Beachport trip

The Southern Ocean down on the Limestone Coast which is rugged with spectacular views and the ability to drive on the amazing beaches in the Beachport Conservation Park. We were heading for Beachport situated between Rivoli Bay and Lake George with a Jetty which is the second longest in South Australia at 772m long.

Every year this trip to Beachport gets bigger every year as we had 15 vehicles. We all headed down on the Friday all meeting at the Beachport Caravan park which makes a great base camping spot. We got our spots in the park some in tents, some in caravans and even some went for the cabins as we no what the wind down there does and it blew up all weekend.

Saturday 6th March

Most of us were up early having breakfast and getting ready for the first day of sand driving. We had a quick briefing on the aspects of driving on sand as we had some members never driven on sand before. We headed off at 9.00am doing the Beachport to Robe via Nora Creina run, we drove out of the Caravan park turning left and into town then we went right at the pub and left into McCourt street down to Bowman Scenic drive, passing the Pool of Siloam which is a salt lake seven times saltier than the ocean, which is reputed to relieve sufferers of arthritis and rheumatism. We turned right along the Bowman Scenic drive and up to the end car park where we aired down to 15psi. From there the 4wd access point is about 200m back down the road, so down we went and the track winds around a bit then you hit the beach and every year someone always gets bogged in the first 100m as they have never driven soft sand and Paul got stuck straight away as well, so a quick snatch and he was out but he said 4wd didn’t go in properly. Then we came to 3 Mile Rocks and back of the beach along a inland track for a bit then back onto the beach at the Junction up to 5 Mile Sand Hill then back onto the beach with a bit of a drive on the beach here around Euro Point. Then it gets back of the beach and right takes you to the sand dunes but we went left back onto the beach and the tide was out so we had a great drive all the way past the Millicent Sand Buggy Club up to Smelly beach. This is were you have to get of the beach and had into Nora Creina which is actually Private Property so you have obey the 10kmh signs. Nora Creina is a little fishing town and peoples holiday weekenders. There is a gate you have to open and the last vehicle has to close it after themselves, we headed along Nora Creina road then turned left onto Boggy road for about 5 kilometres in 2wd. We then turned left again into Little Dip track and in the Little Dip Conservation Park and at the Y intersection turn right and onto the beach at Errington beach where I was going to have smoko but there was vehicle’s bogged everywhere so we had to keep going as the sand was very soft, then there was about 6 vehicles ahead bogged on the main track so I snatched one of the vehicles out so we could get around them, so I went into 2nd gear Low Range and the diff lock in and just went around them with no trouble at all, so I called everyone else through and we all made it no problems at all. Just off the beach again and we had smoko at about 11.00am. We had done great time to be so far up past Nora Creina because of the great run up the beach and we didn’t have to take a lot of the inland tracks. We took off again having the left hand turn about 200m up the dirt road and you drop back onto the Little Dip beach and just as myself and Andrew hit the beach again we just sank straight down so a quick snatch of Paul and Steve we were out as I didn’t see the sign Extremely Soft sand, so back onto the inland track around the short rocky section and back onto the beach which is a really nice cove you drive along then back off the beach onto Bishops Pate track with some steep sections which we had to go down but going up can cause problems with the big wombat holes there. From here you go onto the beach and off the beach because of the rocky sections you have drive around, then as you approach the end of the beach you have a steep exit which pulled up some of our vehicles which had to be snatched over, we made it out and we aired back up at the information area, then everyone made it into Robe doing their own thing some looking around Robe and some went back to Beachport.

Back at Beachport we had a few beers and cooked dinner but the wind was pretty bad again so everyone headed for their own camps and we were in bed by 10.00pm.

Sunday 7th march

In the morning we woke to nearly no wind so we had breakfast a briefing as we were doing Beachport to Carpenter Rocks via Southend and the sand is Extremely soft going that way. We left at 9.00am turning right out of the Caravan park and as we had already aired down it a short drive up the road to the 4wd access track onto the beach, the tide was out so we had a great drive along the beach all the way down to Southend travelling along doing about 60kmh was fantastic, we got off the beach at Southend and had smoko on a grassed area. We headed off again through the Main Street of Southend then we turned left just across the bridge at the signpost Canunda National Park you follow the dirt road around past Stanway Point then we turned left down Bevilaqua Ford track past Kotgee and Nal-a-Wart camping areas then veered right towards McIntyre beach past Battye Rocks which is a very rugged part of the coastline and then past the Aboriginal Midden site then straight ahead towards Geltwood beach and the sign does say Extremely soft sand most of the year. So onto the beach we went and it was soft but actually good to drive on. As the tide was still out we were able to drive down a bit further and cruise along the beach for a while, the sign for Carpenter Rocks came up so we did exit here as the sand became very soft and we started to sink. The exit was steep but we all made it out no worries at all, this brings you out to Geltwood beach camping area we went back into 2wd and had a bit of dirt road for a while before we got onto the inland track again. The inland track isn’t very hard just a lot of woops and mounds to drive over so it makes it very monotonous. At about 12.00pm we took a beach access track to Little Rock and we had lunch for about 30 minutes, we saw two vehicles come past on the beach and kept going so we decided to travel on the beach to Carpenter Rocks sounded like a good idea then the sand become that soft myself and Andrew got stuck and David nearly got stuck so I told everyone to stop before we all got stuck. So then we had to recover our two vehicles out by David winching Andrew and Andrew winching me it took about one and a half hours, while Nathan got bogged and had to be recovered then Paul went down and recovered himself with Maxtraxs, but I didn’t know that three vehicles from after lunch had been bogged as well. So we all got out meeting back on the inland track so we decided let’s just take the inland track. So we proceeded straight along passing Whale rock then we turned left to look at Lake Bonney a very big sand dune to climb but very easy and the lake is huge. After having a look we headed off again taking the inland track all the way to Carpenter Rocks, we got into town and we pulled up in the car park overlooking the bay. Carpenter Rocks is a little Crayfish and fishing coastal town. We aired up then made our way back to Beachport along the road via Millicent. We got back around 6.00pm and after our big day we all cooked dinner then had a few beers under Andrews awning as it started to rain then we decided to all go to bed about 12.00am.