ATV News

Kymco to Station Country

Rick Huckstepp's latest instalment as he travels around Australia with his Kymco MXU 400 in tow.

Kymco Australia

Incessant cold wind with showers ensured the gold fields remained soggy and all but the hardiest spent the majority of the time rugged up behind or under shelter.

I was having a ball but then again I had the Kymco quad bike to rip around on which I did with metal detector across the handle bars.

The intermittent showers of rain also made travel on the Broken Hill to Tibooburra Road a hit and miss affair with it being closed for days at a time by the Highways Department due to dangerously slippery conditions.

The wireless signal on the laptop computer came through from BOM advising there was a big rain event on the way; it was decision time.

The only piece of kit I had that could handle the conditions with the onset of more rain was the Kymco. The Pajero would have to be parked on high ground and Anne was becoming less impressed. By that stage most of my brownie points had been used up.

We cut out camp and headed for the muddy main road.

Prior to leaving Brisbane I had taken possession of a Tikka T3 .300WSM rifle to use when culling the feral animal population. It is a formidable weapon and I doubt there is a beast in this country it wouldn’t stop in its tracks.

I had been just itching to put the first round through the barrel and sight it in, then run it in as you should do with high powered rifles if you want them to keep their accuracy.

After telephone contact with a station owner with land holdings on the way to Broken Hill, I managed to get onto his property.

After a face to face introduction he gave me a mud map of the property and I was pretty happy to learn that I had the entire 95,000 acres to myself; Just Anne, me and the Kymco!

Driving 12km into the bush from the homestead I strategically set up the bush trailer in the lea of a sand dune out of the wind.

With the Kymco off the ramps the Tikka replaced the Minelab metal detector on the handle bar rack.  After sighting in the rifle and running it in with 20 rounds through the barrel I headed bush.

I had hoped to shoot feral goats but their value post drought was making them a viable source of income for the long struggling farmers.

With the station owners request not to shoot goats but ‘help yourself to the pig population’ adhered to I took the Kymco to the low creek country.

I only found one herd of pigs and one of them, a young sow felt the wrath of a Remington Core-Lokt 150 grain projectile as it stopped her in her tracks.

With the rest of the herd scampering along the creek beds I had an excuse to push the Kymco to its limits which I did in two and four wheel drive.

The problem was though the herd wouldn’t hold up on open ground and eventually found an impenetrable hectare of lantana and thick scrub. They were safe for the rest of my stay.

Over the next three days I really got to know the Kymco and discover its incredible capabilities in terrible terrain.

As a rule, superlative 4WD capabilities in any vehicles comes at a price; usually you have to endure hard suspension, beastly steering that puts the arms to the test and gear ratios that leave a lot to be desired.

Not so with Kymco. It can handle the most lousy 4WD conditions but with the comfort of an up-market Toorak Tractor (read overly expensive city slicker 4WD that never sees dirt).

It’s really hard to describe. Whenever I sit in the saddle and roll it off the trailer ramps it feels like I’ve slipped on an old and comfortable boot!

Ya’ gotta love this Kymco machine!

published 6/12/2010