Trip 73 – Lancelin

Trip Leader: Michael Gilbert

Participants: Rick, Michael & Mel, Trevor & Elaine, Craig, and Michael.

Meeting at the Lancelin bakery at 9.00am the member only trip consisting of 5 vehicles, Rick, Michael & Mel, Trevor & Elaine, Craig, and myself. We had a couple of late cancellations, Richard King who had encountered some problems with his Landcruiser after mechanical work on minor oil leak. Sorry Richard you missed a great day. Also a new member Bruce Davies who got confused if the trip was being run, I gave him a call and sorted things out for next time.

A perfect day welcomed us at Lancelin, most of the crew took advantage of the bakery for a quick breakfast treat before we headed off on time at 9.30am.

The plan for the day was to see how far we could go down the beach to the North before the sand became too soft, then turn in behind the dues running parallel to the ocean back to the main Lancelin dune area.

The beach drive just North of Lancelin is excellent.. a stunning part of the coast. To make sure everyone had an opportunity to get their feet wet, I stopped the convoy for a while for a chance to have a paddle. I always feel it’s important to stop and appreciate the landscape you are travelling through, after all it was a stunning day to be at the beach!

We continued heading North along the beach toward the next point. I could see in the distance that the ocean had eroded the lower part of the beach to cause quite a steep angle to the upper level so, being trip leader, I took the lower option while all the others waited to see how I would get on. I was doing okay for a while but unfortunately the sand became very soft and became very tricky to get back higher up the beach again. By this time the others had seen the issue I was in and decided to take the high beach option!

They were soon level with me and Rick came to the rescue. With a quick pull with the snatch strap I was out.

Heading off again we came across a lone motorcyclist heading south who had ran out of fuel. As a group it was decide to help him out. Rick kindly offered to turn around and take him back to his car in Lancelin where he had some fuel. The rest of the convoy moved on around the next point to wait Rick’s return. This gave the rest of us more time to enjoy the ocean.

While we were waiting I noticed a well defined track going inland behind the dunes. Because of the additional delay waiting for Rick, I decide to investigate this track for the start our way back to the main dune area.

On Rick’s return the convoy headed down this track back towards the dunes… the track was well defined with a few dunes to climb.. and occasional complaints from Craig over the radio regarding scratchy bushes.

At last the convoy arrived on the main dune area. As trip leader, Lancelin is always quite a challenge there being no defined tracks to follow. On my GPS I had pre-loaded a track guide, which I knew I could always rely on to take me in the general direction I needed to go.

As you can see from the photo’s we found some great dunes to play on, we spend a good part of the afternoon on the dunes and I even managed to find a sheltered spot for lunch.

Soon after lunch Craig & Trevor decided to head back to Perth, leaving just three cars to make our way slowly over the dunes to the Southern end exit and the end of the trip.

A good day was had by all, including myself appreciating a smaller group that could confidently drive on sand.

Michael Gilbert
Trip Leader