Redhead Beach

Trip Date: 14 -15 March 2015
Trip Leader: Charlie Grasso
Vehicles attending:  8
Members attending: 6
Visitors attending:   7

Trip Summary:

Sat 14 March; Leaving on time from Thornleigh, heading up the M1 and onto the Pacific Highway to Belmont, the morning improved from a cloudy day to clear and hot for our day on the sand. A quick stop for some last minute supplies and onto the beach for our rendezvous with our visitors from the north.

It didn’t take long before we found out that the recommended 15psi was not going to be low enough for the very soft sand conditions, especially in the dunes. Out with the Maxx Tracks after sitting on the roof racks for more than 2 years. How good are these as a recovery aid, very quick and easy and keeping a tow or snatch to zero. So it was down to 10psi for all of us and we were all having a lot of fun with getting bogged now down to almost none.

Late afternoon already and it was goodbye to John Z, leaving us from Blacksmiths Beach and then back to Redhead Beach to find a campsite in amongst the dunes. Set up camp and the camp fire. Flying a kite for the little one with Lachlan and the boys having a go at catching some fresh fish for dinner. Luckily we all brought something with us to eat and BBQs to cook them on. Lachlan gave us a new meaning to campfire cooking.

Sun 15 March; We awoke to a big grey cloud mass approaching us from the south east, giving us enough time to have a nice leisurely cooked breakfast before franticly packing up in the wind. Jason almost losing his new awning as the wind wanted to turn it into a kite but with many hands managed to save it from bending poles and tearing off.

Heading off for a last play in dunes Lachlan got a flat and what was a suspected broken bead turned into a spiked  tyre. With no bar work to use a high lift jack we had to dig down enough to fit a jacking plate and bottle jack and the storm was getting close now with rain and strong winds. On our way out we help a lone stranded vehicle recover from his bogged situation with our Maxx Tracks, a shovel and some advice on tyre pressures.