When I picked Byfield as a destination I knew it was
north of Yeppoon and that it was going to be too expensive to go to the hotel
there, so we would do the National Park thing.
What I didn't know that once in Byfield which is actually
some distance from Yeppoon (and we didn't even go through Yeppoon) there is a
25klm track in to the beach sites that took us 90 minutes.
All of this on top of the 430klms we travelled to get
here from Cape Hillsborough. Gold Daddy.....oh it's Dad now, I forgot.
Anyway, after fueling up and the locals giving me a funny
look when I asked if I could take a camper trailer in there, we set off toward
the beach. I must admit they were very helpful but not confident I should take
the trailer in there, particularly one as big as ours.
On the way in I hollered down a bloke coming out with a
trailer. He said I would be all good just keep right at the junction and
"give it some berries going up the hill!!!!!!" He also said to drop
the tyres down to 10psi and 8psi in the trailer. I was a bit reluctant to do
this because I have never needed to do this ever and I learnt to drive on sand.
There are some pretty hairy tracks on the sand islands around SEQ so I thought I
would just go to 12 on the trailer and 15 on the car.
As we started to ascend, just as the guy described, I
gave it some berries and the junction just appeared around a corner and you
guessed it, I ended up on the left and the steepest, rutted out part of the
dune. This dune was big, steep, soft, rutted, chunky and narrow, so not much
room for error. We got about 70% of the way up and the Prado with 1500kg behind
it said no dickhead, too hard.
I jumped out, my tail between my legs and promptly let the
tyres down to 10 & 8 respectively and tried a few more times to get up with
no luck because of loss of momentum. My only option was to reverse all the way
down, which is a challenge in itself when you can't see and have 2 boys just
jumping around like crazed people because of all the excitement.....
We made it to the bottom again and I got as much momentum
as I could, took the right track and just bounced around like you wouldn't
believe up this track. The smiles on the boys faces were priceless and we were
all in fits of laughter when we got to the top because that is exactly how the
guy described it, and the only way to get up there with a trailer on the back.
Without a doubt the toughest sand track we have ever
attempted and now conquered. Brilliant stuff.
It was a further 30 odd minutes from there to the
campsite and again we were blessed with a grassy, shady site, protected from
the wind and quiet with the exception of the waves crashing in on the beach.
Blue skies again and the forecast is for more of the same tomorrow.
2 nights here although I think it would be nice to stay
more. It really is a pity we have to go back to work, we could easily do this
full time without many complaints.
It should be a nice couple of days
Jase & Nat.
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