The moons aligned and Michelle and I both had a day together. We’ve had a rough trot of late losing our little puppy a few days ago so it was a good opportunity to get the family out of the house for a day. My brother surprised us with an overnight visit so we decided to do a late minute change from the Landy to the Prado.
We left home and did the run up past Launceston to meet up with Ian + family near the Batman Bridge. Continuing a bit further up the road to George Town I filled up both fuel tanks – the price was actually better than anywhere else I’ve seen of late.
We had noticed a sign on the way into town pointing to a look-out. I’ve been through this area a number of times over the years and never seen it before. So we took the opportunity to take a look whilst we had the chance.
It’s roughly 50km’s from George Town to Bridport, however it’s a nice flowing bitumen road and doesn’t really take that long. We stopped and grabbed some fish and chips from the seafood place whilst airing down to an initial 18-20psi (front/rear).
After a bit of a detour (due to old memories of where to go) we finally found the right road out to the start of the run. Going through a particularly soft part a drop of tyre pressures was in order. I ended up going with 14-16psi (front/rear). It was good timing as the entry to the beach is quite a few km’s long, with a couple of good climbs amongst it.
The topic of discussion on the UHF was the condition of the track. It is clear that people are going through with high pressures. It was also really disappointing to see areas that are clearly sign posted ‘no vehicles’ with tracks going through there – and not just tracks but people doing doughnuts, spinning wheels etc. Wonder why we are always fighting to keep tracks open.
Talking of which we came to the last climb to find three vehicles there not going anywhere. They were all running full pressures. I went straight up in first high, and Ian had no issues in 3rd low.
Arriving at the beach we let the kids loose and enjoyed (read: devoured) our lunch. A kick of the soccer ball and some general chit-chat saw 30-40 minutes disappear quick.
Funnily enough right at the end the 3 vehicles finally got through. And to top it off 2 of the vehicles went on to tear up the beach wheel spinning and carrying on. I ended up taking their number plate details down and I will forward that on. There’s no need for the crap and as I was saying before it just ends up with everything being bloody locked.
We did scout out a few potential camping areas and took a heap of photos. Generally it was a fairly easy enjoyable run. There is plenty of area to have a ‘play’ on the dunes if you wish and the motorbikes certainly are plentiful.
Arriving at Bellingham we aired up whilst the kids again burnt of some energy. I think it also have the girls a chance to chat without us blokes being around. It would be interesting to throw a line into the channel especially on the change of tide.
Departing Bellingham we returned to the Batman Bridge, in particular the rest area. Goodbye’s were exchanged and the 80km’s to home followed.
Arriving home it took over an hour to wash the car (to remove the sand/salt etc) and vacuum out half the beach that made it’s way home.