Driver Training Trip

It was a great morning, clear blue sky and definitely a touch of autumn in the air, as Pat and I drove up the Bells Line of Road toward the meeting place at the Old Hartley Courthouse. The only problem was we were a bit late (my fault) and it was becoming questionable as to whether we would arrive before the appointed time. As it turned out, we were (embarrassingly) the last to arrive and late. However, the good news was that I was entrusted with this trip report.

Anyway, we were ready to start. This training trip was a new event for the Driver Training Team (DTT) with today being the first trial to see how the concept worked. The idea was to run a training day in a trip format rather than in the traditional training class format. It was hoped this might encourage experienced drivers, as well as newer members, to get out andtake part. With this in mind, there were three members of DTT present and we also had the very competent assistance of Chris Woolley who was acting as an additional instructor. RonAtherton was leading the trip in his D4, assisted by Chris, with Adrian Cayzer ‘floating’ from car to car to provide in the vehicle advice & guidance and John Learson acting as Tail-End Charlie keeping the convoy together from the rear.

Ron gave us an outline of what the day would entail, with Adrian and John providing details about hand signals, convoy procedure and other information we would need on the day. Then we were off on the Jenolan Caves Road.On entering the Jenolan State Forest, along a route Ron has used many times for many trips over many years, we came upon a track that was closed due to logging activity. So, mindful of the ‘no entry’ signs, it was back to the main road and in on an alternative track. After passing through the pine plantations on some very dusty roads, we were soon into the native forest and winding through some beautiful valleys and along ridges. After some interesting portions of track, we arrived at our morning tea spot.Having been to this morning tea spot quite some years ago, it was very interesting to see how the trees had grown.

Where once you could look down into the valley, this was no longer possible. As always, morning tea was a good time for the group to socialize and get to know our fellow students. We were soon off again as Ron led us to more and more challenging sections of track. The track was dry except for the occasional bog holes, some of which were deeper than they looked, and all of which had that fragrant aroma oncedisturbed. We came to some fairly steep and very rutted descents which required careful and precise wheel placement. Here, Ron, Chris, Adrian and John, assisted by other drivers, guided the convoy through some tricky sections.

With a convoy of 12 vehicles, this took some time but we were finally down the series of slopes where Ron turned the convoy around and declared lunch. Lunch was a very relaxed break with a lot of discussion about the challenges we had experienced on the way down. Theonly thing now was that we had to go back the same way, only up this time. So, it was back up the hills. The first obstacle was a fallen tree which we had driven over on the way down. It didn’t present much of an obstacle on the descent but it did on the way up. It took a bit of time to get all the cars over this log and then up the rest of the hill.

All the time, the instructors were providing directions and guidance on how to attack the challenges. As always happens, I was again impressed with where these vehicles will go and how easily they will do it when you get the right line. After a few more challenging sections we made it to the top where we had afternoon tea and a bit of a de-brief on the day. It was a very enjoyable day and I believe it was especially interesting for those new members who hadn’t done very much of this type of driving. From a DTT perspective, we’ll now lookat what we learned from the day and use this information to design future events of this type. I would like to thank all those who took part and especially Ron, Adrian, John and Chris for all their hard work on the day. They all spent quite a bit of time running up and down hills to ensure everyone got the assistance they needed. Keep an eye on the Club calendar as I hope we can do this again in the future.