We had a great time too.
Took us a while on SS1 to get around the place but made it to the property in the end on Friday night and had a very cold night in the swag.
We were the first to go in SS2 winching twice through the course before breaking a CV on the last hill, and winching into the finish gate 20 seconds over the DNF.
After changing the CV we went off to our next stage (SS6) which was first aid where we struggled through.
SS8 was a fairly easy stage with a short downhill into a gully , a few rocks to negotiate and then a full noise climb up to the finish gate. On the way to SS5 we picked up a stick which wedged in the side step and dented the drivers sill pretty badly which was disappointing.
SS5 was a great stage with a little bit of mud to start then a fast run up and round a few gentle but long hills before a steep climb and through to the finish. We had to winch on the steep climb and struggled to keep it on line but eventually got up and made it inside DNF.
SS3 started with a backward winch down (what felt like) a near vertical face before weeaving in and out of the creek with some reasonably nasty drop offs and a deep water finish. We really felt the size of the Patrol on this stage where we couldn't make any of the turns in and out without a few goes and DNF's before the deep water with a load of penalties.
SS4 was our last for the day and was a tight rocky gully with a driver change, hill climb, driver change and back down. We hit the DNF time at the half way mark and since nobody else had made the DNF up to then we carried on. Even trying the Driving Miss Daisy approach we took out nearly every peg on the course and got about 20 penalties :(
Saturday night was another GPS nav run. We were really struggling on this one and kept running in to Rod & Julie coming the other way who we kept blinding and running off the track - sorry guys, we didn't know what we were supposed to be doing, where we were going, or which switch did what.
Sunday we handed in our mapping answers (SS14) and started the day with a bush knowledge quiz (SS10)where we did well enough to win
![Smile :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)
- don't know how!
Then as other stages were going slow we jumped the queue and did SS 9 which was a rerun ofv the first half of SS2 followed by some rocky bits and a couple of mud runs and slalom. We were really pleased to drive the whole stage without winching (although Dave got out to set up the straps in advance 'cos we thought we would have to) and this was probably our best stage
SS11 was a drop in to water, creek run, winch hill driver change, downhill and then wheel swap with 1 jack. I got a bit carried away on this one and burnt the clutch badly slipping it while winching up the hill then we stuffed around changing the tyre for ages and missed the DNF by about 20 minutes!
Last up was SS10, a rocky creek bed with a ledge to climb the end of. We ended up winching 3 times in here , bird nested the winch and jammed it as well as bending the bullbar and front guard. And missed the DNF by about 15 minutes!
Overall we had a fantastic time apart from the cold cold nights! We learnt a lot and were continually impressed by the setup and skills of the other drivers and navvy's.
Event was great and well organised - sincere thanks to Rob, Andy and all those whoc gave their time, money and effort to make it happen.
Keep the pics rolling in - we didn't get any.