I just had an entertaining couple of hours around midday, watching a bloke nearly lose his Troopy, by trying to drive along the higher section of
the beach sand, at
Cable Beach, as the tide was coming in.
In the last 3 days, I've seen several blokes in trouble on
Cable Beach - some of them with hired campers.
They drive in as the tide is rising - they try to drive along the sloping, higher-level soft sand section of
the beach - they don't deflate their tyres - and they are generally, loaded to the hilt.
The bloke today was a Victorian with a fully-set-up Troopy camper, and he drove in as the tide was around 7.5 metres and rising fast (todays tide was just over 9 metres, a little less than the 9.63M Spring tide of Tuesday).
This bloke had fully inflated tyres - after he drove along just above the water line, he tried to drive up the steep face of the soft sand section, and he bogged it in.
Then came increasing panic. He let the tyres down and several blokes nearby produced their Maxtrax and he had another go at trying to drive straight forward without any attempt to back up a bit.
The result was pretty predictable, he buried the RHF and LHR wheels, as he developed maximum axle twist, and both those wheels ended up spinning uselessly in the giant holes they'd made.
Then, to add further to the misery and panic, he lost a valve from the RHF wheel and the tyre ended up completely deflated.
Several blokes waded in with shovels and dug half of
Cable Beach out from under and behind the Troopy, and chocked it with Maxtrax and other assorted tread assistance, while the bloke found a new valve and produced a compressor, and re-inflated the RHF tyre.
Then a local hero offered his superior skills, to drive the Troopy, which the owner apparently agreed to (no doubt in pure desperation).
The tide was advancing rapidly and was getting closer to the rear of the Troopy! (the entertainment was better than watching Days of Our Lives, and more
seat-gripping!).
The local hero, to my surprise - and doing the worst thing I would have imagined one could do - gunned the Troopy back down
the beach to the waterline! (I would have only backed up a bit, and then gunned it up the slope, which I think would have worked).
Then, when the local hero tried to go forward, straight up
the beach, to gather some speed, the Troopy bogged in again!! Horror!! A big wave washed over the wheels!!
Blokes rushed forward as the waves receded for a minute - they shoved Maxtrax under all round, and the local hero gunned it again, big time!
The Troopy leapt over the Maxtrax, and he kept going, on up the wave line!
He gained enough speed to aim it for a low spot in the higher sand level, right near us, and he churned his way up to the higher ground, out of reach of the high tide level! Hurray for the local hero!!
We left then, to go get lunch. We were on foot, I might add - we won't take a vehicle on
Cable Beach unless we can drive on a reasonable width of the lower, flatter, firmer sand section.
And we certainly don't try to beat the tide around the Rocks, as many seem to be doing at present (both into
the beach, and out).
There's a lot of 4WD's here that have been
well soaked in salt water in recent days, splashing in and out as they try to beat the tide.
I guess the owners don't plan to hang onto them for long, and I bet they advertise them as, "one-owner,
well-cared-for vehicle"!!
Cheers, Ron.