K’Gari FICU Trip – Lee’s Story

So, I got to the third lot of coffee rock after Ngala, and just as the front end dropped off a two-foot-high ledge and the back slid sideways with a crunch into another chunk of the slippery black stuff – thank you rear bar – a call came over the radio from Max saying that he was bellied out in the bottomless pit that I had decided to go around.

The coffee rock was like driving on cold snot. It was so slippery there was zero traction available.

I called up to Chris – who was tail end – asking him where he was in relation to me to be told “we are just coming around the Ngala corner about to hit the sand after the rocks.” “Bugger” was my mental reply. I got the cruiser straightened out and down onto the little bit of sand that the onshore wind and swell had not managed to claim – even though it was dead low tide. I was just about to make the call to turn us around when Andy queried the benefits of continuing. Decision made, I jumped on the radio and pulled the pin on our clean-up for 2022. While Sharon was winching Max out of the hole, I got everyone turned around and headed back to the southern side of Ngala to regroup and work out what we were going to do for the rest of the day.

That was Sunday. My trip to Fraser began four days earlier on the Thursday sitting in the rain out the front of my house waiting for Wayne, Peta and the kids to turn up so we could head off. Bang on 0600 we pulled out and headed north for the twin servos at Caboolture where we met up with Graham Mac and had some breakfast. After breakfast we continued north to Rainbow beach for a final top up of diesel – island price was $3.20/ litre, thank God for long range fuel tanks – before we aired down and headed for the barge.

The weather forecast for the next week was rain pretty much all day, everyday and that is pretty much what we got. Tides were against us and so made the decision to go up the inland track rather than attempt to head around Hook Point at high tide. I had been told that for years the inland track hadn’t been maintained and was a nightmare for simply driving on let alone towing however I spoke to the deckie on the barge, and he informed me that QPWS had been doing maintenance work on the track for the last few weeks. We made it off the barge with no issues and apart from a slightly squishy entry the inland track turned out to be in better condition than some of the roads in Redlands…

We got to the dump point and turned right and headed down to onto the beach about 1km south of Dilli Village. The beach was like the M1 to drive on. Super hard and only the occasional washouts / drop-offs. The water on the other hand was ugly. Due to the onshore wind – almost a gale – and the crap in the water from the recent floods the ocean was a dirty brown colour that even made Andy decide to give swimming a miss this trip. After the compulsory stop at the Eurong bakery we headed for Dundaburra and set up our home for the next week.

Friday morning started wayyyyy too early. My alarm woke me up at 0415 and by 0430 I was trying – and failing – to creep the 200 out of camp and back down the beach to Dilli to pick up the rest of the club who were coming over on the six am barge.

It was super slow driving own the beach. The wind was pushing a ton of salt spray into the air and despite the best efforts of both the spotties and the light bar, it was a struggle to see more than about ten meters. Eventually though I made it to Dilli, parked up and reclined my seat for a snappy half hour power nap while I waited for Team Bayside to turn up. After another Eurong bakery mission we pulled back into Dundaburra and while everyone set up their camps, I decided to have lunch – it was nine am – and then I had a sleep for a few hours.  The rest of the day was spent pretty much relaxing and getting into the Island life mind set before we lit the campfire and had a few beverages before settling in for the night.

Saturday morning, we were ready to head off on our adventure. We waited for the northern chapter to meet us however after waiting 30 minutes we decided to head down onto the beach to find some mobile reception to see if we could contact them – Dundaburra has no mobile service at camp, you have to hand around near the ranger station to find some. Once on the beach I got a message from Bec saying that their camp got hammered by the wind during the night so they would be missing our trip to Lake Mackenzie as they had to do some running repairs to their camp.

To save repeating myself basically the entire week I was there it rained, and the wind didn’t stop blowing onshore. On the way down the beach, we decided to take the back road up from happy valley and then onto the Yidney Rocks bypass track. We then headed back down to Eurong and across the Island to Lake Mack. It was weird driving across the island this time. Due to the rain, the sand was a combination of M1 style bitumen and porridge. One minute you are happily cruising along then the 4wd is slowing down and trying to sink into this puddle of wet sand.

We got to Lake Mac and once again my intention to go for a swim was thwarted by the weather – it didn’t stop our resident Mad Englishmen though…Fifth year in a row of FICU and five times the weather has prevented me from enjoying a swim. I think ill go back in summer.

