Report The Springs 4x4 Park

[Gary_C]

This past weekend we joined some folks from The Off Road Camping & Outdoor Adventures group from meetup.com at The Springs 4x4 park near Warwick. Erin, Peyton, and I climbed into the Jeep for a very packed drive inland (Peyton was the most uncomfortable as nearly half of the back seat was taken up by cargo).

Sadly, the only fishing done was by a 6 year old. His lure of choice was a sinker and his target species seemed to be grass bass as there wasn't any water around; got to give him credit for imagination though

The plan was to arrive at the park around 0930 on Saturday to set up camp and hit the test track so everybody could get comfortable with some of the conditions we would probably be seeing on the actual tracks.

The main camp area was very large and had several massive fire pits along with quite a few smaller ones and room for probably 50 tents.

The test track had a nice variety of obstacles including water crossing, a tyre pit, articulations, etc. Erin had fun taking the Jeep on a track she dubbed "The Bunny Track."

This is the point where I learned that the L.S.D was out on my vehicle and where I managed to knock out the alignment.

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPK4KaM-9uw&feature=youtu.be

That afternoon, after some downtime for a tyre change on the Pajero, an overheating issue caused the last 4 vehicles to split off from the group and go for some of the more difficult tracks. There were two Patrols, a Landcruiser, and our Jeep. With the L.S.D being out, I passed on the Corona track due to the traction needed to climb the last bit.

We met up with the other Landcruiser who were bored with the easy and moderate tracks and managed to split off from the rest of the group. We ended doing a few more of the difficult tracks and were headed back to the camp when word came that a Suzuki Vitara with the other part of the group had slid off one of the tracks and needed to be winched back out. An hour or so later, everybody was back at camp where we swapped stories, drank, had dinner, and built a Wanderers-worthy bonfire.

Day 2 started off bloody COLD as none of us realized that the lovely flat area of the main camp was in the shadow of the surrounding hills. There was frost on the vehicles, tents, and eskies while every one of us had to make the difficult decision of walking up to the toilets first or running over to the fire! Once the sun started hitting the campsite, it became a much nicer day though the wind was up as compared to Saturday and had a bit of bite to it.

Two drives were planned for Sunday, but we decided to bug out after lunch due to the long drive home on unfamiliar roads. We all stayed together this time and stuck to the easy and moderate tracks (with the option of splitting off on your own) due to the addition of some stock vehicles. We did get to play in the mud a little bit and I decided I would see how the Wrangler looked with Basstracker's camo paint scheme. I went with Forest Mud:

As for the venue itself -

Pros:

Numerous camping areas, all of which are nice (just watch for the cow pies).

Great Variety of tracks. Rock, mud, sand, water, name it and it is there.

Reasonably priced - $55 for 2 full days driving and 1 night camping.

Free hot showers and flushing toilets

Family friendly - speed limits around campsite are 5kph, so no hoons roaring through when the kids are playing.

Cons:

They do minimum maintenance on their tracks, so something marked as "easy" on the map may not be as easy as you would expect.

The map is difficult to interpret; you can tell it was hand drawn and is not to scale.

The tracks themselves are poorly marked; usually with a piece of laminated white paper that has been tacked to a tree.

I will definitely be going back there, but it will probably be after I fix the L.S.D or install lockers so I can confidently tackle the difficult tracks.

[neal82]

busted LSD sounds like a pretty good excuse to install front and rear lockers gary!

[Gary_C]

I agree Neal! I am looking at the Aussie Lockers right now.

2 reasons I'm liking them. 1. The name (duh). 2. 100% manufactured and made in USA including all material, steel, etc.

Oh, 3rd reason is the price! I can get both front and rear for less than a single ARB locker.

[ellicat]

Looks like a top weekend, Gary. Great fun.

It's always hard to tell with 4wding pics, but are some of those pics sideways :side:

[Gary_C]

Looks like a top weekend, Gary. Great fun.

It's always hard to tell with 4wding pics, but are some of those pics sideways :side:

Yeah, the computer was displaying them as if they were taken correctly, but they posted sideways and I figured it was easier for you to turn your monitor to the side than for me to take the time to correct it

Was definitely great fun though. Good group of people.

[Greenmachine]

Looked like a great weekend Gary. Good to see a mud covered 4wd instead of the clean shiny school buses that never see a spec of dirt most people have these days. Looking forward to hitting the sand this weekend!

[davopac]

nice report

stop being so soft my 60 series wagon land cruiser never had limited slip diffs,never stopped us .

[Gary_C]

Here is the YouTube footage of the group.

The majority of the casualties listed in my first post are in this video. If you use meetup.com, you can't really go wrong by joining the group (it has gotten to the point though that they are considering closing it to new enrollment because of the size, so get in quick if you are interested).

/>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMfxrKGqlnQ&feature=youtu.be

I, for one, wouldn't have minded seeing another AFO shirt

[ellicat]

Looks great Gary.

That fella in the little black car is a bit of a speed demon :whistle: :side:

I wonder how a Magna would go out there :silly:

[bootyinblue]

I am a member of that group.....