West Coast 4X4, Easter 4WD trip report.
From Froggy, Easter trips leader.

Day 2, Fish Creek.
Shannon National Park

The morning was one of those perfect mornings ya just can never forget, waking up in a tent under the canopy of the forest was just incredible, stuff fairy tales are made of. A little overcast but the sound of the birds, especially the Kookaburras greeting in the morning didn't invite hardly anyone to sleep in. I just absolutely love it down in this country, gives you a reason for being, that's for sure. 

All the happy campers got very busy with breakfast fairly early. The guys that didn't go out on the 4WD run the previous afternoon were all really very eager to get all 12 trucks on the road ASAP.  

Departure time was around 10.00am with the plan being to head into Pemberton and regroup there after guys and gals had an opportunity to grab a shower, re-fuel their trucks and buy odds and sods before the days events down in the Shannon National Park. I had to re-fuel the thirsty 60' and Sofia wanted a shower. My boys wanted to try and go the distance and stay feral with the 'Old Man', no shower for 4 days, except for the occasional dip in the Southern Ocean. Just AWESOME ;-)

We were on the road a little after 10.00am in convoy of 10 vehicles with Gadget and Scrounger behind us someplace, (Cam in the mighty black Lux in the lead) well at least we thought Scrounger was behind us. In fact he was in front of the Convoy, even sending Gadget back looking for him for a bit due to the confusion. Anyhow, by the time we rolled into Northcliffe, all 12 vehicles were in convoy. Decision to stop at Northcliffe was denied and we pushed onto Chesapeake Road. Turning of the main Northcliffe to Windy Harbour road onto the gravel road and then finding the track to the 'One Tree Bridge' where we stopped to stretch the legs and took some happy snaps. 

Bullet was out and about, I think he was pleasantly impressed with this bridge, though he wasn't impressed with the invasion of ants on his person whilst exploring under the bridge ;-). This bridge is all wood in construction and is at least 50 to 60 feet in height. The bridge has a loading capacity of only 2 tons and there is signage to only allow one vehicle to cross at any one time. The bridge has only one lane of traffic which has a gravel surface. There is no allowance for oncoming traffic to cross at the same time. One can understand why this signage has been put in place, see! whilst standing on the bridge as each vehicle crosses, due to the corrugations on this bridge, when a vehicle crosses, the bridge does actually move under foot. Drivers and passengers don't really feel the bridge actually moving whilst travelling in the vehicle. The most common response after crossing the bridge from people is... 'now that wasn't too bad, hey?' but after you get them to step onto the bridge whilst a vehicle is crossing slowly, they certainly change their opinion. This visit to the 'One Tree Bridge' is a well worth a stop, just crossing it isn't enough to take in the true wonder and majestic beauty of this country. I try and stop here on any 4WD trip I lead down this way and get EVERYONE out to take a good look around.

Misjudging the length of the convoy, the rear of the convoy found passage in front of the lead vehicle after leaving the bridge, leader being me! Once obtaining the lead again, I lead them onto the track that heads down to Fish Creek. At the entry of this magnificent area, I invited all to lock in their hubs and made suggestion of which track goes where at the T junction. Today we were heading straight for Fish Creek. When I came to the second turn off, I just knew I missed the turn left which would have taken us in the direction originally planned. No matter, the convoy was far too long to turn about anyway. The direction we were heading was straight for the beach and I knew Bullet was keen on a surf straight up.  

On transit it was getting pretty close to lunch time. I was getting a tad famished and there wasn't any traffic around to speak of so we stopped for a bite to eat right there in the bush under the low peppermint trees. The drive through this area is very nice, a nice windy track, with the occasional ascent and decent, nothing too difficult for the vehicles, just a very pleasant drive. Vehicles all packed up after lunch, we were all mobile again heading towards Moore's hut (with our hunger satisfied) and then onto the beach. 

