Trip Report: Little Dip & Beachport CP, Wyperfeld NP *pics warning*

[El_Freddo]

Little Dip & Beachport Conservation Parks 4wd trip - 17 to 21 October 2011


G'day all

Well, we got 4 subarus on this trip that was planned to fill a gap between my cousin's wedding in Adelaide (awesome time) and the Wyperfeld NP trip that Subaruby organised.

Ruby Scoo on the Victorian/South Australian Border:



Pezimm and Nachaluva arrived on Sunday the 16th with Rhys, Kez and myself arriving Monday arvo. Ruby Scoo at the Pink Lakes near Salty Creek:



We camped out at the gums camp ground in the dunes.

The next morning we headed into Robe to grab the last minute items that we forgot on monday and head off from there.

The line up overlooking the Long Beach in Robe:



We first hit up Back Beach as usual after taking the Stoney Rises Camp Track:

Nachaluva following the fresh tracks from Ruby Scoo:



The boys and their toys (and daily drivers!):



After coming off the beach the lib had it's first little bit of fun:



Continuing on our Robe journey we've got Ruby Scoo coming through the dunes:



We stopped to have a look at a rocky section to pick a line through it, there were several options and it was good to show Matt the different ways it can be done from a different set of eyes - and 4wd's…





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[El_Freddo]

Immediately after the rocky climb there was a razor dune on the track, this is Ruby Scoo climbing it - I didn't think we'd gone that far over with the angle we're on in this pic, that surprised me:



On the same beach that we picked up Manu & Rolf last January Rhys found himself a new seat, which he used to watch Pedro traverse the beach at the dune line:



We then stopped for lunch:



Pedro and Rhys went for a swim, Rhys had a wetsuit which to me was the smart thing to do:



After lunch we headed off where Pedro got stuck on a razor dune, he didn't have enough momentum to overcome the trans-axling as I call it - where you lift the front left and the rear right:



I should have got more photos of this as this is the best pic I've got, there were better angles that I could have photographed from if I had of thought about it before pushing him out with Rhys and Matt.

Matt was adamant that he wasn't going to get stuck the same way that Pedro did - and he hit it with some speed that surprised Pedro and I, here he is on his approach:



It was then my turn to get stuck, requiring a tow out - I'd come into a dip with a couple of unexpected rocks, an embankment and a slope down to the hole with the rocks and the embankment, I backed off and couldn't get going again:





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[El_Freddo]

Pedro pulled Ruby Scoo out with ease. After some track "renovations" we were off again.

Back in the dunes before heading onto the beach again Pedro and Rhys were captured descending the dune that I don't remember being there previously:





Again onto a rocky patch, this one's pretty much remained the same throughout the time I've been dropping in on this place, here's matt *just* lifting a wheel with his chosen line - no one took the same line as the other, Pedro and Rhys came close through:



Rhys dropping off the rocks to the beach track:



Coming off this beach there was another dune with a razor edge on the top, it did this to Ruby Scoo:



A run up helped after the 3rd attempt, the run up just kept getting longer:





^ Made it!

Rhys got his lib stuck, not having the low range didn't help I reckon, but we got him going easily enough with a couple of us pushing:





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[El_Freddo]

Pedro making it up:



Then we maxed out the camera's memory until we got to camp.

We hit up Errington's beach which was reported to be an extremely soft beach that was to be avoided by anyone that's not well experienced in sand 4wd'n. We checked it out by walking a section of it and found it to be firm in our opinion - recent rains had made most of the tracks firmer than we'd ever experienced them before, they were also in great condition with only a couple being a bit choppy.

On our way to camp we were able to upload and clear the camera's memory to capture Rhys chiselling out a well deserved beer from his esky:



Camp on the second night of the trip (tuesday) was at Old Man Lake campground where I got a couple of top shots, the first being the sunset - one of the best setup images I've done in a long time and I would say the best I've done on a sunset:



And my first good night shot, it took a few goes as I'm getting to know the new toy:



And Ruby Scoo with the roof top camper deployed for the night:



The camper goes really well, the only two things that bother me are: 1) it's about half a foot too short for me to stretch out and 2) it doesn't breathe unless you leave the outside flaps open or just unzipped, even then it still gets condensation on the inside - a set of vents up the top are on the cards to fix this. I can deal with #1.

