John Gryphon
Well-Known Member
Being a deer hunter in Victoria means that you should have a decent vehicle,decent tyres, a snorkel for river crossings and if you haven't got a winch be ultra careful as to where you venture.
The years 1979-1983 were true drought years in Victoria and everything was as dry as a dead dingo`s donger! Lake Eildon was a place surrounded by some very rough steep bush covered mountains that we frequented for hunting Sambar deer as it was full of them at the time.
We hunted regularly using one week in the mates SWB Landcruiser the next week in my 109" LWB Landrover tray body truck.
Due to the drought the lake was well down and after so many years of dry we actually camped on the lake bed itself,There was always a great supply of firewood and we would simply drag logs with either 4wd to set our camp fire up.We had some pretty good camp fires.
We had a **** load of rain fall on one Saturday night and the next morning had to pull my LR out of the lake bed using a 2 ton come along hand winch,it was basically junk but without it we would not have gone home.
I was too young and poor to be able to afford a winch in those days.
Next crack was a series of rock bar`s in the track on a steep section that had given us trouble the week before but being dry at that time we got up and over. Well after the rain the shaley rocks had a greasy/soapy feel and my LR wouldn't get over and up and I ended up blowing the rear differential. Shredded it!
****! I said to mate Phil that I had made the decision that I would walk out hoping to get a ride somehow,well then it started to snow ffs!
Anyway Phil advised that he would be right and rolled out his swag for a bit of warmth and set up in the large dog box on the tray.
I trudged up the ridgeline track (total length camp to top of 2.64 miles measured on GE) and as I climbed the steep ******* of a track the snow got heavier and heavier which resulted in the dogwood lining the track to bend in and over the track with the snow weight almost to the point where following the track was getting a bit ordinary. In fact at one stage I had thoughts of it being a bit dangerous and of turning back and camping at the ute. It was an option as the missus would have phoned someone after a few days of not returning home.
After soldiering on I finally broke out onto the Jamieson -Eildon road and could see by the snow on the road that no one had been by that Sunday arvo.It was around 4.30 PM and was due to be dark in 1/2 an hour or so and then thinking wtf will I go back or what to do a car appeared...well a city slicker bloke with his sheila on board stopped when they saw the snow covered bloke waving his hands ha ha. I did see that it to them was one of those moments like "wtf would anyone be doing out in this ****ing place"
On hitching a ride back home for several hours I gave him a few bucks in thanks and then rang a mate (Mick) as he owned a Landcruiser with an 8000 lb Thomas electric winch on it.
I told him it was going to be a ****ing long drag over quite a few hundred yards up a mother ****er hill.
He was keen for the recovery and suggested that he had a heap of electricity pole cable guy wires we could use to add to the winch rope. They had been proffered for sale at the local St Mary`s school fete but with no takers the donor left them there, so Mick as an organiser he took them home that day...thank ****!
We then set off with as much gear as we could think of and headed back up into the bush.
This is where the **** really starts. We arrived on the top of the track and gently pushed our way down through the snow covered bushes and trees to a spot we could stay his truck on. It was 2 am,cold as charity and pitch black. Due to the curvature of the mountain track we could not see each others vehicles let alone the headlights when all were going later on.
Mick asked "where the **** is Phil" and I said 'down there 300 or 400 ****ing yards ' he just saw pitch black with the track disappearing over the drop off in the track.
We knotted cable after cable after cable together and I then walked down to my truck slipping and sliding (and cursing) and as I arrived at the old LR I gave a yell. Phil woke with a start from a deep sleep. I remember bringing him some sort of a feed that he gannetted down like a wolf.
All set, I hooked up the cable and sent Phil up top then started the LR motor for light and then waited until I saw the wire rope tighten and that was that.SFA happened,nothing more ffs. WTF? I climbed wearily (trudged) back up top to the top base to find that the NONG had started the winching without running the ****ing engine ffs and had flattened his batteries. It was the first time he had ever used it,what a lesson,what a **** place to learn ha ha.
