Well today we got our kiesters kicked, well and truly…. but the fun was to come…..
A much better night sleep for everyone, it was much better protected from the wind here.
A pretty casual pack up and it’s not till around 10:30 that we leave camp. The track is great, and it’s reminding us so much of the Simpson. There are sections where the scrub is so tall, and the track so narrow that it’s even hard to see the sand flag of the car in front. Then there are other sections of wide open dunes. Most of the dune system is roped off now, but that’s fine, we’re still having plenty of fun. There are quite a few places where water covers the track, some rather deep, fortunately the worst of them have a way around, not that George always takes that option!
We’ve been on the road for an hour and we’ve done 13k’s, that might be a new (slow) speed record!
There have been several tracks to the beach, but most have been narrow and nasty looking, we finally see one that looks OK, so we turn off for a look. We crest the dune to the beach, and boy does the ocean look angry today! So much sand is being picked up in the waves, wow! There’s a lot of rubbish washed up, but also dozens of cuttle fish, really big ones too.
We go to leave, but my wheels spin, I wouldn’t have though the sand was that soft. George can move, but can’t reverse back up the small dune. Traxs out, and he does an 8 point turn in the confined space. He’s up, I use the trax and I’m able to use his tyre tracks to reverse up.
The track continues on, and for the next hour we traverse the national park.
George is in front and we round a bend, all of a sudden there is a motorbike rider just about to become George’s hood ornament, well if George didn’t have a bullbar. The guy was flying, and seconds later 4 more of his mates join him. As the track is so narrow and they’re on bikes they ride up into the scrub to allow us through.
We finally arrive at Geltwood Beach. Here the track seems to hit the beach and we have the option to tack back inland or take the beach. We arrive on the beach, but can’t see any track back off. George takes the beach option and initially it seems OK. We’re high up on the top of the beach, but the small ledge we’re on starts to run out, George drops down on the lower section and only makes it 50mt or so and is bogged. Bugger. Seeing what’s happened to him, I stop up high. We grab the trax and start to do a recovery, but almost as soon as we do a wave comes in and surrounds the car. CRAP! Double CRAP……
Panic stations, we rush to dig out the sand and try and get the trax under. An attempt or two, but no luck. While they dig, I attach a recovery strap to between my car and George’s but I can’t get enough traction to help, I’m just spinning in the sand. We dig and dig, but every 8th or 9th set of waves, maybe every 5 min or so, a big set comes in and floods the area and we’re kinda back to square one. At least the tide is going out.
We’re at this for over an hour, we’ve been shovelling like mad. We see a 4×4 coming down the beach, but they stop 500mts or so up. About 5-10mins later we see a guy walking down, he a ranger! Nice fellow, and he provides some advice, but as the car is now on it’s belly, we’ll need to dig a lot more. He says they can’t assist, due to liability issues, but says he can call some recovery guys….we take up the offer! They’ll be about an hour, so we keep digging and trying. I’m not sure if he’s is just sorry for us, or is at least impressed that we’re still giving it a go, (or maybe wants to go home, but can’t leave us here) but he eventually says, he’ll try and run between us, drive up on the bank I’m on and give us a winch out.
He come belting past as to not get bogged himself, and within 5min, George is out. Phew is about the biggest understatement I can make. We’re so relieved. The ranger calls the recovery guy to tell him he’s not needed.
Tail most certainly between our legs we backtrack and exit towards Millicent.
We pressure up the tyres and as soon as we hit the bitumen, George reports some issues with his steering, the car has issues when he drives over about 60km/h. We find a spot to pull over, I climb under and can see handfuls of sand stuck to the inside of his rims, so it’s throwing his wheel balance out, an easy issue to resolve.
After a false start we find a carwash and spend the next 15min giving both cars a good rinsing down, and particularly the wheel rims. George’s bay look like a beach!, kinda reminds me of when the family used the car wash at Broome and we left all the mud around.
While Millicent is a nice town, I’d prefer not to stay here. Robe is just a bit too much of a stretch for today, so we call the caravan park in Beachport, about 30min up the road, and book in.
We don’t even bother setting up, we just hit the showers, I finally feel a little human.
As we’re all buggered and it’s late, we elect to go to the pub for dinner, as did the rest of the town, by the looks of things! There has to be 30 odd tables, and they all say reserved! George asks and they find us a table. A good meal all round and we finally return to the van park and setup our gear for the night.
Oh shit you were so right, what a nightmare. Glad you all got out eventually and reasonably unscathed. Lots of vehicles lost on K’Gari, that is what I would have been thinking if I had been in the position.