The next day saw us head down to Nora Creina to hit the beach, not without a couple of poser shots first though:



Ruby Scoo:



The four subi's cruising the beach:





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[El_Freddo]

The H6 doing what it likes to do in the sand:



And it boasting it's prowess with this pic:



We then continued to an area where there's some exposed calcified roots poking up out of the sand:



We then hit the beach again, stopped to let Ruby Scoo cool down, she was still getting hot and it turned out one of my three thermos wasn't operating all the time, I didn't fix this until mid way through the first day in the Wyperfeld trip.

While we stopped we set up a tarp for shade and went for a swim, Rhys putting his surfboard to good use:



Ruby Scoo all geared up in the dunes:



Pedro giving a steep dune track a go, again and again. Rhys did the same and just got better than Pedro by about 1/4 of a subi's length:



^ I'm really loving this Nikon D7000!!

Later in a sand bowl the foz had some more fun:



^ From this, later in the afternoon a front tyre was slowly going flat, a trip to the local tyre/mechanic joint got the sand out from under the bead and it was all good again.

Here's Matt driving his foz up a dune on the track:





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[El_Freddo]

And Rhys and Pedro coming down into the gully before the climb that Matt did above:



We then assembled on top of a dune over looking what was to come. Interestingly this dune wasn't here last summer!



This dune was awesome, so we decided to drop off it straight down the guts of the tallest part we could get the subi's to. It was an adrenalin rush as the front of the car kept dropping down, down… down, then you were no longer wondering if you were going to go arse over. Awesome fun. Here's the four subi's dropping off the dune, note that the camera angle wasn't horizontal, rather it was slightly rotated anti-clockwise as Kez tried to stand on the side of the dune to take the pics, Ruby Scoo:



Nachaluva:



Pezimm:



Venom:



Then we continued along through all the ups and downs as it is in this part of the dunes to the gully where I almost ended up off the side of the dune on my lid. Matt cruised up it after Pedro got up first, there had been some traffic this time:



No problems getting up this dune like I did last time



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[El_Freddo]

After this we went and looked at the alternative of this dune climb - a small beach section with a large dune to climb at the end. Rhys and Pedro decided they'd have a crack at it, I'm photographing from the highest point I could find:





After this we pretty much headed for Beachport to have a very late lunch - I tend to get caught up in the 4wd'n and forget about my stomach, and that of others too.

We camped out again, no photos of that event. Up until now the weather had been hot and windy so it was a relief to have some cooler temperatures of the night.

In the morning it was cool and overcast that looked like it was going to be a cool and dry day. Sweet.

We headed back to the sand bowl for some dune races, Ruby Scoo stood out of this one, loaded up and worried about bottoming out badly was the reason. Anyway, Rhys wound up the H6 to win the race twice. Matt in the NA H4 had a handicap start in the second race which allowed him to keep up with the 6 and the turbo foz but still miss out on the win.

Rhys headed over the last dune from the beach to the sand bowl:



After the fun racing we headed towards Robe and confronted the big dune, only this time we had to go up, or go around - I've not been on that section of the beach.



So I had a couple of goes out of fun but didn't make it. Pedro had two goes and got there after some coaching about the use of the throttle pedal:



Rhys giving it a go and rooster tailing at the top of his first attempt:



^ The roar of the H6 was awesome!





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[El_Freddo]

Then it was Matt's turn, not real comfortable with this he gave it a go and got up first time, the only one to do so:



I had probably about 8 more attempts but didn't quite get over the top of the dune:



So I did this for S&G's:



This is Ruby Scoo making it up the dune using another track - a bit of work involved, thanks Matt!



It then started raining before we had lunch. We setup a tarp with the back of all the cars facing each other in a cross configuration. Worked well until the tarp unloaded some water on top of Matt. I forgot to get some pics of this.

We soldered on to Nora Creina then on to camp at the caravan park - for showers and cleaning up our camp gear before heading for the Wyperfeld 4wd trip on Friday.

