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The first trip for this year in the year I want to do a camping trip for every month The 4WD club I'm in always has a section of the Southern ocean caravan park at Beachport reserved for this weekend just for us. I took an extra day off of work either side of the long weekend for 5 days total. So glad I did! The second-longest jetty in SA is less than a km walk from the caravan park which makes late-night fishing jaunts so easy. Didn't catch anything though Don't think anybody did.

Rolled up on Thursday lunchtime and set up camp


On Friday we split into 2 groups. Half aired down in the camp site and went from Beachport to Robe on the beach/tracks. My group drove to Robe by highway, ate ice-cream and then aired down heading towards Beachport. It was made more difficult this year because the Community living at Nora Creina half way between Robe and Beachport had closed their access tracks to anyone and everyone. Due to some bad apples in the recent past doing the wrong thing and ruining it for everyone else. You need to drive over private land if you want to do Robe to Beachport complete and this year that was not possible. Apparently they can get 300-400 cars driving through their land on this weekend normally.

We got underway, very dry conditions. At times I could feel the heat radiating off my windscreen, glad I've got good A/C!


There were some rocky sections, this was a lot steeper than it looks in photos. Blue wagon walked up it with ease of course!


A photogenic spot, I didn't leave my seat though



We met the other half of our club coming the other way, they went around Nora Creina somehow


We were able to park outside Nora Creina and walk 200m to the little beach for some fishing, didn't catch anything It was getting late by time we finished there so aired up and headed back to camp.

Day 2 breakfast, this is what I had every day


This day we just spent relaxing on Southend beach, where I did get bogged because the car in front of me did. One spot was extremely soft and the wheel ruts were so very deep. Got myself out though just by digging and using the mini-max tracks. They really work very well indeed. First time I've needed to seriously use them. Tyres were at 8psi front and rear.



I did some fishing from here and surprisingly caught 2 very nice mullet.


Day 3 was the real highlight for me, we went to Canunda national park which I'd never seen before. We went via Southend beach. Stunningly beautiful coastline with dozens of little inlets and beaches perfect for fishing, snorkelling, exploring. And remote since most of it you can only reach by 4WD. There are some beach camp spots and also designated camp grounds with only a long-drop dunny. The driving got pretty technical and challenging actually. More rocky than sandy. With some big fun sand dune climbs and descents thrown in. The little blue car took it all in its stride, I was seriously impressed. Can feel my experience level growing too and recieved comments from others about my driving lines up challenging climbs Didn't scrape anything underneath either which I was quite surprised about.




Will be coming back to this beach to fish that hole one day


There's gotta be some crayfish down there




We saw fish swimming around down there, in the deeper spots


We drove on that beach in the background


I actually had an easier time than some of the "real" 4WDs. There was a new Jimny of which the driver was complaining it would completely cut the throttle halfway up a sand dune climb because the traction control threw a hissy fit even in low range. He did figure out how to turn this off eventually. I was surprised to learn most cars, even the new D-maxx they had to come to a complete stop to engage/disengage 4WD also between Hi and Lo. I was flicking between 2WD, Hi and Lo constantly while on the move, super handy to have this ability! There was a Hilux with a rear diff locker that wouldn't engage reliably which needed the driver to rock the car back and forwards slightly until it would pop in. My diff lock comes in automatically when it's needed! It helped too beyond measure. Don't think I would have had such a fun time with open diffs front and rear.

Anyway we only saw about 1/3rd of Canunda. This means I definitely need to come back for a dedicated trip for a proper explore. We had lunch at a place called Coola station(?) an old colonial cottage from the 1800's that was ruined. I dug up some of the abundant garlic growing wild from their veggie patch, to grow at home, a real "heirloom" variety
We drove down and had a look at Lake Bonney S.E too, a dry mud pan of an inland lake where the lake bed was springy, like walking on a mattress. Hard to believe large numbers of people used to come here from Adelaide in the 20's and 30's as a popular boating and sailing destination, they even had competitions. It must have rained a lot more back then!

One of our party had their fuel light come which ruled out going back the way we came through Canunda. So we aired up and went back via highway for beer-o-clock. It was actually a welcome thing to not be coming back into camp at dusk on the last day.

On Tuesday I got up at sunrise, got everything packed up and was rolling out of the caravan park at 8:03 AM. Got back home at 12:15PM, not bad! Only stopped once for fuel and toilet stop. Traffic was sparse.

Poor little car needed a clean inside and out!


I removed the scuttle panel and used compressed air to blow out as much sand as I could, from the engine bay and chassis rails as well. Also copious amounts of fresh water to flush out as much as I could. Then went to use the DIY car-wash station with the pressure wand. Actually this works very well, got the outside clean in <10 minutes. At home in the driveway it takes me 2 hours and I would have been in full sun.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend away. January ticked off the list I'm now looking to February. There was word of another Coorong fishing weekend but if that's a no-go I'm wondering if I should move my week long KI adventure forward a month. We will see!

Awesome trip mate! I’ll have to get Ruby Scoo sorted and come out for a trip down that way.

I never knew about the national park down south of Beachport. Can’t say I’ve really looked around in the town either

Nora Creina was always a weird little leg in the trip to join beaches. I’m surprised it took them this long before closing their access road - zero privacy for those that choose to live there with that life style! Goes two ways but they were doing us the favour at the end of the day.

The LBW would surprise many ppl in the sand - and on the rocks. Good enough low range, light weight and now good smooth power with the EJ20 is a winning combination.

Was the drive down any better? I recall a vibration issue last time IIRC.

Good to see you getting out and about. Thanks for sharing! (I can’t wait for the pics to load properly - our shite internet connection takes forever atm so I’ll check them out while on break at work

Cheers

Bennie

The town of Beachport isn't very big. There's a couple of pubs, the jetty, 2 caravan parks. Very quiet little town. Robe on the other hand was heaving with people and cars, a lot more going on. The ice cream shop on the main drag seems to be the place to be for many people

Would love to see Ruby Scoo down there some time
The EJ20 was good, a marked improvement on the EA81S in the same conditions. I never ran out of torque like the EA81 did. First gear in low range was always enough to get through the toughest stuff.

The tailshaft vibration seems to have abated (for now) After the Coorong in December it came back with a click-clack sound for every turn of the tailshaft. A week before this trip I had to drop the diff to fix the fuel tank leak. Getting the diff back up into the car required me to unbolt the tail shaft from the diff snout, I bolted it back on 180 degrees different to how it was before. And pumped fresh grease into all 3 uni joints via the grease nipples. Don't ask me how but after that the vibration was gone and has stayed away so far, also the clicking sound is gone.

It almost feels too good to be true but I know better than to think the problem is solved Last Beachport trip it had no vibe after I put the 2 pice shaft in, 5 days later the vibe was back, so I won't be suprised if it randomly comes back one day.