Grumpy Old Men

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GRUMPY OLD MEN



April struggle in the mud









I was invited to attend a short men only getaway trip, called “Grumpy old men”, we had only taken over the house sit the night before so I wasn’t that keen to go, but Caroline said how much she was looking forwards to a weekend on her own and of course it would be good to get out in the truck and do some off roading.







I had the swag rolled and in the truck, along with all the usual bits and pieces, Chainsaw, petrol, sleeping bag, food beer and so forth.







Our meeting place was at the bakery in Pinjarra, initially all the guys met in Byford, so I was not going to go 40K’s in the wrong direction to come all the way back.







It was a grey overcast day when I left and knew there was plenty of rain around, so I filled both tanks and I did not even know the destination of the trip.







I met the guys at the Pinjarra bakery and as I was early enough I sat down with a cup of coffee and a pie for breakfast a patron of the bakery realised there was more than one grumpy old man, to which I replied there are many more here in disguise.







We travelled south via the Southwest Highway, turning off just after Burekup to bypass Bunbury. Seeing the back roads was so much better than being on the freeway as it was quieter and a far better way travel and was well worth the detour. We decided to stoppe at Donnybrook for lunch and a coffee and there were a few drops few drops of rain. And decided to get going again, Donnybrook was bustling and all the cafés were open for coffee.







The convoy continued on and turned off the South West Highway onto the picturesque Balingup – Nannup Road, with rain coming down sideways the road twisted and turned. After several kilometres we turned onto the slippy state forest tracks. There was much discussion about the condition of the tracks and whether they were too slippery. The decision was made so we pressed on up the tracks.







We proceeded deeper into the forest, down narrower and steeper tracks until the tracks had become so greasy we could get any further up them, I had the truck in low range with both diff lockers engaged and it was just to treacherous, one of the vehicles had slid sideways into a ditch and was stuck. it was amusing as it was absolutely throwing it down with rain and the only way to get this vehicle of the ditch was to winch him, I have to say that this chap was 82 years old, “way to go” After about half an hour we managed to get this guy out of the ditch and pointing upwards again. He reached the top with some on foot’s guidance and It was still raining hard







After discovering that the track further on was steeper and just as slippery it was decided to back track.







There were murmurings of spending the rest of the afternoon at the pub. There were a few pub name suggested, and other secret men’s business topics, but we still had one car half way up the slope and four cars at the top to descend. So back to work!



And one of the vehicles had to back down but ended up sliding much of the way down.







The others slid for some part of the way down. On the way to the pub we came to another stop, one of our party’s power steering has stopped functioning and all the fluid had leaked out and nobody had any spare. It looked like a pipe fitting behind the pump had not been tightened at a recent overhaul. All agreed that this was a good shakedown trip before this driver went on his trip to the Kimberly’s.







After a slow trip to the Nannup mechanic, the problem could not be fixed easy so Jack decided to stay overnight in Nannup and get RAC to track the car back to Perth.



The convoy said their goodbyes to Jack and set off to find a camp site. Travelling north on the Vasse Highway then into the forest we found an excellent campsite.







We collected some firewood and just had to make a fire, you can’t go camping and not have a fire, Even with the occasional rain we all enjoyed the night and kept warm.







The morning was damp but no rain, I had slept really well in the swag and was up early as usual, after breakfast it was time to packed up. And get going we travelled a few more tracks then set off on the blacktop to find more tracks closer to the coast. We passed many but there was too much risk of panel damage from the slippery conditions, so decided to give them a miss



The journey home was about three hours and it was nice to be away, especially nice to sleep in the swag and great fun to be away with the guys, I really don’t think I fit in to the category of Grumpy old man, as I am certainly not old, or Grumpy, where does she get that from.

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Photos

Grumpy old men
Pretty slippy track

Grumpy old men
Breaking out the equipment

Umberella Hat
Hey, cool Tee Shirt

Jack
Inspecting the failure of the power steering

Grumpy Old Men
Breakfast on the go

My bed for the night
Set of by the side of a tree, my trusty swag