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Don’t let Tasmania’s small size fool you, its rugged landscapes and untouched wilderness is made up of vast mountain ranges, dense forests, raging rivers, crystal clear lakes and hundreds of kilometres of spectacularly rugged coastline. To put it simply Tasmania it's full of rugged untamed 4wd tracks that will get any outdoor enthusiast adrenaline pumping! It’s also pretty as a picture.
Buckle up as we take you down a couple of Tasmania’s toughest tracks.
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$1000 TRACK
Easily one of Tasmania’s toughest tracks 4WD tracks. The infamous $1000 Track (Coldstream track) is comprising of some of the thickest bush, gnarliest ruts, stickiest mud, and deepest bog holes you’ll find anywhere in Australia. Survive the $1000 Track and you’ll be rewarded with a Tassie secret, the secluded Coldstream hut. If your new to the game and wondering why it’s called the $1000 track, well simply you do about a thousand dollars’ worth of damage every time you tackle it.
The Coldstream river marks the start of the track and makes the perfect backdrop to get the convoy aired down. Grahams opted to go with a medium tyre pressure of 22psi and air down further if required. The river is usually axel deep but this time it was running higher than normal giving a glimpse of what might lie ahead, it’s also the last time you’ll see the sky properly for a couple of days. That’s right its some of the thickest bush you’ll ever come across. The track is looking the wettest we’ve ever seen it, you can barely go 5 meters on this track without coming across a sketchy looking bog hole. With the first big bog hole down there's only 984 to go.
After the winter season trees across the track are a real possibility. A chainsaw is a must in this part of the world, it doesn’t take long to come across a tree on the track. Every meter on the $1000 track is a fight for traction and clearance, some of those tight sections can become some of the hardest sections to tackle but picking the right line and keeping slow and steady momentum will get you through. This track I tell ya can be pretty loose. With the thick canopy of the forest it doesn’t take long to loose light on the track and any flat ground you can find is perfect to set up camp for the night.
The last few kilometres of the $1000 track are, well you guessed it. Wet, sloppy and full of bog holes. There is only nasty little bog hole that that typically catches out lower clearance 4WDWs so make sure you have the recovery gear at the ready. Clearance can be everything in some of these situations but a couple of well-placed MaxTrax can make all the difference. At last, it feels like we might have the end of the $1000 track in our sight, there's still plenty of challenges being thrown our way but ever so surely the decent into the Coldstream river marks the end of the track is getting closer.
The $1000 Track as it stands now in Graham's opinion is the hardest track in Australia.
MORE EPIC TRACKS TO CHECK OUT
PYENGANA JEEP TRACK
Pyengana Jeep track is a tight and technical little trail, it winds steeply up from the valley floor and with its big off-cambered ruts and slippery clay it's one of the toughest tracks in the region with that in mind you’ll want to be letting a lot of air out of our tyres for this one. Shauno's opted for 14PSI with his bead-locks to give him the biggest footprint he can get.
The Pyengana Jeep track runs steeply uphill from the get-go, with the extra water on the ground it's pretty damn slippery and sure enough we’re soon having to get into the noise peddle. The track itself is made up of clay soil, big rocks, it's fairly steep and rutted. It's got every ingredient to make a nasty mud pie and before long you’ll be pulled out all the recovery gear to get you up those slippery hills. The Jeep track will keep you on your toes, throwing rut after rut at you, even showing us the most impressive wheel lift we’ve seen on 4WD247.
You’ll soon be nearing the top of the climb but that's just bringing us closer to the next challenges. We know for a fact that no Tassie track is complete without a few bog holes and sure enough they're up ahead. You should never just trust a bog hole in this part of the world and Shauno is doing the sensible thing and checking the depth and its proper deep. With a recovery rope hooked up to a suitable tree and Runva winch spooled out before throwing Sooty in the deep end, with that done the Pyengana Jeep Track is done and dusted but a cracking track deserves a cracking camp site, North East Tasmania has a plethora of spectacular camping options.
COAL RIVER TRACK
The Coal River track is only a short 8kms and in theory shouldn’t take long to complete, but the last time we did it, there was recovery gear strewn for about 100 meters down the track we all just had to fend for ourselves. Our destination for the day is hidden away deep in the bush south of Burnie now we've got a personal nickname for this one the mile of mud and it's a name that we don't give lightly as we approach the start of the track it becomes clear that winter storms have been wreaking some havoc and the road ahead is looking pretty closed in but hey that's why you bring a chainsaw. We're soon on our way into the forest and as the bush closes in the track gets tighter and around the corner are more trees that need to be cleared but with everyone on the tools we've soon got things reopened.
Right on cue, the mud is coming up to meet us, up ahead is a serious look bog hole and there's few things more suspicious than a Tassie mud hole. Shauno reckons he’s gonna have to send it there's no other way around it and we’re not taking any chances. Having got the Runva winch spooled out ready for a quick recovery. You’ll be far better off going a little bit slower hitting a bog hole. Giving it the mumbo and all that momentum comes to an abrupt stop when you get water up over the bonnet, backing off the accelerator immediately before your tyres dig down will make for a much easier recovery. Even so it can still be a hectic winch. I’m real gentle with the amount of drive sometimes you put too much drive all it does is just dig you down further into the mud if you let the winch do the work you can actually rise up above the mud, it's one of those gently gently does it type operations.
Heading back the way we came presents its own problems, with Rubens clutch being so cooked that basically winching him through bog holes the only option to get the big 79 out. After an incredible day on the track we've almost made it back out to where we started, we might not have completed it this time but heck I tell you it's been a whole lot of fun. We sure have had some epic trips down in Tasmania and it always turns it on but this one I'm going to remember for a long time.
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UNTIL NEXT TIME TASMANIA
If you, like us loved Tasmania’s rugged untamed 4WD tracks and it’s not on your must-see destinations then you’ve got rocks in your head, make sure you put it on the list of must see destinations.
