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Just some musings from my trip as the passenger in the friend's car. Three of us went hunting in Victoria's Hight Country, about 30 km from Benumbra. Except for the unexpected bitter cold at nights the trip was great, and my fridge has enough venison to last a few months.
To the point. On the way back my friend decided to take the shortcut through the mountains. Beautiful scenery, quite rough - but he has jacked up Ranger and could handle it without problems... Until. Half hour into the trip I casually asked him:
- Are you on low gear?
- No, it's been fine like this,
- Are you using gear or crawl on descents?
- No, just the brakes,
- You didn't deflate the tyres?
- No, seems to be fine...
Five minutes later on top of the long descent (about 250 meters down) my friend's face gets serious: "I think we have trouble". He is pressing on the brakes, but the car keeps slowly going down the hill. He tries to switch on the crawl system, but gets the message that the system is overheated. He puts the gear in parking, and after several seconds of slowly sliding on the gravel the car stops. I take over the pedal and suggest that we tie the car to a tree and then figure out what to do next. Mind you, it took some time to find a strap which was buried under the luggage. The reason for the trouble was that the brakes overheated and could not stop the car.
After about half hour the brakes cooled down an we safely descended. Luckily, this descend was the last bit of the rough road, and about a hundred meters later we got onto the bitumen.
I am new to off-road driving and just did the Toyota Landcruiser Club course couple of months ago. This friend of mine has been going off road for the last 20 years, and I thought he knew what he is doing. I guess with experience comes complacency, hubris and arrogance.
This little incident has been a good lesson for me. Do not neglect the basics, never mind how experienced you are. Australia is a really strange place, with the existence of modern civilisation and extreme wilderness within hundred kilometres. Drive couple of hours away from Sydney, and you can get lost and die in the Blue Mountains. Things can go wrong so quickly and so badly. The patch of the road we were at was about 18 km long. Seems not that bad, but imagine getting stuck in the middle of it and breaking the leg or getting bitten by a snake - that's the example of things going downhill quickly.
My lessons from this:
- Deflate tyres every time you go off road, especially if this terrain is new
- Do not get complacent - switch to low gear and use descent techniques; a few litres of fuel are worth the safety
- Prepare - recovery gear should be at hand, not buried under the stuff
- Seriously consider getting a satellite phone when going to remote areas. It's about $150 a week, definitely worth extra assurance if you get stuck.
- Probably most important: do not rely on your friends' experience and don't be shy to question the level of their preparedness.
To the point. On the way back my friend decided to take the shortcut through the mountains. Beautiful scenery, quite rough - but he has jacked up Ranger and could handle it without problems... Until. Half hour into the trip I casually asked him:
- Are you on low gear?
- No, it's been fine like this,
- Are you using gear or crawl on descents?
- No, just the brakes,
- You didn't deflate the tyres?
- No, seems to be fine...
Five minutes later on top of the long descent (about 250 meters down) my friend's face gets serious: "I think we have trouble". He is pressing on the brakes, but the car keeps slowly going down the hill. He tries to switch on the crawl system, but gets the message that the system is overheated. He puts the gear in parking, and after several seconds of slowly sliding on the gravel the car stops. I take over the pedal and suggest that we tie the car to a tree and then figure out what to do next. Mind you, it took some time to find a strap which was buried under the luggage. The reason for the trouble was that the brakes overheated and could not stop the car.
After about half hour the brakes cooled down an we safely descended. Luckily, this descend was the last bit of the rough road, and about a hundred meters later we got onto the bitumen.
I am new to off-road driving and just did the Toyota Landcruiser Club course couple of months ago. This friend of mine has been going off road for the last 20 years, and I thought he knew what he is doing. I guess with experience comes complacency, hubris and arrogance.
This little incident has been a good lesson for me. Do not neglect the basics, never mind how experienced you are. Australia is a really strange place, with the existence of modern civilisation and extreme wilderness within hundred kilometres. Drive couple of hours away from Sydney, and you can get lost and die in the Blue Mountains. Things can go wrong so quickly and so badly. The patch of the road we were at was about 18 km long. Seems not that bad, but imagine getting stuck in the middle of it and breaking the leg or getting bitten by a snake - that's the example of things going downhill quickly.
My lessons from this:
- Deflate tyres every time you go off road, especially if this terrain is new
- Do not get complacent - switch to low gear and use descent techniques; a few litres of fuel are worth the safety
- Prepare - recovery gear should be at hand, not buried under the stuff
- Seriously consider getting a satellite phone when going to remote areas. It's about $150 a week, definitely worth extra assurance if you get stuck.
- Probably most important: do not rely on your friends' experience and don't be shy to question the level of their preparedness.
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