Today I went with Chris and Steve to the famous sand dunes of Stockon Beach to put our Suby's to the test. End result - the cars passed (minus a few parts
).We met up at Maccas in the morning, jumped on the Freeway and popped out the other end at Williamtown where the lads bought their Beach Vehicle Permits. Then a short drive down to the beach carpark where aired down our tyres and prepared ourself for beach driving.
10PSI:
Shortly after getting onto the beach, we had our first drama. Steve got it bogged so close to the top of a large sand dune. Sand right up against the diff and the side sills. Even if the car had traction (which it didn't), we wouldn't have been able to dislodge it from the mass of sand underneath.
Thankfully a kind local gave him a tow and he was out fairly easily
We then proceeded 8kms South of the Southern entry (Lavis Lane) where the softest sand is. The cars were laboring but we were going fine. That was until I managed to find a tree. Mel (Chris's girlfriend) put it perfectly - I managed to crash into a tree in the middle of sand dunes where there are no trees, haha!
It was actually just a big branch that was on the beach. I was following a faint track in the sand. I saw the branch and was steering away from it at low speed. But at the last second, the car just tracked sideways and I went right into it!
After that we arrived at the Signa shipwreck. Been there since 1974 I believe:
Then we proceeded West to the back end of the dunes where the sand meets the bush:
Staying on the Western end of the beach, we tracked North over the endless dunes. No real pictures taken here (although I do have some video), but they were great fun, higher speeds and very unpredictable. You've gotta floor it to get to the top, then lift off to make sure you don't go flying over the other side. On this drive, Chris had a hard landing, which took out BOTH his front inner guards and dislodged the under-tray.
At a the bottom of a steep dune, I slowly went over dip in the road and nearly ripped my rear bar off as the road leveled out. Apparently it folded back a hell of a lot, according to Steve.
Next on the list was the incredible "Tin City". Just astonishing, I'll let the photos do the talking:
People actually live there. It cannot be sold. Once its destroyed, it cannot be rebuilt. They've got a purpose build 4WD to 'shovel' sand off the properties. Many interesting facts about it. It was also used in the desert scene of Mad Max. Quite a surreal place. You feel like your in the middle of nowhere, and yet there is this inhabited little community. Their houses are reasonably well equipped by the looks of it. And the phone reception with Vodafone is far better than what I get here in the big smoke.
Once we had finished our break, it was time to head back South again and leave. The winds were Southerly and so the whole time, there was no fresh air being fed into the front of our cars. We were travelling at low speed (35-60km/h) maintaining about 3K RPM+ so inevitably, the temperature started to creep above normal and I pulled over to let it cool down. This occured a second time. No real worries though, just chuck a you-ie, point it the other way, turn the engine off and pop the bonnet to expose it to a nice fresh breeze.
On our trip back to the southern access road, we had lots of little challenges. Great fun! Really had to put the boot into it and work them hard:
Although its been a wet November/December in NSW, I don't think its rained on the beach for at least a week. So the sand was very soft and November storms appear to have erroded the beachline sometimes forcing us to drive on the backtracks.
But seriously good fun. Looking forward to getting back there some time in the future
