On Saturday afternoon 9 Subaru 4WD Club cars and 11 Track Care cars met at Sawyers Valley Puma for the trip briefing.
We left at the appointed time and headed in a long convoy past the Lakes which was a significant staging point for coaches on the road between Guildford and York after its re-alignment to ‘King Dick’s Line’ in 1855
We turned south off Great Southern Highway at Wundabiniring road and met Chris Morton. Heading further south we did a U turn past a shield tree and were told how the foresters used them for navigation.
We then went east on Nganguring Road which borders the northern edge of the Wandoo National Park and approximates the original York Road as surveyed by Philip Chauncy in 1846. This was the most challenging section of the track and the trip was planned to be able to do this bit in daylight. All the cars made it through without any problems, including three newish Subaru 4WD club members, in stock cars, who had not done any forestry track driving before.
We stopped at Manyuering Springs and heard about how it was used as a staging post along the old coach route to York. Just to the north of the springs we found the remains of ‘V hut’ stone fireplaces which were part of a camp used by convict road workers in the 1850s.
We stopped for a group photo at the end of Nganguring Road then proceeded to Mount Observation for a picnic dinner. We all managed to fit in the main picnic area, much to the relief of a couple of people who were having a quiet dinner at the other picnic area. There was a lovely sunset and around 7:15 we packed up and continued our journey.
We headed south on Catchment Road as it got darker. By the time we turned west on Pony Road it was fully dark with no moon. Then south east on Sand Spring Road passing Pony hill which is a granite outcrop with good daytime views.
We came to Helena Road and a couple of people decided to leave the convoy and head back home. The rest of us crossed Helena Road and continued south passing Mount Talbot and re-joining Catchment Road.
There was lots of information over the radio from various convoy members about the country we were passing through which made the trip even better.
There was one diagonal gutter over the road that some people had trouble with but they eventually succeeded.
West on Deefor Road and we stopped at Deefor wetlands and heard about the work Track Care has done in the area which included putting up some signs to stop people driving in the wetlands. We also heard some of the plans for future projects in the area.
We soon reached the bitumen on Talbot West Road and turned north west and back to the Great Southern Highway. We passed the Lakes about 9:20pm so it wasn’t too late.
All data for this drive is located in Members/Resources/Wandoo Night Drive Data