AAAAHHHH! **** ME! So off I went back down the **** hill which btw was steep as buggery and with slushy snow covered **** all over it and unbolted my 700 CCamp mother of a battery that by now weighed a ton and carried it back up the hill.**** me that took some doing and even though it was cold as I was sweating like a *******.
We had no jumper leads so we had to unbolt Mick`s pair of six volt batteries to install my battery for the start then remove and re bolt his batteries back in. All this in cold wet snowy conditions in the wee hours and tiredness was taking over,spanners slipping cold hands crying blah blah.
We then started Micks truck and I then carried the mother of a battery back down that ****ing mountain track to my LR and re installed it.Try that in the dark on a slushy steep mountain track trying to hold a **** poor torch to light the way.Testing!
Mind you it was pitch black and the torch was about as yellow as **** stains in snow and certainly not getting any brighter.
I waited a while and then saw the rope tighten and that was that! Nothing more. ****! I then walked back up the hill to the boys and the news was that the winch would not pull me over that distance. It was around 7AM from memory and just breaking light so we decided to drive to Jamieson. Looked up the workshop and the local mechanic was all ears "yep I know exactly where you are as I have pulled lots of blokes out of that track"
Off we went back to the same recovery pad and using a wire rope shortener hooked onto the existing knotted cables and got his 8000 lb Warne going. A PTO unit that could handle long winching hours.After 4 long hours of winching the old girl up the hill she was out. The mechanic put his hand out for $80 which I thought was as cheap as chips even though it was `83 and the money at the time 'was good' I didn't care.
I had free floating rear axles on the LR and we removed them on site and I drove the old girl home using the front diff as drive.
A mate said to me once on bogging his wagon in a creek bed "stfu its not fun unless you have been bogged at least twice" ..."you don`t ever remember the uneventful trips"
Sage words.
Winching...bah!
Lake track number 2 delineated in red about 2.6 miles from top to bottom and the yellow X approx position of the fun...from memory.To give you a hint as to what the area is like Mt Terrible is just over the raod!
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An enlarged section showing the rough old joint that is typical of Vic`s sambar ground. Elevation at the Lake to top of the track is a climb of 700 metres or thereabouts.
The years 1979-1983 were true drought years in Victoria and everything was as dry as a dead dingo`s donger! Lake Eildon was a place surrounded by some very rough steep bush covered mountains that we frequented for hunting Sambar deer as it was full of them at the time.
We hunted regularly using one week in the mates SWB Landcruiser the next week in my 109" LWB Landrover tray body truck.
Due to the drought the lake was well down and after so many years of dry we actually camped on the lake bed itself,There was always a great supply of firewood and we would simply drag logs with either 4wd to set our camp fire up.We had some pretty good camp fires.
We had a **** load of rain fall on one Saturday night and the next morning had to pull my LR out of the lake bed using a 2 ton come along hand winch,it was basically junk but without it we would not have gone home.
I was too young and poor to be able to afford a winch in those days.
Next crack was a series of rock bar`s in the track on a steep section that had given us trouble the week before but being dry at that time we got up and over. Well after the rain the shaley rocks had a greasy/soapy feel and my LR wouldn't get over and up and I ended up blowing the rear differential. Shredded it!
****! I said to mate Phil that I had made the decision that I would walk out hoping to get a ride somehow,well then it started to snow ffs!
Anyway Phil advised that he would be right and rolled out his swag for a bit of warmth and set up in the large dog box on the tray.
I trudged up the ridgeline track (total length camp to top of 2.64 miles measured on GE) and as I climbed the steep ******* of a track the snow got heavier and heavier which resulted in the dogwood lining the track to bend in and over the track with the snow weight almost to the point where following the track was getting a bit ordinary. In fact at one stage I had thoughts of it being a bit dangerous and of turning back and camping at the ute. It was an option as the missus would have phoned someone after a few days of not returning home.
