4 WDing for dummies

Sign

It never ceases to amaze me when I see old photos of vintage cars with their inadequate tyres and shockers, suspension and bodies, sitting at the Jaws of Death in the Grampians, up in the blue Mountains, or somewhere in the very harsh outback. We really get to do it in relative comfort these days. I always remember my good friend Henry telling me if you let enough air out of the tyres of a company car, it became a 4WD!

Coastal daisies with Ningaloo reef breaking in the background

Our 4 WDing skills are similar to our fishing ones-we don’t pretend to be good, but we do enjoy it. It’s allowed us to see things we’d have had to give a miss if we’d done these caravanning trips with a regular sedan. We’ve been on the Gibb River Road, driven out to the Bungle Bungles, we saw Australia (the movie) being filmed out of Wyndham along the Karunjie Track. Mostly though, we just like to get on to the remoter parts of beaches and fish, or get out of town and look for wild flowers.

Usually, we only drive as far as the person who thought it would be a good idea to go, is prepared to walk back for help if it wasn’t a good idea. So far, I’m happy to report we’ve managed to extricate ourselves out of what little trouble we’ve gotten into, apart from an incident on the beach at Perlubie near Streaky Bay SA last year.

Russ decided the beach we were launching our boat on was as solid as a highway, so didn’t let any air out of the tyres and didn’t engage 4WD (although I had suggested both would be a good idea). Once we got into the actual water and stopped, the big heavy Nissan and boat trailer just sank into the sand and refused to move until we found a man with a tractor to tow us out. The tide was on the rise, so by the time he arrived, we had salt water up to the seats in the cab. Needless to say, “Not Happy Jan” and no fishing done that day! Russ has learned however, the importance of being proactive, rather than reactive when it comes to 4WDing.

4WDing at Maud’s Landing

The last couple of days with the wind up, we’ve taken two drives. The first one was out to Maud’s landing and along the beach. After our drive, we went for a long walk, then had sunset drinks. We had our part of the beach all to ourselves.

Yesterday, we went out to Five Finger Reef where Russ did a bit of (unsuccessful) beach fishing and I went hunting for wild flowers to take photos of. Once again we had our part of the beach all to ourselves. In a place with maybe