We all met at the usual spot on the Saturday morning to be off for the 3 ½ hr drive to the Bendelby ranges.
After stopping off for lunch at Ororroo, John showed me how to put my car into 4wd for the first time (really green, heaps excited).
We then headed off for the ranges.

Once we arrived & set up camp, we set off for the first drive of the trip in the direction of the Kokoda trail, where we had to reverse for some unknown reason to me.

Then I really don’t have any idea where we headed off to. I just followed everyone else.
I do know though that the track was a bit rougher than they anticipated and I felt that I was thrown into the deep end. Thanks guys. At one stage of the trip I swapped and became a passenger, while my mate Darren took over the reigns, I had to debrief for a little while.

That night we all got together for a catch up drink & nibble’s before tea.

The next day we headed off to the training track where we all had a go, it was great fun. I learned heaps.
After that we split into 2 groups, some went on the Billy goat track and the other’s went on to do the remaining tracks.
I went as a passenger on the Billy Goat track and thought it was amazing.

After that we headed off to the well deserved showers, ahhh.
That night we all gathered around again and Paul put together a slide show of the photo’s that had been taken.
The next day we went for a drive on the Kokoda trail, then headed back to the campsite where we packed up, and then headed off home.

It was a good fun weekend for my inaugural trip, and Im looking forward to the next one.

Stephanie Mayers

Adelaide JEEP CLUB Trip
Bendleby Ranges March 2007

We packed the car Friday night for an early start on Saturday morning. On Saturday we meet up with all the other people going to Bendleby Ranges. There were 11 Jeeps going on the trip.

We drove to Ororroo where everyone had lunch and filled their JEEPS up with petrol as that was the last stop before we got to the campsite. We drove our JEEPS to the Bendleby Ranges Homestead and after talking to the owner, we went to the campsite and set up the tent.

I helped my dad a little as I found out there was another girl there around my age. Her name was Becky and we made friends straight away. After we set everything up we went for a drive along one of the many tracks as there were heavy rains a few months ago. The track was a bit harder than we thought and the new people struggled a little but only a little!. When we had finished we headed back to the campsite with our DIRTY JEEPS and had dinner.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast and then drove to the practice track. I asked my dad if Becky could come along with us, her parents agreed and so Becky and I travelled together. When we got to the practice track everyone got a go at going up and down the track and over the bumps. Dad said something about testing the articulation of the JEEPS. Toms JEEP went “I don’t want to do this anymore” (he had a mechanical failure) so he decided to leave his car at the homestead so he came in our BIG TOUGH BLACK JEEP. We then hit the tracks again.

We all drove to the morning tea stop together and then split into two groups, one group on an easy track the other on a more challenging track. As Becky’s parents were going on the easy track and we were doing the more difficult track, Becky had to go back in her parents car.

The difficult track was heading along a track called Billy Goats track and it took us a while to get there. We stopped and had lunch along the way. When we finally got to Billy Goats track, it was a long uphill climb with cliffs on either side. We let each JEEP go leaving a couple of minutes between each JEEP. When it was finally our turn we headed along the track quite slowly. We got caught at one place and dad had to go and take a different line. When we got to the end of the track we had caught up with the car in front of us. We finished off driving around the track and then went back to the homestead.

When we got back dad let me have a little drive around the practice track. We then headed back to camp. Tom and dad had a look at his car to see what was wrong, dad told me that it was the rear universal joint falling apart. We all had dinner and chatted and I played with the other kids until dinner time. We had dinner and then we played somemore until it was bed time.

The next day we went on a short track and again dad let me have a small drive of the JEEP. When we got back to camp it was time to go so everyone packed everything away. We all drove home together stopping to have lunch in one of the towns on the way. We then all travelled back our separate ways. When we got home I had a shower to wash the 3 days of dust and dirt off me. It took dad another few days to wash the car.

It did look good dirty.

ASHLEIGH CULLEN
AGE TEN