After soldiering on I finally broke out onto the Jamieson -Eildon road and could see by the snow on the road that no one had been by that Sunday arvo.It was around 4.30 PM and was due to be dark in 1/2 an hour or so and then thinking wtf will I go back or what to do a car appeared...well a city slicker bloke with his sheila on board stopped when they saw the snow covered bloke waving his hands ha ha. I did see that it to them was one of those moments like "wtf would anyone be doing out in this ****ing place"
On hitching a ride back home for several hours I gave him a few bucks in thanks and then rang a mate (Mick) as he owned a Landcruiser with an 8000 lb Thomas electric winch on it.
I told him it was going to be a ****ing long drag over quite a few hundred yards up a mother ****er hill.
He was keen for the recovery and suggested that he had a heap of electricity pole cable guy wires we could use to add to the winch rope. They had been proffered for sale at the local St Mary`s school fete but with no takers the donor left them there, so Mick as an organiser he took them home that day...thank ****!
We then set off with as much gear as we could think of and headed back up into the bush.
This is where the **** really starts. We arrived on the top of the track and gently pushed our way down through the snow covered bushes and trees to a spot we could stay his truck on. It was 2 am,cold as charity and pitch black. Due to the curvature of the mountain track we could not see each others vehicles let alone the headlights when all were going later on.
Mick asked "where the **** is Phil" and I said 'down there 300 or 400 ****ing yards ' he just saw pitch black with the track disappearing over the drop off in the track.
We knotted cable after cable after cable together and I then walked down to my truck slipping and sliding (and cursing) and as I arrived at the old LR I gave a yell. Phil woke with a start from a deep sleep. I remember bringing him some sort of a feed that he gannetted down like a wolf.
All set, I hooked up the cable and sent Phil up top then started the LR motor for light and then waited until I saw the wire rope tighten and that was that.SFA happened,nothing more ffs. WTF? I climbed wearily (trudged) back up top to the top base to find that the NONG had started the winching without running the ****ing engine ffs and had flattened his batteries. It was the first time he had ever used it,what a lesson,what a **** place to learn ha ha.
AAAAHHHH! **** ME! So off I went back down the **** hill which btw was steep as buggery and with slushy snow covered **** all over it and unbolted my 700 CCamp mother of a battery that by now weighed a ton and carried it back up the hill.**** me that took some doing and even though it was cold as I was sweating like a *******.
We had no jumper leads so we had to unbolt Mick`s pair of six volt batteries to install my battery for the start then remove and re bolt his batteries back in. All this in cold wet snowy conditions in the wee hours and tiredness was taking over,spanners slipping cold hands crying blah blah.
We then started Micks truck and I then carried the mother of a battery back down that ****ing mountain track to my LR and re installed it.Try that in the dark on a slushy steep mountain track trying to hold a **** poor torch to light the way.Testing!
Mind you it was pitch black and the torch was about as yellow as **** stains in snow and certainly not getting any brighter.
I waited a while and then saw the rope tighten and that was that! Nothing more. ****! I then walked back up the hill to the boys and the news was that the winch would not pull me over that distance. It was around 7AM from memory and just breaking light so we decided to drive to Jamieson. Looked up the workshop and the local mechanic was all ears "yep I know exactly where you are as I have pulled lots of blokes out of that track"
Off we went back to the same recovery pad and using a wire rope shortener hooked onto the existing knotted cables and got his 8000 lb Warne going. A PTO unit that could handle long winching hours.After 4 long hours of winching the old girl up the hill she was out. The mechanic put his hand out for $80 which I thought was as cheap as chips even though it was `83 and the money at the time 'was good' I didn't care.
I had free floating rear axles on the LR and we removed them on site and I drove the old girl home using the front diff as drive.
A mate said to me once on bogging his wagon in a creek bed "stfu its not fun unless you have been bogged at least twice" ..."you don`t ever remember the uneventful trips"
Sage words.
Winching...bah!
Lake track number 2 delineated in red about 2.6 miles from top to bottom and the yellow X approx position of the fun...from memory.To give you a hint as to what the area is like Mt Terrible is just over the raod!
An enlarged section showing the rough old joint that is typical of Vic`s sambar ground. Elevation at the Lake to top of the track is a climb of 700 metres or thereabouts.
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I soon backed the winch off and let the truck settle back, luckily the oak just went back to it's original state. 
you can remember that from years back
