After leaving Walgett... now before we go on it's worth mentioning the advice given to us from some locals at the Ridge (Lightning Ridge) and their dismissive attitude regarding Walgett. Well as we approached we thought the town was shut down however every shop in the town had shutters and reinforcing mesh across the windows and doors, small signs like on the local pub suggested they were open but entrance was from the rear. I think trouble was once or still remained in this little town; Beirut comes to mind but certainly not the poet’s version of outback Australia.
As I was saying...As we left Walgett we came across a road closure. We had been warned not to take notice of this as locals had got through however not wanting to take chances so early in our adventure we took an alternative route through the Narran Lake Nature Reserve via a secondary unsealed road.
All went well at the start and as we travelled along a somewhat inviting dirt track with grass lined edges and an honour guard of trees lining close to the road’s edge. We felt secure in the knowledge we had our 4wd and we slowly, somewhat naively, drifted on.
Almost by stealth and certainly without raising concern the landscape changed and opened into a flat plain. Grass and trees fell back to a distant sight and the gravely dirt had smoothed to an almost powdery paste. Roadside ponds appeared and then patches of bog required me to navigate the vehicle close to the centre of the track, then in the distance I could see a patch of wet crossing the track. Judging the centre to be hard and seeing two deep ruts created from a previous vehicle full with water I chose whilst bearing down on the patch at a slowing 40kph to take the outside run. The first indication of trouble was when the trailer started pulling the vehicle from the rear further across toward the wet, certainly further across than the path I had chosen, then slowing in pace but not engine speed it was obvious that traction was being lost, the elevation of the front right hand side immediately indicated we were going down in the bog, rear left side down and the trailer was holding us fast.
Foot off the pedal and then doing what in hindsight I should have done if thinking and not slipping into complacent holiday travel mode, I selected low range, switched on the front locker (the Cruiser is full time 4wd) and locked in the rear diff. Yep I can hear all the 4wd buffs saying a little too late for that champ; it was but mistakes come when least expected and I was already kicking myself so the best thing I could do was to get us out and redeem myself.
I wasn't in the best of moods at this time and Sam (7 year old son) now knew several new words and how to strategically place them within a sentence. Not good but I was wild with myself and started to redirect my energy to the mud and my shovel and just as well as the mud stuck to the shovel like the proverbial crap to dunny roll. This was going to be a long afternoon!
4 hours in fact, of hand digging as it took longer to get the grey clay off the shovel than off your hands. The main issue became very apparent. The trailer (the root of all evil) was acting like an anchor. It appeared we could be here for a long time. The decision (after a couple of lengthy attempts) was made to unhitch the trailer and concentrate on the Cruiser. Mind you the distant storm brewing and the thought of being stuck road side sleeping in the car coerced us into taking this drastic step. We didn’t know if we could get back to the trailer or if we would be able to drag it out. Once this decision was made things started to look up. With the anchor gone both front and rear lockers on, tyres at 18psi and low range engaged the Cruiser literally leapt out of the hole. Mind you I did have Lou on the front driver side bull bar as a counter balance. I didn’t get photos as I was a little busy at the time.
With the car out we turned it around and ran the winch out after bringing the Cruiser as close as we dared to the soft stuff. Wouldn’t you know it, bloody 10 foot short.
OK lucky we prepared for the trip, so we dragged out a strap and hooked it all up ready for winching. The problem at this point was the trailer was hitch down in the mud and with no way of getting the jockey wheel down I hoped the front water tank with its gal plate guard would act as a skid plate. It did and the trailer came out without a hitch (pardon the pun).
Now the simple task of winding in the winch rope, setting the front bar just slightly forward of the hitch and winching up the trailer so as to lift the front high enough to allow for the jockey wheel to drop seemed so easy we were wondering what all the fuss was about. With the trailer set I again turned the Cruiser around, handed over the wheel to Lou and began to throw a few instructions around. OK Lou, left hand down, back you come, right hand down, Oh shit the car’s now sitting too high for the trailer, the jockey wheel even with the ground plate has sunk a little into the mud. Bugger! Let the air bags down, shit not enough, OK out with the jack.
Well we ended up hitching the trailer, pumping up all the tyres (under bonnet air compressor) and just as the sun was about to set we were ready to move on.
Oh! I should mention we got about 2kms down the road and water had completely blocked our passage so we had to turn around and go back through what we had just done, but that’s another story.
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