- News from Australia -

Steve Hazel Luke & Chelsea Visit Perth

Part 1 - The 4x4 Training weekend in celebration of Steve's 40th

Here we are at the start of the training course. Luke is lowering the tyre pressures ready for the next part.
The forecasts were for 40 degrees and our AC had broken.  Just great.

We had 2 Pajeros on the course!  This one was very much a 'road' Pajero.

Here is Steve at the brow of the same hill. Good 4x4 tyres make a large difference...
You can also see a video of Steve coming up this hill.

Luke had an opportunity to get behind the wheel a few times along the way...

Approaching a water crossing...

Here we are with recovery snatch strap ready to use in case we get bogged.

Not incredibly deep in absolute terms, but much deeper than it looked thanks to soft mud.

This is Jon trying to walk up a steep rutted hill that is much steeper than it looks in the picture.
Our course leader said we should take a side track as he thought the Pajero wouldn't make it.

Steve thought differently, engaged the diff locks and drove straight up the hill, a perfect climb!
Nobody else in the group dared try!

Here we are on the tracks out to the east of Perth.  We are heading for the Powerlines track.

This hill was a serious challenge.  Steve couldn't resist.  Jon couldn't look.

Steve made it, but only just... look where the Pajero is.
The car was nearly vertical at one point and there was a rather loud thump as he landed!

Here we have Steve being lowered down the hill...

We found out what had made the loud thump that night.  One banana shaped side rail.
A few clouts with a large hammer to straighten it out and we were ready for the next day.

Next day we were back in action for beach and dune runs.  Armed with garden misters to keep cool.

Here we are filling in the track for the other Pajero, which got stuck with opposite wheels spinning out in ditches.

The Pajero was pretty good in the sand!  A great couple of days but we do need to fix that AC.