As you know I have my mum over for a week so I have been showing her around. Now there is a mountain nearby called Mt Samaria, and it is contained within the Mt Samaria State Park. The tourist brochure says, “Tall eucalypt forests on top of a rugged plateau, huge granite boulders, carpets of wildflowers and pretty waterfalls make Mt Samaria a great destination for overnight camping, bushwalking and scenic drives…” and on the map was a road that ran down the middle of the area designated as the state forest.

Now mum and I weren’t up to overnight camping or bushwalking but the scenic drive bit sounded good so I packed a thermos and some biscuits and we set off. Firstly we almost missed the turn off because the sign was so faded it was illegible. I was a bit suspicious though so turned around past the sign and sure enough on the other side it said Mt Samaria State Forest. We turned down this road which was unsealed and proceeded without problems for a while until we came to a Y intersection with a sign saying Mt Samaria State Forest in between the options, but without indicating which was the right road. I proceed down the one that seemed the most inline with the road that we were on and came to another intersection with a sign that said Samaria Well. Now I remembered seeing that on the map so continued on. The road looked very much worse for wear with some pretty deep channels in it so I proceeded with care. The we saw on the side of the road a very rudimentary fence in a square so thought, this might be the well and indeed it was.

After admiring the well we hopped back into the car and drove on, thinking that this was the road through the state forest but not much further on it ended in a picnic ground and that was that. We returned back to the intersection mentioned before and checked the map. Sure enough the road to the well was dead end and the other fork would take us to where we wanted. Turning down this road we saw a sign hidden in some bushes that said, “dry weather road only” but that was OK as it was sunny and the road was dry, although again in a couple of spots with some deep gullies that needed to be carefully negotiated but did not give any major concern. Continuing along this road it soon began to climb, and climb and climb. Height was gained pretty quickly and due to the loosely rocky nature of the road I kept a slow but steady pace. And it kept climbing. After quite a lot of this fairly steep incline I noticed that the temperature gauge on the car was up near the H instead of sitting about midway. Oh, oh, I thought. My car is overheating but there is nowhere to pull over and stop. And if I stop on this slope with only loose gravel under my wheels I might have trouble getting started again. It looked like we were getting near to the top however to gingerly kept going all the while anxiously checking the temperature gauge that was reading way too high.

Eventually we reached a spot where the road started leveling out and there was a bit of space where I could pull the car off the road and a nice view. We figured this was as good a place as any to stop for a cup of tea and let the car cool down again. To facilitate this end I popped the bonnet and went to the front of the car to lift it up. As I was lifting up the bonnet there was a bang and coolant and steam started spraying all over me and I promptly dropped the bonnet, with steam pouring out all sides of the bonnet. Fortunately the spray was sufficiently cooled by the time it hit me so there was no risk of burns, but it occurred to me later that if I had not been wearing my wrap around sunnies at the time I could well have had some nasty problems with coolant in my eyes. Now remember, readers, that I am on top of a mountain inside a state forest in a fairly remote part of the country. I had mobile coverage (I checked) but even if I called the RACV, who knows how long it would take for them to get there?

Come on BG, type faster!!!

Before I rang though, I wanted to have a look for myself what the damage was. So once it had stopped steaming and it was cool enough for me to do so, and I had had my cup of tea, I had a look under the bonnet. My concern was that a hose had ruptured, but it ended out that it had merely slipped off its place on the radiator I was able to return it to its home with the help of a pair of pliers from the car’s tool kit. Given that there was now no pressure in the radiator (and probably little coolant) I got a blanket I keep in the back and removed the radiator cap. It was hard to see how much coolant was in there as the way it is constructed a bit of coolant sits up near the top anyway, but seeing as I am a resourceful sort of person that likes to be prepared (I would have made a good boy scout) I had a bottle of coolant in the back that was about 2/3rds full. I slowly started pouring coolant in and kept pouring and pouring. Suddenly there was a big hiss as it hit a hot spot and a little geyser of steam started rising out of the radiator hole. When that settled I started pouring again with the same scenario a number of times until all the coolant had been poured in. At one point I looked under the car to see if it was pouring out the bottom it was taking so much, but the ground was dry. With everything secure in place again I checked the engine temp and it was back to normal so we continued on.

