VNOG - forum meet up.
- Thread starter Ridgie
- Start date
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d22dave
Member
Sorry about your wallet but looking forward to a few more photos
scottybobcat
2014 muster sponsor
WE are doing a night run next saturday Dave in Toolangi if your Keen
scottybobcat
2014 muster sponsor
How did you lose your wallet AL.I will post my pics u tomorrow aswell
Well folks - I just need to put up a quick post about our weekend.
Bloody ripper! And there will be more - so get on board 'cause VNOG is firing.
A group of great people got together and had a great time.
WoodyD40, Carolyn & Samuel - Scottybobcat, Kim, Kendel & dogs - Kingcab, Navarian, JustAl & dogs, Heata, Aido, and me with one dog.
Plenty of banter which was all taken well. Lots of advice and helpful hints.
Even the kids got in on the D22 -v- D40 banter.
I know Woody plans to put up a more detailed trip report - thanks Woody - I'm sure everyone will appreciate your story telling ability.
There will be heaps of photos and videos put up today and tonight. Have a look and see what this is all about - stock Navs mixing it with the bigger tyres and lifts - no egos to build, just having a good time.
"That's what I'm talkin about!"
Bloody ripper! And there will be more - so get on board 'cause VNOG is firing.
A group of great people got together and had a great time.
WoodyD40, Carolyn & Samuel - Scottybobcat, Kim, Kendel & dogs - Kingcab, Navarian, JustAl & dogs, Heata, Aido, and me with one dog.
Plenty of banter which was all taken well. Lots of advice and helpful hints.
Even the kids got in on the D22 -v- D40 banter.
I know Woody plans to put up a more detailed trip report - thanks Woody - I'm sure everyone will appreciate your story telling ability.
There will be heaps of photos and videos put up today and tonight. Have a look and see what this is all about - stock Navs mixing it with the bigger tyres and lifts - no egos to build, just having a good time.
"That's what I'm talkin about!"
That is a really good teaser report about our weekend away. What i loved was that a D40 led the way on saturday with FOUR d22's putting along behind ...
The banter around the camp fire was just as much fun as the 4wheeling during the day. but what the H$LL is a D.I.T sensor ? (lol)
But i must give everyone who attends a VNOG event a big warning ... If Scotty and Woody are going with wifes and kids - there will be a serious surplus of GREAT food, with spit roast dinners both nights, fresh salads, pasta salads, nibbles and even Navarian got into the act with pickled cheese n crackers ... and thats just a sample of what we ate !!!
FULL REPORT TO COME LATER !!!!
K
KraftyPg
Guest
Then why do you only take me to the pub you scungy bastard, i give you plenty of warning to cook me a roast
Cant seem to get into work mode this morning, so i'll do the WRITE up now!!!
FRIDAY.
Woody and family were the first to arrive at the camp site, approx 1:30pm and snared a great spot to set up the camper trailer and had it pretty much set up by the time Scotty and family arrived at 2:30pm. Scotty selected a nice spot accross the road from FamWoody, and the kids and dogs took off and ran amuck whilst HotelScotty was set up.
08KingCab arrived a bit later, and once the SPIT was set alight and the roast was thown on, the three fellas took off to locate some firewood for the first night camp fire. We drove only about 3 k's from the campground b4 scotty located a large tree that had been cut but was still caught on other trees, so with Woody's 50cm chain saw he started into it and showed us how to get the tree down out so we could get to the smaller stuff to put on roof racks. Back at camp site, the kids were desperate to help get the wood off the roof racks of Woody and Kingcabs utes. Very cute to watch the kids get involved. Whilst the big boys were away, the kids had collected plenty of twigs which we used to try to get the fire going - in the end a small dash of 2stroke really got the fire going, with KingCab in attendance to build up a nice camp fire.
Ridgie and Navarian arrived sometime late in the arvo, selected their camp sites and were set up before dinner.
Evening meals were enjoyed by all, the kids went to be much later than they usually did - and then the adults sat back around the camp fire, the ladies got into the white wine (ladies left the party earlyish - about 10:30) and the blokes got into the bourbon and beers until well past mid-night. Woody fell asleep in his chair about 12:30 and the rest stayed up until about 2:30.
