Well this year’s camp was another success with the KC4WD Club again hosting the "off road/ mud run" part of the camp. We had a great turn out of trucks with members traveling from near and far to take part. A "new" edition to this year’s camp was Dave Mills "Millsie" that offered his services as chef. Both Dave and Bernhard arrived just after lunch and proceeded to set up camp, clean the shelters and both long drops with buckets and brushes. Having traveled from Hamilton in his Jeep towing a trailer to carry all the cooking utensils, gas bottles, cooker, generator and ………ice machine. Yes ice machine. Despite having a high of 6 deg during the day and -6 on Friday night the generator ran all day for both days pumping out ice blocks that would an Eskimo’s eyes water…………in saying this (including Kermie’s smart comments about ice in winter) we all took advantage of the option to further cool our refreshments down in case there was any doubt they would get warm through sharing of our "Rambo off roading" stories. Dave was up early each day to get breaky ready for the team and as with all the meals each day had a perfect system going that allowed all to dish up and move through efficiently in order to keep to trip schedules. A very big thank you to Dave for his time and efforts. (and starting his Jeep every hour at night to get the heater going so he could remain toastie in his Jeep!)

On both days there was a split of trucks namely tuff trucks and shinies (not so tough apparently…) that saw the Venturers and Leaders running and jostling for the "best" trucks depending on wanting to get muddy or keep clean. The number of seat worked out perfectly both days so no one was left behind and after lunch the teams would swap passengers with those that wanted a change. The Cozzie club were very kind to offer a number of trucks to fill seats so the Jeep count on day 1 was really good and they all performed very well. Again a big thank you is due here for their time and support. One Jeep belonging to Sydney who remained for both days which was really awesome and all worked very together in ensuring safety was always at the top of the list. Besides a few flat batteries (Rob’s truck being jump started by the Discovery!), water soaked air filters (AJ thinking his Lexus is 100% water proof), the odd truck including the Discovery getting stuck on slippery hills and drive shafts falling out (yes…. fell clean off in the car park on departure……………. ) the rest performed really well. Scott’s beast was like a magnet with everyone fighting for the passenger seat just cause of the looks without the engine even being on! Jeff managed to "unweld" his rear diff which broke the welded gears and was locking up. Don’t understand how as his truck is a well looked after low mileage truck always driven by an old lady! (only the last bit is true…)

Day 2 – Well great start here as well until the tuff trucks drove out while some of us waited for them to leave and Bill performed a U turn to head out the bottom of the camp and his front prop shaft dropped off in front of us. We kinda all mention this to him as it happened but through the smoke and exhaust noise we didn’t get our message across well enough it seemed and he drove off to catch up with the rest………..only to return a short while later cause he got stuck in a very small hole….in 2wd. By this time we had departed out the side of the camp only 100m down the track and were able to make room for his 3 passengers by taking all the "just in case gear" out the back of the Disco and dumping it all in Tim’s 90 Landy. He took one more passenger and the Disco then had 7 people onboard. This didn’t make a difference as the Disco which still pulled a stuck Nissan out the skid pan and played with easily fully loaded. Although 2 hills and a deep rut put an end to its "clean record" soon after that. Here the donuts performed by most trucks were enjoyed by all and the mud certainly went flying everywhere. This was a great time to take photos of brown trucks, all looked equal here.

Ok, so my comment about the Disco not getting stuck in the skid pan was short lived as all my reversing through the hole so many times saw half the hole’s mud deposit it’s self in the radiator which saw me stop 7 times to the sealed road on the way home……then 4 more times on the sealed road till Scott and Bill shot ahead to a friend’s farm and arranged a hose pipe to be used

to wash the radiator out. Job done and the Disco made it home. Thanks to Rob, Sydney, Steve and AJ for sticking around to make sure all was well.