[Richard Coutts-Smith]

Just in case there is a Champ owner out there who does not know about Champ Camp.
Might I add that this is a magnificent week to be involved in....See Below, and feel free to drop me a line if interested.

13th National Champ Camp

in

Australia



The 13th National Champ Camp in Australia will be held from 2nd April through to the 9th April 2009.



The camp is to be held at Marysville, Victoria which is in the south east corner of Australia. Surrounding our base camp is a large area of national parks that contain some of the best 4WDing tracks anywhere in this country. The area that we are in is also the start of the National Horse Trail. This trail starts in a town called Healesville, approx 15Miles south of Marysville, and goes all the way up to Cook Town in Far North Queensland, a distance of 5,330KM. Many of the tracks we will be driving will be part of that trail.



This Champ Camp is probably going to be the biggest so far in Australia. We have a confirmed 20 Champs (maybe 3 more) and 50 people. Attendees are coming from all over. There are 7, maybe more, from the UK, 2 from Hawaii, and the Australian contingent will come from Tasmania, NSW, South Australia and of course Victoria.



The 4WD tracks we will be on range from the very easy to the almost impossible! This we can vouch for, as we have ventured up tracks that many 4WD’s would never get up without a winch, but the Champ just powered up them, well nearly!! One track we went up was pretty close to the limit for the Champ, 45 degrees UP! The track was not only steep but had a lot of large rocks that had to be driven around or over. Then we went down the other side, well I didn’t think tracks could get steeper, I was wrong! Not only steep and rocky, but we had to go over rock drops of up to 2 or 3 feet high. No real problem going down, so long as you took it really slow, but no way would we get back up this track so it was a good thing we actually tried these tracks in the direction we did. The passenger I had with me can’t wait to get his champ back on the road to go and re do this track. The passenger in Peter’s champ is sending him the bill for the dry cleaning of his underwear! Needless to say, this track is off the list for Champ Camp except for those that really want to do it and have the skills.



We will be out every day driving in different areas around Marysville. We have managed to organise approx 50 miles of tracks per day. All of these tracks will be of varying degrees of difficulty, but those that we believe are too hard for some people, or they choose not to do them, we have arranged bypass routes that are easier.



Both Peter Reading and myself, have spent the last 12 months organising this event. We have driven in excess of 1,500 miles in our champs checking all of the tracks we are going to use, This is always necessary, as I am sure you would all be aware of the fact that maps are not always true in what they indicate. We have had a lot of fun, many a discussion over where we were when looking at the map. It does make it hard when roads that exist are not on the map, but then roads shown are no where to be found!



In March a few weeks prior to the camp we will spend a few days rechecking all the tracks to make sure there are no problems and that they are all drivable. Ummm that means another 1,500 miles in my champ. I have to say, I never stop smiling while I am driving it, I love it.



I am sure everyone will enjoy what we have organised for them. If they don’t? Hey, they can organise the next one and do better! Any volunteers for 2010??







If this article is in the Champ Magazine in time and anyone is interested in coming please contact me.



One last thing. I made sure when organising this event, that where we all were to stay, the pub was in walking distance!



Malcolm Bursell