The kempsey 4wd came to Coffs Harbour looking for an adventure, we had several 4wds that looked like they were off the showroom floor, most had lift kits and then we had a mother of a GQ ute that would of felt at home in any competition that was thrown it's way. Everyone settled in to camp at the Moonee beach caravan park on saturday, so by lunch time everybody was looking a bit dodgy ( sorry that should edgey ) , so with a quick call around we headed bush. Well within 6 minutes we entered Wedding Bells state forest, "how can this be so ??",,, was everyones comments. 9 vehicles tagged along with local boys Boyley and Sando meeting us at the bottom of Broken trail. I ferried several people to the top to get some photos and a look see.
This isn't a hill for the faint hearted so a couple of cars decided not to try it, not a problem. Well we spent several hours around the back of Moonee, only being no more than 4 kms from the highway at any given time. We tackled such hills called Broken, Stoney, Nogra, Vardys, Banana Trail, and diverted onto several fun side tracks, then headed north to drop down into the green area , ( which is a picinic reserve at Woolgoolga ), then for a final buzz we went up Limberts Trail, which is steep and rutty. We all decided to head back to camp for a couple of hours to grab a feed and soak up the atmosphere of Moonee Beach, so it was a short 10 min drive south back to camp.
Up untill about 6 pm every body was laughing and joking, haveing a few ales, and then our wonderful mother nature decided to throw a bit of rain our way before our night drive. So what you say , well hows 55mm of rain in 2 hours !!!!! Bloody wet it was. With a warm dinner in our bellys ( mine was courtesy of Trish.... mmmmmm...... scotch fillet...... yummo ) , and a quick save of some camping equipment to higher ground, most of the boys wanted to head back out for a wet night drive. We travvelled south along the highway for about 3 mins and headed into the hills around Sapphire. Rover Trail was our first wet track to drive onto. This area has recently been logged so some of the old tracks have been opened back up. Now this night drive was supposed to be a medium trip, but throw 55mm of rain at it and it was upgraded a notch to Bloody slippery !!.
All 8 cars that came along gave their cars a workout in the slippery red clay, some great suspension working ruts, and two creek crossings that the water was rising pretty quick. Upon reaching some tar road we just tagged it and turned back in to the bush and followed Northern Boundry Trail back home. Now this is usually a fun easy track to see rainforest at it's best and maybe several nocturnal animals, but all we saw was more rain !. We disected this road, crisscrossing it's path using some well rutted bike tracks that are nice and wide. The usual puddles on this road were very full and decieving, with some of them catching several cars out.
With a quick regroup, and deciding to call it quits at 9.30pm, we headed back down to the highway from the hinterland, and with a short 10 min drive back to Moonee Beach, everyone settled in for the night dreaming about tomorrows adventure.
Sunday is normally gods day, and what a day this started out to be, just like the doctor ordeded, bright and sunny.
Everybody seemed to be revelling in the current conditions, so i thought it might be time to be a bit tougher with them. With a 10.30 start we headed south to Korora to travel another steep rutty section of the coast. With everyone in line we set upon casually driving through the rainforest untill we hit the bottom of Mount Coramba. Now the plan was simple, up one hill then down the next untill we exhausted the mountain. Well in theory Army Track is a fun one, BUT, the rain had made this heaps slippery.Several cars had several goes at one sticky spot ( yeah ok, that included me ! ) , with a regroup up the top we headed out to a steep little rock self to test any cars suspension. This is a great photo spot, so we all took the time to play here. After here we headed further up the mountain and proceeded to drive ( sorry slip and slide ) down Loggers road.
A recent storm had blown down a big gum, so it was out with the chainsaw for a quick nip and tuck of this tree. Next hill on the agenda was the fun gnarly Rocky Trail. Everybody seemed to soak up this track ( bugger, i had little hub spring problem, so i will admit to having several goes at one section ). With a load rumble in the distance it sounded like thunder on the way but it was more like it being lunch time, so we headed straight to the top of Mount Coramba, which is 590 metres above sea level. The surrounding districts look a treat with the recent rain we have had, and with 360' veiws from the top of this mountain the terrain could be seen clearly all the way to the ocean. After a well earned lunch break half of the Kempsey 4wd club decided to head home, as work and family committments called. Bye bye to ye all...!!!!!
The rest of us headed on to the southern side of the mountain to give Morbid, Up and Down, and Dump trails a good shake up. Mountain 0...... Us 1 !!!!!! Unfortunitly the straglers with us from Kempsey gave the call to call it a day, so we headed back to the wonderful Pacific Hiway, where after airing up the old tyres we all went our seperate ways.
Overall some great friend ships were made, some great terrain was covered all within 20kms of the camp at Moonee Beach and hopefully everybody saw a small part of our back yard here at Coffs Harbour. Thanks to all that came along from the Kempsey 4x4 club, and thanks to Boyley and Sando for their help.
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