At last a trip to McIntyres Hut

---

Another early start beckons on this Saturday morning, Andy wakes me at 6.00 with my morning tea and before long I am washed, dressed and sat in the truck on the way to MacDonald’s for breakfast, well as you know by now that is Andy’s way of bribing me out of bed early, especially on a weekend!



By 7.20 we are just pulling up at Urriara Homestead, where we find another member of our 4 wheel drive club, and I thought we were going to be early, but a few minutes later a small trickle of vehicles gradually start to appear, and by 8.00am we have a contingent of about 27 vehicles and lots of people ready for a day out in the Brindabella’s.



Sandra and Jeff who are running the trip have broken the group down into 4 smaller and more manageable groups and Andy and I are asked to be Charlie in group 3.



So with staged set off times, roughly 10 minutes in between each group, we were soon at the rear of our group of 7. All I had to do was repeat the instructions, over the UHF, from the group leader and make sure that we always had 6 vehicles in front of us.



We pulled over close to where the bitumen ends and reduced our tyre pressures and we headed onto the dirt track that was to take us toward the Brindabella Valley and onto the track head at the Gentle Annie Trail.



I think we may have mentioned before that Gentle Annie is not quite so gentle, but perhaps a little bit more gentle than the road out. The vehicle in front of us was driven by Margaret, she was driving an old Landcruiser Troopy on her own and it was not long before we were really only following the back end as it kept disappearing over steep humps in the track.



We were really impressed with Margaret as I think she had not done that much off road driving, and the gentle Annie Trail is a pretty tough drive in any ones book, and Webbs Ridge Trail is even tougher.



At the bottom of Gentle Annie we turned into the Flea Creek Camping area to find the first two groups having morning tea. So we all pulled in as planned and mingled with the rest of the group, Andy made the obligatory cup of tea.



After a reasonable break and a natter it was time to pack up and leave as we had a hard drive ahead towards Mcintyres Hut.



A couple came over to us and the chap say, are you Kangaroojack, we have been reading your blog, we found it on the internet and are reading through it.



We headed up Webbs Ridge Trail, we knew what to expect of this track now that we had driven it once before, so Andy selected 2^nd gear in low range. Leaving a respectable distance between us and the vehicle in front we hit the track. We made light work of this tough and very steep track, a little bit more confident than we were last time and finally we made it to the top.



Travelling across the ridge and eventually turning off onto the Waterfall Trail all the while keeping behind the group and keeping our responsibilities as Charlie. Down another steep track we went and then turning off onto the McIntyres Hut trail.



At the bottom we catch up with the other 2 groups who are sat having lunch, the signs of the recent floods are very evident here. Both bush dunnies are closed due, apparently the flood waters were at the roof, McIntyres Hut is still standing which is incredible when you look at the devastation around it.



Looking back up the river you can see where the torrent have water has carved itself a new bank to cope with the surge. The water must have run with such force that it has taken away a significant amount of bushland with it, leaving small pitted pockets of dirt on top of newly exposed rocks. The bush that did survive just shows signs of being flattened in the direction of the water flow.



I saw a piece of foam and went to pick it up, but realized that it was embedded deeply into the sand, there was no way I was going to be able to extract that foam.



Back at the truck Andy had a cup of tea waiting for me and we sat and ate a Cornish pasty, I had made them for lunch at work yesterday in celebration of a Taste of Harmony Week, which was a chance for Australia to celebrate its multicultural diversity so we brought food in from our different countries and regions to help celebrate. My Cornish pasty’s were a success but I had a couple left over, there was so much food at the celebration I don’t think any of us wanted to eat for a week (until the following day that is!).



We chatted to existing members and to the potential new members and hopefully made them feel welcome enough to join the club, it was a trip like this that we went on ourselves 2 years ago when we were looking to join the club. It was great to see so many members eager to do the trip.



A while later and suitably refreshed the first two groups pulled out, we went 3^rd again and slowly made our way back up McIntyres and the Waterfall Trail to take us back up to Webbs Ridge. At the top we rejoined Webbs Ridge and turned off to Dingi Dingi Ridge trail.



The scenery as always is amazing as we wind our way round these tracks, we eventually came upon a tree that had fallen neatly across the track, but because the bank on one side was so high and the branches had already been removed, it formed a perfect arch for us all to drive through.



Further down the track we caught up with one of the other groups and not long after one of the groups that left before us caught up with us (they came down a different track).



Finally we were soon spat out onto the bitumen where we all pulled over to put the tyre pressures back up and say our goodbyes, then we drove home.



It had been a long day and some tough driving so on the way home we treated ourselves to a chai latte from Macca’, I know its not healthy to have two a day but we felt we deserved it.



At home, after a shower we decided that we would have a take away, we find a Chinese that does delivery and place an order. Not too long afterwards we get a phone call, the delivery driver cannot find us and he does not seem to speak much English, so Andy had to go and wait on the roadside for him, but the delivery driver seemed to think that Andy was going to drive out and find him, you can imagine how well that went down. Anyway, eventually the delivery driver drove past Andy but he stopped further down the road and still expected Andy to walk down to him, perhaps he could not find reverse or work out how to turn the car around. Needless to say he did not get a tip. The meal was good though.



We settled down to watch a film, but tiredness got the better of both of us so setting the film to record we went to bed at 9.00, rock and roll lifestyle eh!



Watch this space for another part of the adventure.



KJ

---

Photos

Gentle Annie Trail
The start of the day

Heading out
Steep climb ahead

Comments

[Gig]

Real 4 by 4 country
Its nice to read about real 4 wheel drive country, here in North Norfolk UK we are inundated with 4by4's on narrow country lanes (nick named Chelsea tractors) driven by mostly yummy mummies, mobile phones clutched to their ears, rushing to take their little angels to nursery. Our little Nissan Micra of great age is usually the one that ends up in the mud because they don't like getting their hubcaps dirty!