Participants: Paul
Johnson, John Holbrook, David Igglesden, Troy Shortland, Michael Gilbert
Wilbinga Trip Notes
With a beautiful day expected we all met at the 10th Light Horse car park.
After a quick briefing on convoy procedures and other formalities Five
vehicles including a visitors in a shiny new Nissan Patrol set off just
after 9am. Wilbinga is quite close and soon enough we were airing down under
the pine trees.
After a 20 minute journey down the track we came across our first dunes and
practised for a while on these baby dunes. Moving on we were greeted by the
beautiful view of the ocean. With only a very light easterly breeze the sea
was calm, with some decent waves breaking near the shore. We stopped for
morno’s enjoying the ocean view and fresh smell of the sea. Now onto the
bigger dunes lead by Michael who had pre-plotted our route carefully. One
track up a dune steep dune turned sharply at the top and proved no issue for
the Patrol with the two John’s (our visitors) at the wheel. One Pajero
wasn’t so eager to climb the hill and after several attempts that really
should have been successful it was tactfully suggested to ensure the ASC was
turned off. The Paj drivers name…..shall remain classified (a benefit of
writing the trip notes) in my defence the ASC is disengaged in some 4wd
modes and not others….doh!
Onto another interesting hill that Michael had surveyed. This one proved a
little challenging and managed to bend a numberplate or two at the base
which required a bit of speed and clearance to climb. Lunch was consumed on
a dune overlooking the area in warm but pleasant conditions. Troy and
Keryn’s awning off the side of their Paj proved an excellent shade producer
which we all fought over!
After a quick lunch we moved on to a wider section of dunes that we all
enjoyed. Once again Mr Gilbert was able to illicit a chorus of incredulous
shouts “you don’t expect us to go up that!” yet after a little discussion
and drive through we all managed to succeed.
A great day was had by all and we finished up with a well earned pint at the
Thirsty Camel where we viewed some pictures of the day!