I participated in the WD Club trip to Bridgetown this weekend. Seven member of the club met at a quiet public reserve approximately 20km SE of Bridgetown. The distance from Perth is about 280km and took me 3½ hours towing the trailer.
An appointment on Friday morning meant I didn’t depart until 11AM and was the last to arrive at the reserve. Apart from some slow and heavy traffic on the southern freeway (motorway) it was an easy drive.
The reserve was on the banks of the Blackwood River whose source is hundreds of kilometres further inland.
It was a very pleasant location, apart from the ‘March Flies’ who are large, hard to kill and have a bite so strong they can draw blood.
On Saturday morning the Trip Organiser led us on a convoy drive around the local native forests staying mostly on unsealed roads. Much of this area used to be covered in native Jarrah trees. A very hard wood. Over the last 150 years most of it has been logged and I read somewhere that many of the stately homes in London have (had?) Jarrah floorboards. The land has been left cleared as farmland or replanted with other species of native trees. I noticed several plantations of Blue Gum.
We had a late mid morning rest stop beside a river where the bridge was a reinforced Bailey Bridge.
The original Double Single Bailey Bridge had been raised and additional large steel H beams added to increase the load carrying capacity.
The day trip took us back to Bridgetown for our last stop.
It’s an attractive town
Art Deco style Town Hall and council chambers
Sunday morning I packed up the trailer before saying my goodbye’s to those club members staying and headed home.
Upon reaching home I realised I’d dogged a bullet when I saw the state of the TREG Block trailer hitch. The poly block had split in half. I doubt the trailer would have separated from the vehicle as the vertical coupler pin is situated behind the horizontal hinge pin. Bit it would have been very noisy if the poly block had dropped out. I probably shouldn’t be surprised as it’s a cheap Chinese articulated coupler.
