Wayne Ryan's blog: Robe to Beachport 4x4 Challenge

Sunday, 8 July 2012

Robe to Beachport 4x4 Challenge

Little Dip Conservation Park, located on the outskirts of Robe, South Australia, and is the gateway to the famous Robe to Beachport 4x4 run. This is the place many Victorians head to for beach driving, as its not legal in that state. As we know South Australia is a strange and quaint place but maybe they got this right, what great fun. I came across the park Ranger while preparing the D-Max for the run, letting the tyres down to 15 psi, fitting the sand flag and putting the UHF radio on scan to pick up any broadcasting traffic on the track. He was about to do his weekend daily run to patrol the park repair fences and check the tracks. "The first beach" he said "is so soft and fluffy that if you get through that without getting bogged the rest isn't so bad". The 50 or 60 Km, if you keep heading south and don't divert onto any of the many tracks leading into the dunes, took me 5 hours. Just got bogged once when I got a little ambitious on a pointy soft fluffy dune just off the track. I was belly deep in it and sideways on a 45 degree angle and the Max Trax and my shovel were very handy. Or else that would have been camp for the night. The track is rated as Moderate to Easy but hearing the horror stories from the locals I think its moderate to challenging, even if you are properly prepared. I think plenty of those soccer mum 4x4's would come to grief pretty quickly. Anyway I got to the destination on dusk and snapped the sunset below. Spent the night in 3 Mile Bend camp ground on lake George near Beachport where I caught a great sunrise and explored the jetty.