6:43 pm - A white 4WD appears! It came from the riparian woodland alongside the river. A group of cockatoos took offence to this and made a lot of noise, so naturally, every dog in the neighbourhood started barking. I can hear a loud acceleration noise - the 4WD is out of view, and this is mere speculation, but I wonder if they're trying to drive up a steep rock wall (the one with the mangled fence) to leave via RVE.
6:46 pm - Police helicopter appears in the distance. The accelerating noise has stopped and I can't see the 4WD. I wonder where it went. Maybe the driver was spooked by the helicopter.
6:49 pm - A different white 4WD goes past me but it was a Range Rover and I highly doubt someone will be driving one of those around a quarry.
6:50 pm - The original white 4WD is back! They've turned around and gone back to the trees by the river. The tail lights on their car are out, which makes me wonder whether it's a purposely acquired vehicle for this kind of activity (I can imagine they'd have a 'Mud pig' bumper sticker). There is a huge discrepancy between the 'height' of the one operational light on the back of their car and their headlights - where they're driving seems unpleasantly steep.
6:52 pm - The 4WD has completely disappeared into the trees as I can't see headlights anymore. This strikes me as really odd because it's quite dark right now.
7:04 pm - Nothing happening. Three planes have flown over since the last update which is a lot, and I can now see why RVE is under an airport overlay. I hope the residents have soundproofed homes.
7:12 pm - Two cars go past the dead-end street but continue along Halong Drive. One drives past me. I'm starting to think this is common practice.
7:14 pm - I can't help but ruminate over where the 4WD could've gone. Were they unable to exit via RVE, for whatever reason? I'm curious as to whether there's an informal road that leads elsewhere (the petrol station near my old house in St. Albans had a little dirt track leading from the truck parking bay to the eastern edge of the Kealba Quarry and then under the E.J. Whitten bridge to the Maribyrnong River. I remember seeing people on dirt bikes there when I was a kid. I think it is also a favoured spot for arsonists in summer because the scrub there burns very easily - wait actually a further search brings up this forum post which supports the existence of the track so yes there is an alternative way out).
7:20 pm - I can hear someone yelling aggressively in the distance. I think this is probably from the soccer ground.
7:30 pm - I exit RVE via the dead-end street/roundabout configuration. The car I thought I maybe saw in my first note turns out to be real! A dark blue Holden station wagon, relatively new, and exuding a very strong "unmarked cop car" vibe (but if they were police, wouldn't they have noted me? It does provide a good reason for the 4WD acting strangely though).
That's it for now. My next visit will be Friday afternoon. I also just came across this, which was published recently, while looking for more information about 4WD activity in the area. I can see why the security guard warned me about creeps. Reminds me of hiking at Werribee Gorge a few years ago and some rabbit hunters came out of nowhere with gigantic crossbows and blood-stained clothing and it was really unpleasant.
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| I have a soft spot for things in supermarkets being put in places they don't belong |
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