Next morning, we all appeared at various times - with Navarian looking the worse for wear ... apparantly his tent was spinning all night.!!
Greated during the morning with Heata and JustAl arriving. We got away a bit later than originally intended (10:30 .... oops) to find some tracks to play on. We took the mostly 2wd dirt roads to were we going to start our adventure, when as trip leader i made an off cuff comments about a nice bog hole down to the right of the track. Well, that was too much of a temptation for Scotty who just had to have a crack at it. He got the beast parked in the bog hole very nicely indeed. An urgent call over the radio ... "come and get me out i'm filling up with water" saw me do a real quick turn around to find him. Grabbing the snatch strap hanging in the back of his ute, hooked him up, took the strain and "PING" went the strap. OOPS. Grabbing another strap, hooked up again and took up the strain and reefed him out of the water hole.
(Yes Scotty i'm leaving out the part where you adjusted all your brakes just before we found the bog hole ... you can write that up under mechanical ...)
(and now i'll leave out the bit where scotty had to take the heat sheilds off his plug leads 'cause they were causing some shorting out 'cause they got wet)
After getting Scotty out of the bog hole, we took a slightly different track back to the dirt road - where a slightly easy water hole was ... I thought i'd have a crack at it. No problems getting in, but i got hung up on the chasis and left the wheels spining in the water, not even reaching the ground at the bottom! So the call went out "i'm stuck now". Scotty had a smirk on this face saying something about D40's ... and tried to pull me out with the broken strap that he tied together ... SNAP again. Back to using my strap and got me out with no worries.
TBC
FRIDAY.
Woody and family were the first to arrive at the camp site, approx 1:30pm and snared a great spot to set up the camper trailer and had it pretty much set up by the time Scotty and family arrived at 2:30pm. Scotty selected a nice spot accross the road from FamWoody, and the kids and dogs took off and ran amuck whilst HotelScotty was set up.
08KingCab arrived a bit later, and once the SPIT was set alight and the roast was thown on, the three fellas took off to locate some firewood for the first night camp fire. We drove only about 3 k's from the campground b4 scotty located a large tree that had been cut but was still caught on other trees, so with Woody's 50cm chain saw he started into it and showed us how to get the tree down out so we could get to the smaller stuff to put on roof racks. Back at camp site, the kids were desperate to help get the wood off the roof racks of Woody and Kingcabs utes. Very cute to watch the kids get involved. Whilst the big boys were away, the kids had collected plenty of twigs which we used to try to get the fire going - in the end a small dash of 2stroke really got the fire going, with KingCab in attendance to build up a nice camp fire.
Ridgie and Navarian arrived sometime late in the arvo, selected their camp sites and were set up before dinner.
Evening meals were enjoyed by all, the kids went to be much later than they usually did - and then the adults sat back around the camp fire, the ladies got into the white wine (ladies left the party earlyish - about 10:30) and the blokes got into the bourbon and beers until well past mid-night. Woody fell asleep in his chair about 12:30 and the rest stayed up until about 2:30.
Next morning, we all appeared at various times - with Navarian looking the worse for wear ... apparantly his tent was spinning all night.!!
Greated during the morning with Heata and JustAl arriving. We got away a bit later than originally intended (10:30 .... oops) to find some tracks to play on. We took the mostly 2wd dirt roads to were we going to start our adventure, when as trip leader i made an off cuff comments about a nice bog hole down to the right of the track. Well, that was too much of a temptation for Scotty who just had to have a crack at it. He got the beast parked in the bog hole very nicely indeed. An urgent call over the radio ... "come and get me out i'm filling up with water" saw me do a real quick turn around to find him. Grabbing the snatch strap hanging in the back of his ute, hooked him up, took the strain and "PING" went the strap. OOPS. Grabbing another strap, hooked up again and took up the strain and reefed him out of the water hole.
(Yes Scotty i'm leaving out the part where you adjusted all your brakes just before we found the bog hole ... you can write that up under mechanical ...)
