I'd been wanting to visit Fraser Island for many years but was reluctant to do the trip solo. Recently i caught up with some friends and we got to talking about camping at Fraser in September. We eventually nutted out a plan to go for 9 days - weekend to weekend. As with many things, work interfered and our trip was reduced to seven days, then to five. I'd done heaps of research in the forums, watched youtube videos, read 4WD and camping books, and was super keen to get going by the time September 16th arrived.
With the car packed we set of at 5:30am. About 30 seconds later we turned around and headed back to the house. My 1yo boy had vomited on himself before we'd even gotten down the driveway to the road. After a quick clean up and change of clothes we were underway again. Traffic was pretty good, only doing the peak hour crawl through the M1 at Slacks Creek. We arrived at the BP truck stop in Caboolture at about 7:00am and spent an hour having breakfast. Back in the car for the drive to Rainbow Beach and got there about 10:00am. Fuelled up at the Shell, bought a fresh cream doughnut and an apple turnover with cream from the bakery, then continued on to Inskip Point where i aired down to 24psi. I had a chat with a couple of people who were airing down and they said the sand on the Point was really soft. Having never been on sand with these tyres, i wasn't sure how it would go, but they looked like they could stand to loose a lot more air. I dropped my tyres to 16psi. There was a queue onto the beach, which was strange because i wasn't expecting too many people. I got my turn to go and as i entered the beach i saw the cause of the delay. Heaps of cars had gotten bogged spearing off in all directions from the entry. I engaged the centre diff lock and turned off traction control and set off to negotiate a path around them (ironically straight up the centre) but nearly became bogged myself when the ESC kicked in. I'd forgotten about turning it off and the silly thing kept braking my wheels. I managed to get through and though i missed the first barge, was first in line for next barge. I took the time to devour that delicious apple turnover.
Inskip Point
I had initially planned on being on the island by about 9:30am but didn't get there until about 11:30am. At least it was low tide and didn't have to worry about getting around Hook Point. I saw the wood skeleton of a boat which was jutting out of the sand near the dead trees. Everybody cautioned me about Hook Point, saying i wouldn't be able to get around the trees on anything more than about an hour either side of low tide. Nobody mentioned anything about a solid timber boat frame. Not that it's an issue, because you drive between the two.
We continued up the beach at a leisurely 60kph and stopped in at Happy Valley shortly before 1pm for another toilet break and lunch. The burger was okay, but the chips were rubbish. One of the beach pilots was in there picking up his lunch. I've never heard anyone talk about themselves as much as he did. "I can't drink alcohol because i'm a pilot," "I owe my parent money for putting me through pilot training," "did i mention i'm a pilot."
Happy Valley
We continued on at about 1:30pm and got to Indian head at about 3pm. I was a bit worried about getting stuck here, having seen all the videos on youtube. I needn't have worried. The Prado waltzed through with ease. If anything i went through too quickly. 2/3 of the way through the bypass i hit a hole which got me airborne. I don't mean i soared through the air. I mean the front went up, then the back went up, then the front crashed down, quickly followed by the rear. It was not graceful and felt horrible as both front and rear suspension smashed the bump stops.
I check the load on the roof was secure and continued on out to the beach and up towards Middle Rocks. The access up from the beach here is fairly steep, so once again i carried a bit of speed on the approach. Now, some clever chappy has put stabilising matting down the access track. Unfortunately it doesn't run all the way out to the beach, so there's a point where it just drops off into the sand. I didn't see this until i was right on it and the front of the car has plunged into the hole that was front of the matting, causing the front of the car to ram the sand which was reinforced by the matting. It's a miracle the airbags didn't go off. The tarp on the roof rack has come forward over the windscreen, only held up by the elastic cargo net. I damaged the bash plate and access plate under the bull bar. Thankfully they didn't get pushed back into the radiator, though it didn't miss by much. I took a minute to shovel sand into the hole so the next poor sod would't hit it. I didn't think to take a photo of the ditch until the following day, after we'd filled some more in, so it doesn't really show what it was like. Imagine an incline with a hole a foot deep, about two feet long, then a foot and a half rise.
