Learning to drive
Neither of us have done any off road driving, except by accident but we won’t talk about that now ;-)
Our plan to learn the ropes from my brother, Ken, was scuppered by the lockdown in Vic being extended by yet another month so we started to consider other options, maybe a course or joining a group to pick some more experienced brains. Then a chance conversation with another customer in the Adelaide 4x4 Iron Man shop in Wayville provided a solution. He recommended going to Bendleby Ranges in the Southern Flinders which is a working sheep station with really good campgrounds and over 200Km of off road tracks. These are graded by skill level required and the station crew offer support if you get stuck or indeed, come unstuck. After a look at the website and a read of the glowing reviews, we booked a four night stay.
We had an overnight stop at Clare Discovery Holiday Park in the heart of a wine region famous for Riesling in the hope of picking up some cheap vino. Our experience of wine regions in Europe has been that a chat with a local merchant provides guidance on what’s good and we’ve never had poor bottle for a few Euros. We may just have picked the wrong shop but, at $25, the wine we bought was not cheap but quite drinkable. On leaving the park, we joined the G’day Rewards club which, for 50 bucks for two years, provides discounted stays at may sites across Australia and 4c off per litre fuel.
We stopped for a delicious vegan lunch in Jamestown at a little cafe called [ek-wi-tee], a gem in a small town, clearly popular with locals and travellers alike. The town is like many in rural Australia with a wide main street, parking down the middle and lined with a selection of veranda shaded shops to meet the needs of people who live and work here as well as those like us, just passing through. It felt both gentle and harsh.
Heading North-East from Orroroo on the Johnburgh Rd, it’s not far to the Crotta Rd turn off, our first bit of dirt road. We stop to air down the tyres to 25psi and drive the 48Km to the Bendleby Ranges Station. The campground is made up of well distanced sites where groups travelling together can circle the wagons around a camp fire. Nearest to the reception cabin is the Sunset Camp, a collection of group sites with toilets, showers and electric hook-up as well as access to an indoor shared kitchen near by, we chose one of these because it was still pretty cold at night and we felt we needed to work up to using the caravan loo for more than a midnight wee! As we were on our own, we had one called The Pines, all to ourselves. There are other more remote sites without electricity, some of which are on challenging off road trails. It’s fairly pricy at $28 per person per night with an additional fee of $80 for access to the off road tracks for the duration of our stay but we felt this was worth it for the learning opportunity.
The station is set between two ranges; the simpler tracks on the Bendleby Range to the North-west and the more challenging ones up in the Hungry Range to the East. We spent about five hours on the first day doing green and amber tracks with a short bit of red that had recently been graded. Ian had read up on the theory of using the 4WD in high and low ratios and understood the need to keep off the clutch and let the engine crawl forwards. It was almost impossible to stall, something I had not appreciated. He drove really well and between us we considered the lines to take on trickier bits and tested the approach to use on different road surfaces, whether to crawl or give it a bit more throttle. Mostly we crawled as it was a bit scary. Stopping for our packed lunch on Sunset Ridge Lookout, we once again marvelled at the vastness stretching in all directions. The day was crystal clear so the view was absolutely breathtaking.
On the second day we awoke to a complete change of weather brought by a warm Northerly wind, so we went from needing hot water bottles to flip-flops in just a few hours. I drove part of the route we had done the previous day so I could get to feel it first hand. My left foot was constantly twitching, it felt counterintuitive not to use the clutch but didn’t take long to be convinced I wouldn’t stall it. We did a few sections differently just to see what happened and realised that going a bit quicker on the flatter tracks was actually more comfortable. We really ached from bouncing around so were happy to do less driving.
The wind flipped 180 degrees a second time so, after a night with no covers and all the widows open, it was bloody cold again and now was raining too. After recording our departure time and expected route with reception, we set off to do some more challenging tracks in the Hungry Ranges. The plan was to do three separate loops sticking to the light red tracks rated up to 8/10 but just one look frightened us to the point we decided that the limiting factor was our confidence not the Troopy’s ability. The point where we stalled going up, what felt like, a near vertical slope with equally steep slopes falling away either side made us realise that this wasn’t an activity we would seek to do for fun. At the top of the slope we were unable to see where the road went over the bonnet because it dropped away so steeply. Ian got out to have a look and scrambled down down the track to see what the surface was like. It was so loose and steep he struggled to get back up. The Troopy managed to carry us down without missing a beat, even though there was less stuffing in the seat than when we left! Check out this short video clip of one of the less challenging bits of an 8/10 track.
Bendleby Ranges are a great place to learn to drive in an off road vehicle; midweek in winter turned out to be a good time to go as we had the place pretty much to ourselves. A large group turned up on the day we left and were planning to drive in convoy so less experienced drivers can learn from others. A good plan but it would have been even more uncomfortable for us had we been holding up a queue of 10 vehicles.
We learnt the difference between hub lockers and diff lockers. We thought we had the latter but actually have the former. I won’t bore you here but they are different and it’s important to understand what they both do and when they are needed, this is a good description as a starting point but it’s best to talk to someone who knows, preferably over a beer.
Next time, follow us around the Yorke Peninsula.