After setting up camp we headed off for a lap in Ruby Scoo and Pedro's foz to fill some time. And fill time we did. First up the Gum's track onto Back beach:



^ The sand conditions were interesting after the rain, it was kind of sticky but still firm. Pedro jumped up front for a little bit before we got off the Back Beach to try out a section I'd not done before because I couldn't get up a particular dune. This time I did it easily, I actually didn't notice which dune it was. Keen to get on the beach again we tried out a soft beach - but I came in too slowly and couldn't get up on top of the sand. Not a good thing to do when it's beer o'clock:



When this ^ doesn't work, you try this:



A rope we found on the beach helped us out immensely as the only snatch strap we had was still in Rhys' liberty back at the caravan park. This rope allowed Pedro to pull me out with a small run up:





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[El_Freddo]

Caught up on a small embankment:



The towing effort continued:



Until this was achieved:



Then it was off for showers and straight to the pub! A great meal had at the Colonial Inn before retiring for the night back at camp.

Camp Friday morning before packing up and heading for Lake Hindmarsh:



We then headed off for Naracoorte to wash the subi's, re-supply fuel tanks and our eskys. Rhys, Matt and I giving our rides a wash to get rid of the salt:



I was hoping to drop in on a Naracoorte Cave tour, but I knocked the lower spring seat off the rear left strut when it bottomed out on a right hand corner after hitting a pot hole at 110km/h. Lucky for me the rear left didn't rub on anything, so we were able to limp into Naracoorte. This is what it looked like:



^ The lean, and the rear left below:



No spare parts in Naracoorte to help, so we got in contact with Subaruby who was at that time in Ballarat, Rhys had a spare strut at his place so we made the appropriate arrangements for him to pick it up and a set of spring compressors.

We met up at the Naracoorte/Horsham Rd and Nhill Rd intersection where I made my workshop to fix the problem. Cruising at 40-60km/h was a new experience that showed us a few things we would have missed otherwise.

This is where I setup to work on Ruby S:





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[El_Freddo]

The parts:



Replacement strut up top, the broken one below:



A big thanks to Rhys and Richard for the parts and the delivery, I would also like to thank the patience of Rhys, Pedro and Matt who kept the convoy together after Naracoorte - Rhys and Matt went ahead after the strut broke to scout for parts before our arrival.


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[El_Freddo]

Wyperfeld National Park 4wd trip 21-23 October 2011


After putting Ruby Scoo back together we cruised up to Nhill with Subaruby then onto Lake Hindmarsh for the weekend in the Wyperfeld National Park where we met up with Phinzinza in his outback, Greg in Durlagarl the infamous H6 foz, with Bcoutback Damien in his stock outback and Bboypebs Adam in his beige crumby to arrive later that night.

Camp near Lake Hindmarsh:



The subi's lined up for morning group photos after Greg did an introduction to country and started the creation story/song line of the area:



We then headed off to Outlet Creek at the northern end of Lake Hindmarsh, taking some muddy and sandy tracks along the way:

Damien was the first requiring a snatch in his stock outback, Rhys getting a helping hand reversing for a better run up:



One snatch and he was out to go again.

We followed the track through some muddy areas where Subaruby was mucking around and managed to point himself at a stump that he was lucky to stop before impact was made - another one of those moments were I wish I'd stopped to happy snap the marks left from this occasion.

Once at the northern end of Lake Hindmarsh we had another group photo, tried some bush tucker berries and we were on our way again now following outlet creek which was bone dry:



We continued to an area for a little play where we had a bit of fun and I did something with Ruby Scoo that I've never done before:



^ Looks nasty but the landing was smooth and not a crashing down to earth affair. I wasn't going to push her any harder with the load I was carrying so I only had two attempts at this.

Then Subaruby had a go without lifting a wheel, but he managed to get over the lip on his second attempt:



Then Adam and his brumby had a spectacular go at it: Going up!



Three wheels airborne, and coming in for landing:





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[El_Freddo]

After this we got moving again, stopping for parts of the creation story at important parts of the landscape. Greg also shared some interesting survival tips, the same sort of things I've not thought about from cadets in a long time.

We stopped for a photo at the only wet weather only road sign I've ever seen. Wish there were more like these around the place:



Back in the convoy again, Kez, my wife decided it was her turn to do the driving just before we crossed one of the dry lakes after lunch - I'd only been harassing her since being in Robe to do some driving! She loved it and now understands a few things I couldn't fully explain to her.

We got into some good sand driving, stopping for a group photo, great location for it!



We continued on and continued our lap of the lake back to where we had lunch to let the cars cool off. I fixed my thermo fan, turned out to be a super dodgy connection.

