1 hour 10 min north

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: 1 hour 10 min north  #28
Dates: 6-7 July
Weather: Perfect. No rain, no wind, sunny, but cold. Nothing a fire and warm clothes couldnt fix.
Crew: Toon, Jax, Billie, Ross, Ella, Alphie, LJ, Hugo.
Key Tracks Hit: N/A
Vehicles Used: Paj, Mazda, Subi
Distance Travelled: 220km
Campsites: #28. Solid spot, maybe one of the best in this area.
Fishing: N/A Closed season. River was awesome though and would be great spot to fish.
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: n/a
Food: Hot diggidy dogs, chips, stoner cones, lollies, chicken wings/legs, froot loops, bacon and eggs, pancakes.
Report: Was worried we would be amongst hoards of people given school holidays, but it worked out very awesome indeed. Great site, great times. Hugo's first time out, and the kid was a champ. Few tears from kids, meant the trip was pretty chill. All kids had fun, all adults had fun too. Need to keep arranging these! Ross' tent is massive, we all had a sleep over in that. Most dissapointing thing was the midnight chicken not up to scratch!
Rating: 9/10. Chicken was a let down.

Toolangi State Forest

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Toolangi State Forest
Dates: 25th - 27th Jan
Weather: Hot
Crew: Toon, Willo, Ross
Key Tracks Hit: Various. Winter time this place would be insane and you need one seriously hard core lifted truck. Many bog holes and slippery slides!
Vehicles Used: Paj + Pathy
Distance Travelled: 380 km
Campsites: Special One i am not going to tell you about.
Fishing: 1 trout. See https://fishingcrew.blogspot.com/2019/01/murrindindi-river.html
Gear Purchased: Liam gave his old mans funky campfire frypan
Gear Review: Funky frypan is awesome.
Food: Ate like kings again. Fried chicken wings and legs, nachos, lamb souvas, hot dogs, bacon and egg rolls,
Report: Awesome time. Was going to hit up Upper Big River, but a fire started just past Marysville, and so had to come up with a back up plan. Headed to Rubicon, and waited at Buxton to get confirmation from Ross/Willo they were coming. Ditched Rubicon and chose Toolangi. Was super surprised no one was there, maybe because i had to open the track after a tree fell over the road? Either way, site was nice, if only it had a bigger river to do proper fishing in or swimming. Was just a wicked couple of days chillin, kloping, and talking shit.
Rating: 7/10. Would have been better if Ross stayed another night and LJ didnt little jimmy.

Upper Big River - McClelland Camp

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Upper Big River State Forest
Dates: 10-11 Feb
Weather: Hot
Crew: VB Fam
Key Tracks Hit: N/A
Vehicles Used: Paj
Distance Travelled: 380km
Campsites: McClelland
Fishing: Unfortunately none. Was itching to drop a line!!
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: N/A
Food: Hamburgers, Coco Pops, Fruit, Vegemite, various other odds and ends
Report: Awesome to get out for the first session of the year. The place is wicked, and far less crowded than Rubicon and Lower Big River and the sites further north. Many campsites to choose from, it may have been empty because we were there weekday, but left late friday pm and still no one on the big river rd. The most annoying part, and what ultimately cut the trip short were the FLIES! Fuck loads of them and there is nothing you could do. They were everywhere, and then when they started to piss off at about 8pm, the freaking tiny midgie flies were everywhere. They got in your eyes, mouth, nose, and worst of all wine! Had to go to bed at 9pm. The next morning was warm and the flies were around, so got on the road and had a blast up on Lake Mountain flying fox, summer toboggan, and orienteering course. Kids had a blast, and i have to give a massive thumbs up to the guys at Lake Mountain, they were exceptional in their service. Spent the rest of the day at Marysville Pool, and then headed back to camp to pack up the site. Hit the road at about 6:30pm and headed home. Would have loved to stay another night, but the flies said see ya later!
Rating: 7/10

Noojee

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Tangil River, near Noojee and Fumina
Dates: 25th and 26th July
Weather: Fine
Crew: My whole crew + REM +Jackie
Key Tracks Hit: Just the singular down towards the campsite, Simpsons Rd. A logging/4wd track.
Vehicles Used: Paj + Isuzu MUX
Distance Travelled: 270km
Campsites: The one right on the river.
Fishing: The week before season opened! Dang!
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: N/A
Food: Hot dogs, stoner cones, kippers on toast, KFC on the way home!
Report: Great to get out again, and Sam's first camping adventure. Site was nice, a little boggy but expected that time of year. Kids had a blast falling in the river and just wicked to get out. Drunk far too much whiskey that night though!!
Rating: 7/10.