(and now i'll leave out the bit where scotty had to take the heat sheilds off his plug leads 'cause they were causing some shorting out 'cause they got wet)
After getting Scotty out of the bog hole, we took a slightly different track back to the dirt road - where a slightly easy water hole was ... I thought i'd have a crack at it. No problems getting in, but i got hung up on the chasis and left the wheels spining in the water, not even reaching the ground at the bottom! So the call went out "i'm stuck now". Scotty had a smirk on this face saying something about D40's ... and tried to pull me out with the broken strap that he tied together ... SNAP again. Back to using my strap and got me out with no worries.
TBC
Continued ....
and what were the rest of the guys doing ... taking photo's and video's !!! and laughing at us ...
For those that want to follow on the maps ... we were just below ASH LANDING ROAD, under the power lines.
The first REAL track that we were supposed to take was LITTLE BUNYIP FIRELINE, which was a nice uphilll that had a variety of steep sections, WooptyDoos, smallish section of mud with deep traks - which we managed to stay on the ridges as it was dry enough to keep traction. I found that this was a good track to get us warmed up for what was to follow later.
We got to the top of Little Bunyip and parked on the side of BLUE RANGE ROAD for a 1/2 hour lunch break and another stretch of the legs.
After lunch we headed east to the next track ... ANDERSONS TRACK ... this is the track where the Pajero got stuck the previous weekend. Heading down, with WOODY in the lead still, the first 3 cars got over the first few WooptyDoos and i think Heata got stuck on the first one, so Scotty backed up to help him get over it. (Scotty, Heata and Ridgie can say more on that). The rest of the track to the half way down mark was event free. We parked all the utes to check over the really steep challanging section prior to any attempt to drive it - and it was pre-arranged to let Scotty go first with the beast. Everyone got into vantage positions with camera's, video camera's and just to spectate ... the video's will tell the story better than i can, but it was awesome to watch at least. JustAl got stuck briefly at the top, but a bit of right foot effort saw him get over the top mound, Ridgie got through no problems but Heata got stuck like the pajero did, so i dragged him back about 10m so he could have a 2nd go at it - which he succeeded the 2nd time. I went last, and i wanted to take it very careful as i had both kids in the car ... but it did not really proove to be a problem. So now we are in a different order of vehicles to head to the bottom of the track, we was down with out any further drama's. But it did take us a full hour to get all 5 utes through this one 50m section of track, with a slight delay with a group of 3 motorbikes trying to get up - only 1 bike got up un-assisted.
At the bottom of the track, we headed of east again and found NASH HUT FIRELINE track but really this was a dissapointment becuase it had been fully graded, had some steep parts, gravel parts - but was not really a challange at all.
After having our little bit of fun for the day, we took off back to camp - getting back at about 3:30pm to light the spit and camp fire, with Ridgie and Navarian going off to collect more fire wood for another night of banter ...
TBC
and what were the rest of the guys doing ... taking photo's and video's !!! and laughing at us ...
For those that want to follow on the maps ... we were just below ASH LANDING ROAD, under the power lines.
The first REAL track that we were supposed to take was LITTLE BUNYIP FIRELINE, which was a nice uphilll that had a variety of steep sections, WooptyDoos, smallish section of mud with deep traks - which we managed to stay on the ridges as it was dry enough to keep traction. I found that this was a good track to get us warmed up for what was to follow later.
We got to the top of Little Bunyip and parked on the side of BLUE RANGE ROAD for a 1/2 hour lunch break and another stretch of the legs.
After lunch we headed east to the next track ... ANDERSONS TRACK ... this is the track where the Pajero got stuck the previous weekend. Heading down, with WOODY in the lead still, the first 3 cars got over the first few WooptyDoos and i think Heata got stuck on the first one, so Scotty backed up to help him get over it. (Scotty, Heata and Ridgie can say more on that). The rest of the track to the half way down mark was event free. We parked all the utes to check over the really steep challanging section prior to any attempt to drive it - and it was pre-arranged to let Scotty go first with the beast. Everyone got into vantage positions with camera's, video camera's and just to spectate ... the video's will tell the story better than i can, but it was awesome to watch at least. JustAl got stuck briefly at the top, but a bit of right foot effort saw him get over the top mound, Ridgie got through no problems but Heata got stuck like the pajero did, so i dragged him back about 10m so he could have a 2nd go at it - which he succeeded the 2nd time. I went last, and i wanted to take it very careful as i had both kids in the car ... but it did not really proove to be a problem. So now we are in a different order of vehicles to head to the bottom of the track, we was down with out any further drama's. But it did take us a full hour to get all 5 utes through this one 50m section of track, with a slight delay with a group of 3 motorbikes trying to get up - only 1 bike got up un-assisted.
