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TRIP REPORT - Sunny Corner to Turon River
‘No Jeep left behind!’
The SJC beginners’ trip from Sunny Corner to Turon got off to a later than planned start after the only WJ booked on the trip had an unscheduled stop at Springwood to clean up a set of spark plugs. That was the only drama of the day, though, and a superb day of off-roading was led superbly well by Steve on his first trip out as trip leader. Airing down just north of Sunny Corner by the nine on-time vehicles gave the late WJ a chance to catch up and, with all hands on deck, had its tyres aired down and disconnects removed in less than five minutes.
With a total of ten vehicles, three Grands and seven Wranglers, the day was set for success as the convoy finally headed north out of Sunny Corner with the prospect of a hot day ahead. Gauges hit 38C at several points, but there was plenty of river bed action and water where needed. The hot conditions leant themselves well to excellent traction and most of the more technical sections, ably spotted by Steve with assistance from others at key moments, posed little challenge to the vehicles out on the trail.
Sunny Corner to Turon is described in the SJC trip Forums as a ‘Favourite Club Destination – to be kept secret’. It’s not difficult to guess why. The combination of lengthy stretches of C-grade driving kept interest levels high throughout the day. Short sections of rocky steps, creek bed crossings with steep entry and exits, wombat holes, and more than one or two mudholes, were all part of a really varied trip. The trip took in Dark Corner Rd, Daylight Creek Rd, Blackbutt Mountain Rd, Dark Corner Mountain Trail, Pinnacle Firetrail, the Turon River Road, and, finally, via the Lochaber Link Road to Capertee and the hard black stuff home.
This was a good day’s outing through historic gold-rich territory. There’s obviously still ‘gold in them thar hills’ as one by one we splashed into a small creek bed just upstream of a prospector panning for gold. We apologised for dirtying the creek bed and quickly passed through. There are also snakes about and the club secretary had a lunchtime comfort break interrupted by a brown snake – stay alive Rich, we need you to keep sending out the agendas!
At the end of the day, all ten vehicles lined up at the lookout for the classic SJC photo and along with the normal smartphone selfies, Nolan’s drone added a different photographic perspective to the trip – check out the Trip Forum page.
Summing it all up? No breakages, no breakdowns, great company, perfect weather, awesome scenery, and the superb trip leadership of Steve. This is why I joined the club!
Darrell J
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