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Today was the day we ventured
down to the Sandy Cape. It was something John had been looking
forward to since we got here, it was a must see according to
John.
 It was a nice warm day a good day to be by
the beach. We set out along Temma road which leads to the Sandy
Cape, with a few other attractions on the way, we stopped to
look at Nelson Bay and Sarah Anne Rocks which were very scenic.
Both beaches were rocky with some sand and rock pools to spot
some sea creatures in.
When driving up the road we
noticed that a small fire had broken out, by the time we were at
Sarah Anne Rocks the fire looked quite large, so we decided it
would be best to turn around and find out form Parks if it was
safe to proceed. We got the ok they were not evacuating the
area but if the fire got any worse they may be considering it.
We drove back up the road but by
the time we got to the intersection where the fire was, it
looked as though the fire was going over the section of road
which we wanted to take. Again we decided it would be best if
we took a wide birth of the fire, going a different way. We
took Balfour Track which is well known for its boggy tracks and
deep water holes.
While driving along, John had a brainstorm
about what might be causing the dual battery to be failing. So
he lifted the bonnet and 5 seconds later had solved all the
problems by fixing a faulty connection.
 Turning the corner onto Balfour
Track, it was living up to its reputation, 50m in and there was
already a deep water hole. John got out and checked the depth
opting to put the tarp over the front of the engine bay. The
hole wasn’t that deep but it sure was smelly, but the worst was
yet to come.
Continuing along the track going
through more water holes the track seemed pretty easy because
the bases of most water holes were firm, the track itself was a
little rough in places but easy going if you took it slow. We
were told by the Parks Ranger that it was best to stick to the
main path and try not to deviate which we did until we got to a
mud hole. Remembering what we were told we decided that through
the centre was best and it would probably have a firm base, well
that was that theory out the window.
We drove a little way in and sunk
to the bottom of this thick mud hole. John tried a few recovery
techniques, reversing, going forward, changing the direction of
the wheels but all with no effect, by this stage we were up to
the front axle with no one around to help us out.
John decided to lower the
pressure in the tyres some more finding it difficult to find the
valve with all the mud, while I dug some mud out from around the
tyres, with the same techniques used before John slowly reversed
out of the mud, this time going around the mud we were able to
get past, that was challenge number two completed.
Going
further down the track again coming to another mud hole thinking
we had learnt from the previous hole we decided to go around
this one, well that was not such a great idea, this time getting
even less distance than the previous bog and we were stuck with
the wheels spinning and us going nowhere, we decided to enlist
the help of the winch, one poor spindly tree in the middle of
nowhere was our winching point, with the tree trunk protector
and the winch in action the car slowly started to move its way
through the mud. By this stage we were both getting a bit sick
of this track and we were not getting very far but we continued
on our way hoping it would not get any worse.
An extra long water hole came next,
probably 100 metres long but we went through without too much
drama. After that, the track deteriorated and tested the wheel
articulation over rocks and eroded sand tracks.
Soon the ocean was in site and the track was
running along beside it, hang on, we were heading the wrong way
the ocean should have been on the right! We turned around and
in a few kilometres found where we went wrong, the end of the
Balfour track ran right next to the track we should have taken
to the left, and was difficult to see until looking from the
other direction. We passed a Ute full of yobbo’s who just
wanted to get back to wherever they came from, and weren’t very
interested in telling us about track conditions. We continued
on, crossed a couple of small beaches and came to the North end
of the Sandy Cape beach ready for our 10 km dash to the other
side.
Boy was Jo scared. The ranger should never
have shown us the pictures of sunken vehicles. We hit the beach
running, not daring to slow down. Jo was carrying on voicing
her commands, ‘not too slow, there’s a bump in front, go closer
to the water, watch out for the mouth of that river, aahhh’.
The car lurched and bounced over a few sand humps that were
difficult to see, other wise the trip was pretty good, the sun
shining and everything nice.
Arriving at the other end we found multiple
tracks running off into the grassy cape towards the light
house. We drove along the sand tracks until we arrived near the
base of the lighthouse where we set up camp hoping that it
wouldn’t be too windy.
We climbed around on the rocks a bit, took
some photos, and watched the waves crashing, until it got dark.
The lighthouse flashed on and off replacing the darkness for
short intervals during the night. Oooohh.
4WD Travel Holiday Camp Tasmania winch
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