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Hi All,
Took the Prado for it's first real 4WD trip. We went to Fraser Island for the second week of the September school holidays. We stayed at Kingfisher Bay resort which was very comfortable and great to have a swim in the pool after a big day on the trails.
Trail near Kingfisher
coming up one of the hills towards kingfisher
MADE IT!!!
We went to Lake McKenzie and Central Station on the first day and found the trails very rough and soft - we used the maxtrax to get a family up a hill and clear the track and the worked reaally well. On the way to Central Station from the Lake it was our turn to get bogged due to the high hump in the centre, all four wheels freely spinning- maxtrax did not help here but did make the pull out easier. A few burnt feet later I retrieved my thongs from the car - I did find another use for the maxtrax though - stand on them to get out of the burning hot sand. (Sorry no pics)
Central Station
We had no more troubles that day and got back to Kingfisher for a swim for the kids and drinks for the adults! The next day w were so exhausetd we stayed at the resort and chilled out for the day.
The third day it was off towards Lake wabby - again the track was soft and rough with a high hump aand again we got stuck due to a lack of momentum - this time the maxtrax had us out in a flash. We decided not to visit the lake and took the decision to make a run for a quick visit to Eli creek. There were a lot of people at eli creek - there must have been 100 cars there. After a couple of floats down the creek a stop to watch some whales and a planes take off and land it was time to head for home as the tide was now rising.
Part of the track on the way to lake yabby - inland
take off on eastern beach
On the way back we took the bypass roads at yiddney and ponyuan rocks including a breath test at yidney rocks. A challenging drive home on the inland tracks and into the pool again for the end of the day.
The last full day and we headed for lake birrabeen again the tracks were very challenging and our standard Prado needed a little snatch to get up a hill from my cousins Prado which is 3 inhes higher due to a 2" lift and bigger tyres. It was very reassuring to have another vehicle to travel with.
Lake Birrabeen
Lake Birrabeen
We came across a bogged and smoking hire 4wd driven by backpackers who had been given a challenge by the hire company having picked up their car at 4pm afrom kingfisher and heading for happy valley via a visit to lake mackenzie the packpackers had a hire car with quite hire tyre pressures and no recovery gear and very litle hlpful advice on how far they had to go - high tide was at 5.15pm - we felt quite sorry for them.
On one of the last hills before the resort we could not get through the soft sand and had to be pushed out by the helpful people from a tourist bus
- we had 4 failed attempts to get up the hill and managed to smooth all the nobs off one end of the maxtrax in our attempts to get out - we do learn from experience....our tyre pressures had risen due to the heat of the driving. Once we lowered the prssure and had a bit more momentum we made it up with few problems - live and learn.
Both families has a great few days of 4wd and my family are ready for more - the kids loved the rough tracks with sqeals of delight coming from the back seat on the rougher tracks. The three years old even developed the ability to hold on to the handles on her car seat whilst sleeping!
Took the Prado for it's first real 4WD trip. We went to Fraser Island for the second week of the September school holidays. We stayed at Kingfisher Bay resort which was very comfortable and great to have a swim in the pool after a big day on the trails.
Trail near Kingfisher
coming up one of the hills towards kingfisher
MADE IT!!!
We went to Lake McKenzie and Central Station on the first day and found the trails very rough and soft - we used the maxtrax to get a family up a hill and clear the track and the worked reaally well. On the way to Central Station from the Lake it was our turn to get bogged due to the high hump in the centre, all four wheels freely spinning- maxtrax did not help here but did make the pull out easier. A few burnt feet later I retrieved my thongs from the car - I did find another use for the maxtrax though - stand on them to get out of the burning hot sand. (Sorry no pics)
Central Station
We had no more troubles that day and got back to Kingfisher for a swim for the kids and drinks for the adults! The next day w were so exhausetd we stayed at the resort and chilled out for the day.
The third day it was off towards Lake wabby - again the track was soft and rough with a high hump aand again we got stuck due to a lack of momentum - this time the maxtrax had us out in a flash. We decided not to visit the lake and took the decision to make a run for a quick visit to Eli creek. There were a lot of people at eli creek - there must have been 100 cars there. After a couple of floats down the creek a stop to watch some whales and a planes take off and land it was time to head for home as the tide was now rising.
Part of the track on the way to lake yabby - inland
take off on eastern beach
On the way back we took the bypass roads at yiddney and ponyuan rocks including a breath test at yidney rocks. A challenging drive home on the inland tracks and into the pool again for the end of the day.
The last full day and we headed for lake birrabeen again the tracks were very challenging and our standard Prado needed a little snatch to get up a hill from my cousins Prado which is 3 inhes higher due to a 2" lift and bigger tyres. It was very reassuring to have another vehicle to travel with.
Lake Birrabeen
Lake Birrabeen
We came across a bogged and smoking hire 4wd driven by backpackers who had been given a challenge by the hire company having picked up their car at 4pm afrom kingfisher and heading for happy valley via a visit to lake mackenzie the packpackers had a hire car with quite hire tyre pressures and no recovery gear and very litle hlpful advice on how far they had to go - high tide was at 5.15pm - we felt quite sorry for them.
On one of the last hills before the resort we could not get through the soft sand and had to be pushed out by the helpful people from a tourist bus
- we had 4 failed attempts to get up the hill and managed to smooth all the nobs off one end of the maxtrax in our attempts to get out - we do learn from experience....our tyre pressures had risen due to the heat of the driving. Once we lowered the prssure and had a bit more momentum we made it up with few problems - live and learn.Both families has a great few days of 4wd and my family are ready for more - the kids loved the rough tracks with sqeals of delight coming from the back seat on the rougher tracks. The three years old even developed the ability to hold on to the handles on her car seat whilst sleeping!
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