April 18th, 2004

Blue Basin Trail

First and foremost, I would thank, Paul “The Donut Man” Tiah, for arranging the Blue Basin trip on his Birthday. Secondly I would like to thank, Keith “Tipsy” Billouin and Roland “Where’s the Mud?” Rooplal for joining us on Blue Basin Uphill Climb. Any finally, special thanks to Rick and Curtis of the Rough Rider Crew for inventing those extra roads for us.

Mt. Hololo Exploratory Trail

To the other members who could not join us, here is a brief run down of our day out on “The Mt. Hololo Exploratory Trail”.

 Paul Tiah quickly took control of gathering the crew together with his phone calls at a bright and early time of 7am Sunday morning. Thanks Paul!!! (Sleep is over rated anyways.) We arranged to meet at Stollmeyer’s Castle at 10:00am. Our “driving level” events manager Keith did his home work on the Mt. Hololo Trail and found that it was expected to be a “Grade 6 Trail”. With Rick Coldin running a bit late due to some mechanical difficulties, that he had under control, we decided not to venture into the Mt. Hololo Trail without “Rough Rider” and it’s 15,000 lbs. winch, in fear that it might turn into the Mt. Hol-o @*%! Trail.

Blue Basin Trail

The decision was made instead to drive to Diego Martin and try the Blue Basin Trail. This trail we estimated to be about a Grade 3 in dry conditions and could quickly could turn to a Grade 4 trail in wet conditions. We ventured “up” the old military road passing a few obstacles and 3 point turns (4and 5 points in the Hilux). We eventually met up with a large section of bamboo that had fallen across the road. We all agreed that this would be a good ending to the Blue Basin Trail due to time restrictions and a good place to turn around. We did walk up the trail past the bamboo to see that it did continue onto “Blue Basin Trail Part 2 – The Quest for the Top of This Stupid Hill”.

The return back down the hill, on the “hole”, went pretty smoothly. Special thanks to Keith “Tipsy” Billouin for his lessons in tipping and death defying axle balancing act.

“A Wet View”, Lunch at KFC and Tucker Valley Exploration

Upon completion of the trail we all met up with Rick Coldin at Chaguramas to take in the view of Chaguramas Bay. After a quick down pour and a complete soaking we decided to have lunch at KFC.  Unfortunately, due to some invisible traffic problems, we had to take “Rick’s Road” to KFC via “Paul’s Donut Shop”. Parking which is never a problem with 4wd’s was eventful due to water hazard and a small hill. After a bucket of chicken, some fries and good conversation we ventured out again. Tucker Valley unfortunately held nothing more than a tree, a little bit of mud and an unknown camp ground.

Thank you all for a great day out and I’m sure “E119” thanks you for the entertainment.

Aurick de Sousa......Team “Jolly Roger”

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Hey Aurick Nice trail on Sunday, and to imagine it was almost called off! Thanks for locating that trail for us, it was really enjoyable especially Tipsy's balancing act. The lime in Chag was great as well as the view and food! Thanks for a great day fellas!

The Conlusion to Sundays trail saw Rick, Roland and myself on a construction site just after Chaguanas on the southbound side of the highway. We entered the site through a small passage off the highway. On site we tested various high speed turns, high speed water crossings, Rick practically emptied it when he blasted through a long stretch of water sending mud everywhere, cool hill climbs and made some pretty impressive donuts!! All had fun in that muddy pit! Donut boy promptly got stuck on the exit! Thanks Rick for the pull out. Luckily we left when we did, because a highway patrol passed us while exiting! See you on the next event Keith has in store for us. Rgds Paul

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