At the bottom of the track, we headed of east again and found NASH HUT FIRELINE track but really this was a dissapointment becuase it had been fully graded, had some steep parts, gravel parts - but was not really a challange at all.
After having our little bit of fun for the day, we took off back to camp - getting back at about 3:30pm to light the spit and camp fire, with Ridgie and Navarian going off to collect more fire wood for another night of banter ...
TBC
Continued (again)
I forgot to mention, 08KingCab took off on Saturday morning to head off as he could only come for the social on the friday night. And Navarian got a lift with Ridgie as he was still staggering at mid-morning when we left to go 4wheeling ....
We had a great roast pork the first night, so Saturday night Scotty and Navarian both had lamb - so we put both on the spit ... and we sat around the camp fire talking more crap. the Ladies got into the White Wine again and the 2 kids stayed up later than normal again.
I think the kids got chucked into bed before 8pm, the ladies drifted off around 10pm and i lasted until about 11pm, and i didnt really get any straight answers about the rest of the fella's - but we did get some good rain for 15 to 30 minutes after i hit the sack, and i thought how that might affect the tracks the next day ...
SUNDAY
Again, we all had staggered starts to the day. During the morning Heata left at breakfast time - some of had not had our breakfast yet by the time Aido arrived with his co-driver Glen.
But dispite a slow start to the day, we managed to leave a tad bit earlier to re-run the same tracks that we did on Saturday. The ladies decided they would like a break, so they got left behind to relax for a couple of hours. The kids demanded to come with again ... so i got to lead the group again, and also had the privilidge to baby-sit both kids. Navarian bit the bullet and took his car to run a track before he had to go back to pack up camp and head home, so we took off with 5 cars again. Scotty did NOT get side traked this time with mud-holes he would get stuck in, but for the benefit of Aido, showed us how to get through the hole i got stuck in the previous day. Did the LITTLE BUNYIP track again, and a couple of us managed to get the cars sideways with the front wheel in one set of tracks and the rear wheel in the other tracks. I got to the top of one section in the left hand tracks and could not get enough grip to get over, so was getting ready to winch myself over - until i realised that the winch was not working .... suspect its the isolation switch that needs to be looked at. Aido suggested i have a 3rd attempt backing right up and trying to get back on top of the tracks instead of IN them. I was wary, as i'd already attempted that and got the car sideways, but with Aido confidently guiding from the front and taking it real slow - the 3rd attempt was successful without sliping back into the trench's. So now all the cars were guided carefully through this section of track without any further drama's ... I think it was Ridgie who got his car sideways further down the track, but i did not get to see it.
At the top of the track, Navarian took his departure to go back to camp, pack up and head home, and the remaining 4 utes took off to do the final track of the day (ANDERSONS TRACK again) Woody in the lead, Aido, Ridgie and Scotty.
Once again, we let Scotty show off by going first - doing it in style and having fun, then i went with the kids, followed by Aido and lastly Ridgie. It went so much faster the 2nd time around but was a lot more slipery than the previous day. At the bottom of the track, we said our goodbyes to Aido and Glen, who wanted to go and play some more, but the rest of us had to go back for lunch and pack up.
Scotty had to have ONE last play before we went back to camp, so a track we by-passed on Saturday morning prooved to be to much temptation for Scotty to pass up. There was a really steep loose track as a short cut up to ASH LANDING ROAD which he wanted to do. By this time, the long days had prooved too much for young Samuel, so i took Kendel out of the car so Samuel could have a few minutes quiet time. Kendel then watched her dad come down this really steep strack go through the mud puddle at the bottom, turn around go back through the mud puddle and then up the really steep track. It was awesome to listen to the roar of the V8 as he powered up the track ... and when he got to the top he got out and let out a big ROAR of success .... It was fun listening to the V8, but hearing Scotty ROAR was just down right scary ... glad i was on the hill opposite him!!! I think Ridgie got some photo's and/or video of Scotty playing on the track by himself.
