4WD trip to Dwellingup - 29 December 2002

Seeing as the rest of the club were away on various trips, Skip and I decided it would be nice to head down to Dwellingup with our immediate families to have a picnic and see if we could fit in some 4WDing.
The day started fairly cloudy and we caught some heavy rain as we were driving down but it cleared up and turned out very nicely indeed. One good effect of this was that it wasn't too crowded in that part of the world.
Our first stop was at South Dandalup Dam which was incredibly low. They aren't kidding when they put on water restrictions.

Our participants

Very low water level

Very low water level

These gates haven't seen water in a long time
Next, we drove through Dwellingup and into the forest. We stopped by the river for lunch, swimming and paddling in the kayak that Skip brought down. A very pleasant place to be... While we were playing there were some kids (who obviously had no fear at all) jumping from ever-higher points on the trees around the river.

The river

Not much water here either

Skip paddling

More paddling

Way up high

Coming down!

Coming down!

Andrea paddling

Bec paddling
Following lunch we wanted to head for Nanga Mill to try out a hill climb on the 4WD Heritage Trail. But, the road at Bob's Crossing was closed for repairs so we took a long detour down the east side of the river and eventually made it back to Nanga Mill.
Along the way we investigated lots of interesting camp-sites and got to negotiate a very tight track that I decided was a reasonable short-cut (and probably wasn't).
About halfway back Skip found a little gravel pit to play in that had a nice climb up a loose surface. He's got the pictures so check out his site. He did get a bit further than me but he definitely has better tyres.

Hill climb
Back at Nanga Mill we both attempted the Heritage Trail climb - Skip made it, I didn't, again bottoming out due to not having tall enough tyres. Hmmm. Budget being reconsidered.
We headed home after this excitement. Not a hugely challenging day 4WD-wise but it was still very nice to relax and enjoy the company of family and friends.