Six vehicles met at the Byford Town Hall at 8am. We picked up two more at Pinjarra then Donna and Roland as we left the South West Highway. The usual tyre deflation stopping area was busy so I decided to head down to the waters edge. I took a rutted downhill track and Deepak announced that he was stuck. He was in the ruts and he appeared to be caught on the gearbox cross member. The best option appeared to be pull him gently forward off the obstruction. Unfortunately the obstruction was a large 1m diameter rock, hiding like an iceberg, with only its tip protruding. Because the ground was soaked, in-stead of the vehicle sliding off the rock like you would expect, the rock pivoted in place lifting the vehicle off the ground and then the vehicle slid on the rock, off its cross member onto the fuel tank, the diff, the exhaust and finally the rear bumper doing damage along the way. Fortunately the vehicle was still drivable but it needs some repairs.
We then let down our tyres and starting taking the local tracks. I was generally able to choose tracks where there was a line that all of the vehicles could take. One track quickly deteriorated into a deep hole. I tried to drive along the side of the hole but couldn’t get out of the hole going forward. So I used my winch to put pressure on my front wheel so I could climb out. Peter’s visitor managed to squeeze along the side and then Peter had a go. He drove carefully and at the last moment gunned it to climb out of the hole. Unfortunately he already had a strained front axle and when the 37inch tyres hit the ground spinning it snapped the axle at the U joint. He was still able to drive but he couldn’t make it home. So he and his friend headed out to the highway to arrange a tow home. We then had lunch next to the dam that was almost full of water and then bravely carried on.
I found another rutted downhill track. The first half of the convoy drove carefully and straddled the ruts. Our two other visitors thought the ruts would be easier. They both got stuck in the deep ruts and after a few re-covery pulls we got them out. We took a few more interesting tracks and then headed out of the valley past my favourite rock climb. A great day, unfortunately with some damage.
