Four Wheel Driving

There was a semi-palpable sense of excitement, nay dread in the air the next morning as we girded our loins for the adventure ahead.

We had set our sights on Twin Falls Gorge which lay down the four-wheel-drive-only track we had glimpsed the previous day.

With our four wheel drive would we conquer the long dark road that stretched out on the map, the map which warned us not to attempt such a feat without a satellite phone with which to call in the Emergency Services?

Or with our four wheel drive would we become stranded in some unknown country with no satellite phone with which to admit ignominious defeat?

Well, we thought, bugger it. What's the point in having hired said beast if we weren't prepared to give it a go.

We set off down the track which soon turned into an area of dirt between the low forests of gum and termite hills as it wound its way toward the distant cliffs to which we assumed we were headed.

Before long we happened upon a poor lost soul walking up the track towards us. We stopped and bade him hello, and his plaintive call for help was a little worrying.

He was an Englishman who had been told that his vehicle wouldn't have trouble making it down the track but he needed help. His 4x4 was completely stuck with his friends waiting with it and could we help him?

We had no towing equipment so the sorry answer was no, so we topped up his bottle with water and left him walking back to the campsite to get help.

The track degraded into powdery dust which the tank laboured through reasonably effortlessly through we didn't get much out of second gear.

Before long we came to a section where the track split into two dauntingly dust-filled gashes in the earth. In the middle gash lay a van; a Wicked Camper as it happens; stranded like some beached whale.

The girls left behind were a little agitated and we stopped to let them know what was happening. Before long the campsite guy came along so we left them to it and gunned it down the other gash... no worries, except at the end where it looked like we might run out of speed, but the trusty Landcruiser saw us through.

The track wound sinuously across the countryside, the dirt changing from grey to yellow to red and back to grey. We learned that the grey stuff was the stuff to watch out for, powdery and yielding.

It went on for many miles across dried out streambeds before we arrived at a day use area and were then confronted by a river to cross with just a few posts to steer between.

So nerves steeled we slid the truck into the river, the water rising up around us, pushing it in front like a... well like a big car going through quite deep water. It was terribly exciting.

And then a few minutes later we arrived at Twin Falls Gorge. Intact.

Hurrah for us! There was a semi-palpable sense of relief.

Until we decided that Nicole should drive back.