The 5 minutes time out is what Samuel needed, and he did not have any more problems for the rest of the day. We got back to what was left of the camp at 12:30, and found that the girls had packed some of the stuff up, which made it much easier to break up camp. Whilst we did not rush, and we still had to eat something, we were saying out finally good'bys at 2:30pm (Ridgie had left earlier, only had to throw his things in the back of the ute)
All in all, i think all who had attended enjoyed the company, the banter and the grog. Also, there was plenty of opportunity for photo's and video's. Whilst we did not do a huge amount of off-roading, it was a great opportunity to meet other forum members and to socialise with each other.
I am really looking forward to coming weekend, to see what Aido has planned for the Toolangi night run - i'm expecting it to be a lot more 4wheeling rather than socialising like the past weekend, so can i encourage any people in Victoria who would like to come - i'm sure you will have a blast, and there are people who have good modified vehicles to help those who dont - to safely get through any obsticles we come accross.
And I aint gonna bother doing this until after the NIGHT RUN ....
I forgot to mention, 08KingCab took off on Saturday morning to head off as he could only come for the social on the friday night. And Navarian got a lift with Ridgie as he was still staggering at mid-morning when we left to go 4wheeling ....
We had a great roast pork the first night, so Saturday night Scotty and Navarian both had lamb - so we put both on the spit ... and we sat around the camp fire talking more crap. the Ladies got into the White Wine again and the 2 kids stayed up later than normal again.
I think the kids got chucked into bed before 8pm, the ladies drifted off around 10pm and i lasted until about 11pm, and i didnt really get any straight answers about the rest of the fella's - but we did get some good rain for 15 to 30 minutes after i hit the sack, and i thought how that might affect the tracks the next day ...
SUNDAY
Again, we all had staggered starts to the day. During the morning Heata left at breakfast time - some of had not had our breakfast yet by the time Aido arrived with his co-driver Glen.
But dispite a slow start to the day, we managed to leave a tad bit earlier to re-run the same tracks that we did on Saturday. The ladies decided they would like a break, so they got left behind to relax for a couple of hours. The kids demanded to come with again ... so i got to lead the group again, and also had the privilidge to baby-sit both kids. Navarian bit the bullet and took his car to run a track before he had to go back to pack up camp and head home, so we took off with 5 cars again. Scotty did NOT get side traked this time with mud-holes he would get stuck in, but for the benefit of Aido, showed us how to get through the hole i got stuck in the previous day. Did the LITTLE BUNYIP track again, and a couple of us managed to get the cars sideways with the front wheel in one set of tracks and the rear wheel in the other tracks. I got to the top of one section in the left hand tracks and could not get enough grip to get over, so was getting ready to winch myself over - until i realised that the winch was not working .... suspect its the isolation switch that needs to be looked at. Aido suggested i have a 3rd attempt backing right up and trying to get back on top of the tracks instead of IN them. I was wary, as i'd already attempted that and got the car sideways, but with Aido confidently guiding from the front and taking it real slow - the 3rd attempt was successful without sliping back into the trench's. So now all the cars were guided carefully through this section of track without any further drama's ... I think it was Ridgie who got his car sideways further down the track, but i did not get to see it.
At the top of the track, Navarian took his departure to go back to camp, pack up and head home, and the remaining 4 utes took off to do the final track of the day (ANDERSONS TRACK again) Woody in the lead, Aido, Ridgie and Scotty.
Once again, we let Scotty show off by going first - doing it in style and having fun, then i went with the kids, followed by Aido and lastly Ridgie. It went so much faster the 2nd time around but was a lot more slipery than the previous day. At the bottom of the track, we said our goodbyes to Aido and Glen, who wanted to go and play some more, but the rest of us had to go back for lunch and pack up.
