OK, this is a long one….
Up at 5:15 Ugh! It’s about 30 or 40 mins to get over to River Heads by 6:25, ready for the 6:45 ferry. Joy! It’s still dark as we take off.
We arrive on time. Unsurprisingly, it’s a full load on the ferry. We need to reverse onto the ferry here as we need to drive off the front as we disembark via a jetty at Kingfisher Resort, you wouldn’t want to back all the way up the that! I’m not sure that you’re meant to, but I lower the tyre pressures while we’re waiting to disembark.
Sunrise at River Heads
So 45mins later we drive off at Kingfisher Bay Resort, it doesn’t take long to drive through the resort and we hit the sand. The tracks are narrow, only 1 car width wide, with pull over areas every so often, so we’re glad we don’t meet much on coming traffic. Ideally we would go direct to Lake McKenzie, but as it’s only 7:30 in the morning, we elect to go to Central Station first. Here we take the short Wanggoolba Creek boardwalk. It’s only about 1km, so quite manageable at this early hour. The walk is really nice, and a great way to get the kids to appreciate the island and it’s ecosystem.
The tracks are so narrow in places. 
Wanggoolba Creek, the water is so clear
From here we backtrack to Lake McKenzie, well I say backtrack. While we’re following the signs, driving in circles would more actually describe how it felt. The tracks are much rougher than I remember them (although it has been 20 years since we where last here!) and there are a quite a few sections we are going not much faster than walking pace and the washouts are really deep. Finally at about 10 we arrive at the lake. This early there are only about a dozen cars around. We hit the beach and the view is sensational, every bit as good as I remember it. It’s not long and we’re all in swimming. While fresh at first, after a few mins it is wonderful. Such crystal clear fresh water! Where the water changes colour it gets deep really quickly. We get the kids masks and noodles and they have an absolute ball. We’re here for probably an hour, the place is stating to get quite busy now and we need to keep moving. As we leave the carpark is basically full.
Lake McKenzie 
The water is just so clear
We head towards the east coast and Eurong Resort. The place certainly seems a lot nicer than it was last time we drove through here.
Finally driving on the beach and it is great, the sand it really firm and so wide. We cruise up the beach and get used to the speed and the creek/wash out crossings. After averaging maybe 20km/h for most of the morning, it nice to be sitting on 80! We hit the first headland and need to take the inland track, you might be able to get around at ultra-low tide, but not today. At the next headland, Yidney Rocks, the tide is low enough that we can make it around the rocks. We just need to time the run between waves. Although we’re following a rather nervous Landcruiser driver who doesn’t seem to want to make the run. Move it!
Finally at Eli Creek. This is meant to be an issue as it can only be crossed within about 2 hours either size of low tide. Even then I’ve seen some video that make it look deep. In the end it’s really only as deep as the running boards and not very difficult at all. Rather than stop here now, we carry on to the shipwreck of the Maheno first.
As we pull up it’s pretty busy, with 10 or so cars and one of the tourist buses. Last time, we were the only ones here. Anyway, we have a good look around, one bus leaves and there is a brief lull before the next bus arrives, quick some photos!
Arriving at the Maheno 
Lunch 
SS Maheno 
SS Maheno, aged look!
Given the time, it seems optimistic that we’d make it up to Champagne Pools with enough time to enjoy them and get back. So while busy here, it is quieter than at Eli Creek so we have a quick lunch out of the back of the car.
We drive back to Eli Creek, and a car pulls out close to the creek, so we grab the spot. Eli Creek is this boardwalk into the bush, maybe a few hundred meters. Here you enter the shallow creek and wade or ideally float downstream back to the beach. The water runs at a fair current and it is pretty fresh, much colder than that at McKenzie, but you do get used to it. There are tons of people here, but there is good vibe and everyone seems nice.
Eli Creek 
Exit of Creek 
Everyone is here……
While we’re here, we see a plane land and take off a couple of time, they must be running 10-15min joy flights from the beach.
