Boys Weekend At Big River

When you imagine a bucks weekend, you normally think something a little more seductive than a bunch of blokes around a campfire but on this occasion is was beers, blokes and off-roading in favour of beers, blokes and bikini’s for this particular buck.

Having originally made plans to head to the Barmah National Park only at the last minute realise the park was closed due to wet weather, we settled on old faithful and headed to big river.

We’ve been there a few times and the horseshoe bend campsite is our preferred home base.  If you’re wanting to follow our footsteps, head into the campground and at the end. There is a great spot just over a little ridge right near the river with a pretty awesome cliff on the other side.

That said most of the campgrounds around that area are pretty good, but there’s no such thing as a booking system, so make sure you’ve got a contingency or two up your sleeve.

We arrived just after lunch on the friday and with a convoy of 6 cars immediately began setting up camp.  Firewood was our next priority and with public campsites this can prove difficult.  It took us a few earlier trips to find this spot, but if you head back up the Eildon-Jamison road to the xxx turnoff you won’t have to go far to fill the tub/boot/ute/trailer.  It can get cold up there so you can thank me for that tip later.

Campsite Report:

• Name: Horseshoe Bend Campground, Big River VIC
• Where: Eildon-Jamison Road
• GPS: -37.3653333 146.0571388888889 (approx)
• Access: 2WD (even when wet)
• Campfires: Yep
• Toilets:  Drop Pit (usually in pretty good nick)
• Animals: Dogs are allowed
• Cost: FREE
• Supplies:  It’s a pretty decent hike back to town (Eildon) so come prepared
• Phone: None, you’ll have to head up the mountain to possibly get some Testra coverage.

Our first night we took it pretty easy, campfire blazing, food on the BBQ we limited the beer consumption as we wanted to get some km’s under our belt the next morning. Big river isn’t a massively challenging playground for 4×4′s but we had a few newbies and stock standard rigs so kept the hangovers to a minimum.

Mt Terrible Trip Report:

We headed into the bush early on sunday morning. Whilst a fine and sunny day there had been a bit of rain in the leadup to the trip so I expected there to be a few trick (and fun) stops along the way.

With the 2wd’s locked and left behind, from horseshoe bend we continued along Eildon-Jamison road (towards Jamison) and turned right Fryers Creek Track, heading to Mt Terrible.

In the convey was…

• 1998 Toyota Landcruiser 105 standard
• 2013 Jeep wragler, fresh off the showroom floor
• 2009 Nissan Navara

It was pretty evident that it was going to be a pretty dry track, but what I look about this track is as it snakes up the mountain, around each bend there is an easy way and a hard way. In reality you could have driven a stock standard two wheel drive but we didn’t choose that route all that often.

Up the slopes you’re faces with washout’s, ruts, some diff breaking rocks and to the left and right of you some pretty inspiring scenery. The Landcruiser wasn’t to fussed with it all, the Navara with a pretty low clearance an non-existant underbody protection had to be a little more cautious but didn’t miss beat and the short wheel base Jeep just bounced over everything. We stopped off at the peak of the mountain for a good look around and then headed back down the hill to camp.

We wanted to head down Donalds track as I’d been there before and whilst challenging has some pretty awesome eye candy but unfortunately that has been closed so we headed on down the main road. About 30 mins from camp we came across a pretty gnarly decent. But boulders, big rocks, big ruts!

The Landcruiser having the highest clearance headed down first. After identifying the hardest possible route and bending the steps in the process the Jeep was next. A few strategically placed rocks and some swearing the little Jeep made it without a scratch setting the scene for the Navara.

With a few cheers of encouragement the Navara reached the bottom with a few lifted wheels, slips and slides eclipsed only by the grin on the pilots face.

It was a pretty cruisy run back to camp for the festivities of the evening.

There wasn’t as much mud aswe all would have liked, but it was a fitting finale.

4X4ing around big river is more tactical than point and shoot and you can really go as hard as you want. What’s guaranteed is you’ll see some inspiring scenery, plenty of other off-road nuts and some true insight into what Australia is all about.

The Bucks Night

I’m sure you’re all wondering what came next, but unfortunately what happens on the bucks night stays on the bucks night. but this is a picture of him in the morning.

Another trip in the dirt done.