Scotty had to have ONE last play before we went back to camp, so a track we by-passed on Saturday morning prooved to be to much temptation for Scotty to pass up. There was a really steep loose track as a short cut up to ASH LANDING ROAD which he wanted to do. By this time, the long days had prooved too much for young Samuel, so i took Kendel out of the car so Samuel could have a few minutes quiet time. Kendel then watched her dad come down this really steep strack go through the mud puddle at the bottom, turn around go back through the mud puddle and then up the really steep track. It was awesome to listen to the roar of the V8 as he powered up the track ... and when he got to the top he got out and let out a big ROAR of success .... It was fun listening to the V8, but hearing Scotty ROAR was just down right scary ... glad i was on the hill opposite him!!! I think Ridgie got some photo's and/or video of Scotty playing on the track by himself.
The 5 minutes time out is what Samuel needed, and he did not have any more problems for the rest of the day. We got back to what was left of the camp at 12:30, and found that the girls had packed some of the stuff up, which made it much easier to break up camp. Whilst we did not rush, and we still had to eat something, we were saying out finally good'bys at 2:30pm (Ridgie had left earlier, only had to throw his things in the back of the ute)
All in all, i think all who had attended enjoyed the company, the banter and the grog. Also, there was plenty of opportunity for photo's and video's. Whilst we did not do a huge amount of off-roading, it was a great opportunity to meet other forum members and to socialise with each other.
I am really looking forward to coming weekend, to see what Aido has planned for the Toolangi night run - i'm expecting it to be a lot more 4wheeling rather than socialising like the past weekend, so can i encourage any people in Victoria who would like to come - i'm sure you will have a blast, and there are people who have good modified vehicles to help those who dont - to safely get through any obsticles we come accross.
And I aint gonna bother doing this until after the NIGHT RUN ....
LOL. I will admit, I THOUGHT I lost my wallet but it turns up I didn't take it at all.
THANK FOOK FOR THAT! What a dill!
It was still in my motorcycle jacket this morning so I was a very, VERY happy lad this morning.
I'll upload images tonight and dump them in a gallery...went back on Sunday with the missus to look for it and as it turned out it was Maggie's first time off roading but I still didn't take it out of 2WD as i stuck to the easy access tracks.
Last edited:
Aido
Member
Nice write up Woody.
All I can say is that you blokes managed to find find the only decent tracks within cooee of there. We wandered around aimlessly for over an hour through the SE of Bunyip to find that many tracks had been dug up or gated and so we headed back into Kurth Kiln to find the same.
We gave up and went back to Glenn's place to complete his list of chores I had dragged him away from earlier that morning.
See ya's next sat.
All I can say is that you blokes managed to find find the only decent tracks within cooee of there. We wandered around aimlessly for over an hour through the SE of Bunyip to find that many tracks had been dug up or gated and so we headed back into Kurth Kiln to find the same.
We gave up and went back to Glenn's place to complete his list of chores I had dragged him away from earlier that morning.
See ya's next sat.
Leprechaun
Member
- Joined
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Yeah, Nice write up Woody, sorry I couldn't get back up there, bad time of year with all the family stuff happening.
It was a fun night with plenty of banter and B.S. Unfortunately I couldn't remember any of Scotty's jokes to impress the boys at work today.
See ya on Sat night.
It was a fun night with plenty of banter and B.S. Unfortunately I couldn't remember any of Scotty's jokes to impress the boys at work today.
See ya on Sat night.
Great work Woody - covered it well. And you did a superb job as trip leader on both days.
Day two was more adventurous for me - travelling sideways up one track for about 30 metres, and then lifting a rear wheel as we departed the bottom of the slush hill - the look on Bobcat's face and the waving of his arms got my brain back into gear and the Nav into a safer line - thanks mate.
Here are my pics in a rough order of how things happened.
The quality of the vids is poor due to the quality of the equipment .... oh and please excuse my commentary. Turn the vids up loud to hear what a V8 Nav sounds like.
VNOG Kurth Kiln Dec 2010 pictures by Ridgie00 - Photobucket
Hope this works!
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heata
Member
Spot on woody, great weekend. Well led, and thanks also go to ridgie who started the thread.
scottybobcat
2014 muster sponsor
They are shit hot Daz
Aido
Member
OK so Jeff Golblume has a few more feathers up top but its undeniable that there is a striking resemblance.
I fair dinkum expected a T-Rex to come stomping through camp Sunday morning.
I fair dinkum expected a T-Rex to come stomping through camp Sunday morning.
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