I wrote this for the 4wd newsletter as I was nominated to do the run report.

Have a look at Night Nav Run – 17 May 2008 in my Google maps.

This is our first ‘run’ with the club – we knew some people because of our trip to Janowen Hills on Australia Day weekend and I had been to the meetings but this was a club run that John could actually do.

Not really knowing exactly what was happening I went looking for my trusty newsletter to check – bad idea – can’t find it. Oh well they said to be at Centenary Lakes to have tea and leave by dark – so picnic packed, off we go.

John’s first question was at the roundabout at Morayfield – did we have raincoats? “Of course we do – they’re in the back.”. (Knowing full well there were no raincoats but I wasn’t going to let him turn around and go home)

“We even have an umbrella!” (shame it was the cotton sunshade he got second hand when I wanted some shade for the pool) There was no way I was going to let him get out of this one.

Got to the lakes, had a nice tea – shame about the downpour just as we sat down to eat but John hates salad and loves stew – at a pinch steak, salad and rainwater looks like stew. Slowly people turned up – Darrel, Jodie and Talia, Ian and Lenore and kids, and the place slowly filled up.

After dinner Brian announces we aren’t leaving from here we are leaving from the Big Fish – all around knowingly nod – I begin to ask my 500 mandatory questions when I am going anywhere – Big Fish? What big fish? Were we supposed to bring fishing gear? Are we going fishing? Where?

All’s cool, my 500 questions have now been answered and we head off to the Humble Pie – never found out what happened to the big fish – must have got away.

After some preliminary niceties we sign the sheet and go to head off – only I realise we have to use our odometer – shame about that, only the far right number turns – the rest have sat on 42599 for the past 12 months we have had the car. Fiddle with the GPS and then decide to chance it and see how we go. John’s first comment in the car was that if it didn’t work out we could just give up and go home. There was no way I was going home – I would make this work or die trying.

Out of the carpark and down the road towards Donnybrook – first question, what’s the sign on the left? Which one? There’s 10 signs on the left – how far down the road? The one as we came out? The one at the corner? The one for the highway? The one after? Oh well write ‘em all down. What’s the next question?

So off we go, flying down the road and John says “I think we have gone 5k’s”

“What do you mean? You think? Didn’t you check, read the odometer, keep an eye on it?”

“No, I can’t see the odometer cos the light is too bad and I need my glasses”

“You can’t drive in reading glasses!!”

We put the miner’s light I am using to read the destructions on the steering column and shine it on the odometer – that works!!! We can see it turn now. Find another light for the destructions and we are off again. Ok let’s turn around and work this out – I really don’t know where to measure the 4.6k’s from.

Head back to Humble Pie and start again – we work out it’s 4.6k’s from the corner we were at to Humble Pie so we have found the first corner. We head back to where we were and fill in the rest of the questions we found answers to. This isn’t so bad – write down the odometer reading as we get to the corner and then count from there – we’ll be fine (or so we thought).

Ok down the dirt road we go, I see a little break in the bush but John won’t turn there – he goes 500 metres down the next turn and I convince him to go back as the corner wasn’t the same as the diagram in the destructions. So back we go, reversing in the dark – god only know how much native flora, fauna and cane toads we are destroying as we go crashing along in the dark – we get occasional glimpses of headlights and some radio calls so we know we won’t die at this point.

Head off down the track that emerges from the break in the bush and suddenly we can hear lots of people. Ian is stuck fast in the mud – Michael is helping and Dan is banked up behind. Apparently Ian was into his second winching and was despairing when Michael turned up. They told us to take the high road which didn’t seem any less muddy than what Ian was in but at least we got through.

John asks what the next question was – question? What question? Bugger the questions lets just drive we could die in here. So off we go. Not before finding a required Banksia leaf. Somewhere around here I lost the pen.

We were doing really well navigating till just after we found the pile of stumps – who the hell is Muzz? Maybe the stumps on the road mean we are not supposed to go down this road? No – there’s has been cars down here – look, all the trees across the road have been recently broken let’s keep going. Ok we’ve done that one. Now turn right and go .06k and turn right.

This is where we became completely lost and disorientated and John started having the first of many kittens – however we found Michael, Ian, Dan and Mr Pajero man who took us under their wing and lead us a merry chase for the rest of the evening – we even found the greeny/orange dome – but how you could tell there was a well for a bore in it is beyond me.

The directions seemed to be for a completely different area than we were in. Then suddenly the questions were linking up to the places we were going – we must be back on the right track. Someone mentioned Steve Irwin Way – but isn’t that the other side of the Bruce Highway?

We started looking for the &^%$!! carpark where Brian said “you have to go through the place where it says no through road and then past some machinery and find the rough track”.

John says this is where they are building the pipeline and we can’t go in there – Michael says “Yes we can” – so off we go in convoy – no one is giving much away but we are having a good time and it’s a nice night.

At some stage I saw what I thought were tobacco plants and some tall things that turned out to be happy plants but the rest of the night was just some serious reassuring to John that we weren’t going to die after all and it was a much better night than staying at home and watching The Bill. John – who hasn’t been to a pub in 20 years – said he was going to the pub for a drink when we finished.

We heard Sandi’s plaintiff cries over the radio and told her not to go up that track on the right near the arrow (that we later found out Brian had put there as he didn’t want us to go up the track). Michael Ian and Dan had headed up it but came down as quickly as they could – However Sandi, Damo and Bec went up and Damo swears that he had the 2 front wheels in the air as he reversed back down – Bec volunteered that while she found rock scrambling boring sometimes – this was quite scary. Apparently at this stage they decided to set the GPS for Old Gympie road and get out of there.

We all ended up at the rest stop and prizes were handed out – Darrel and Jodie who finished last came up with the goods and scored top score – John and I lost our pen about question 10 and were more concerned about getting out alive so we got the booby prize.

The final count for the night was 10 starters, Dave (?) dropped out and 9 cars made the Matthew Flinders rest stop. We got a bit concerned about Darrel and Jodie but they turned up in the end. Sandi mentioned at one stage she had caught them canoodling in the car so there was nothing to worry about.

At 11.15pm 2 very weary and exhausted travellers headed home – what a good night! I would love to go back in the daytime and see just where we went. John went to football early before I could get the chance to ask.