Double Island Point Training Weekend
We met at the BP Morayfield at 9:00am Saturday. The day was overcast, the prediction was for showers, but looking at the sky I thought it would be ok. I arrived first then Matthew & Vanessa in their Outback & camper trailer, Rick and Lisa in the RX wagon and Dave in the Buggy - on time arriving at 9:15am! We headed off with plenty of time to spare. High tide was 9:20 and we thought we would make the beach by 10:30. The further north we went the darker the clouds got. By the time we turned off the highway, it started to rain. We refueled and let our tyres down then hit the beach. By the way, the ferry ride is now $6 driving north up the beach. The first surprise was that the beach was in pretty good condition - the second was that there was some coffee rock exposed.
The rain was getting heavier. We had arranged to meet up with the Fraser Coast members at the Freshwater Camp Ground. It was the first time I’d had my Liberty on the beach - it went very well. Arriving at camp we all had a chat. By now the rain had stopped. I erected the gazebo - just in case. We started to put up our tents and down it came - so we had lunch and discussed what we would do that afternoon. With Luke and Cherie in the Brumby, Steve and Rachel in the Liberty wagon and Daza in his Liberty now joining us, we headed to the King Bore track.
The Freshwater track was not too bad with some puddles here and there. By the time we got to the King Bore track, the rain got harder. Daza took over the lead while I checked out a sidetrack. There were some deep water holes along the way - some around 40cm deep. Arriving at the big sand hill, Daza with Cherie as passenger went first. He tried three times without any luck. I had a go and got up - only just! Daza tried again and got up, then Steve, with the right foot down to the boards, made it up. Matt and Dave were next. They tried the chicken track “not so chicken” but no go - too many big holes. It was the perfect chance to test out the new winch on the Outback! We were all getting very wet by now. Next was Luke. He nearly made it, but no go - so I snatched him the rest of the way joining two straps together. Then it was Rick and Lisa’s turn. The track was chewed up pretty bad so they didn’t get very far. We tried to join all our straps together but it still wasn’t long enough. I reversed down to the strap and tried to move forward, but I had no traction so we gave up. Water was running down the ruts like a river. Rick and I, soaking wet, decided we would go back the way we came.
On the Freshwater track I was driving on the high side of the ruts because they were full of water. The back slid in and the front got caught up and I went sideways just missing a large tree. When we got back to camp, Rick and Lisa said goodbye and headed home down along the beach. Steve and Rachel said they were going too, but when I told them how bad the freshwater track was, they had a look and said they would go down the beach as well, taking the long way home. We decided to go to Rainbow Beach for dinner. The five of us went in my car. I was a bit apprehensive, but I gave it a go and we got through without a problem, even with all that extra weight! Had dinner at the sports club and when we got back to camp, we had a few beers and watched some 4wd DVDs on the laptop. The rain stopped about 10:30 and we went to bed.
On Sunday we got up about 8:30 and had brekkie. It was a good day - no rain. We packed up and went up to the Leesha track to go to the point, but didn’t get all the way around. We took some photos and headed to Rainbow Beach through freshwater. After we had lunch, we made our way down the Cooloola Way heading for Harry’s Hut. We got a call from Daza on the radio saying he had temperature problems. While Matthew and Vanessa went ahead to get home to start work, we got Daza going again. We had a look around Harry’s Hut - an old loggers camp. We then headed home, Daza to the north and Dave and I to the south. Even though it was wet, we made the best of the weekend.
Jan Kancelarczyk sc598
