WA – Wilbinga to Seabird

Yep, have a UHF and a HF but will probably leave the HF at home. I'll get a sand flag then.
Thanks.

I'd agree with all comments, Wilbinga is a great spot and being close to perth makes it even better. If you stick to the sand tracks, you'll be pretty right. The beach, as mentioned can get very soft (I hate using the shovel!!LOL)

Im actually heading out there tomoz, so Ill post some info on the conditions upon my return.

ro-dah-o (WA)

How did your trip to Wilbinga go?

went well indeed

tracks in from the south are quite corrugated. Tracks are firm due to the rain, but well used due to what seems to be regular traffic and two wheeled transport. Beach was reasonably firm, got off easy enough. tyres @ 15psi and no real probs. I will upload a photo to my profile that depicts how much fun i really had!!

A good day out. Discovered some more tracks and found the norhtern sand bowl. All in all a great day out with friends.

Well worth a day trip. Take lunch and a comfy chair and its even better. If your looking for people to go with, Im sure myself and others from the holden club could have their arms twisted enough LOL!!

Mike

!MPG:6!

the only real bad spot, top of the norhtern sand bowl, went a little to high and down she went!! All in good fun, mind you when the tail end slipped and she started rocking, pukka-pukka-pukka!!!

Thanks for the reply, have heaps of my own recovery gear, I try not to reply on other people if at all possible.

Thanks for that, we have our own air supply..

Gotta say I'm with you there to some degree... I like the coast on a hot summers day with the kids having a swim etc... Heading up the powerline tomorrow, havn't been there for a few months, it's easy but always a nice little drive to break up city life.

I love the red dirt!

Any further details on the Powerline track? Sounds more like my think, beaches are beaches to me too.

Are there notes / maps available? Where does it start and and end?

Cheers,

Well! Went up there yesterday and it was a little wet. :-)

You just drive up the hill along the Great Eastern Highway, then turn right just before you enter Sawyers Vally down a now sealed road that goes for about 200m next to the Kalgoorlie pipeline. It then turns to Gravel and you follow it for about 500m. Then you turn left down the power line track and follow it all the way to the York highway. Turn left on the highway and head back to town. It takes you about 2-3 hours to do.

There is some nasty bit's in there at the moment. Normally it's ok as there are chicken tracks around the hard bits, but one of the hardish bit's yesterday WAS the chicken track. I went up ok with muddies, good clearance and long rear travel but my mate in his stock Jackeroo 3.5L with AT's on had to have a second go and then it was a rough old ride for him only just making it over with wheels spinning madly. The other dodgy bit is where everyone takes suspension travel photo's comming up a ridge after a small mud pit, it's normally a wheels off the ground spinner in the dry but it was all wet clay yesterday and the chicken track had a tree that was either cut down or feel down blocking it, so that one's going to be challenging for you too. Other than that the rest of it's pretty easy, just slow going as it's very rocky.

Very pretty up there though.

The way that track has been trashed over the summer this year I think it's only a matter of time before it's closed off though. Unless some 4wd clubs or trackcare go up and do some repairs to it soon.

Howdy Grumpy, there's an excellent series of books out by the Western4WDriver magazine folk that I'd thoroughly recommend checking out. In particular, there's one called '4x4 days out of Perth' from memory that has about a dozen trips in it. These have clear directions and some pics to give you an idea of what to expect.

It's worth a trip to the Map Shop in Collie St Fremantle if you are ever in that neck of the woods. They have some good reference material in there (and also the lovely Danielle behind the counter;-))

Another option is to keep an eye on some of the local 4x4 clubs websites and see if they are organising a run up there. Don't just roll up uninvited though, email them well beforehand and ask if you can tag along. This is a good way to get into 4x4'ing and you may even want to join a club later on. A word of advice though, I have found most 4x4 clubs to be very tightknit closed groups and surprisingly rude to new potential members. Not intentional behaviour, just completely unaware of 'outsiders' so don't expect anyone to make you feel at home straight away. Not just me either, I've seen it many times happen to many different people from different clubs.

Perth4x4.com is website that regularly has trips organised everywhere, but this is not a club so much as public noticeboard. This mostly attracts the younger crowd and like any public place, you never know who you'll be travelling in convoy with, but I've done a few trips and generally had a good time.

If you want to do the Powerlines on your own, A good way to go is to start from West Talbot Road which is a few km's past the Lakes Roadhouse on the York Road. You'll know you've hit the powerline track when you see......you guessed it, the powerlines. Turn back towards Perth and there you go. There are 'chicken tracks' around most obstacles and the terrain ranges from basic to tricky. I would strongly advise doing it the first time with someone experienced if you are not (talking about the powerlines here;-)) so if you get stuck, there is some backup available.

A nice easy one to get started is the 'Wandoo Woodlands' track from that book I mentioned earlier. That is nice and easy and has some lovely views to take in.

Hope you have fun Grumpy, good luck!

(I'll insert my standard disclaimer here - I have no affiliation to any of the goods, services or organistaions mentioned above.)

Hi Jeff, must have posted at the same time.

That rain would have made it interesting!

Perth 4x4 is in discussion with CALM about the track and its upkeep at the moment. I like it the way it is to tell you the truth, but realise it probably will have to be smoothed out soon to keep the powers that be happy. Such is life.

Re: the trees. There were a group of tree loppers up there on Monday who were going apesh*t, cutting down anything growing nearby from what I could see.

Yeah I think it's fine to have it challenging, great in fact for us, but the fact is that it is a working maintenance line and if western power can't get a 4x4 truck through there then they'll just close it off to the people who wrecked it in the first place.

All that needs to be down is to fix the chicken tracks and leave the hard core, hard core.

Yeah I had my baby daughter and white knuckled missus in the car, plus the surf was making some nasty clucking noises from the front end (turned out to be a missing bolt on the front sway bar, so nothing to worry about) and I had the jackeroo behind me so I opted to just drive over the tree branches (they were too big to move) rather than tackle that obsticle, but would have been fun giving it a go I reckon....

I hadn't seen that thread on Perth4x4, I shall go check it out, I'd be ready to help those blokes out, good on them!

Jeff, V8,
Thanks for the tips, I'll definately check it out soon. Happy enough to have a go on my own, LC has 265 Cooper AT's but it also has a winch and I have a few straps too so I should be Ok.
Did quite a bit with the TLCC in Sydney for the experience (basic and advanced training) but a few of us did our own thing after a while as the "leaders" had too much ego and they allowed the groups to get too big.
New to WA and love the place, i keep an eye on 4x4 web pages but have limited time at the moment due to 10 month old at home.

Much appreciated, thanks for taking the time to answer.
Cheers,
Grumpy (not all of the time :-) )