Labor Day Long weekend Perth To Pt Culver
Hi all my faith in my JK has been elevated even further. Over the labor day long weekend my ten year old son and I loaded up on Friday Night for a camping weekend away.
After a home cooked meal Friday night we departed for a short 3 hour hop and stayed at the salubrious Brice Rock Caravan Park. After an early start and a bacon and egg burger we made our way to Hyden and looked over Wave Rock and The Hippos Yawn, then onto the gravel between Hyden and Norseman after a quick 3 hr trip we arrived in Norseman fuelled up and off to Balladonia Station to be met by the managers Alan & Sue to pick up the keys for Warlbra Station (where I spent my school holidays as a kid).
That night Sue and Alan showed my son how to shoot and got him to chop the wood for the fire after a great BBQ and a few sherbies we slept like logs in our swags in the old hangar near the homestead.
Again waking early the next morning we quickly toured the station and went to look over the old junk pile for treasure. After breakfast and packing we left for Pt Culver, The turn off approx a further 16km from the station gate.
The next 60km and 5 hrs were travelled over some of the roughest roads I have experienced while not exactly 4wd dependent a high clearance vehicle is a definite requirement until you arrive at the scarp of the Nullabor Cliffs. Then 4wd is a necessity.
Down the rubber mats to the desert between the cliffs and the sea the sand is soft and dry, we made our way to the stunning beach at Pt Culver and its crystal clean sand and sparkling cold Southern Ocean water, after a quick swim and a walk to the massive dunes to the west we set up camp half way up the escarpment under a cospe of Malleys to escape the wind.
The camp was stunning with ocean and beach views a fire pit and very little rubbish. After a fantastic night’s sleep, we cooked a BBQ breaky cleaned up the camp site and tackled the trip back to the Eyre Highway.
We left Pt Culver at 730am had lunch back at Balladonia Station with the managers and were back in Perth by 930pm Monday night.
All up we travelled in excess of 2200km with 650km of dirt and 140km of extremely rough bush tracks and dunes.
The JK ran like a top burning 4 tanks of Diesel and averaging 14km per 100.
I’m running 285 Pirelli Scorpions, with stock springs and Terraflex Budget lift front and rear with Rancho 9000 adjustable shocks and a 4 ways RTS steering dampner, other than some Kalgoorlie Pinstriping we had no damage.
For a long weekend trip it was a long way but definitely worth it, the only thing I would do if undertaking the trip again would be to take some more fuel as our buffer was a little slim for my liking and would have allowed a little more exploration and beach driving.
During the offroad part of this trip we saw only 1 other car so is important to be very careful and look after yourself and your vehicle.
The trip is completely safe for a semi experienced driver but probably should be completed in convoy with at least one other vehicle.
Our safety equipment consisted of a Sat Ph, basic hand tools, compressor, battery pack, spare tyre, fuel, jack and sand base and a healthy level of caution and respect for my surroundings and remoteness.
The trip just made me realise that even though I have a lightly modded Jeep, that It is a very capable & comfortable vehicle that should be used for what it is designed for on a more regular basis.
Gus
Last edited by gusthewonderslug; 04-03-2014 at 11:57 AM.
|