Great Walhalla Alpine Trail (Walhalla to Baw Baw)

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: Walhalla - Baw Baw (1st section of Alpine Trail)
Dates: 26th & 27th May
Weather: Perfect. Fine, no rain, but cold.
Crew: Toon, Ross, Willo, Huggett, SP, LJ.
Key Tracks Hit: Walhalla - Baw Baw
Vehicles Used: Legs
Distance Travelled: 40km
Campsites: Mushroom Rocks
Fishing: N/A
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: N/A
Food: Curry for dinner, wraps for lunch, bircher muesli for brekky, fancy bacon wrapped eggs for brekky, snags, various snacks.
Report: Wind back the clock and go for a hike. It was pretty special to be able to have all 6 fellas on this trip, something that doesnt happen too often! Huggett cose the destination, and what deemed like an easy overnighter, turned into a grueling adventure! 40kms - pfft simple. But not when you're not 16 anymore, carrying 20kg on your back and the hike is virtually uphill the whole way. Oh and combine blisters from the 7km mark makes this one tough son of a bitch!

Day 1 was a challenge. Very easy first 8kms on flat ground pretty much to the Thompson River bridge (a highlight in itself!). Then its uphill for the next 20km. That was tough shit. Arrived at campsite in dark at 6:30pm, pitched up tent, ate dinner, and we all died in bed.

Next day recharged and sore, ate food and headed to baw baw. Uphill for the first 4-5 km before undulating the rest of the day.

Well worth it, just get better boots and maybe carry less wine and whiskey. Haha. Thanks for the hike gents!!

Pics below on GPS tracking represents the 1st day only (battery ran out so could not get day 2 tracking)

Rating: It was fun, just not enjoyable. The score would have been less if i wrote this up straight away, but now in hindsight it was awesome. 8/10.

Return to the Grampians

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping

Location: Grampians

Dates: 17/5/2018 - 21/5/2018

Weather: Sun 2/5 days, rained 3/5.  We are looking forward to a trip in the TVAN where we encounter no wet weather...

Great Weather the first day, our site immediately after set up.

Crew: REMJP Crew

Key Tracks Hit: Victoria Range Road (1.5 hours heaps to see); Henham Track; Glenelg River Road (nice views), plenty of other random roads in search for more potential campsites.

Vehicles Used: ISUZU MUX

Distance Travelled: 1000+ kms

Campsites: Wallaby Rocks Campsite

Fishing: None

Gear Purchased: None

Gear Review: N/A

Food: Basil Chicken, Sausages and Deb Mash with broccolini, Smoked Duck Pasta, Mooshu Pork Roti Wraps.

Report:

I won't bore you with an extensive report this time but key highlights for us on this trip were as follows

Halls Gap Zoo it cost us $80 for the three of us, so quite expensive but we found to be a worthwhile half day experience for our little on.

Kids will have a ball here

Mount Zero Hike northern grampians, interesting hike as you get squeeze through a ravine to get to the top and neeed to do some rock scrambling as well.  Great views on offer here as well, would be tricky with kids though if they were running around on the loose.

View from the top of Mount Zero, looking the other direction will provide views of Mount Zero Olive Farm

The little ravine made the walk interesting

If you have time we recommend this 2hr walk

Jake loved the walked

Did a Geochache at Paddy's Castle which was a bit of fun, this area offers reasonably nice views and is a perfect place to do an easy 20 minute walk with young kids.  Trail takes you around the back of a rock feature so that you can easily climb to the top to check out the views and have a picnic.

Victoria Range Road, cool fun for some easy 4wding.  Some cracker campspots here as well.  Our favourite was called hot banana, this site has a spectacular view but also a bit of trek to get to ie will add 1.5 hours to your commute time if intending on staying here. Hot Banana would fit two tents or one trailer at a squeeze.  Contact me for coordinates.

Also our favourite not so secret secret spot paid dividends again with amazing views and not much wind this time so we could stay here for our entire duration of the trip.  It was funny though we didn't see anyone for 4/5 days, on saturday though I site was visited by 40 or so dirt bike riders whilst we were having breakfast.

Rating: 9.6/10 just getting better.

1 hour 10 min drive north...

Type: 4wd'ing + hiking + camping
Location: 1 hour 10 min drive
Dates: 28th + 29th April
Weather: Perfect. Sunny and mild.
Crew: Toon, Jax, Beel, Ross, Ella, Alfie
Key Tracks Hit: Various ones on the drive out. Some challenging rocky stuff, but tracks were pretty dry.
Vehicles Used: Paj + Pathy.
Distance Travelled: 250km
Campsites: 1.1 hour north. #21
Fishing: Beautiful stream, kids = no fishing.
Gear Purchased: N/A
Gear Review: 
Food: Snags, bacon & eggs, general easy stuff.
Report: Overnighter with the kids last minute trip. Sweet spot to get out of town at the drop of a hat. Lots of people though, but campsite definitely felt secluded.
Rating: 8/10.