Little Desert Lots of Fun
Being in Dimboola we were right next to the Little Desert. So one afternoon we took an expedition into the National Park. Emily with her L’s on was driving the Amarok. We drove a track that followed the Wimmera River which was firm gravel. We then turned onto a more sandy track. the sand was quite soft but both cars handled it with no issue and no need to lower tyre pressure. Emily had a ball and declared she was having the Amarok. I told her Tess would be fighting her for it because as far as she’s concerned she’s already baggsed it.
Mum loved it. She was initially frustrated that she couldn’t get out and walk around to look at all the plants. But once we were on the sandy track with windows down the plants literally came to her.
A couple of days later and on a beautiful afternoon we headed back to the Little Desert for another blast. Choosing a different track with the Touareg in the lead and Emily again piloting the Amarok we headed off. We dropped down a small dip and the sand became quite soft. I got the Touareg through onto firmer ground thinking I will stop and drop air out of the Tyres no sooner had I thought that than the Amarok was up to its axles in sand. Emily was not so happy about 4 wheel driving. But being a lad I took it as an opportunity to show off my recovery skills.
I walked back to the Amarok and dropped the Tyre pressure down to about 15psi. Emily gave it another go only for it to inch forward and then bog deeper. Time for plan B. I went back to the Touareg dropped its tyres down to 15psi jacked up its suspension and backed up to the Amarok. I pulled out a snatch strap hooked the two cars together and away we went. Twang and the snatchy snapped.
At this point Nina was ringing a tow company, not realising I had a second tougher snatchy. She told the guy of the situation and his reply was “well I have a flatbed so that’s not going to help you. You need a 4wd”. You can hear him thinking “You’re F@#ked”.
I attached the other snatchy and we dug as much sand as we could out from the wheels as we could by hand, the shovel was back at camp?. We then gave it another go and got the Amarok free only for the Touareg to get bogged.
Nina backed the Amarok back. We filled in our holes and then ran it slowly backwards and forwards to firm up the ground. The snatchy was reattached and the Amarok pulled the Touareg out of its hole and we were right to go.
We then continued on our way giving it a bit more wellie to get through the tricky stuff until we finally made it back to firmer ground.
Emily hit her head going through one tricky patch so is less enthusiastic about 4 wheel driving. Tess the Amarok may still be yours.
I was well chuffed as a recovery superman??♂️. Somehow I’m not getting the same vibe from Nina. Strange.
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Didn’t Val And Graham have an ‘interest ‘ in The Little Desert? Quite an adventure for city folk.
Well done.
Yes. They had a holding in a Co-Op that bought a large parcel of untouched Mallee scrub further west near Kaniva. The land was eventually donated to the National Park.