What was left of the hole after i filled it
The damage to my baby
With the car packed we set of at 5:30am. About 30 seconds later we turned around and headed back to the house. My 1yo boy had vomited on himself before we'd even gotten down the driveway to the road. After a quick clean up and change of clothes we were underway again. Traffic was pretty good, only doing the peak hour crawl through the M1 at Slacks Creek. We arrived at the BP truck stop in Caboolture at about 7:00am and spent an hour having breakfast. Back in the car for the drive to Rainbow Beach and got there about 10:00am. Fuelled up at the Shell, bought a fresh cream doughnut and an apple turnover with cream from the bakery, then continued on to Inskip Point where i aired down to 24psi. I had a chat with a couple of people who were airing down and they said the sand on the Point was really soft. Having never been on sand with these tyres, i wasn't sure how it would go, but they looked like they could stand to loose a lot more air. I dropped my tyres to 16psi. There was a queue onto the beach, which was strange because i wasn't expecting too many people. I got my turn to go and as i entered the beach i saw the cause of the delay. Heaps of cars had gotten bogged spearing off in all directions from the entry. I engaged the centre diff lock and turned off traction control and set off to negotiate a path around them (ironically straight up the centre) but nearly became bogged myself when the ESC kicked in. I'd forgotten about turning it off and the silly thing kept braking my wheels. I managed to get through and though i missed the first barge, was first in line for next barge. I took the time to devour that delicious apple turnover.
Inskip Point
I had initially planned on being on the island by about 9:30am but didn't get there until about 11:30am. At least it was low tide and didn't have to worry about getting around Hook Point. I saw the wood skeleton of a boat which was jutting out of the sand near the dead trees. Everybody cautioned me about Hook Point, saying i wouldn't be able to get around the trees on anything more than about an hour either side of low tide. Nobody mentioned anything about a solid timber boat frame. Not that it's an issue, because you drive between the two.
We continued up the beach at a leisurely 60kph and stopped in at Happy Valley shortly before 1pm for another toilet break and lunch. The burger was okay, but the chips were rubbish. One of the beach pilots was in there picking up his lunch. I've never heard anyone talk about themselves as much as he did. "I can't drink alcohol because i'm a pilot," "I owe my parent money for putting me through pilot training," "did i mention i'm a pilot."
Happy Valley
We continued on at about 1:30pm and got to Indian head at about 3pm. I was a bit worried about getting stuck here, having seen all the videos on youtube. I needn't have worried. The Prado waltzed through with ease. If anything i went through too quickly. 2/3 of the way through the bypass i hit a hole which got me airborne. I don't mean i soared through the air. I mean the front went up, then the back went up, then the front crashed down, quickly followed by the rear. It was not graceful and felt horrible as both front and rear suspension smashed the bump stops.
I check the load on the roof was secure and continued on out to the beach and up towards Middle Rocks. The access up from the beach here is fairly steep, so once again i carried a bit of speed on the approach. Now, some clever chappy has put stabilising matting down the access track. Unfortunately it doesn't run all the way out to the beach, so there's a point where it just drops off into the sand. I didn't see this until i was right on it and the front of the car has plunged into the hole that was front of the matting, causing the front of the car to ram the sand which was reinforced by the matting. It's a miracle the airbags didn't go off. The tarp on the roof rack has come forward over the windscreen, only held up by the elastic cargo net. I damaged the bash plate and access plate under the bull bar. Thankfully they didn't get pushed back into the radiator, though it didn't miss by much. I took a minute to shovel sand into the hole so the next poor sod would't hit it. I didn't think to take a photo of the ditch until the following day, after we'd filled some more in, so it doesn't really show what it was like. Imagine an incline with a hole a foot deep, about two feet long, then a foot and a half rise.
What was left of the hole after i filled it
The damage to my baby
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