TRAX 4WD Fellowship

Trip Report – YENGO TRACK
Saturday, 25th February 2023

Alex and Paul Ford Ranger
Linda and Phillip Nissan Patrol
Sally and Jane Land Rover Defender

We met at the Corrugated Café Peats Ridge at 8.00am. Some of us enjoyed a hot cup of coffee and we chatted for a bit and then headed off at 8.25am. A very sunny day not a cloud in the sky.
Turned left into George Downes Drive off Peats Ridge Road. Drove through a quaint little town called Kulnura and the bush was so green and lush.
Passed a sign saying Mangrove Creek Dam was closed.
Soon we saw a sign saying Cessnock. I assume we are now in the County of Cessnock. Passed Mt McQuoid on George Downes Drive. Traffic on The Great North Road at the landside (months ago) was controlled by traffic lights as they were fixing the road.

We passed a sign telling us not to take grapes passed this point and the air wave were alive with chatter. By the way we are having a Grape Day today. We thought it would be interesting to stop at Murrays Run Culvert. This was built by the convicts in 1830.Alex and Paul went down and took pictures of a plaque while we look our pictures from the road.
After Thompsons Bridge, we passed a Rhinoceros on our left but he was harmless. Thank you Alex for warning us of his potential charge. Three kit cars passed us going in the opposite direction along the way. I have no idea of their make but it was just interesting to see.
Soon we were turning left off The Great North Road into Yengo Creek Road. From here we turned left onto Boree Valley Road passing Knight Road. The area was covered in lots of tree ferns, very pretty.

We are now in Yengo National Park and heading onto Finchley Aboriginal Track. We decided to take the left track (Boree track) to Boree 2.7km. On our left we came across a swimming pool/dam but to me it didn’t look too inviting probably has snakes nearby.
Devils Rock was about half an hour away. Left onto Boree Valley Road and saw a sign “Wallabadah Valley Road (Private Access)” then turned right to Boree and proceeded through a creek crossing.
Along our way we stopped and spoke with a local and he advised us that the track ahead was overgrown that we wouldn’t be able to drive through. It did show on Phillip’s map a loop track that would take us back to where we started from before our detour. So we turned around and went back the way we came.
Alex came across a huge tree partly across the track. It looked like someone had used a chainsaw and removed just enough to get through but making it difficult to avoid. So Alex hooked up the winch and proceeded to move the tree off the track but that meant we had to use a bush axe to chop the branches off the tree. After that bit of excitement, we continued on, coming across more side trails marked private access like Weerong Creek, Simpsons Creek and Pademelon Road. We proceeded straight ahead.
We stopped for a short break at the Finchley Aboriginal campground and looked around the campsite. National Parks have put in a new toilet block and raised numbered camp sites with fire pits. This is all located behind large sandstone blocks. So you need to carry your tent to the camp site from your vehicle. We then proceeded a short distance to explore the Aboriginal Carving site. We turned right onto Finchley Track and drove a short distance to our lunch spot.

It was approximately 12 noon when we reached the Finchley Trig lookout. We walked up to the lookout and took in the views. Lunch was under a shady tree in the car park.
At 1.00pm we continued our trip toward the Putty Road. First on the Finchley Track then the Yengo Track and finally turning right onto Howes Trail. At 1.50pm, we stopped along the way for a short break and stretch. We were near the turn off to Big Yango, The sun was shining with just a few clouds, it was a perfect day. We noticed that some of the plants had blue ribbons tied to them and there was sign explaining that these plants with the ribbons on them were threatened species (olearia cordata).

Then we came across some slashers on the side of the track. We did notice that there were several areas on either side of the track where they have been slashing overgrown shrubs and small plants.
The trip after lunch was the more interesting four wheel driving. We were going up and down hills. The tracks were in good condition but not like the track off The Great North Road.
Alex said he spotted a goanna but we couldn’t see it ourselves. We were travelling through private property where we were opening and shutting gates along the way.
A few more gates to open and shut and a creek crossing.
We finally came to the Putty Road and the end of our 4WD trip. A fellow traveller offered to shut the gate at the Putty Road and we all turned left. We stopped and said our goodbyes Alex, Paul and the girls proceeded towards Windsor while Linda and Phillip turned around and headed for Broke and The Entrance.
Hope to see you all on the next TRAX trip.
Linda & Phillip

Trip Report – Yengo Track Recce Trip

Date: Thursday 19th January 2023

Attendees and Vehicles:
Alex Levshin (Trip Leader) and Alan Davis
Ford Ranger
Neil Flower and Ron Paton
Land Rover Disco S2
Ralph Radovan
Range Rover P38
Rob Drummond
Toyota Land Cruiser 200

Weather: Warm, but intermittent light rain most of the day. Did not cause any problems.

