Sandy Shores - March 2008
Finally the sun was shining and there was no rain in sight when we set off early Saturday morning into town to go on the Sandy Shores Trip. This trip was going to be a combined trip with some members of The Mackay Landrover club.
With the usual stories, fines and rules out of the way it was into the cars and off towards Sarina to pick up Mick & Wendy and then on to vote at the Church in Sarina. Those of us that had pre-voted headed off up Range Road and waited for the others.
With the voting done we headed off up the range with Kelvin and Nat leading the way. On the drive out it was discussed how green it was and how much water had been flowing through the creeks with the level of debris in the trees. We turned off the highway and headed for the usual morning tea stop at the creek. Bruce and Karen from the Landrover club caught up with us here.
It was onto the homestead, the roads were quite good considering the amount of rain that we have had lately. We waited as Kelvin & Nat went and seen the owners and on their return it was off to the camping spot. The road in was a little washed out and it is really overgrown. We ended up pulling up at the jiggy jig table and camped their instead of the usual area a little further up.
With spots chosen it was time to set-up. By the time the tents and camper trailers were set up it was time for lunch. It was decided that after lunch we would go for a drive down to the big swimming hole and then onto the hut. We all headed off through the long grass and onto the main road down to the swimming hole.
There were quite a few washouts and holes on the road down to the crossings. The entire Creek Crossings had water flowing through them and it was absolutely beautiful. Photos were taken as we drove along. We decided that we would go and look at the hut first and then come back to the swimming hole.
Onwards we travelled, we had been warned about a washout on the road down to the hut and let me tell you he does know the meaning of a wash out. Out of the cars and we looked at ways to get around. Line chosen and off Kelvin went with relative ease, a couple more cars then Nev. With his own line picked a little ways up from everyone else and into the dirt, backup nearly hit a tree and off again.
Everyone else got through even the Nissan drivers who had to make sure the back lights were popped out. We got to the turn off to the loop road and Kelvin asked if we would like to do a little of the loop road or go to the hut. So, with the Hut forgotten we set off around the loop road.
For everyone that knows the loop road it can sometimes take a couple of hours and with all the recent rain we thought that there would be quite a bit of damage around. There are now quite a few gullies, ruts whatever you would like to call them. The gate in the slop hole was lovely and since it ended up being the writers turn that was just great. I had nice black shoes for the rest of the trip. The nice smell that with them was great as well. Thanks Nat for sharing that with me although yours probably hung around as you had track shoes on and I had the trusted double bungers.
There is now water everywhere up through the loop road even some running in the creeks. We did come to one waterhole and Kelvin informed everyone that there was a log in the middle of the hole. So everybody proceeded to go through steadily knowing of the log until El Presidente come through and had quite a surprised look on his face when he hit something in the middle of the hole.
Onwards we travelled and then things became a bit hazy. With the amount of regrowth from all the rain the tracks aren't as noticeable as when it was dry and the track sort of disappeared and we didn't really know where we were. But our trusty trip leader found our way again and we made it back to camp.
We got back to camp just as the sun was going down and everyone went to the camps and cooked up tea etc. We then all sat around talking for awhile getting to know our visitors and revisiting things from old trips. Everyone headed off to bed pretty early as we were all tired from the days driving.
Sunday morning dawned and everybody got up and cooked breakfast. Some of the campers went with Kelvin down to the swimming hole for a swim and the other lazier ones stayed back at camp for a nice restful day. I believe that the ones that went off to the swimming also finally visited the hut and then they all come back to camp.
We had lunch and slowly packed up. Everyone seems in a hurry to unpack but it seems to take hours to pack up. We said some face to face goodbyes to the visitors from the Landrover club and then jumped in the cars and headed home.
Thanks to Steve & Cheryl, Bruce & Karen, Peter and Donna from the Landrover club I hoped they enjoyed our trip and our company I know we enjoyed theirs.
(Oh and to all the people on the trip. Collaroy didn't make it even though Wendy tried. At least he had one last night with someone caring and loving him.)
By Tracey Turner