After about 3 loops of the creek, It’s nearly 2pm, low tide was at 12:45, so it best we get back over Eli and the Happy Valley headland before the tides get too high. That and the kids really want to go back to McKenzie for a last swim. If it was just up to the kids, I think they would have preferred to spend the whole day at McKenzie.
We try and get the kids dry as we can, we clean as much sand off them as we can. Towels and clothes are going in every direction. Is anyone hungry? Is everyone’s water bottle filled? Great we’re off.
*Google doesn’t know the all the roads, so the path here is not accurate.
We make it over Eli Creek fine enough. While the water is about 3mtrs wide, it would seem the first 2.5m is only ankle deep and then there is a major dip, maybe half a metre deep, before bouncing back onto the hard sand. I watch the previous couple of cars bounce though and then follow. We make it though pretty easy. We continue down the highway that is the beach and I look down to see the door open light on, I check my door, nope. “Hey can everyone check your doors?” one by one each door is re-shut, nope. Crap the tail gate must be ajar. Then Liam calls out “The back door is open!” Shit! So it is. We pull over. I’ve got this dread, given how loosely the stuff is packed, we must have left a trail of cargo over the last couple of km of beach. We jump out, to our surprise, everything “seems” to be here. The chairs, the compressor, even the swimming bag with all the towels appears to be still here. Wow what luck. Initially we though it must have just popped open, but the more we think about it, we just think in all the rush and confusion no one actually closed the tailgate when we left. I can just imagine all these people at the creek yelling out to us as we left. Or at least having a good chuckle! At least they couldn’t see the NSW plates with the tailgate up!
We catch up on a group of cars not long before Yidney Rocks, this is where we need to drive quite close the water to get around some rocks, as we get close the cars in front seem to spear off in all different directions and most seem to double back to take the inland track. I look up ahead and it “seems” ok, we carry on, and while the tide is maybe a bit higher than when we crossed this morning, with timing it between the waves, we make it through with ease.
Sometime as we’re driving Justine mentions her phone was in the back, while we weren’t looking for it specifically, we didn’t see it. So we fear it might have bounced out while driving. Shit again.
Around the bypass track at “Fraser Beachfront”, back onto the beach, and this time we take the Cronwell’s Break road, a few k’s before Eurong. This road is much better, still really soft sand, but not nearly so rough or undulating. It still takes the better part of 40mins to get to McKenzie, we really need to allow 40min to get to back to Kingfisher, so we really only have a maximum of may be 30-35mins here. Justine gets the kids ready and they go for a swim. I’m still pissed about leaving the boot open and losing the phone, well partly pissed, partly embarrassed about making such a stupid mistake. I’ve got reception so in the off chance I call the phone, but get the immediate “phone is switched off or out of range” well on the east coast it is out of range, and possible under the treads of some 4x4s!
The kids have a ball (I mull!) but after about 25-30min we need to get them out and dried before the trip back. In addition to the phone it seems we’ve lost a pair of Liam’s shorts and one of Caitlin’s swimming costumes, those losses I can live with.
The Kids back at Lake McKenzie
Back along the inland track, and we arrive, about 10mins before check-in time, it seems we might be the first here. We see the barge disembark what appears to be a full load of about 15 or more 4x4s. I think we have time so grab out the compressor to start pumping up the tyres. Low and behold under the compressor is Justine’s phone. Phew!. What Luck!, it’s not the $$$ of the phone itself it’s just the pain of getting a new one, getting the sim transferred, all the setup. A big relief all round.
I only get the rear tires done and we need to get ready to board, of course being the 1st on, we’ll be the last off. Ah well.
Waiting to board the Ferry at Kingfisher.
Back at Riverheads, I finish re-inflating the front tyres and we collect some Pizza’s on the way through town for dinner. Pizza and a beer and it’s not long before we’re all ready for bed. A long and tiring day, but really well worth it. Maybe we might need to try and plan to stay a night or two next time.
Just after dinner, Dawn’s cat Zeva is eagle eyeing the garden. We probably wouldn’t have give it a second thought, but Dawn knew something was up. There in the garden, hiding behind a piece of garden art was this echidna, a damn large one at that! Much bigger than the one we saw down in Tumut.
