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
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