On the Queen’s Birthday long weekend, 9, 10 and 11 June, a hardy few braved the cold winter weather for a trip to Amamoor State Forest. The trip was led by Andrew Bischoff and the TEC was Don Field (Dusty Don). From the meeting point at Burpengary Service Centre, surrogate trip leader, Wayne Bischoff lead a small group of four vehicles up the Bruce Highway and then through the beautiful Mary Valley.

Arriving at Amamoor State Forest we turned into the Cedar Grove camping area and met up with Andrew and Michael and his family who had arrived the previous afternoon and bravely weathered the near freezing conditions of Friday night. The grassy camping area is dotted with blue gums and ironbarks and has basic amenities. After the rest of us set up camp it was time to 4WD.

The first challenge of the day was a steep rocky climb that had some vehicles needing a couple of attempts to conquer. The rest of the afternoon was spent exploring other tracks of varying challenges. Some of the tracks were quite narrow and overgrown with lantana. The scenery was spectacular with plantations of hoop and bunya pines and natural rain forest.

On Sunday, with lunch packed, the group set off for a full day of 4WD. The tracks provided excellent variety with long slippery climbs and some very slippery downhill runs. Other tracks were deeply rutted, requiring careful negotiation. The trip leader and others provided excellent advice and encouragement to drivers in helping to safety tackle all the tracks.

Monday morning saw the group out again to get in some more 4WDing to make the best of the long weekend.

Andrew, with the help of Michael and Wayne lead the group to some of the highest points of the forest with beautiful panoramic views. Again we encountered some slippery tracks that provided interesting challenges. On the long downhill track from the forest top, one disgruntled local (a very large carpet snake) had to be moved off the track to allow us to pass.

This was a great long weekend of 4WDing. The excellent local knowledge of Andrew, Michael and Wayne enabled us to experience a variety of challenges over the weekend. The happy hour/s around the roaring fires warded off the worst of the cold weather on Saturday and Sunday nights. A great weekend. Thank you to Trip leader, Andrew and to Don the TEC.

Mark and Robin
June 2007