Days like this: Digging deep

Sometimes I wonder why I enjoy getting into the great outdoors, off the beaten track and onto the path less travelled so much, especially on days like this when the words digging deep literally mean "deep digging!" But then I remember why...It's because I'd rather design and create my ideal life than live it by default and getting out there and owning it is the only way to live with no regret.

The image below was taken near the South Australian town of Coffin Bay and despite the name it's one of the most beautiful spots in South Australia. The exact location of where these images were taken must remain a secret; It's one of my go-to spots for short trips away, is very secluded and I'd like to keep it that way.

The town itself lies about 46 kilometres northwest from Port Lincoln (and almost 700km from Adelaide, where I live) and has about 600 or so residents. The main commercial enterprise in the town revolves around fishing and there's an active wharf where fishermen and abalone-divers unload their catches of crayfish, pilchards, ocean jackets and sharks, octopus, sea urchins, sea snails, scallops, sand crabs, abalone, King George whiting and garfish for the commercial market.

Coffin Bay overlooks the beautiful waters of Port Douglas and Kellidie Bay which offer excellent recreational fishing from boat, beach, rocks and jetty plus boating, sailing, canoeing, kayaking, surfing, water skiing, paddle boarding, swimming, snorkelling, diving, windsurfing and just about anything else you can do in the water. The town is also surrounded by national parks offering various activities for the landlubbers of the world. As you can see from the images I'm one of the latter...A landlubber. Whilst I love the water I also don't feel inclined to be mauled to death by a Great White shark anytime in the near future so I stay quite close to shore.

There's loads of day trips from Coffin Bay as evidenced below:

Coffin Bay National Park, Kellidie Bay, Wangary, Mount Dutton Bay, Farm Beach, Little Douglas, Gallipoli Beach (site where the filming of Gallipoli with Mel Gibson took place), Frenchmans, Coles Point, Greenly Beach, Port Lincoln, Cummins, Todd Reservoir, the animal farm, tuna farms, museums, wineries, etc. with full day trips to Point Sir Isaac (4WD only), Lincoln National Park, Whalers Way, Halls Bay, Lake Hamilton, Sheringa, Locks Well, Elliston, Talia Caves, Venus Bay and many more. (List borrowd from the Coffin Bay website.)

A four wheel drive vehicle is required to see the very best (and secluded) spots and as you can see sometimes getting bogged comes with the territory. You can see exactly that in the images. It can be annoying, hard work and even very concerning at times.

The 200 Series Landcruiser (VX, 2018 model) is sitting on its belly here which means that no matter how hard I tried the tyres were not going to gain enough purchase to pull the vehicle out of the sand which was very deep and powdery so quite difficult to get through. You can see the vehicle sitting down on the sidesteps in this image above. If you look closely behind the rear tyre you'll see a black recovery track called a MaxTrax which is being used in an attempt to gain enough traction to drive the vehicle out. It's a long plank-sort-of-thing designed for exactly this use. It didn't work.

In the end there was little choice but to break out a long-handled shovel and dig away the sand from around the tyres and underneath the vehicle...This was done in 35 degree heat and took around 90 minutes of work...Trust me, it was not pleasant.

You can see the slope here on the sand dune a little better in the image above. Despite "airing-down" the tyres to 20psi (from 40psi) to create a larger footprint on the sand and the 4.5L twin-turbo diesel engine the sand won the day and the tyres ended up digging the vehicle down into the sand. You can see a small trailer detached from the vehicle here which was initially coupled-up. It had to be removed to extricate the vehicle though. Typically the idea is to air-down the tyres and use a run up, (momentum) to crest the dune but as you can see it doesn't always work.

Considering the heat, all this effort was very tiring, thirsty and FKN annoying. To be honest going to this sort of effort in cooler weather is difficult enough. Still, it's part of what one can expect out in the field and for me it's what makes things interesting.

I love the solitude of some of the spots I find, and return to; Add to that my lovely wife and (sometimes) a couple of friends and it makes for a great few days. Sure, sometimes we get bogged, and much worse than this one also, although it's the effort that makes being there that much more enjoyable. Some people will never see these places, (most actually). They have the chance of course but many just don't want to invest a little effort. I'm a huge supporter of reward for effort rather than a person feeling that they can simple expect reward...In this case it's very much reward for effort because lack of it means a person will just not get there! That's exactly how I want it to be.

If you are interested in some images from around Coffin Bay check out this link where you will find images from travellers like me loaded there to the right of the page you land on. Some are quite good. Click here for images