b'REPORTO n a hot 35 degree Melbourne Friday thewestern ridge of the Grampians National Park, away REGIONAL REPSHALLS GAP 2024 NOVEMBERFWDV Regional Reps hit the road down tofrom all the crowds. This was a great part of the trip Halls Gap for the 2nd Regional Reps meetingwith some good rocky tracks to navigate through. this year. Whilst Melbourne was due toBefore long we were at our lunch spot of swelter on a hot Saturday, Halls Gap was forecast forStrachans Hut. A campground that is ready a much cooler day for the day drive with the officialto undergo works to become a vehicle based meeting set for the Sunday in humid conditions.campground rather than walk in. Shortly, a wild By 10am all reps had rolled into the carpark atdog appeared, Ash jumped up, confused as to where the Brambuk Discovery Centre. With Reps from allit came from, before the answer revealed itself. A across the state accounted for we took off into thecouple of locals had walked up looking for help as Grampians National Park with Ash MacDonald fromthey had discovered why a 4wd on 4wd tracks is the Hamilton 4WD Club as trip leader and Brainnecessary. They had taken their Barina out for a spin Moar from the Wimmera 4WD Club, the local repsin the park before bottoming out and doing some for the area. With a whole day of 4wding planned,damage in the process. As we left lunch the Barina we took off. Shooting up Mt Victory Rd and ontowas found to be stuck in a puddle of its own oil. the dirt at Glenelg River Rd. It didnt take long forMembers from both Hamilton and Wimmera 4wd the dust to appear and boy did it appear. WithClubs helped them go get help and made sure the conditions so dusty my backseat must have collecteddog was out of the park and that the car was dealt 10kg of dust by the time we reached our firstwith as needed. lookout, (turns out, windows up, is a great idea).After helping the Barina, we finished lunch and Having the locals as trip leader certainly paidAsh took the group toGermaine Graves. A site off as Ash and Brian time and time again knew themaintained by both clubs. It is the old home site of exact place to stop. It didnt matter if it was halfwaythe Germaine family and the graves of two of their up a climb, on a switchback or anywhere they knewchildren. The father was a shingle splitter in the the best spots and made sure we didnt miss out.area who was born in England and his wife hailed Shooting past the now unused airfield, we jumpedfrom Prussia. The family had many children with onto Goat Track and begun our journey along thesome descendants still in the local areas today. TRACKWATCH|Summer 2024 25'