The view from where we stopped.

bluegreen said:

Before I rang though, I wanted to have a look for myself what the damage was. So once it had stopped steaming and it was cool enough for me to do so, and I had had my cup of tea, I had a look under the bonnet. My concern was that a hose had ruptured, but it ended out that it had merely slipped off its place on the radiator I was able to return it to its home with the help of a pair of pliers from the car’s tool kit. Given that there was now no pressure in the radiator (and probably little coolant) I got a blanket I keep in the back and removed the radiator cap. It was hard to see how much coolant was in there as the way it is constructed a bit of coolant sits up near the top anyway, but seeing as I am a resourceful sort of person that likes to be prepared (I would have made a good boy scout) I had a bottle of coolant in the back that was about 2/3rds full. I slowly started pouring coolant in and kept pouring and pouring. Suddenly there was a big hiss as it hit a hot spot and a little geyser of steam started rising out of the radiator hole. When that settled I started pouring again with the same scenario a number of times until all the coolant had been poured in. At one point I looked under the car to see if it was pouring out the bottom it was taking so much, but the ground was dry. With everything secure in place again I checked the engine temp and it was back to normal so we continued on.

The view from where we stopped.

That view still looks dry despite your green spring…. did you make it home okay?

We were obviously over the worst part of the climb but I kept an eye on the temperature but it kept steady at half way as it should. As we continued on we passed various starting points for walks to the summit or various falls and camping grounds and passed some historic kilns which were in a bank of 4 or 5 and about 20 foot high with chimneys on top. I think they may have been charcoal kilns but will have to check that out to be sure.

Another spot we did stop at as it did not require much walking was Rocky Point Lookout.

pain master said:

That view still looks dry despite your green spring…. did you make it home okay?

Nah, course not, BG is typing those posts on her touchscreen internet-enabled phone while piggybacking her mum down the mountain :P

(Not really … I have no idea in fact … but there’s no sense of building panic or undercurrents of fear in BG’s words so I’m expecting a happy ever after ending)

By this time we were on a down hill trend so I was feeling confident about the rest of the trip, although there was evidence of water draining off the higher slopes and a few puddles across the road so at the back of my mind was that sign “dry weather road only.” However that didn’t prove a problem, but the big tree that had fallen across the road looked like it might be! I hopped out of the car for a closer look wondering if I was going to have to turn around and drive all the way back again when it looked like we were close to the end of our scenic drive. There were signs of another vehicle having got through, however, even if one tire track was halfway up the embankment and I figured I could squeeze through too. Further on we came another tree across the road but there was a clear way around that one. We also came across another two trees that had been cut away to clear the road. By this time we had passed the Mt Samaria State Park sign for people going the other way so figured it was just a matter of following the road out to the highway again and heading home. How hard could that be? Well….

Stop making cuppas in between posts, I’m fangin’ for the happy ending BG!

There was a bit of excitement at about this point when some yellow tailed black cockatoos flew across in front of us and into some nearby trees.

There seemed to be an issue about clearly signposting intersections as soon we came to another choice of roads. Mum and I decided that the one to the right was heading uphill while the one on the left was going downhill which is what we wanted to do, and it also looked in better condition so off we went to the left.

Around this point the natural eucalypt forests were being taken over by plantation pines. Another intersection, but this time the one on the left said private road so we went right. Next thing we know there is DEEP sand ahead then a creek, and off to the side a little picnic area. it looked like we had come to a dead end! I got out the map that showed that although there was a road through, there were also lots of other little roads that didn’t go anywhere in particular, however if we had turned right at that first intersection then we would have come to another way out. It looked like going back there was the best option. Just as I was pulling out, however, I glanced over to the creek and caught a glimpse of what might have been a road on the other side. I decided to investigate closer, but by foot. I was not going to drive into that deep sand without being sure I had a clear way through.

There was in fact a road on the other side that I had not seen at first to to a bend in the road and big bushes, and the creek had a concrete and rock causeway so I was in fact on the right road. having determined by walking through that the causeway was in fact stable, and only a few inches deep, and that the exiting road was much firmer than the sand entering, I went back to the car and successfully negotiated the crossing. From then on the quality of the road became better and better and eventually we were on bitumen again.

A few more times of having to guess whether to go left or right we soon found ourselves at Mansfield and on the highway back home to Swanpool and lunch.

So there ends the great Mt Samaria adventure.

PS. I was typing as fast as I could Yeehah!

Phew! I had to hang in for the happy ending just in case there was an unsuspected twist.

Sounds like the kind of adventure that is best had in a 4wd :)

bluegreen said:

So there ends the great Mt Samaria adventure.

PS. I was typing as fast as I could Yeehah!

Sounds like a fun day, GF and I had a very similar experience only last week, but we knew which road to take, it was just a matter of beating the rain home before the creeks turned to rivers….

So there ends the great Mt Samaria adventure. PS. I was typing as fast as I could Yeehah!

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it’s the cup of tea that done it. notice that as soon as the cuppa was finished you started winning.LOL.
nice shots and story thanks.