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Annual LCOOL Xmas Trip :: Southend/Beachport
Day 1 - 26 Dec

Darren, Ted and I (Joe) along with  John Torrence riding with me were first to arrive at Southend South Australia, at the Sea Tourist Park and the 60 acres of bush camping facility - Complete with toilets, running water and fire pits.

The camp area is  well laid out with very spacious sites providing great privacy between sites. Each site is separated by lush trees and bush you were hardly aware of other campers.

While waiting for others to arrive we decided on a bit of a run and with tyres down we turned out of the camp and the short distance to the beach that headed us toward Beachport.

This big beach (Rivoli Bay) apart from a few soft spots is very firm and travelling along here at 80km an hour is a breeze,with around 12km to cover to Beachport.
 
Past Beachport we followed Darren down a track  which clearly had not seen much use and got us onto another beach with a fair slope on it.

Not before long we were all bogged on this same beach with the tide coming in fast...everyone working frantically to get out but not getting far.

I moved the 120 down closer to Darren and we  joined up two straps, and then started reversing,but the 120 was bogged to the diff before the straps even tightened.
 
I knew we were in trouble because Darren mattered something like " were in deep shit here"!
 
After repeated digging......we dropped to 8psi ..

Darren was headed/pointed down the slope of the beach right to the waters edge, and then with heaps of throttle, ploughed along backwards with the truck travelling at 45 Degree angle ... sand was going everywhere... a bit like a snow plough - and straight towards the incoming tide.

Some locals came down and saw how we had ploughed up the beach in fine style and commented...."Ooh ah no one ever drives that beach"...well that was just the first day's adventure :-)

After finding a few more dunes and beaches to drive with spectacular views we headed back to camp and I cooked up a roast on the camp oven for the first time in my life on the new gear Marion got me for Christmas...with plenty of helpful guidance from the others that ensured a great result and a shared meal that tasted superb.

Joe Mortelliti



Some of the rock formations were just beautiful






THAT beach - the FIRST one - the one people DON'T GO on - except for Daz ;-)



This is still fun (so far..)



A bit deep - lets go back a bit



Somewhere under all this, we'll get a firm base...



Just gotta keep on looking...



"Hey Ted - how come you're doing ok??"



Darren giving the dune what for..