As the Bush fires devastated Victoria and New South Wales, a very large area of the High Country was badly burnt out, so the situation was do we continue the trip to Butcher Country or not. As the fires started in around Mt Stirling and Buckland Valley it was an easy decision not to even go up that way for our safety.
So we have never been down to the Otway’s before and I organised it straight away, talking to some of the locals it was going to be very busy and all the camping spots were going to fill quickly.Amy got onto a Hall in Barramunga with a Shower, toilet, full kitchen and a TV it had the lot and we had a place to stay as a Base camp. I did a Reccie trip 2 weeks before the trip just to get my head around the area and before I knew it we had 10 vehicles.
Friday we headed over, some of us meeting at Newstead around 2.00pm. We got to the Forrest Brewery about 4.30pm so we checked out their beers, sat down and had a beer. We got to our camp in Barramunga around 5.30pm and I opened up the Hall what a place very nice set up, certainly different for us as Karl, Nathan and Chopper arrived shortly after. That night we lit the fire inside, sat around on the couch watching the Tennis having a few beers from the Forrest Brewery.
Saturday
After a good night sleep, as I slept in a double bed for the night as everyone else camped out in their swags or tents, we woke fairly early and the coffee started to brew and the bacon and eggs started to cook the smell from the kitchen was pretty amazing. We were pretty excited to hit the tracks, after a quick briefing on where about’s were going to go. We drove out of Barramunga about 9.00am down the Forrest-Apollo Bay rd, we then turned left onto Old Coach rd and straight into Low Range, after the rain during the week it was really slippery, the first bit wasn’t to bad then you had to go around a tree, the first 3 vehicles made it then the next 2 vehicles had to be winched,the rest of the vehicles caught up and we proceeded on with slippery ruts and vehicles travelling sideways as their tyres would not enable them to get grip. The track started to get easier, going through a camp at the top then turning right onto Benwerrin-Mt Sabine rd. After looking at the map I was going to Zigzag along taking all different tracks like Thompson, Cowley, Delaneys tracks but every track was gated and closed, some had looked like they had been closed for a while as the tracks were all over grown. So we went up to Mt Cowley up to the tower to access the situation. And we decided to head for Erskine Falls for a look. We stopped at a Picnic area for lunch for about 1hour, then we headed down to Erskine Falls and the car park was absolutely full, so we decided to give it a miss. We got back onto the Benwerrin-Mt Sabine rd and headed back towards camp at Barramunga. We went back down Old Coach rd, very easy going down and back along Forrest-Apollo Bay rd. Back at camp we lit the fire outside in the fire pit and Amy and Jake turned up, we had dinner and a nice night around the fire while watching the Tennis. Some went to the Forrest Brewery to try a couple of beers.
Sunday
That morning some had very sore heads from the night before, so we were of to a slow start. We got moving about 9.30am and we headed in the other direction towards Lavers Hill. We headed down Upper Gelibrand rd to Stevenson Falls we had to walk in about 1km but an easy walk but worth it, we went passed the Everest 4wd Club that had a vehicle bogged but they managed to snatch out. We headed out of Stevenson Falls campsite which was absolutely packed with campers, we then turned left down Bridge track and right into Dandos Campsite, really nice camp but packed as well, we had a break for about 20mins , then right onto Lardners rd, we followed Lardners rd around to Jackson’s track, seeing that it said it was a 4wd track on the map, it was a gravelled 2wd track. This brought us into Beach Forest, we stopped at the toilet for 15mins, then we headed down Binns rd passing Beauchamp Falls and Hopetoun Falls stopping at The Californian Redwoods for lunch. These trees were absolutely amazing planted in the 1930s. We headed off after about 1hour still on Binns rd, we turned right onto Robertson track, easy at first then through some bog holes, then the track just went straight down and the water from the bog holes followed you down the ruts and made it very slippery, and I slide down the first section then I jumped out to look at the next section and it was steeper again, so I had no choice and stuck my wheels in the ruts and slide to the bottom about 50m, then Andrew, Greg, Chopper and Nathan gave it a go and all slide to the bottom it certainly was a ride. I radioed the rest of the guys and told them to turn around and they met us back on Binns rd. We traveled along Binns rd until we got to The Great Ocean rd, turning right and heading down to a place called Horden Vale and we turned left on Horden Vale rd, it soon turns into a dirt road and you follow the signs to Aire River Campground, you pass the first campsite and then you’ll get to the second campsite and you can keep on going straight on a 4wd sand track that takes you along the side of the Aire River, then the track goes inland for a bit until you get to another gate, so we had to turn around and head back. We got back to the second campsite went over the Bridge through the campground then along Sand rd to Glenaire, so we got back onto The Great Ocean rd and headed along a bit and turned right onto Aire Settlement rd to Aire Crossing Campground then onto Triplett Falls, we didn’t go down to the Falls as it was a 2hour turn around walk. So back on the road past The Otway Fly onto Beech Forest rd into Beech Forest and we aired up. We took the asphalt road all the way back to camp. We had a booking at The Terminus Hotel at Forrest so we headed in there for a meal then back to camp about 9.00pm lit the fire outside and finished up with a great night.
Monday
When we woke in the morning a lot of us slept in and we were going for a short drive, but we really couldn’t be bothered so we packed up cleaned the Hall and we headed for home all going our own way.
Participants
Russell, Amy and Jake. 105 LandCruiser
Andrew. Triton
Paul, Fiona, Lachie and Keith. 80 LandCruiser
Steve. Prado
Greg and Jarrod. Nissan Patrol
Brett, Sheridan and Doug. Hilux
Nathan and Bailey. Nissan Patrol
Geoff. Isuzu
Karl. 105 LandCruiser
Maurice and Kate. Range Rover
