Novice day Tallarook 14th December family friendly

[lucus30]

I have stayed out of this for a number of reasons from being sick plus depressed and just plain pissed I was not there..

Now when I was sitting on the side of the freeway for over an hour waiting for a taxi I gave it a bit of thought and was a little worried but thought mick had the snail trail from the last time we came so should be right... did not expect them to take the wrong turn up that hill as it is a tough son of a bitch.

I received a phone call from someone who was there and they had major concerns about cars turning around on that hill..

I am concerned also that novices may have the wrong idea about a few things and I hope I can get back out to lead another group.
This time it will be no more than 8 cars total and it will be for novices that have not really been.. I will hsve one other experienced car along so that is 6 novices.

Now that hill may have changed slightly from the last time but no matter it is still tough.. I have winched 4 times and only darren winnie and George have made it unaided and about 15 cars in total that have been with me have winched.

Turning around on a hill is a big no no and there has to be huge exception to this.
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I'll come on your next one BA

[Rossco]

He is a crap driver though. He got lockers now so he can keep up

Yep - All the Gear and No Idea!!! Ha Ha Ha!!

Yeah Bugger! is that the hill where guys turned around? Healy got stuck half way up. Irish turned around at the bottom and did not even attempt it having done it weeks earlier. Good Call that day too. Yeah bugger. That is a Big Hill with a significant obstacle mid hill being the railway ballast a metre deep, once through the Ballast it goes off camber to the right. Oh well its done. Just be safe guys is all i ask.

I did manage to drive it, tried to winch Healy with the stanch block from beside him but the bloody rope was spinning on the drum, so had to give it a go. It is a pretty nasty hill that one, verrrry loose surface, like driving in a ball pit. Sounds like a few lessons learn but overall a good day out, everyone is safe at the end of the day.

[Bloodyaussie]

Yep - All the Gear and No Idea!!! Ha Ha Ha!!



I did manage to drive it, tried to winch Healy with the stanch block from beside him but the bloody rope was spinning on the drum, so had to give it a go. It is a pretty nasty hill that one, verrrry loose surface, like driving in a ball pit. Sounds like a few lessons learn but overall a good day out, everyone is safe at the end of the day.

Ahh thats right sorry Rossco how could I have doubted you.

[Rossco]

Yep

[Winnie]

Ahh thats right sorry Rossco how could I have doubted you.

See... I knew he could do it, I never doubted you man!

[krbrooking]

Well I have been out to tallarook quite a few times now, every time with BA. A lot of those times have been with novices. Both Drew and Dazz have very good points, you should really try not turn around on any hill. I have only ever been with someone that has done it, once. There was no going forward even with a winch and there was no other choice and we used measures to make it as safe as possible. I am by no means overly experienced but I am not a novice either. The hill in question was not the one I think everyone is thinking of it is the other side of the really bad one that Healy got stuck on and is not as hairy as that one as far as I know (I did not go up it). Not that it matters but I don't think there wasn't as many ppl that went up, from memory there was still 7 or 8 down the bottom. As far as I was aware everyone was comfortable with the tracks we were doing. The ppl that got recovered were from there own choices, I think Lucas was the only one that was recovered due to misfortune (other than the hill in question). I also think that the ppl that were up the hill had enough experience to make a judgement call on the situation at hand. I do think the basics had been gone over in the beginning but I could be wrong about that. Anyway like said before no point in the he said she said and there is a lesson to be learnt by everyone.

[MEGOMONSTER]

All this is sort of my fault as I was following the tracker from our last trip there and couldn't tel if we turned left or right. And I chose right. Track was easy till the end. Sorry didn't want it to end that way.

I did my best to make it an easy day.

[sooty_10]

Mego it was a great day and the tracks we traversed were suited to novices. Those that got recovered were not novices and chose to take a more optional route. Myself and most of the guys didn't go up that hill and I'm sure decisions were made based on what the situation actually was on the ground. The guys at the bottom took your word for the fact that it wasn't suitable for the novices and stayed were we were. All in all you did a great job of leading the trip and everyone had a great time and learnt a bit at the same time. It was definitely a shame BA was unable to make it, but you definitely did a good job in the end and nothing we encountered was not suitable for novices.

[krbrooking]

Mego it is not your fault at all like Sooty said you did an awesome. Like we have both said as well the ppl the that got stuck "chose" to do so. It was not ideal turning around on the hill but only the ppl on the hill can comment on that. Yes it is not best practice and should be avoided (which we all know now) but it has been done (without incident). I don't think Drew intended on this turning into a debate, I believe he just wanted to point out the risks of turning around on a hill for those that were not aware. Sent from my iPhone using Forum Runner

[Hodge]

All this is sort of my fault as I was following the tracker from our last trip there and couldn't tel if we turned left or right. And I chose right. Track was easy till the end. Sorry didn't want it to end that way.

I did my best to make it an easy day.

What a crock of s#it mate. The whole day was great!!! You were probably the most experienced there, and we took a wrong turn so what. Live and learn.
And as per one of my previous posts before. Thank you for leading the day mate!