4WDing down south

Nothing beats loading the 4WD up with gear, and heading off for 3 days of camping, fishing and 4WDing. We stayed on a private property in Milyeannup, and explored the D’Entrecasteaux National Park, Scott National Park, Nannup and Balingup. We’ve been talking about heading to this area for some time, and it didn’t disappoint. Despite the weather, we had a fantastic time, as you will see through the photos below.

We managed to leave Perth by about 4PM, and arrived on the private property just after 7:30PM on Friday night. The farmer was kind enough to drive us to the campsite, where we set up, and hit the sack pretty early. A few other vehicles arrived early the next morning, and we wasted no time in setting them up, then deflating the tyres.

I thought 20PSI would be fine, given the rainfall we had, but soon knew I was far from the mark after virtually sinking in the 80 the second I hit the beach! We dropped the tyres down to 12 – 15 PSI, and drove up and down the beach, checking the area out. The wind was howling beyond anything I’d seen before, you could barely stand up, so we decided to head back inland.

Before we could though, the D40 sunk down near the waters edge, and required a gently tow back up to firmer ground!

My Mistake

It was here though, that I tried to find a shorter way back home, and ended up in a world of pain. We followed the tracks around the back of Lake Jasper, and had gone through 3 crossings that were not too deep. With the twin lockers on and plenty of power, the 80 was eating the crossings up with no worries at all. We came to this particular puddle, and I stopped and considered, but not for long enough! I flicked the lockers on and idled onwards in 2nd low.

Things were going well. All of a sudden, the bonnet dropped right underwater, and I knew we could be in trouble! I put my foot down a bit, and the vehicle came to a stop a few seconds later. I radio’d over to get the recovery under way urgently; we had water well over sill height, and I knew it wouldn’t be long before it started coming in!

I climbed out the window, and stood on the roof racks, where I spoke to a few mates as they hooked the straps up. Upon climbing back into the vehicle I was shocked at how much water had come in; the passenger sides of the car had at least 100 mm of water over the carpets, and it was coming in quickly, somewhere from the rear. A few more minutes later and I was yanked out backwaters, much to the relief of myself and Sarah! Thankfully only the carpet got wet, and we managed to drive back with only my pride damaged!

At the end of the day, I’ve only got myself to blame. I should have walked the crossing first, but the thought of driving 2 and a half hours back to camp on a terrible track had me rather motivated to find a different way home!

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