After we eventually dragged Andy out of the water, we decided that since Kingfisher Bay was only a few kilometres away and it was getting onto lunch time we turned the 4wds towards the west coast. Lunch was good and the portions were pretty big – I had leftovers to take home with me. After lunch we headed back to Dundaburra via the servo to both top up the vehicles and empty out the wallets. The plan was to go for a swim at Eli however the weather beat us again and so we headed directly back to camp for dinner and a fire. Sunday dawned with the sun trying its best to break through. I was cautiously optimistic that we might manage to stay dry while we did the clean-up.

We left Dundaburra at 0600 and after a pretty straight forward run up the beach we hooked up with the “Northern Chapter” bang on 0700. We had just gotten out of the vehicles to start the driver brief and down came the rain. A quick snappy brief via UHF was completed and we headed for Ngala Rocks – where I suddenly realised that I hate being a trip leader…

There was sea foam totally covering the rocks and at about three feet deep. I was driving by brail until I got around the corner and through the water where the real adventure began.But you have already found out about that bit…

After I decided to pull the pin, we individually did our bit to clean up anything we happened to find. I think each vehicle ended up collecting at least ¾ of a bag of rubbish, so we did contribute to the end result. We headed to Orchid beach shops for a bite to eat and then made our way back to camp.

Due to our unexpected free afternoon we decided to head to Eli for a swim and to do the tourist thing for those that hadn’t been there before.

It was freezing, however the kids being kids it didn’t stop them – nor Andy or Jarred – from having a splash. I bravely went in up to my ankles and called it quits. We spent an hour or so relaxing before heading back to camp to get ready for the FICU dinner at Cathedrals. Unlike last year, this time I took a raincoat with me and I was glad that I did as about half way through the night it poured down – again – for about half an hour before it stopped as suddenly as it started.I did ok at the raffles this year, I managed to score myself a pair of recovery treads. It will be interesting to see how they compare to my maxtrax if I ever need to use them.

Monday saw max and Jarred head for home, I woke up with a monster of a hangover and decided that I was going to suffer in the comfort of my camper for the day. Andy and Michelle also decided to chillax at camp with the kidlets while everyone else decided to head for a west coast drive with the intention of being back at camp around 1500.

I worked out that the hangover wasn’t due to the amount of alcohol that I had drunk so far, rather it was due to the amount of water that I HADN’T drunk. Normally I manage to drink about 2 liters a day, yet for some reason I had been drinking only about 500ml – or less – over the previous four days and my body did its level best to remind me to not be so stupid in future.
Message received…

So, any who, you know how I said that our intrepid explorers planned to be back by 1500? Well that time came and went. So did 16 and 1700. Eventually, closer to 1900 than 1800, two 4wds rolled back into camp – six had left. We eventually got the story of massive water holes / downed trees / hydro locked jeeps that had to be dead towed back to Happy Valley and tons of winch recoveries. Part of me was super glad that I missed what ended up being an epic day of adventure, however the other half of me was secretly chuffed that I missed it. Special mention to Graham McCallum who gets awarded the MVP for the trip due to being THE chainsaw and recovery guru.

Andy and Michelle were scheduled to leave on Tuesday, while Hartly’s, Manhire’s, Graham and yours truly were supposed to leave either Thursday or Friday. Looking at the forecast for the rest of the week – rain – we all decided to pull the pin and head for home with Andy and Michelle the following day.

After a quick breakfast and a surprisingly unrushed pack up we all managed to be ready to leave approximately the same time. We met down on the beach and headed for Happy Valley and a date with one of their hamburgers.Expect that we got there too early, and the kitchen wasn’t opened yet. So, after a snappy order for a hot chocolate and or coffee we resumed our mission towards the barge. Even though we left camp at low tide, the decision was made to bypass Hook Point and head via the inland track again. Graham and Andy got through the soft stuff and up the hill, however Wayne took a slightly different line and managed to sink the Everest to the rails. We did some digging and a with a few strategically placed maxtrax – and Graham with his 70 series – managed to snatch the Everest and camper up the hill and back onto the hard stuff. The rain had really smashed the inland track since we had driven it only 5 days previously and there were several ruts and washouts that we had to be careful of. No one had any issues and we made it back down onto the beach where we only had to wait about 10 mins for the barge that was about to take us away from paradise for another 12 months.

I am hanging to go back.

Lee Hunt