Page 7 - YV 4x4 Mag Summer 2019 .pub

Sunday – “The Iconic Snowy River Drive!!!!!”

John Toogood had used more fuel than he had expected and decided to stay in camp for the day
and fish. As we were leaving the camp, he was heard to mumble something about having left his
tackle box at home. ( editors note - correct, rods and reels yes, tackle box - bugger ! )

The plan, which seemed good at 9am, was to head along the main road to the East and enter the
Snowy River National Park over near Boneo and do the top section of “The Iconic Drive” along
Bowen Track and the top part of the Deddick Trail finishing the day at McKillops Bridge with a
short run back to camp.

We all know about plans…

All of the Northern entrances to the National Park had new orange signs proclaiming they were
for private access only, so we pressed on until we eventually came to Waterhole Gully Road
which had an old timber Park’s sign indicating it led to Warbisco Track, our entry to the park.
A stop for morning tea during which Peter Yinn noticed the trip leader’s right rear tyre bulging at
the bottom and politely asked what pressures I was running. A quick check with the gauge and
the answer was “not 8psi”. Fortunately, a plug fixed the problem and we were soon on our way.
About now the plan starts to look a bit shaky.

The first few rollovers (erosion mounds) looked undriven upon and some had large gutters
eroded on their topsides.
We pressed on and eventually passed though an open gate (thankfully).
Around the corner the track disappeared behind a forest of 25mm saplings the cars pushed on
through these hoping they would clear as we climbed. After 5km of pushing through saplings,
clearing several fallen trees and an hour later we came to a junction with the “Iconic Snowy River
Drive”.

We headed right towards
Mt Bowen and Bowen Track,
the forest changed to tall burnt
out Mountain Ash and around
the first bend we came to a big
pair of trunks across the road
with no way around and the
view not changing for some kilo-
metres ahead. The area was flat
but strewn with heavy fallen tim-
ber. We turned around to head View through the Prado windscreen…
South.
Anybody spot the track ?
Whilst we stopped for lunch
back at the road junction Paul & Sue made an exploratory trip along the Bowen Link Track to the
South finding that although there were some small trees down the going was better than our other
options.

There were several small trees which our chainsaws dispatched quickly. During one of these
stops Sue almost stood on a large Tiger snake.

The Bowen Link Track was overgrown in places as badly as the Warbisco Track and needs a lot
of work before it can be compared to other Iconic Drives around the state.
After 5km we came to Monkey Top Track and we turned left to head out of the Park.
We soon came to a couple of huge trees that had been recently cleared. (A check with the
Ranger during the following week confirmed his staff had started to clear the track.)

Our collective spirits lifted and we headed out to the main road and onto Bonang for an ice-
cream.

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