Don and Jane's Mundaring by night

14/2/2026

Attendees:
Don and Jane: GU Nissan Patrol (Trip Leaders)
Simon and Di: 101 Land Rover
Wayne and Sandie: GU Nissan Patrol
Wilco: Lexus
Alan: Ford Ranger (Tail end Charlie)

What an adventure!

As the darkness approaches everything looks different. A trip rated at 3+ in the daylight becomes a 4 in the dark.

The simple plan was to do a night drive on a track that we have driven before in daylight. We left our meeting point and drove through the offset wombat holes for photo opportunities. The powerline provided plenty more photo opportunities.

The track itself becomes narrow and winding through trees. I was surprised that Simon’s vehicle fitted between the trees easily. The rocky section was a bit of a test for vehicles without lockers.

A short section of sealed road occurs before returning to a slippery gravel track. There was a lot of dust which in Simon’s vehicle was both inside and outside. A short deeply rutted section became our 1st challenge of the night.

This is a challenge because it requires driving along the bank to reduce the steep angles. Reduced tyre pressure makes a difference here. The Patrols and Lexus conquered this obstacle without difficulties. (Wilco drove through it like I did - with wheels in the air. Jane)

Next a stop was for a coffee, a chat and a bite of dinner while watching the night sky. There were a lot of satellites and Wilco shared some of his astro photography successes. (He uses a big telescope and time lapse. Not something to bring on such a rough trip.) The balmy cool evening meant we lingered and chatted a long time.

The next section became harder as the track is more washed, narrow and has lots of bush obstruction. It needs some work to widen the track in places. A rocky deeply rutted section follows downhill. Alan commented on the interesting noises from under his vehicle as he bottomed out in the ruts. Gravity helped out here.

Crossing a gravel uphill track became a challenge in a number of ways. First, an unseen log halted my progress and caused some panel damage. Simon, Di and Jane pulled the log away and I was able to continue up the track. Second, the 101 Landrover with open diffs, found it hard going. Under the loose gravel is … sand! And the 101 began digging a hole increasing the strange angle of the vehicle. In the end Wayne provided a winch and tow.

Thirdly, Di noticed a door to be missing from the 101 so we decided to back track to where we had tea. This hunt took about an hour and was unsuccessful. Simon was very disappointed. Thanks, Wayne, for your help.

We headed for home, stopping to re inflate tyres at midnight. Wilco found his air compressor hose had reached its use by date and would not, could not be repaired. It was a long night.

Despite the trip being more challenging in the dark, it was more pleasant than driving around on a hot day (and I loved the twilight colours - Jane).

PS - Driving the Cannon for comfort, Simon and Di returned the next day to have another look. Starting from where we had tea together to the last hill they searched, walking the sections most likely to be where the door would dislodge only to find it on the final hill! It was just 50 metres from where Di looked the previous night. Such elation.

Trip report by Don and Jane.