^^ nice pics dey boi droppa!
Ok here's the full run report, in bullet points...
- Met up at gulf view kfc, the usual south spot. Good turn out of 13 vehicles, including a nissan-toyota connection who brought a new toy (that will be debuted at a future run!)... but what a vintage piece that he got!!
- someone brought a Mahindra Pikup... that we quickly dubbed the "Masala Machine". This was the 2.5L 4x4 version with the eaton mechanical rear-lockers..... we couldn't wait to get this one stuck in the coconuts!
- left at around 9:30am.... the niss-yota guy was real toting cuz he had to leave to go to work... next time buddy!
- made a couple stops along the way, one in Otaheite (is that correct??) to pick up some snacks and one at the Cedros fishing depot to wait for the Masala-men (who stopped off in Point to buy pizza and fried chicken).
After cedros, we headed straight for the coconuts. We stopped at the entrance of the trail to regroup and figure out where the lost volcano was on google maps.
Found the relative location after a while, which was a couple hundred feet away from our position, so we set off again. However, we had a little bit of fun along the way - we all decided to try the "2WD challenge" - everyone would do the trail in 2wd only, whoever had to engage 4wd would get real talks.... and what fun we had! Found a couple mud-pits along the way, and tore the place up going in 2wd and not movng an inch. Droppa was already handicapped since his front driveshaft wasn't installed.... so he went along in 2wd whether he liked it or not.
After some tire smoking and mud moving, we found the ridge for the volcano basin, approx 1/2 mile wide but surrounded by a tree line. We split into two search parties, one would try to hack their way through the trees and find a walkable path, while the others would drive around the perimeter of the ridge and try to find an alternate path to drive the vehicles through.
After about half an hour of searching, the first group gave up because the shrubbery was just too thick to walk through, even with machete's and cutlass. But with a little bit of luck, the second group found a hidden driveway between some of the trees, next to a marshy pit. We regouped in the middle of the coconut forest and headed into the surprisingly thick and dark underbrush, with trees growing into a heavy canopy over our heads. The sun was relentless all day, beating on us with merciless heat and the canop of trees was a welcome relief from the blast of heat.
Sure enough, the path lead straight to the volcano. It was quite overgrown, as if no one had visited for years, though we couldn't tell really. But the volcano was found, and there were two of them! Of course with all the dry weather we've had recently, the top crust was dry and walkable, however we opted to park the vehicles near the shaded trees.
After the midday heat and exploring the mud volcanoes, the group was lookng forward to some fun in the sand some more, and a beach-bath. So we headed out of the volcano fields and went back to the main road for a short blast down the pitch down to the rest of the estate. We soon found the entrance to the trail leading to the beach and proceeded to tear it up between the coconuts. The top soil was mostly sandy and dry, but underneath was a slushy, sandy trap. There were a couple soft pits that provided lots of entertainment for the guys and new-comers to retry the 2wd challenge..... needless to say almost everyone got stuck (in 2wd at least).
Finally we hit the beach at Columbus Bay at around 3:45pm. The water was at high tide and was so inviting, we had to take a bathe!
So, all in all, it was a successful run (we even hit water this time!).
We found the Lost Volcanoes, and had lots of fun splitting into search parties to do it and exploring the area. The 2wd challenge was a blast and the guys enjoyed letting loose all that horsepower. I'm sure that collectively, we must have all put about 60-80km on our odometers together just spinning in mud/sand.
Slight inconvenience on the way home though, there was water on the creek and lots of traffic, so we took a detour through Avocat from the Oropouche junction, to come out by Paria Suites. Long drive, lots of fun, and we definitely wanna do this again! (some saying that we might even have a treasure hunt for the new-guys next time in the coconuts!)
Side B - Keep On Truckin' !!!