Heading on over the dune section of the track after Moore's Hut toward the beach, we came to a rise. I lumbered the 60' over and around a very tight blind left turn, still in high range, only to slam on the brakes. There was a vehicle heading up in the other direction. I had 11 vehicles behind me in convoy, this dude only had 2 vehicles behind him. Much easier for him to back down and allow us safe passage through. But for whatever reason this individual would not back down. Being the more organised and competent wheelers, the WC4X4 convoy moved back down to allow only 3 vehicles safe passage through. We had to wait a little longer as there were another 2 vehicles coming off the beach. May I remind all wheelers, especially those that are not in 4WD clubs, that the impact on the environment is far less stressful for a two or three vehicle convoy to turn about than 12 vehicles. Small boats have to give way to the bigger boats, the same rule should apply off-road. The attitudes of off-road drivers out there these days are not what they use to be and that is a real pity :-\.

We all finally arrived on the beach. I proceeded to park the 60' and get organised for a refreshing cold Southern Ocean swim. Bullet asking if we were going to stay put for any length of time so he could get the board off the roof of the Prado. Later, the kids built a damn from the fresh water creek that was spilling out onto the beach, trickling its way over the white sandy beach making passage for the salty Ocean. Others went fishing down the beach and the die hard wheelers  like Hool's, Scrounger and MudRunner went for a run down the beach to investigate some more territory.  

We lost sight of Bullet on quite a few occasions, he was well out of sight most of the time. Even using binoculars, it was difficult to pick him up out behind the breakers. 

The kids built an awesome damn, having to continue to build the damn wall as the continual flow of fresh water kept rising and threatening to break down the damn wall that was built so well. But nothing could stop the Gadget mobile, the 'Black Evil Nissan' and one 33' mudder from breaking down the walls of the damn. Gadget was then the kids best mate...hehehhe NOT! The glee of satisfaction on Gadgets face as he manoeuvred the black evil Nissan into position for the final destruction of the Kids damn was something the Kids could have had nightmares over ;-), onya Gadget.

I was almost the last to leave the water. Amy and Bree still enjoying the refreshing conditions, likewise with Mark and Brayden. Bullet was still out in the blue yonder. I decided to tackle getting the 60's engine strapped down a little tighter before moving on. The one only tie down was worrying me a little as there was at least one other sandy hill climb we had to tackle later in the day. The torque of the 4L 6cyl heading up this hill climb may well break the tie down holding the engine down on its broken engine mount. Pedro, and Scrounger came to the assistance, thanks guys ;-) One finished, I was confident that the job done was as good better than actually having an engine mount. This is the 2nd engine mount I have broken in the 60'. I am aware that the towies to chain their engines down due to engine mount consistently breaking. The vehicle vibrates a lot more, but at least the mount will not break. Don't think I will go to these drastic steps in chaining the engine down to the chassis, but there is a range of materials that could be as effective. There is only one side of the engine that needs to be tided down anyway.   

Bullet and I were the last to head down the beach, heading South East. The rest of the group were well in front heading for Tuckers Hut (of which we found out later that the hut is in fact Doug's Hut) As we approached the group ahead that were quite some distance away, Scrounger relayed information over the UHF that LeRoy had bogged himself pretty severely in sand. As pictured below...

What LeRoy ploughed into was a fresh water artesian spot on the beach where a fresh water stream will its  way down under the surface of the beach to the Ocean, very, very soft indeed. Quite unrepenting to the driver, when driving into these patches. It is similar to slamming on the brakes. The vehicle comes to a sudden griding halt. Gadget to the rescue, I think he quite enjoyed the opportunity of snatching LeRoy out of this situation, that funny looking grin plastered all over his face again. Buller and I missed all the action, only heard most of it over the UHF from Scrounger. We were still mobile when the recovery took place. 