We then drove to the track that lead to Milmed Rock, we aired down further to 18psi:



Headed down this track we collected loose malle roots for the night's fire. We setup camp near Milmed Swamp, had a few quiet ones and talked about the day.





The stars were out and awesome, and the night was a warm one. Richard decided to not put up his tarp for the night:



Sunday saw us cruise up to Milmed Rock after stopping at Milmed Swamp to check it out. There was plenty of Pig Face around - a plant that stores water and can be used for nourishment if stuck for water, it's a little salty though:



We were then off again 4wd'n though the sand to Milmed Rock - which is a rock a lot smaller than Ularu but kind of the same colour.

The subi's lined up at Milmed Rock:





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[El_Freddo]

Our visitor book entry, dunno where the very last entry came from but anyway:



Climbing one of the larger sand dunes we came across:

Phizinza:



El Freddo and Ruby Scoo:



Bcoutback:



Subaruby:



Nachaluva:



I lost my flag at some point, probably hooked up on a tree so I made an alternative:



We stopped for lunch, everyone dived for the shade due to the heat of the sun, only to have the sun go behind a cloud for the rest of lunch which made it very pleasant:





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[El_Freddo]

We continued on to Murrayville, we had to air up first for the black top:



Quite a few of us were in serious need of fuel at Murrayville, Greg stopped at the local watering hole to ask about a servo in town as the local dealer with the fuel was closed, turned out he was the only one in town but they would call him to ask if he'd open up for us. Thankfully he did even though it was about time for the second beer on a Sunday:



From here we said bye to Phizinza & co and Bboypebs who headed home back to South Australia. Bcoutback and Pezimm convoyed with the remaining of us before heading off home while we went and checked out the heritage listed River Red gum on the edge of Pine Plains - which is actually the last in the line of the terminal lakes, apparently last had water in 1850. Here we are parked up on the lake bed for a short walk to the tree:



We checked out this huge old Black Box Gumtree on the way over:



I found this little stumpy while checking out the Black Box Gum:



The Heritage listed River Red Gum on the edge of the dry lake:



A couple of the locals:



We then headed to O'Sullivan's Lookout for a high point view over the lake. We didn't walk to the actual lookout as we were already burning daylight quickly.

Parked up near O'Sullivan's Lookout:





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[El_Freddo]

After admiring the view and chatting for a bit we headed off, Greg took us to the road that would lead us out to the black top and on our way home.

Saying our goodbyes, and trying to break the chatting cycle:



The sunset:



So now that Greg had departed to stay for another few days (lucky bugger), Richard, Matt, Rhys, Kez and I continued together to find some dinner, general consensus was a bar meal.

We ended up in Hopetoun at a little cafe after scouting out the bar in town, it didn't do meals on a sunday night so this little cafe it was. After talking and keeping the cafe open about half an hour past their closing time we left, Kez and I broke from the convoy and headed to hotham - a 7 hour trip, arriving at 5am!



We had a great time on the trip and the week of touring was a great way to get around that I'm looking forward to doing again. I can't thank Rhys, Richard, Pedro and Matt enough with their help when the strut broke on Ruby Scoo - it is really great to see that mateship and willingness to help out without a question asked, the job was just done.

I would also like to thank Greg for sharing the song line along our journey and to the interstate crew that travelled over to join us in this area that's new to most of us. And last but not least to Richard for organising the trip.

I personally am looking forward to visiting and exploring more of this area - it was different to be on the sand knowing we were in North Western Victoria without a beach in sight!

Cheers

Bennie

[Venom]

Great write up Scott! Good trip, thanks to everyone for coming along and making it a good time.

[Brumby Kid]

Awsome Pics! What type of Camera was it? Digital? Digital SLR?

[Phizinza]

More pictures from the weekend can be found here
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set ... 909&type=1

More meaning mine.

Would of loved to gone to Robe, stupid education...

[revmax]

Looked like fun. Thanks for sharing.

[NachaLuva]

Robe was awesome fun & a huge learning curve for my 1st time on sand. A big thanks to Scott, Rhys & Pedro for their help & advice.

Wyperfeld was heaps of fun too. Amazing to see how capable a couple of absolute stock standard outbacks are. Esp Phizinza who had 2 passengers plus their gear...thats a lot more weight to consider.

Great photos Scott...have to find a way to get a copy...9GBs or so? lol