Suzuki 4WD Club of Victoria

I'm pretty keen for this trip. I'll have to confirm with work though.

Well I was in my sierra so probably not a lot to compare between that and your vitara.

We started in Orbost about midday, headed up the snowy and found a ripper campsite right on the waters edge.

Following day we got to Mckillops Bridge and setup camp. Stopped on the way at these falls and a massive swimming hole at the bottom was like a little oasis.
Forget the name of them.

The third day we headed into Seldom Seen for fuel but it is now shut the guy died apparently so we kept going to Gelantipy for fuel and some basic supplies.
Then back up to Suggan Buggan, over the Cobberas to another awesome campsite. Drove into Benambra for more fuel and supplies and a pub meal but we were told he had to cook it ourselves.
So we kept going down to Omeo for a few beers and a awesome steak. The girls also had a chance to grab a shower at the Hilltop Pub in omeo. Drove back in the dark to our campsite.

The fourth day we had a swim in the murray river at the poppulas and climbed up on to the Davies Plains, then found a track that took us back down to the murray into NSW to an awesome campsite.
About here somewhere: -36.750507,148.133333

The fifth day we climbed back up to the top of Davies Plain and continued on to Tom Groggin, got here about lunch time so we decided to start on our way home back over Mt Pinabar.
Made for a pretty long day but we did get to another secluded campsite next to a river.

The sixth day we headed back into Benambra, the petrol cars got some more fuel but it was just a precaution I think we all would have made it to omeo.
We had lunch at the omeo pool (just a dammed creek). Then headed off to dargo via some firetrails nothing to serious, except for the final drop off down to the dargo river.

I lost another mud flap, must make some detachable ones this time. I also suffered from a lose spark plug that may as well have been just dangling around in the engine bay.
Drove on 3 cylinders for half the day until we got to camp and I had enough time to diagnosis what the issue was. Out drove a few jeeps of course, I was always the first to go in to test how deep the water was.
I did use my 20L of extra petrol on the longest day but that was it.

Cool thanks.

CFA have an android app that I added.
Could be a wise addition for these types of trips.
FireReady.

http://www.cfa.vic.gov.au/plan-prepare/fireready-app/

CFA FireReady for Android
CFA FireReady for Blackberry
CFA FireReady for iPhone / iPad
CFA FireReady for Windows Phone

Have not been to Dargo in years so I'd like to join the trip

cinders

Hi Steve

I am going to have to pull out of this one. I was on a 2 day trip over the last weekend and when I started the Jimny on Sunday morning in the Wonnangatta Valley I had the 4WD lights flashing. The vacuum hubs had failed to engage which I could not understand since I parked it overnight in 4WD. Anyway after confirming that my front hubs were not locked and trying everything else that we could think of I had to drive out via Talbottville in low range 2WD. I was really surprisede by how far you could get with rear wheel drive but it was not a good experience. Had to get towed up the final section of a few very steep sections. It came good by itself just before the steep descent into Racecourse which was fortunate because I am not sure I would have gone down that hill without drive and engine braking on the front wheels.

I am going to convert to manual hubs now. This was such a bad expereince I have lost confidence in the auto hubs and don't want to go through that again. I won't have time to take care of this before the long weekend and so I will pull out of your trip which I really regret.

I will be posting some questions on Auszookers about the manual hub conversion.

Regards

Mike

Getting close.

Weathers looking good.

The fire near Heyfield might be a problem if it gets going again on Thursday. Was planning to drive through the area east of Heyfield on the last day but we can always cut things short and take the main road back from Dargo to Melbourne.

I'm good to go. I've got the Tuesday off work.

Hopefully the weather stays nice and the fires hold off.

Steve, Would you like me to pm you my details?

Sorry Steve, I won't be coming on this High Country Tour.
My budget just won't allow this trip and the Simpson Desert.
I did budget a zillion times.
I've not been across the Simpson yet.
Have a great trip guys.

No worries Chris.

cinders, are you still planning to come?

The fires mean that we will miss out on Blue Rag and probably Billy Goats Bluff/Valencia Creek. Trying to work out an interesting alternative.

Weather forecast has also changed a bit; showers, rain and maybe thunder storms for the north east. Might take a bit more recovery gear than first planned.