by Geoff Long
The trip invite said “Glass House Mountains Sunday Drive with Rod and Jeremy—let us entertain you.” What type of entertainment were the boys promising, adventure, comedy, drama? Did the boys deliver? Read on to find out…
Our meeting point was at the Caboolture BP. First to arrive at 6.00 am and so secure trip report immunity was Harli with another ten cars including visitors Ben and Sandra rolling in around a respectable 8.00am.
By 8.30am we are caffeinated, briefed and moving with Rod guiding the way, Jeremy has taken a position midway in our convoy and Scott as tail end. We are heading to the Glass House Mts Lookout, or so we thought. It doesn’t take us long to reach the lookout turn off, but it takes a bit longer and a call from Jeremy on the radio to realise we have driven past it. Nothing like some comedy to start the day.
After a quick turnaround, our group is reunited, and we make a stop at the lookout to take in the views and “decaffeinate.” After some minor confusion on where we are airing down, we travel further down the road to our air down point near one of the power line towers. Steve is quick to air down so with his spare time he grabs a rubbish bag and starts scouring for rubbish. It is true that one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure and he is elated to find an unopened bottle of rum (Maybe he’ll share it at Fraser? Ed. Nope, Harli scored it) Thanks for cleaning up, Steve.
We are soon moving again, and straight away Jeremy is telling us to engage low range, this must be the adventure section! We head down the track over some gnarly washouts and mini ravines, the track is also proving popular with many trail bike riders heading in the opposite direction. The track is tricky requiring unwavering attention with hazards around every corner. We even have to navigate some closely spaced trees and inappropriately placed tree roots.
Eventually, our progress is halted at the top of an extremely steep descent. Looking at this hill, I am expecting to see mountain climbers rappelling down it—I suppose we could rappel the cars down with the winch—but the distant sound of a trail bike catches our attention. After watching a trail bike fail miserably trying to ascend this juggernaut of a hill, it is quickly realised we have been misled. Rod is blaming software technology for this glitch, I think it could be a hardware issue—glasses. After we all skillfully turned around in the tight confines of the track, we retrace the trail back to the right track (oh the comedy and adventure). Did I say we all skillfully turned around? Well, most us. I think we will just hand the frog to Rod at the next meeting and he can tell us about the tree he backed into…
Our new route takes us across a sealed road and into bike territory again, down some more Grand Canyon sized washouts, mountainous rock outcrops, and canyons requiring some spotter assistance. Fortunately, Rod and Jeremy have foreseen this need and brought Andrew along, the original, “Mr Navman,” an expert in telling you where to go. Impressed by Andrew’s spotting demonstration, Steve is eager to spot for Harli. However, in his haste, he forgot to put the car in park. Rumours that the car traveled hundreds of metres with Steve in hot pursuit are wildly exaggerated I’m sure it was only a couple…(Ed. It was 10cm at most).
Further down the track, we stop as cars have to three point turn to pass a washout. Whilst waiting for others to catch up Jeremy has quietly found a side track and drives the jeep through without anyone noticing. Then came Craig. What a difference, people pulling trees away from the car, bodies standing on the running boards for added weight, paint scraping, wheels dropping off into a wash-out, diffs getting hung up and a textbook winch recovery—what a show for our visitors. At least it helped to take their mind of the dent in their car caused by one of those inappropriately placed tree roots.