31/07/2015 Comments 10 Alex Garner 10872 Views

Exploring Julimar Forest

Julimar forest featured not too long ago in my Top 4wding Tracks Near Perth where I ashamedly admitted to never having been there before, but hearing a lot about it. Well, I finally knocked that one off my bucket list!

Julimar Forest is located just under 100km from Perth CBD, and can be reached from Julimar road, not far out of Chittering. Camping is a grey area in Julimar to be honest. There are plenty of messy campsites left by those with less respect for the bush than the rest of us. One even had a shopping trolley left behind. Who the hell bothers to bring a shopping trolley in anyway? Well, we camped; and as long as you leave NOTHING behind and be on your best behaviour, I can’t see any trouble coming of it.

Our journey started out with us being lost. Bloody turn by turn GPS I tell ya, it ended up dragging us through a maze of gravel tracks in the Moondyne Nature Reserve, half of which didn’t even exist; which made finding our way through even harder! We eventually made it to Julimar and set off along the fire trails. Most of them are easy going, with spectacular views and vegetation to be admired all around. You’ll spend a bit of time skirting people’s property, so be mindful of staying off their land and making too much noise.

For the most part, the driving is fairly easy. You would require a low range 4wd vehicle for this trip, but having said that I’ve seen some evidence of a Nissan X-Trail being quite capable in the right hands (that’s you Jonathan if you’re reading!). If you’re new to 4wding, I would say this is an excellent place to learn the ropes with a few experienced friends, as the really difficult sections are mostly easily avoided. Whatever you do, don’t follow the track I’ve marked out with STEEP HILL CLIMB if you’re not extremely confident. I’m not kidding, they even scared me a little.

Checking out the muddy area that everyone talks about was obligatory. Most of the people who enjoy splashing around in the mud are wearing at least 35 inch mud terrians. That mean’s it’s usually too chopped up to have any chance of success on my 33 inch all terrains. That is certainly the case in the mud pits towards the northern end. There are a few fun bits for a mud-wuss like me to have a go at, but the deeper pits (like, waist deep) are best left to the big boys. There’s a great hill climb at the end of the mud which is steep but not too difficult, but keep your wits about you if it’s wet!

Heading directly south from the mud pits and this is my kinda terrain! The track gets a little tighter and scratchier, weaving around boulders and hopping up steep spurs. There is one major challenge along here, an extremely steep, shale covered hill climb. There are two options, one being best left to the madmen. You’ll see what I mean. Just walking these things is a challenge but it has to be done, you don’t want to be having to stop on these bad boys to do some track building!

It’s all easily done in a day, but we settled in to camp for the night. The following day heading out of Julimar is where I got sad. I won’t go into detail here, you can see that in the video. The result of the whole ordeal though, was ankle deep mud through the entire front and rear sections of the vehicle. Right after I’d removed and washed the carpets after the Adelaide Road Trip!

I’ve left plenty to explore in Julimar, which is always a good idea as I can come back later!

Oh, Right! Video time! Here you go!

See you out there!

Alex

Tags 4wding Camping days Perth weekend

Category Days Overland & 4WD Weekends

About author

Alex Garner 132 posts

10 Comments

Matt
August 01, 08:17 Reply

Looks like a great weekend trip with good tracks, hot sauce did the trick haha, no torque out of the 2.8 does that mean a td42 conversion in the future lol, seeing stolen and dumped cars shits me though, have had same problem here in adelaide in our forest, stolen, dumped n set on fire n usually starting a bushfire, its no wonder our main forest is mostly walking trail access only, keep up the good work n keep the videos coming.
- Alex Garner
  August 01, 18:27 Reply
  
  Hey Matt, the TD42 conversion has crossed my mind on a few occasions but at this stage my mind is with going petrol, LS1 V8 :D Yeah dumped vehicles seemed to be a bit of a problem out in Julimar, some forests seem to be worse for it than others. Glad you're enjoying the videos, I'll keep filming if you keep watching :D
Aaron at 4WDing Australia
August 01, 20:46 Reply

Nice post and video mate. Shame about the water in the vehicle. Looked like a lack of clearance. Are you running 33's? Keep up the awesome work
- Alex Garner
  August 01, 21:04 Reply
  
  Thanks man! Yeah I'm running 33's. It's almost as if you're not in the game if you're not on 35's these days! Most of these mud holes have that high centre in there which just hangs you up on the diffs :(
  - Aaron at 4WDing Australia
    August 02, 13:02 Reply
    
    Yeah, vehicles with bigger tyres make the ruts too deep. Lockers can help, but there isn't much you can do beyond that! I'd rather keep the vehicle legal. Have you ripped the interior out and cleaned it yet? Fun times!
jon
August 02, 18:30 Reply

Hey guys, thanks for the mention in the article. Julimar is a fun place, the Xtrail loved it there.
Larry Ledford
August 03, 02:32 Reply

Alex, Alex, Alex With friends like you, no one needs any enemies. The hot sauce was not nice. Just kidding. Another excellent adventure.
andy
August 30, 21:02 Reply

Headed up to Julimar today your video and waypoints where a great help. Was quite a popular place a few challanging parts that made it fun and will be heading back out there in the future.The 120 prado with 2 inch lift on 33s had no dramas with the ruts but a couple of bog holes where to deep for most. Thanks Alex
- Alex Garner
  September 01, 07:59 Reply
  
  Sounds like you had a good day out there andy! Glad the waypoints and video were of use to you, I reckon I'll be getting out there again in the not too distant future. I feel like there is many tracks I still have to explore :)
jason
December 06, 14:23 Reply

i must have subscribed 5 times already this week, still no email to get my pass word for the extra bits!!!