B Grade Mugii Murum-ban: aka Mount Airlie

[Rocket55]

Locked and loaded ready for the trip :-)

see you you in the morning Jose, bright and early.

[Rocket55]

Congrats Dru & Kerry on leading a fantastic trip!! What an awesome track

It was a shame i had to high tail it out slightly before everyone else, but I trust everybody got out Ok.

There should be some great footage from the trip and looking forward to Jose's video.

It was good to see you JK boys bring your A game today and give us TJ's a bit of a challenge

[KegsyJK]

Great trip, thanks to all those who came and Dru & Kerry for organising. It was an enjoyable day on the tracks.

a bigger thanks to all those who pulled some cable and lended a hand wheel packing for the big rock step. Much appreciated.

hopefully we get to go back some day and give it another shot!

[KegsyJK]

[KegsyJK]

[Dru]

So Kerry thinks that was our best Muggi Murum-ban trip ever. High praise! So I thought I'd do a full written report while I remember.

Trip report - the ascent.

we caught up at the Capertee convenience store, pretty much everyone was early. Not bad when you needed to be on the road at 5:30 from Sydney and an amazing 4:00am for Rod and Jose from Woollongong! The Jeepers sat back in stone cold amazement when Will boldly stepped behind the counter then started serving others as well as himself.

Wish I'd seen the faces, of course Will's family own the store. I did say he practically lives on the track guys. Will's Dad Richard joined us for the day.

Air down and disconnect at Col's. That's the cabin and general collection of "stuff" and "big things" of Col Ribeaux of the famed Ribeax family who owned the Mt Airly diamond mine and have willingly offered the tracks to responsible 4wd-ers since the 1960's. Col was overseeing someone picking up a small bulldozer we said hi, he welcomed us to his mountain and on we went.

took a quick diversion on the way up to the Genowlan trig. The trig point itself is a cairn hidden in scrubby bush, but it's a turn around so we can stop at the view from Capertee valley, across Mt Airlie, the valley that is Jurassic Park and the Grotto, and to Genowlan Plateau where we are headed.

The miners have graded the trails through the valley only. And they are already deteriating. They set up a car parking area before the first true climb. Dirt track at this stage up to Pappy's Pass. Everyone went fine but had quickly understood that the B grade rating is deserved.

the next section changes from dirt to an interesting rock climb obstacle. The TJs needing to invent new lines here. Left is safe, right is dodgy but safe-ish, they go centre. Predictable!

Then roof rack canyon and the big step. To be honest though it looks easier than the past, it isnt. Those who dont know the track, this is the infamous A grade obstacle. Yes Rob, that boulder is (more) out of the way, its smaller too. But the step is harder to get at. I tried once on my own (when no-one was watching) resulting in some minor damage. Then with Ace spotter Kerry and got through.

We did take about an hour though it's tricky, even with winch or a tow which can simply pull you into the rock, not over it. Rod got through, but star of the show was Rahul who did it in one single attempt without acrobatics. Well done that Jeeper!

From here it's mostly rock crawling through the rock mesa climbing to the plateau. Bumpy run through the dwarf sheoak forest, more rock hopping to the summit for the walk through the nana-heath to woody forest at the point.

Dru'n'Kerry

[Dru]

Trip Report - the descent

All, yes all, experienced Jeepers I know prefer climbing to coming down. Personally I like when gravity is on my side, though it's true that risk increases.

Jose stepped into his natural role of "Cameraman and Chief Grip". Jumped to the front of the convoy, TJ seemingly smothered in go-pro's. Tripod and SLR in hand. I dont know that it is possible to do the scenery of this decent justice on video. Small glimpses of startling panarama, highlights between mesa rock faces surrounding the jeeps and spectacular forests in between.

One thing for sure, the weather was helping with bright blue skies and fabulous bright light.

Chief Grip positioned the cameras, that would make Kerry Director as she spotted us down the dreaded step. At the car park at the bottom, Jose shifted to the middle and focussed on forward cinemaphotography for the Grotto and Jurassic Park. We let Rod escape at this point trying to find a time tardis to make it to commitments back in the Illawarra.

And the convoy's time line evaporated, so we took the opportunity to check out the old diamond mine on Mt Airly proper. SJC often miss this as (a) the drive isnt very challenging; and (b) there is rarely time. But we deviated, checked out the camp spot at the base of the comms tower. Motored around to the diamond mine checking the view west and talked about the incredible pioneering work by the Ribeax.

then took the now over-growing trail out to Point Hatteras. Fabulous last spot for team photo with Mt Genowlan in the background. Did we really just climb that? Hatteras would be a wonderful spot to watch the sunset bounce of the cliff faces of Genowlan Plateau.

Back to Col's for air, connect and 2WD.

not another soul on the mountain on this trip, we had it all to ourselves. Strangely traffic on the highway was really light too, we were the only vehicle on Bells Line Of Road.

I think I like this time of year for wheelin'!

See you on the trails.

Credits:
Dieselcon, aka Rampage Productions - Jose: Driver, Cameraman and Chief Grip
Kerry: Director of Comms, Director of Action
Dru: Driver and background research
Rod: Driving Stunts
Kegsy: Greg - Driver
Jo: Talent (fabulous job acting astonished at the Step Jo!)
Rahul: Driver, perfect score at the Step!
Anshul - Comms and emotional support (thanks dude, see you next time!)
Mohawk, Nick - Driver and wheel arch percussion sound effects
Pam - Comms
Will - Driver, local input and bold coffee maker!
Richard - Sustenance and local knowledge.

Cheers guys

Dru'n'Kerry

[Agarwal_rahul]

Dru n Kerry - thanks a lot for this wonderful trip, this has to be the best one for us, we enjoyed it thoroughly, this was on our bucket list for a long long time.


Thanks a lot Kerry for guiding me and helping through out the track especially coming down the step, my heart was racing a million miles when I had my rear wheel in the air - that was a scary moment!!!


Thanks everyone on the track for helping with track building, guiding and spotting.


Thanks Jose for all the photos and videos can't wait for them to come out.


Special thanks from Anshul, he had great fun, especially providing moral support and simple advice to me, he is training to be my spotter!


Rahul




I had lots and lots of fun watching and learning how to spot, my favorite jeep was Rampage because it was very cool and looks like an off road buggy!


Thanks a lot everyone, cu on the track next time..


Anshul

[Dieselcon]

Awesome trip .. thanks to everyone who made this trip.. you all added to it - my favourite so far..and what an amazing show Airlie put on for us.. yes a long day. 3.45am on the road and back home by 2300... but worth it.. nearly 6 hrs of footage and I've got it down to 30 minutes .working on it all day .. . now the real editing starts .. looking forward to the Xmas party and then Yalwal on the Sunday. Thank you Dru and Kerry , you are amazing Hosts.

[Rocket55]

Here's my quick and dirty video I put together from yesterday. I'm no professional, but concider it a teaser until Jise puts his masterpiece together.

Anyway here it is.

https://youtu.be/fKYT6fL0uj0