Armed with trip notes and warnings from CALM, Member Davoe and others we approached
Israelite Bay with caution. A fair amount of rain had fallen and from the
Poison Creek turn off through to
Israelite Bay we sloshed through a 100km of mudholes, some being quite deep.
We took the North West track(
Inside Track and old Telegraph line way) from
Israelite Bay as the seaweed build up along the beach is more than a metre deep and too dangerous to contemplate driving on. My mate went for a look at the seaweed and I had to winch him out. Winter is the wrong time of the year to tackle the beach as our notes stated that the best possible time was when the highest tide was .6 metre. At the beginning of June the high tides were 1.4 metres.
The 55km track to Wattle
Camp was very overgrown and we gave both the Nissans a severe Bush Massage. This journey took 5 and a half hours. Had a quick lunch in a
clearing at Wattle
Camp and went to look at the
beach access. The seaweed was still around a metre deep and impassable to my way of thinking but there were fresh wheeltracks on it though we never caught up with the vehicle.
We continued now in open country skirting as number of wettish salt lakes for the next 17km when the track came to an abrupt halt with no way through the foliage in front of us. We searched for half an hour but found no other tracks. So we had to resort to the beach 2km to the east. Dropped the tyre pressures to 15psi and gunned it up and over a very steep
sand dune.
It was 3.30pm and we were now 5 hours behind the tidal change. The 32km along the beach we managed in and hour and ten minutes. Where the tide had come up to the dune face the sand was very soft in
places and we had a few nervous moments but we kept in 2nd and 3rd High Range around 2500 revs and kept moving. We did stop to marvel at the majestic
Bilbunya Dunes before finding the track off the beach and up to the Culver
Camp, halfway up the Wylie Scarp.
The next day we carried on along the old Telegraph Track after climbing the rest of the Jump up. The last 100 metres of the track has been covered with
Conveyor belting(no doubt from a mine site nearby) so that local fishierment can have an easier access to the beach.
From the top of the escarpment a very rough and slow track runs out to
Point Culver. We accessed most of these tracks whilst driving along the Telegraph Track. The track is a bit wider but still scratchy in
places. We visited the Baxter Cliffs,
Toolinna Cove, Baxter Memorial and Perpendicular Cliffs and camped two nights out there near the cliffs. These cliffs are mainly
limestone formation and very crumbly so care must be taken not to get too close to the edge.
It was a very worthwhile trip to visit a place where very few travellers venture.
However, beware of the
cliff dangers and the paint damage to your vehicle should you venture that way.