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DESTINATIONS: HIGH COUNTRY
Once you’re up at the Trig Point, the view soothes away any
reservations you may have had about the drive in and - hopefully
- gets you pumped for the return journey, which for us was a
case of retracing our steps back to Bright. There were one or
two sections on the way out of Blue Rag that, depending on your
wheel placement, had the traction control working hard in both
the D-MAXs and MU-Xs, but in stock form and on stock rubber,
they made Blue Rag look easy.
Day 2: Bright to Mansfield via Buckland Valley and
Lake Hovell
The second day was the easiest of the four and a chance
for those flustered by the Blue Rag climb to have a bit of a relax.
According to Vic, a lot of the places we were visiting today had
Above: A couple
of custom D-MAXs
posed near Lake
Hovell Right: Vic on
the attack outside Mt
No3 Refuge Hut.
Aboriginal names, all of which
meant ‘the meeting of two rivers’.
You’d think Vic would know,
wouldn’t you?
Anyway, we toured the
Buckland Valley. Drove a track
that followed the powerlines at
Mt Buffalo. Had lunch at Lake
Hovell and drove back up through
the mountains to visit a couple
of renowned cattlemen’s huts
(including Tomahawk), before
heading into Mansfield for the
evening and we did it all without
seeing two rivers even get close to
each other.
The driving was easy, and
those 4JJ1 Isuzu turbo-diesels
barely broke a sweat, making this
the perfect ‘cool down’ day.
Day 3: Bindaree Falls,
Bindaree hut, Bluff hut and
Sheepyard Flat
Day 3 found us on the
infamous Circuit Road that runs
around Mt Stirling. As the name
implies, it circles a mountain,
and its infamy is derived from
the perception that you seem to
spend a lot of time circling that
Left: Bindaree Falls is a great place
to cool down on a hot day.