Getting offroad with Motorama 4X4XMORE!
Posted in 4x4xmore Adventures
Getting offroad with Motorama 4X4XMORE!
Recently, I was lucky enough to join the Motorama 4x4xMore team leading their first ever adventure off-road.
Getting out with experts and novices alike proved for a great experience tackling a beach drive to Double Island Point.
The Fraser Coast is the place to be for 4WD owners who want to practice their off-roading skills. With endless beaches on offer, like World Heritage listed Fraser Island, Inskip Peninsula and Rainbow Beach, they are perfectly set up to let visitors get up close to the surf in their 4WD’s.
The team at Motorama Mitsubishi recently got a group of 4WD owners who had been waiting for an opportunity to take their new cars off-road, some for the first time. After an 8am start at the Ettamoggah Pub, just past the Glasshouse Mountains, the convoy of around 40 utes and 4WDs took off towards Tewantin which lets cars cross via ferry across the Noosa River to the southern end of the Great Sandy National Park, which stretches from Noosa on the northern end of the Sunshine Coast, up to Rainbow Beach just before the jump across to Fraser Island.
In Tewantin, our group stopped to deflate our tyres before heading onto the barge and ferry – which is a good idea if you’re in a big group, because there are no real places for more than a couple of cars to pull over once you’ve crossed the river to North Shore Noosa.
Once up at North Shore, we hit the beach to regroup. With some advice from the 4x4 team, some of the 4WD’s literally got sand between their tyres for the very first time. On the beach, the drivers were able to compare their rides, and see how each car was faring on their first trip off-road. The drive up the beach at North Shore Noosa is particularly scenic, with huge sand dunes to one side, and the roaring Pacific Ocean on the other – camp sites set back from the waters edge are home to fishermen and day trippers, a perfect escape for a weekend away.
Stopping at the Leisha Track, just behind Double Island Point itself, a 4WD in front of us had been bogged right before the entrance towards Rainbow Beach. Apparently, the driver hadn’t deflated his tyres – so after he was pulled out by another car in front – our group powered through to get to the meeting spot just north of Double Island Point, where a lagoon pools, so kids can swim safely if they’re not up to going into the surf.
It’s a relaxing, central spot to meet – as when it came time to leave, you get the option of continuing up to Rainbow Beach or doubling back along the beach back to Brisbane. The 4x4xMore team happily put on a demonstration of how to correctly use snatch straps to tow (or be towed!) if they were ever stuck...or if they got stuck on the way home.
There are a few other tips I picked up along the way:
- Make sure you deflate your tyres before you hit the sand to around 18-20psi, or you’re at risk of getting stuck. But don’t go too flat, or you’ll risk losing control or overheating the tyre while driving and having a blowout.
- Switch your traction control off once you’re on the sand. You’ll have more control over the vehicle, but it means you have to pay more attention to your conditions. Traction control systems work by slowing down any wheels that it senses aren’t on the road. But naturally, when you’re offroad, you might start to slip a little before getting out of sand, or mud, or loose rocks – so it’s more of a hindrance than a help when you’re trying to work with three wheels touching the ground. Beware that some cars won't like this, and if you turn your car off and then back on, all the safety systems will be activated as a default.
- Be sun safe! There aren’t very many shady spots on the beaches at Great Sandy National Park, and any shade under trees is snapped up by campers who know how exposed the beach can get. Make sure you pack sunscreen and a hat, otherwise you’ll end up cooked when you go to drive home at the end of your adventure.
- Go early. Especially on a long weekend, or if you’re headed during school holidays, it can get pretty crowded with sunseekers from the Gold Coast, Brisbane and Sunshine Coast escaping north. If you’re heading back to Brisbane on a Sunday, be prepared to hit traffic in the late afternoon on the way in as everyone heads back home.
- Don’t forget your beach permit - you can grab one online before you go!
If you love your journey travelling up to Double Island Point, you can keep heading north, and make the cross over to Fraser Island. You'll need to have a separate driving permit - but you can buy one that covers both the Cooloola Recreational Area, which covers the Great Sandy National Park, and Fraser Island for a discount.
And to be the first to hear about Motorama 4x4xMore’s off-road tours, keep in touch with the team at your closest Motorama dealership to find out where they’re taking the adventure to next.
