A 4x4 day trip to Craigs Hut and the High Cuntry

DYK The beast

After a couple of weeks of late nights and several $$$ spent tidying up the car, it was ready for some dirty muddy action! GQ Patrol 4.2lts, 1989 31/10.5/15" Desert Duellers with only25% tread.

The 3 Cars parked outside the Mansfield Bakery

• Dutchys (Vortex) Landrover Discovery TD5, Series 2.
• DYK GQ Patrol (Achieved 20.9ltr/100km for the first time!!!, Less than half of it's worst)
  
• Quikys '07 Hilux Dual Cab TDi with 32" Simex Muddys.

After meeting at Lilydale @ 7:30, 3 cars, 6 peepz. A bad night sleep for me with a bad cough and a cold hard floor after being pushed out of bed at 5am for coughing too much.
The morning was the foggiest I've seen in ages and didn't clear until we were about to drive into Mansfield, it cleared to be a glorious sunny day.
Along the way plenty of UHF CoT style banter, sh!t stirring each other and basically taking the piss.
Also along the way we had a quick stop at Yea to let 'Bucks' the dog into the back of my wagon as it was freezing it's ass off in the back of Quikys Ute. Great Dane x Labrador it's a beast of a dog. It enjoyed the warmth of the Nissans heater, eventually requiring a window open to poke it's head out and breath some fresh air. Great dog! Massive to boot.

A quick stop at what Dutchy (Adrian) claimed to be the BEST BAKERY IN THE WORLD!

While he rang to check on his ill Mrs in hospital I headed off to top up on LPG and check the economy! The result... an impressive 20.9ltr/100km. Which is by far the best I've ever got, I have once managed 28.5ltr/100km when driving like I had no throttle. But mainly it's been 30-35 and as bad as 42ltr/100km when towing!
So getting Lilydale - Mansfield for $22 had me jumping for joy! 144km & 30ltrs LPG @ 74.5c/ltr
In the last few kms after Mansfield we could see Mt.Buller, Mt. Sterling and some of the High Cuntry that we'd be exploring. Full of anticipation for the journey to come.
After heading into the National Park (with a dog, which is a no no) it took us about 30minutes of windy uphill and downhill over several mountains before we reached a track named 'monument tk.', at this point I was given an option. Take the easy road up to Craigs Hut, or go up 'monument tk'.
Not being a soft c0ck I took the latter option.
Monument Tk. is about 2-3km long, has 2-3 very sharp switchbacks and has points of approx 25-30% gradient. Full of ruts and rocks boulders it's a track that most cars only descend after visiting Craigs hut. and on the way up we passed 1 cruiser coming down, with a hottie driving!
Quiky headed up first and we could see from the bottom that it was muddier than anything we'd encountered thus far.
Halfway up he radioed thru that he wasn't sure if my old Desert Duellers would be upto the task.
Meanwhile I was on the ground at the bottom letting my tires down from 34 to 19psi. (I meant for 20 but went a bit far and CBF Pumping up).
The idea was, Quiky go up with his super capable Hilux, jacked up and with 32" Simex Muddys and a ARB Winch. Then I'd follow and if necessary he'd pull me up with his winch or snatch.
Then Dutchy would follow up in the Disco.
In the event, Kayla and I took off, with Adrians advice, lock in 2nd Low Rang and Keep the Revs up.
I wasn't going to be beaten by this track and I figured that there was nothing that could stop me if I applied enough speed and aggression.
So as the radio calls kept coming thru from Luke up top I struggled to reach the handheld to reply as I gripped both hands on the wheel and threw the car from rut to rut.
The car was either sitting in 1st Low Range Revving it's nut off or mid revs in 2nd low. At one point I was going so fast I had to reach for 3rd low.
Basically Luke was quite concerned having reached the top, that I'd struggle with wheel travel and traction on some of the ruts thru the switchbacks.
He could hear nothing and waited at the top with his brother.
All of a sudden a GQ came flying around the corner making a hell of a racket, front wheels almost off the ground and the big 4.2ltr engine screaming.
Luke and Matt broke out into laughter, cheering and clapping.
They'd been sh!tting themselves and wondered where we'd gotten to, the steep hilly corner had hidden the noise I was making.
Upon arriving at the top, I said 'Is that all you got? C'mon bring it on!'
I seriously found it much easier than they'd had me thinking.
And I had to conclude that the 4wding I'd already done previousy had put me in good stead, where as they must have thought I was a complete newb!
I also came to the conclusion that these guys hadn't put 2wd and 4wd into conditions anywhere near as bad as I had. Possibly even putting them into the category of City W@nkers.
We parked in the car park along with about 15 other 4wd's that had come up for the day.
It all felt strangely familiar, then I realised why, hundreds of KM from the city I realised that I'd parked at Cafe Racer. And all the w@nkers with their Colnagos and Pinarellos were here in their souped up 4x4 with stickers on them, snorkels, muddys, lift kids, winches and all sorts of stuff that they too would probably never use to it's designed potential.
Yet out of these Toorak tractors climbed grey old me, then term 'All the gear and no idea' rung in my arrogant mind.
These weren't serious hardened serious 4wders, they were just old family men that had riced up 4wds for some offroad work with the family. They were family men.
It almost looked like a bunch of Hondas and Subarus in BoxHill with stickers all over them.
This plaque was for a previous verison of Craigs hut which after being burnt down was rebuilt in 1993, only to be burnt down in the bushfires again in December 2006 and Rebuilt in December 2007.Then we saw for the first time in my life. Craigs Hut!
One of hundreds of Huts in the snowy mountain region but arguably the best.
For those of you who don't know, this hut is the one people speak of because it is the one that was built solely for the movie 'The Man from Snowy River'.
The man in the movie who lived there surname was Craig so the hut has been known by that name since.

