep section only meters from the main road. Unfortunately the Mazda ran out of puff and traction and had to be snatched the last few feet.

What a great HARDCORE day!