Route taken: Trip members met and ‘coffee’ed’ at Peats Ridge Village centre on Peats Ridge Road north of the M1 Motorway.

Trip Details: This was a midweek ‘Recce’ trip to assess if all the ‘La Ninã’ rains had caused any problems, serious washaways or closures, diversions or detours to the track and to see if it was still navigable for say, ‘soft-roader’ type vehicles. Thus, only a small number of participants attended (6 in all with 4 vehicles. The trip went from East to west and on the Yengo track, and on the conclusion of that drive a further short ‘recce’ was made up the ‘Commission Rd.‘ to see if the road to ‘Sheepskin Hut’ was also still navigable.

Distances:

1. Peats Ridge Village to End of Yengo Track (Junction with Putty Rd.) = 93.7km.
2. Junction of Yengo and Putty Rds. to Windsor = 115 km.
3. From end of Yengo Track to Commission Rd = 6.5 km
4. From end of Yengo Track to the old ‘Halfway Roadhouse’ (approx.) = 12 km.

The Details: The day began overcast and threatened rain. This was no idle threat as it did -almost all day! Only very light rain, mostly just drizzle and not enough to cause any great worries, tyre slippages or bogging. It actually made the bush look beautiful, the wet seemed to have more colour and of course much more ‘shine’ than when dry.

We departed Peats Ridge at about 8:15am and headed north through Kulnura till just before reaching the village of Laguna the road to Yengo turns off to the left. It did, so did we!

The road was in quite good condition and we made good time.

At approximately 3km along this road we turned left onto the Boree valley road and proceeded along that way. Intermittent drizzle, although only of ‘nuisance’ type – just heavy to cause us to leave our wipers on intermittent to cleat the windscreen every 20 seconds or so.

Another 17 kms brought us to the Finchley ‘Camp Ground’, a quite nice area which is being developed by the NPWS with a brand new ‘long-drop’ toilet, cleared spaces for parking and flat areas for tents and camping. Unfortunately, this was the only time on the whole trip when it rained hard enough for us to seek some shelter under one of the new NPWS awnings in order to have our Morning Tea.

Near the Finchley camping area are aboriginal rock engraving which probably showed up better because they were wet and the grooves full of water which made taking photos so much easier.

Proceeding another 13.5kms (approx.) brought us to a god spot for lunch. The rain had all but stopped and we were able to get out the chairs and lunch things. Lunch was OK but dessert…! Ralph had very kindly purchased a huge watermelon to share and everyone had a great dessert of really sweet and very juicy melon. Delicious. Thanks Ralph. (Come again!!!)

Setting off from the lunch spot the road became more of a track and more rutted and with a few ‘grooves’ especially on the up and down hill sections. Not enough to worry any of the vehicles that had high ground clearance and certainly not steep enough to warrant engaging low range. But, this correspondent would not recommend the last 25 kms or so of the track for ‘soft-roader vehicles unless they had good ground clearance – eg. Some of the single range utes with good clearance.

The bush looked beautiful. Yes, we couldn’t see very far over the valley because of the low cloud and mist, but there is something really nice about driving though the bush in such weather. (You don’t get ‘pin stripes’ on your vehicles paintwork because of the wet leaves for one thing. The road (realy ‘the track’ has not been used much of late and the bush is starting to ‘close-in’, especially because of the extra weight of rain water on the leaves. The further we went the slower the progress as the track became just that little bit rougher. No scrabbling, no slipping on the ascents or descents but enough to make the vehicle’s suspension get a good workout.

Nineteen and half kms from our lunch place we came out on the ‘Putty’ Road at about 3:15pm. This point is 115 kms from Windsor along a really nice bitumen road and good time can be made.

However, this was a ‘Recce’ trip and so just 6kms along we turned right onto a track called ‘Commission Road, because that is the way to the Sheepskin Hut, which is a trip that will be advertised to TRAX members shortly. We wanted to check out the first kms of road to see how much damage the rains of the last couple of years had caused. The NSW Forests Corporation have been rebuilding the steeper (last half) of this road and they tell us that it will be complete at the end of January (This month.) So, we wanted to check out the older part of the track. It checked out OK! Don’t miss the full round trip which we hope can be done in March. (Easy but really nice and isolated.)

Well, that’s about it. Most of us were hope by about 7:00pm and able to relax. Don’t miss either the Yengo Track or the Sheepskin Hut trips when they are advertised. (Get onto the committee members and make ‘em set some dates!)

In conclusion, we had a really great day; a relatively easy trip, great views, and most of all really great fellowship. (and watermelon!). Thanks to Alex Levshin who did a great job as trip leader, to Ron and Rob for their photography and all the gang who came.

“See yers on the TRAX”,
Neil Flower