Foothills 4WD Club – Mundaring Powerlines (June 2024)

The much-anticipated Day run that was originally scheduled in January 2024 and subsequently
cancelled due to a warm day (43°C).

A small group of die-hards took part and enjoyed the sun-filled morning, which was great as it forecast with some rain which eventually fell later in the day. Rob & Gill provided entertainment for most of the day, well mostly Rob shoring up his Legend status and Gill providing the looks of shock and horror. Robert tested water depths for us with the Jimny and water up over the bonnet is of no concern anymore with the ever-trusty snorkel. Sandy and Andy provided tail end Charlie and some examples of the flex abilities of the MU-X and being able to balance on two wheels. And I was blessed to be accompanied by my youngest daughter Jessica and her boyfriend Reagan.

We all arrived at our departure point early and after signing obligatory forms and a quick chat left for quick run out East along Great Eastern Highway to our insertion point off Chidlow Road. The first section of the track was rather mundane and most handled in 2-wheel drive. We would eventually test out those buttons and switches once we hit the ditches filled with water from the recent rains and some of the steeper rutted out inclines.

Not long in we encountered some kids playing near waist deep in the first water ditch and seemed to not care about the freezing water and lack of visibility. Later to find out they were looking for a number plate that fell of their car the day before. Mum and Dad quite happy watching from the safety of the dry bank, because who else would be that stupid 🙂

No one seemed too keen to test water depths at first and where there was evidence of multiple cars getting through the puddles then we just drove it. Two crossings being a little deeper than expected but at maximum they were exactly at 1 Jimny bonnet high.

Rob must not have enjoyed me diverting of one of the tracks and wanted a little more excitement, tested out the Rangers abilities in the water and promptly became servant to the wheel ruts which swayed the car ‘a little’, I’m sure if you haven’t heard already, he would love to tell you the stories of his legendary driving skills and how great the ranger is.

We were slightly limited to which approaches we could take due to some of them being destroyed by some Mud-hungry 4wd behemoths. Happy to announce no chicken runs were used given there were more than one realistic options.

Robert not to be outdone in showing his cars skills, stopped halfway up a steep rutted out section and had to lift the bonnet to get that damn solenoid looked at to get the mighty Jimny into 4wd. We were concerned with the car rolling back but were self-assured when Robert acted as the human chock.

We had a brief morning tea stop on a rock outcrop with lovely views over-looking the state Forrest.
That is when we noticed the clouds rolling in on our nice day.

A few more fun splashes and we reached the end of our part of the powerlines. Luckily, the rain held off until we were on the sealed roads back to the Mundaring Weir Hotel. As always, we all ate too much and required our nanna naps, headed on through the Forrest via Kalamunda and back to our castles.
Hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.
Cheers,
Magic