Mother nature has a habit of changing things on you after a period of time. I radioed back to the convoy making suggestions of what to expect ahead. Well, nothing I said did unfold as we made our passage up this track, but ya get that too! For the most part, at least until we stumbled onto some happy campers, the track was pretty wide and not too much trouble and I was travelling on a track I hadn't been on before, now exploring but with 11 vehicles behind me. Yep! once a decision was made to turn left or right, we were committed to head in that direction. Too hard to turn 11 vehicles around and wouldn't have been too healthy to the environment anyway. Though I did ask these campers which way to Doug's (Tuckers) Hut. Well these guys put us onto a bum steer or they just made a horrible estimate on our behalf, suggesting that the quickest way was North up into the bush. This track was a nice and easy track underfoot, but extremely overgrown and was pretty nasty on the duco of the vehicles. Many complaints were being fed forward as we were travelling on this track. And I didn't blame them one little bit, as I was getting pretty annoyed with the continual scraping of vegetation on the side of my 60'. The convoy apparently did get some distance between itself, some guys slowing right down to avoid any real lasting scratches. My attitude is that it don't matter how slow or reasonably quick one drives through country like this, the vehicle is going to sustain some surface scratching, of which most will cut and polish or just buff out. At the end of the day, we all buy a 4WD vehicle to travel in this kind of terrain, we just have to take the bad with the good sometimes. 

We finally got to the end and picked up the other track we should have been travelling on earlier in the day. No matter, as at least I still got the opportunity in showing everyone this great country from this side heading toward Doug's (Tuckers) Hut. Travelling along this main track I stumbled onto a track heading East, didn't remember this track and since the rest of the convoy had a bit of catching up to do, Gadget and I went exploring for a bit. The track headed to another fishing spot on the coast. The Western Australian 4WD Assoc. had done their handy work here in association with CALM, placing down 'Rubber Matts' on a hill. Ed Sault from 'All Tracks 4WD Club' was one of the major prime movers for this effort. Gadget and I estimating about the right time to turn around and headed back to regroup with the convoy, estimating about 4km travelled on this track. We pushed on travelling towards the coast over some country with magnificent views. Even though Gadget and I took a slight detour, part of the convoy was getting out of radio range, about 3km to 4km back, hmmm! And I was only travelling at a very steady pace, well at least I thought I was. 

I lead who was with me straight to Doug's (Tuckers) Hut, where I always like to get out and take good look around. Our small group that managed to keep up with the leader, went for a walk to check out the cliffs here as the views are always quite breathtaking and really worth a look see. We stumbled onto an elderly gentlemen who was making his way around the cliffs armed with a fishing rod and bucket. Sofia and I got chatting with him and what an interesting chap he was. Apparently, the well known Tuckers Hut, should be aptly named Doug's Hut instead. See, there were three local Cockies that put this hut together. Tucker was apparently the weakest link of putting this Hut together, but seemed to use the hut for R&R more than the other two ever did. People that visited the area in most cases would bump into ol' Tucker, this is the real reason why Tuckers Hut got its name. The elderly gentleman Sofia and I were speaking with was in fact, Doug! And Doug made mention that the hut should never have been named Tuckers Hut, he asked us to spread the word and let all know that this hut should now be referred to as Doug's Hut. He also made menton that a lot of material has been written about the Hut and surrounding area, of which most of it is unfounded. See, old' Tucker could apparently spin a very good and over zealous yarn, of which many believed. Doug has given up the fight to put back the ladder that was actually in his opinion, the safest way to scale the wall of the cliff to the small beach at the base of the cliff, making mention that elderly people used this ladder very frequently over the years. To the best of Doug's knowledge, no one has ever been hurt traversing the old ladder. CALM in their infinite wisdom took the ladder down due to a safety and 'duty of care' reason. Today the area is a mess due to the fencing that was erected by CALM. It is in an appalling state, and is actually causing some degree of land degradation in itself, aptly pointed out by Doug. Doug would know. He has been using this area since the early late 30's and knew family's that knew this area before that time. CALM really needs to listen to people like Doug. These people have an infinite amount of knowledge and wisdom and can contribute much, much more than say a Bunsen Burner can in a laboratory! Just take a look at the hut itself in the photograph, these guys really know how to look after a hut ;-) This photo was taken before all the fencing went up, in its original pristine state. This is how I like to remember 'DOUG'S HUT'. Yep folks, this is how the area use to look like, just beautiful, huh? Why couldn't they just leave well alone :-\

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