There were 8 vehicles, 9 people. We met up at Meningie bakery 8AM sharp then headed off to 42 mile crossing where we aired down before heading onto the beach. We only travelled north about 1km or so before we came to beach campsite #1. Eyeing off the track (or lack thereof!) further down the beach we decided to play it safe and not go further. Well advised as it turned out, an hour later young 2 lads in a P plater old Rodeo came past and got bogged right were we were thinking it looked a bit soft. They didn't even bring a shovel!
Took a few of our group close to 2 hours to get them down to the next camp site. Happy to say my Subie didn't give any hint of trouble. 
This was my camp all set up. I was running the puny 50w solar setup to help top-up my 50ah iTechworld power bank as I had my fridge set to freezer mode to keep the bait fresh. Its not very efficient in this mode, using more power than I'd be happy with taking from the cars main battery. Turns out this worked perfectly; the panel gave around 45w max and the fridge consumes 40w with the compressor running. Even when the panel was doing 20w, if the fridge uses 40w for 30 minutes out of every hour I would still break-even power wise.
I had a power nap after lunch as there was not much happening fish related, nobody was catching anything. When I came back around and was told there had been 3 small Mulloway caught, decided to get back out there. On the first bait and second cast after coming back, I landed this beauty!
110cm and 11kg on the dot. By far and away the biggest fish I've ever caught (or will catch?) and the first fish caught on that brand new rod and reel setup
I should get a new rod and reel every time I go fishing as that's the only time I ever seem to catch anything. Slightly disappointed in the fight it put up i.e. not much. Thought I had a lump of seaweed for half of it. Only started taking line out when it was within meters of the shore. It was all over in what felt like 2 minutes. Apart from one smaller one a couple hours later, that's all I caught all weekend. Not many fish were caught in general, so I won the comp. On the Saturday someone landed this big ray, had about an 8" barb on it!
Saw some amazing cloud formations too...
When that hit us the wind picked up dramatically, right in our faces. It got very strong towards the end of the 2nd day, got a bit much in the end. Trying to cook dinner, turn my back for 5 seconds to tighten a guy rope and this happens
After this just when I decided to take my tarp down due to wind and multiple bent poles, the tarp ripped in half
Happy to say my last minute improvised sand anchors didn't budge one bit through all of this though. A 150mm square scrap of 10mm ply wood for each rope. Hole in the middle of the wood with a small length of rope. Bury the wood as deep as practical with the loop of rope above ground. No need to spend hundreds of $$$ on huge screw pegs. There was an awe-inspiring storm pass over us as well about 3 AM on the first night. Like a solid stream of water coming down and lightning enough to blind, thunder like I'd never heard before. Happy I had the tarp on that night to keep the tent dry. Other than that I slept like a baby. Anyway not much else was caught, most folk didn't catch anything. I packed up early Sunday morning and headed home as soon as possible by myself. Had a family BBQ to attend at mid day back home! Got home with 45 mins to spare enough for a shower and change of clothes, throw some junk out of the car and other junk back in then go.
Airing up
Still had a great time and can't wait to do it again. Have to keep on top of that rust protection though, washed a bucket of sand out from under the car when I got home
So for the last 4 or 5 months I've done a trip in this car once a month. The trend will continue with Robe/Beachport on Australia day weekend. Can't wait! I should aim to have 1 camping trip a month for all of 2025 I think.
