Finally the sun’s out!!!!
……and time to whiz past Steve’s, Tanya’s and Piston’s (the 4-legged member of the trio
) chateau to say Goodbyes… admire Steve’s “workshop” in daylight (a big fold-out table with superb views across Tin Can Inlet, where he earns their keep by repairing and servicing all the small-engined stuff of the Caravan Park like chainsaws/ mowers and the like
).
Bellies are still aching from last night’s laughter on our way to the barge.
Vehicle and camping permits are bought at the IGA-supermarket in town…
Looks good?
Some different sort of fun…
…before the ramp goes up
“You’re not serious, aren’t you?”
The skipper gives us some tips and tries to talk us into a return-ticket by dropping prices
“Tide’s pretty high still…. just follow the cars onto the bypass-road and exit at kilometer11….make that kilometer18 for you!
Just off the ferry, the tracks disappear into the bush; the crossing’s cruel on the two cc-dwarfs.
The bypass road is rough and hard-going, the ruts aren’t too deep but harsh enough to make both ends bottom out continuously.
At km11 we’ve had enough of it, it’s getting warm, too…let’s see if we can make the beach, catch a breeze…and if the water’s low enough for us to find a tiny strip of hardpack, too narrow for cars, but enough for us, perhaps?
BINGO!!!!:thumbs:
And so starts an 80km dream-run up the Eastern Shores of the Biggest Sand Island in the world.
One word: MAGIC!!!
I’ll let the pics do the talking as we’re flying up the hardpack past Eurong, climb up the timber-reinforced hill into Happy Valley for drinks and nibblies…
No fuel needed, we should be good for at least 300k’s sand-riding, having topped up in Rainbow Beach.
Goodie blocking the runway
….
The “Maheno” Wreck….and some of the tour-guides are STUMPED at the sight of the 2 CT’s:
“Never seen one of those on the island…but last week there were a couple of guys on big enduros, rode side-by-side on the Indian Head Bypass and crashed into eachother, had to be flown out with broken wrists, both of ‘em….”
Go north, my friend….
Getting towards dead-low tide, the beach gets wider and wider…speeds are up apart from the creek-crossings. Some of them very shallow and wide, just wetting a section of beach…others a little deeper with sharp entries and exits.
Past more Coloured Sands formations at Red Canyon
We’re taking our time…. ride into the soft stuff higher up till the nose sinks too deep, sit and just gaze into the surf…
what an incredible place!!!
It’s mid-afternoon when we finally hit the end of the beach near Indian Head, a big, rocky outcrop with only one way around it….the Bypass Road.
This is strictly 4WD-only….guess why?
A lousy 7-8k’s to the Waddy Point Camp turn-off…
The heat is stifling… the going EXTEMELY slow and very, very physical.
It’s deep and loose, the tracks are trenches filled with roots and pockets of loose/deep sand, we start to learn to tell consistency by shades and hues of colour.
That’s in between endless bogs, pushes, ripping the front-end out of the loose stuff after getting bogged…..rivers of sweat, soaked helmets, gloves slipping off all the time, boots barely hanging on.:bang::bang:
Add 3k’s from the ridge down to Waddy Point Camp and there’s 11k’s in 2.5hrs of fighting, cursing, screaming in frustration, pushing, shoving and heaving….and laying down by the side of the track in total exhaustion, gulping our water-bottles into a vacuum-pack.
By the time we stand in front of the Ranger’s office at Waddy Point, we’re totally stuffed, leaning against the bikes, barely able to stand.
“Bookings required for this camp-site! For bookings call….yaddayadda”
Needless to say, that by now we’re totally out of mobile-reach.
Of fark, gimme a BREAK !!!
The Ranger shows up and decides that’s it’s fine for us to stay “but close the gate, the whole place is dingo-fenced….ahhhh….and there are showers in the toilet-block at the far end….even 3min hot one’s if you’ve got a spare dollar!!”
I coulda kissed him…
KNACKERED!!
The afternoon turns golden… then dark within 20 minutes as we’re setting up camp and get the dehydrated curry-beef-pasta-whatever going....
On any other day I wouldn’t feed this crap to a dog… tonite it's a 5-star banquet.
Let’s top it off with another muesli bar for dessert.
Then listen to all the rustle in the bush around us for a short while….
Sleep comes like being hit with a club, by 8 o’clock we couldn’t give a rat's arse if the whole island would be floating to Antarctica…
~130k’s total, 10hrs
Gosh…WHAT A DAY !!!!