TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Thought I better jump and type a few lines first - before anyone gets in before me

I think we had a very successful trip - we had 6 Prados, 1 Mitsubishi Triton, and 15 fantastic people who all seemed to enjoy themselves.

A very big thank you to Jim and Julie from Coffs Harbour and Peter Davey (Dobbo) and his daughter Hannah from Bundeena for making such an effort just to come along.


As it turns out the weather was great. It was pouring rain at 3am on Saturday morning, but when we all met at McDonald's carpark at 9am it had receeded to a mild drizzle. We did a brief lap around Mount Panorama before heading out to Hill End along the Bridle Track. The Royal Hotel, Hill End were most accomodating and we all enjoyed a pleasant cooked meal and some of us had a light beer :P

Due to the recent rain the Macquarie River was flowing quickly and proved a lot deeper than I had anticipated ops: so we were unable to cross at the Root Hog Crossing and camp on the Western side or reach Gowan Road.

But true Leaders adapt, so we found a perfectly comfortable campsite on the Bridle Track side - complete with a proper dunny and covered picnic tables

By Saturday evening we had a cloudless night and the stars and moon created a beautiful ambience as we sat around a nice campfire (thanks to Jim and his Stihl chainsaw) and discussed lifes greatest issues.

We awoke this morning to blue skies and we enjoyed a leisurely camp breakfast and pack-up before heading back to Bathurst. Nathan shed a tear when we dropped "Snoopy" off at the Bathurst dog pound ("Snoopy was a rather large, friendly dog who simply wandered up to camp last night before proceeding to eat everything in sight. He had obviously been lost for some time and enjoyed a wide variety of foods from each family he visited. I have promised Nathan I will keep tabs on 'ol snoop so stay tuned on his fate :shock:

Here's a couple of pics. Thanks again to everyone who made the effort. It was a pleasure to organise this trip and meet you all.

[Dobbo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dobbo]

Firstly I'd like to give a big thanks to Simmo for organising this trip. Although the weather looked decidely dodgy, I took a punt in the weather forcast and headed west early saturday. As it was, it turned out fantastic anyway and provided us with plenty of mud. Combine that with a set of Grandtreks with 40 thou on them and you end up with some interesting moments. On a couple of occasions the only time I was on the track was when I was crossing it :lol: RIP Grandtreks, your all going to heaven tomorrow, even the one I punctured somewhere on the track.
For those that have had the pleasure of sitting round one of Simmo's fires, he is truly only happy when the soles of your shoes are smouldering and after midnight, it's safest to keep him away from it all together for his own sake. And Jim, falling asleep in your chair is no good for your neck :P . Mind you there was only an inch left in the bottle of Jack.
Simmo, as good a team leader as you were.when testing the depth of a river crossing, a good leader should always turn back when the water is over your knees, not when your testicles are in danger of drowning and desperately trying to escape the icy water :P
Anyway, it was good to meet a bunch of pleasant laid back people, had a lot of laughs. Look forward to the next one
Here are a few shots that I took.
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[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

P.S....

Little Hannah made sure her dad (Dobbo) didn't miss out on Father's Day




And a special thank you to Mark (Taresk from 4WD Action Forum) for coming along for the ride. I tried to convince him to turn from the dark side :twisted: and join pradopoint. He's got a great rig :shock:



Thanks again to everyone, including Matthew (120GXV6), Lee and your families for atleast making it for the day trip.

[Mike Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mike]

TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

Thanks Simmo for an enjoyable weekend. The weather turned out alright, the track was interesting and the company good.

As Dobbo said, a good team leader tests the depth of a river crossing - even when both the air and water temperature a far less than tropical.





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[Jim Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jim]

Just got back home an hour ago (camped overnight at Coolah Tops National Park) .... what a fantastic trip :!: 1651 km, not bad for a Pradopoint weekend trip :wink:

Thanks to (Fearless) Trip Leader and Tour Guide Simmo and his 2IC Nathan for organising and leading a great trip A big thanks also to all those who joined in .... a diverse, enthusiastic and enjoyable bunch of 4WDers.

Some photo's :















Jim and Julie

[wengnuts Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wengnuts]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

bump

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

Hey Wengnuts,
Was this bumped for a reason? Pardon my ignorance.

[wengnuts Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close wengnuts]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

Hey Wengnuts,
Was this bumped for a reason? Pardon my ignorance.

I had to bump it or this thread featuring the trip reporting will be relegated to pages 4 or 5 of this section after I split it from the main (planning) thread. A few members was frustrated with having to browse through 7 pages of planning to get to the trip report; hence I've split the planning and report to ease the torment. :wink:

[Dobbo Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dobbo]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

We spent a few days with the inlaws in Bathurst over xmas but after several days of sitting around and drinking beer I was getting a bit restless so I jumped in the car and headed out to the Bridal Track and on to Hill End to do a bit of exploring.Unfortunately I couldn't get anyone else to come along as it was 35 degrees and the cricket was on as well,so I headed out by myself.
There had been a couple of big storms in the preceding days so there was still a fair bit of water coming down the Turon River so I didn't attempt any water crossings.
Hill End was the scene of a big gold rush in the late 1800's and boasted a population over around 8000 people and 27 pubs.
These days about 100 people still live there and only one pub remains.
There were quite a large number of campers beside the river so I encounter quite a number of other cars on the track, including the dreaded Monaghans Bluff section.
Here are a few shots I took.

[Snaga Wishing I was lost Find all posts View Profile Close Snaga]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

Great shots of the area there Dobbo.... looks like a great place to go and explore

[Simmo67 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Simmo67]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

Great shots Dobbo!

Should've given me a tingle. I would've gone for a spin

[JeffH Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JeffH]

Re: TRIP REPORT :Bridal Track Trip(Bathurst) Sep 6/7

I was sitting around bored on Saturday so I decided to go out for a drive to Hill End, been meaning to check it out for a while. Didn't get a chance to take on the Bridal Track unfortunately, was a bit too late when I left Hill End, just had a wander about town and went for a drive to the lookouts around the area.

Some pics from the day.

Some of the old buildings






The view from Bald Hill


Tree:


The war memorial


A dirty Prado (is there a better kind?) enjoying the view from the Beaufoy Merlin lookout.


If you're ever up for another trip out that way let us know.