Monkey Gum Fire Trail - NSW

Last week I was invited to join some friends on a trip to do the infamous Monkey Gum Fire Trail. We were originally going to take my mate's discovery, but when his mate pulled out and it was just 2 of us, we decided to take the iO!

The fleet at the top of the main descent - 80 series, Prado, Feroza, iO and Challenger

We did go the easy way, from south-west to north-east, but I was still very happy to say that the iO conquered it! There were a few hairy moments on some very rocky, rutted sections of trail, but I managed to get through reasonably well.

Everyone on the trip was impressed by how well the iO went. I was particularly happy because one of the other vehicles was a Challenger - a 4WD I'd always thought I'd like to own. Well, not anymore!!!! I was travelling at the back of the group behind the challenger, and it struggled on so many sections. It was up on 2-3 wheels on minor obstacles, and needed a fair amount of momentum to get through them. With me trailing him, I was getting nervous before every little section, but the iO made it through everything so easily. Everyone from the other vehicles (80 series, Prado, Feroza on 31's) had the cameras out watching how hard the challenger was making it, just waiting to see what happened to me, but they were disappointed every time with how easily I got through. This included some rutted hill climbs and rock steps which usually I find difficult with the SWB.

We made it to the bottom campsite on Monkey Gum for morning tea.

The challenger took 3 or 4 attempts to get up this minor off camber rut. I did it with no wheelspin, first go.

One of the easier creek crossings.

After monkey gum, we decided to come back through an infamous little creek crossing, which I have done successfully before, on the way back to Nowra. Unfortunately the far bank was ripped to shreds, and the sandy soil was not providing enough grip for me to get up over the steep step up out of the water. I ended up stuck on a very steep angle, with my rear bumper and towbar buried in the sand underwater. Fortunately the water level was low, and my friend in the 80 series had made it through (though the prado didn't and had to back out of the creek). I was able to be winched out pretty easily. It was a bit of fun, but the downside was that as I was winched over a large rock in the creek it made quite an impression on the rear bumper. This should pop right out, but the paint is a bit worse for wear...

You can see the water mark across the bumper and spare wheel showing the angle I was on in the creek.

I was digging myself deeper and deeper as the bumper dragged through the sandy bottom. There's still sand falling out of there even after all this!
Oh yeah, there's the ding in the bumper too!
 

Apologies for not inviting some of the other local members of the forum, it was a little bit last minute that I decided to take my car. I'm keen to do this again sometime!