Stockton Beach – July 2011

Friday

Departed home just after 5pm once I had finished work and a house inspection before our upcoming move. Basically it was the normal boring uneventful highway run that you have to do to get anywhere. We arrived at Canberra to Jason + Michelle’s house just before 10pm and promptly had a couple of drinks before retiring to bed about midnight. There are a lot of roadworks going on at the moment!

Friday

Departed Canberra at 9am after cleaning the ice of the window. It was quite chilly, however the heater sorted that problem fairly quickly. Again it was highway running today with a blow out on Jasons trailer being the only (so called) excitement for the day. We got the run around by the GPS trying to find BCF in Newcastle – I reckon we did a complete lap around the town before realising we needed to go the other direction. Finally finding the place we grabbed some sand pegs for the trailer and made it across to Lavis Lane.

Grabbing a permit and dropping tyre pressures on the Prado and trailer to 15psi, we continued on to the beach. It’s amazing the looks you get when you tow a trailer through here !!!

Hitting the beach we turned north and ended up finding a nice place to set up. With the sun now set it was done in the dark, followed by sausages in bread (with sauce – 5 star restaraunt here). Kids and missus are now in bed and I’m relaxing with a rum listening to the surf.

Makes it all worth it when you get to do this!

No photos yet as the highway sucks!

Sunday

I opened my eyes and looked straight through the camper trailer window to see the ocean. Nothing beats waking up to a view like this! Not everything was perfect though, as the wind chill factor made it tempting to stay in bed. However children fix that problem quickly!.

Getting my backside up it was a nice breakfast followed by some more setting up. Being that we are here for four days and there is a bit of wind forecast, I added in the extra poles, ropes and pegs to ensure that all will be Ok if the forecast is correct.

At around 1000h I could hear Rod and Liam (Overlander forum) calling me on the UHF, followed shortly by their appearance at our campsite. Saying g’day we chatted for a little while before jumping into the vehicles to head out for a look.

Nothing! That’s exactly what happened when I went to start the Prado. A quick check of the battery showed that it was very low, which was weird as I’d had it going earlier that morning. Either way I started the generator up and plugged in the battery charger. 5 minutes later and it started with minimal fuss.

In the meantime Liam and Rod had gone for a play. When I inquired as to their whereabouts, I was advised that they weren’t proceeding too far! So with Jason in tow we followed th wheel tracks and found a certain vehicle a tad stuck.

A quick snatch by the Rodeo and we were off down the beach to the Sygna wreck. The closer we got to the wreck, the more people we came across. We eventually found our own little piece of paradise so to speak, and grabbed some photos that make it look like we were the only ones there!

The kids had a quick play before we headed inland to follow the new boundary markers back towards camp. It is amazing to see how many tracks go past the boundary markers and it concerns me that this could be used as ammunition against the 4WDers that do the right thing.

Progressively we started ‘upping’ the difficulty so to speak, each obstacle presenting new challenges. It is quite interesting watching how each vehicle goes about its business. The Prado actually excelled in this environment and I think I might struggle keeping up with it in the Defender through this area. Still won’t stop me from trying though!

A few second attempts at some obstacles were required, but all vehicles made it back to camp for a deserved bite to eat. The kids were all having a ball and we all encouraged them to keep ‘tiring’ themselves out!

After lunch we headed towards the Anna Bay exit the harder way. We found ourselves tackling bigger and bigger sand dunes, before we started hitting some problems (the Rodeo became the recovery vehicle today) – albeit I can proudly say that it didn’t have the Prado hooked to it at any stage!

Found the dragons teeth (tank traps)

We found a very nice downhill section that had you sliding for most of the decent. I went first and after some persuading on the UHF, Jason followed me down with no problems. It looked like Liam had a little bit of a slide part way down, but it was collected very quickly and Rod made it look all too easy.

Not long after we came across a BMW stuck with no recovery gear and by himself. Checking tyre pressures we dropped them down to 15psi (he as at 18psi so nothing really wrong there); spent some time on the shovels and then pushed him out backwards. I didn’t want to connect a snatch strap to him as there were no recovery points on it at all. Makes it hard when that happens.

It was around this time that we watched a horse (and rider) go past who seemed to be enjoying the ride along the back of the dunes. We also came across camels and various tour operators (buses, hummers etc) at the Anna Bay end of Stockton.

Arriving at Anna Bay we bade goodbye to Rod and Liam as they both had to head down to Sydney. I continued up and grabbed some supplies (rum) and then turned back to the beach. I was fortunate enough to catch up with Vic Widman (editor at large for Overlander) who was finishing up a tour – hard workplace for sure!

A quick run up the beach with an entertaining conversation on the UHF with a few young fellas who had consumed a few (I reckon) and we were back at camp. The rest of the afternoon/night consisted of dinner and a few drinks around the campfire.

Monday

Again we awoke to that brilliant view. I’m not tiring of it – actually I don’t think I could. The weather was a tad warmer this morning and the kids were out and about early.

Just after breakfast we spotted a few dolphins in the water, so we grabbed the kids and camera quickly and let them have a look at them playing.

Talking of playing – cricket isn’t easy when you’ve got 6 kids at the campsite. It takes ages to get a bat!

Apart from that the morning has been all about relaxing, watching the kids play and being entertained by the RAAF fighter planes.

The afternoon came along and it was much of the same. We had the pleasure of Norm coming down to join us. He also brought a load of wood with him, which made for a great campfire. A nice dinner and a few drinks around the fire followed, finally retiring at around midnight.

Tuesday

It’s windy. Norm headed of about 0800h to head home and do some chores. The kids went for a play in the dunes, however the wind was blowing sand all over them, so they gave it up fairly quickly.

I took them for a quick spin in the Prado – all of the tyre marks are now gone from the vehicles on the weekend, so it’s like you’re the first one on them.

Was soft in places but a quick reverse and another run-up got me through everything. It’s currently 1042h and we are debating whether to pack up and go, or to stay. The wind has picked up substantially and the weather warnings are ominous. Although the temperatures forecast for Lithgow aren’t exactly appealing either.

Actually the decision has just been made – Lithgow here we come!

Note the wheel track difference between the trailer and the vehicle

Well that didn’t end up happening. We headed inland but it took longer than we expected. So we set up camp just outside of Cessnock for the night, with the aim being to head through Wollombi, St Albans, Wiseman’s Ferry and then Bells Line of Road.

All things going well we should be at Lake Lyell mid afternoon tomorrow.

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