Kayla and Dutchys girl Lilly. Behind them looks out North-East towards Timmy Cuntry. The hills seem to roll on forever.

Kayla and I infront of the hut.

After some food we headed back down, here is the Bro-in-law heading down a pretty steep track behind me. Adrian kept asking me to back off as he reckons I was too close behind him, I'm obviously too used to sitting on wheels.We then headed back to bitumen briefly to Buttercup track where we found Tomohawk Hut. Which had also recently been rebuilt after some of our bushfires.
These huts are cool, I'll definetly be planning a camping trip up here probably sleeping in the huts. They're all open and most have fireplaces! Awesome!!!!
Outside they have campfires and wooden benches.
Kayla and bucks explore this nearby hut. Or is it just a leaning post to dry out timber for the fire?
The scars of recent bushfires are still present.

After this we made out way home down buttercup tk. which Lukes GPS Told us eventually took us home. We found a few big bog holes and doughy patches and even a couple of creek crossings that we did, unfortunately we didn't stop for photo's but I got my car thru some impressive bog holes that Luke got his Hilux stuck in (until he switched to 4wd mode) and after winning the burnout comp in the doughy patch I came away from the trip the muddiest!

At Mansfield we all went our seperate ways with Luke heading for Launching Place pub for a countermeal and Adrian rushing back to see his sick wife in hospital.

I filled up again on LPG when we got back to Mansfield this time after 158km of Offroad work I'd upped my fuel comsumption upto 37ltr/100km which shows just how hard I was pushing it. And I guess there was a lot more Low Range work done.

Kayla and I crept home as economically as we could only passing around 3-4cars. And slowing on the hills down to 60kmh if I had to. Refilling at Bayswater when we got home I check the economy again to find that I'd managed to get the fuel ecomony under 20ltr/100km. I'm wrapped with that. Maybe with some improvements to the engine I can improve on that too.

Awesome day out. 450km approx.
12hrs from go to whoa.
Next Trip, Snow Trip upto Jamieson in a month or two.