Friday night we pack up the Land Rover and got up early on Saturday to prepare the food needed for the trip, as there is a lack of shops when going bush in Australia. We met up with friends and exchanging radios with Lynne and Michael to ensure community between cars, when off road driving. And set off towards Morgan on the Murray River.
The trip up to Morgan was a leisurely drive through the Adelaide Hills, past Saunders Gorge off road tracks. Stopping off at Mount Pleasant to find a café that makes a very nice coffee and meat pie. Apart from losing Michael and Lynne once because they couldn’t see our indicators through the dust when driving off road, the trip was uneventful. I did however see Kangaroos bouncing along side the road at one point.
Once we'd explored Morgan and enjoying a cold beer in a pub by the river, we headed off to set up camp in Morgan’s Conservation Park along side the Murray River. Camp was set up in no time, which left us with nothing else to do but enjoy a well-cooked chilli and rice meal, bright stars, good whisky, homemade cake and good company.
After a good night sleep with a few interruptions by early morning Kookaburra. We enjoyed eggie bread and Italian coffee on the stoves, before taking down camp, deflating the tyres and heading off to do some 4by4ing in sand dunes.
We hadn’t been going for long when Michael (who was in the front car) came upon a guy in the sand dunes. Mark and I watched the story unfold from the top of the last dune, until we became part of it. From across the radios we heard “Mark snap strap”. A Snap Strap for those of you who have not done 4by4ing, which was also me up until today. This is a strap, which is attached to one car and then to the car that is stuck and is used to help the stuck car to get their wheels free, the clues in the name really.
I watched Mark’s face light up, after weeks and weeks of four by four talk and the importance of safety gear, which costs an arm and leg. Mark was going to final be able to demonstrate to me what he has been going on about. With his foot to the pedal and with care Mark makes his way across the sand dunes to find a Nissan Patrol with four wheels stuck in the sand.
The drivers face dropped further when he realised that the Prado (the car Michael was driving) was not the car that was going to rescue him, but the toy 4by4 (Freelander 2). He’d already been getting stick from his friends that were his passengers,
When it was established that he’d rather Mark rescued him than ringing his other mates at the campsite to help him. Mark and Michael prepared the car’s and assisted the driver to free his car.
In the mean-time I was talking to the passengers and found out that they were Sea Scouts from Port Noarlunga. I got the impression that the driver ‘s day was getting worse on the mickey taking side. When he realised that he had not only been rescued by what many Australians call a toy 4by4 he had, also been rescued by a Girl Guide.
On exchanging thanks on both parts, we parted ways and enjoyed the rest of the course. After the excitement of the morning we headed back to Adelaide with a stop off at Waikarie.
In all a fantastic weekend.
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