Ollera Creek
AkA. The day of carnage
It all started off reasonably well, I was to meet Russell, Burgo and another bloke I had not met at a local servo for a day run out to Olera creek. I had picked up my cruiser from the mechanics the day before only to find that it was running on 5 pot's not 6. As a result I had to spend the hour before our departure buying spark plugs, distributor cap, rotor and points and fitting them in the hope that they would get the old girl running like it should. Steele my co-driver and I arrived 10 Min. late to find not one truck from our group. A quick call found Russel at home in the shower explaining that he had to do some work to his rover this morning and that Burgo and keiran were at a servo up the road cause they missed the one I was at. 20 Min. later saw Russell's 130 defender with duel Air lockers 12000lb warn and mudders rolling into the servo. From there I stole his uhf hand held and we were off. Keiran (blue Hilux sr5) and Burgo (white Hilux duel cab) rolled onto the freeway as we drove past their servo. The run to Ollera was a 60km long 100kph dash up the highway turn right at the Paluma turn off, cross the railway line then into it.
The first mud hole looked innocent enough, 2 car lengths long and the usual 1.5 wide. We could have driven around it but no we were here to have some fun! Russell was first in and I got out to watch thinking how deep can this be?
It took Russell 3 tries and he got through but it sent a message to me that said some of these holes are a LOT deeper than they look.
Then it started Burgo got through only to find oil dropping on the ground under his Hilux. We started to rip the bash plate off only to find we were missing some supplies. That saw Russell darting off to the pub up the road to grab a carton while we tried to work out what was going on with the Hilux. Group census decided that it was just old oil on top of the bash plate being washed out by the water we had just crossed. Russell got back with the beer and we were moving again. I don't have any photos from there to the beach because it started pouring rain and as you can see from the photos I do not have a roof (Not that I care really! A good warrior enjoys the feel of the weather on his face… so they tell me). All I can tell you is that it is a blur of mud rain and 4WD, punctuated with whippers pointlessly wiping rain off a windscreen that was wet on both sides.
Eventually we burst onto the beach prompting the usual donuts and sideways action. Then, strike two, Burgo couldn't get his Hilux started, it took us ages to jump-start it for some reason but we got it going. So it was off up the beach till we got to the mouth of a creek. After walking across I decided to have a go at it only to be winched out by Russell. Oh well I had to give it a go. It was starting to rain again so we headed for home with Keiran and Burgo up front fllowed by myself and lastly Russell. 1 creek crossing into it it all started to go bad for me and Russell. I hit the water in low 2nd and heard a hell of a racket from what sounded like underneath. I thought no problem I've just picked up a log, I got to the other side had a look underneath and found nothing. Soon I was to work out that the sound was my fan eating my radiator. At this point I was totally ignorant to the fact that I would soon be seriously in the shit! Russel pulled up beside me and popped his hood saying something about a noise from his engine. We had a look and couldn’t find where it was coming from so off he went. Steele and I got back in my cruiser only to find it would not start I got underneath the hood to fix the wet coil and God knows how I missed the big hole in the radiator but I did and we rolled out. Further up the road we found Russell again looking at his engine. Turns out his alternator was stuffed so he took off with the intention of limping home. We again got into my cruiser and it would not start again. I know now she was trying to tell me something. We called up Keiran on the radio so he could come back and give us a jump. He turns up and we got her going again. The three of us head for home then at the last creek Burgo's Hilux stops. What follows is a quite comical series of me tow starting him and then him tow starting me 3 or 4 times. All the while Keiran is on the radio telling us how shit we are. We got onto the highway and it all went bad. As soon as we hit the black stuff the old 2f started making a hell of a noise and falling to bit's. We made about 5km at which point she was boiling had drunk all her oil and the battery was dead. We filled up the oil and water got a jump-start and took off with the aim of making it to a servo up the road. We made about 5 more ks and found Burgo on the side of the road. Turns out his motor has lost all power and his brakes no longer work a bit up the road was Keiran his battery was also dead looked like his alternator was shot too. Russell helped me get going again even though his alternator was now making more noise than a teenage girls sleep over. I made it to the next servo and that was it. The old 2f was looking bad. We decided to try and patch the radiator fill the oil and push on. While we did that Russell changed the oil in his transfer case because even tho he changed it that morning it was all black and full of gunk. I still don't know what that was all about. So after a minor electrical fire and pinching one of Russell's batteries we got the old girl sort of running and tried for the next servo. We made it but it was all she could do. She was dead Russell stopped to let us know that he was taking Keiran home and would be back to give us a lift back to Townsville. He turned up an hour later in Keiran's girlfriend's car. The rover had died too. I got my better half to come pick me up and next day got a tilt bed tow truck to pick up the old girl.
The end result of a day's whellin. 3 of the 4 trucks that went out had to be towed I know that for sure. The last time I saw Russel he was still beside the road. My cruiser is under the house with oil leaking out all along the head and water leaking from behind the water pump. The last time it ran was on 4 pot's the radiator has more holes than you can poke a stick at and my son wants to know what I did to our truck. I'm now thinking of dropping a Holden V8 into her, as I can't see the point in fixing a motor I was always going to rip out anyway. But rest assured
I WILL BE BACK!
