Noosa North Shore Sand Driving Course 03-06 December, 2021
- Ken Fredric
- Dec 17, 2021
- 9 min read
Updated: Mar 29, 2023
Day One - Scarborough - Noosa North Shore 03 December, 2021
The purpose of this expedition, if a purpose is actually needed to hit the road, was to participate in the Australian Off Road Academy (AORA) sand driving course at Noosa North Shore on Sunday 5th December.
We left home about 9:00 a.m., going to Rothwell to pick up Matariki and park up the Mazda. It didn’t take us long to load up for the 3-night trip, so we were on the road before 9:30.
Meg decided that she was going to drive for this trip, including the sand driving course, so I got to ride shotgun for a change.
While cruising up the highway we decided to stop for lunch somewhere on the way. The Cooroy Hotel sounded good on Google, so we headed to Cooroy and got there around 11:30. It was a little early for lunch so we had a drink from the bar while waiting for the food service to start at 12:00. After an initial hiccup with the menu ordering system (our order was missed by staff somehow) we finally got our meals and more drinks about half an hour later. Meg did her usual fish on Friday thing, having a fisherman’s basket, and I had the laksa. While lunching Meg mentioned that there is a scenic walk not far from Cooroy, up Mt Tinbeerwah,which she had walked in the past, so we decided to do that after lunch.
It was a short drive on the Noosa-Cooroy Road to the Wooroi day-use area, where we parked up and prepared for the walk.
The walk up to the summit of Mt Tinbeerwah was a fairly easy 500 metre climb and was well worth the effort to get the beautiful views of the Noosa hinterland.
That was enough exercise for the day and it was time to head for our campground, via the Tewantin Ferry, which took us over to Noosa North Shore.
Once off the ferry it was a short drive to the Noosa North Shore Retreat Campground, where check-in was next to the Noosa North Shore Hotel. After doing the formalities we had to drive another kilometre or so to the actual campground.
We had a nice bushy unpowered site, close to a small dam, and well away from other campers. I thought the campground was surprisingly quiet for a Friday afternoon.
After setting up we availed ourselves of the nice swimming pool to cool down a bit before chilling for the rest of the day.
The campground came complete with abundant wildlife including kangaroos, kookaburras, corellas, galahs, honeyeaters and a brave goanna.
When we were walking back to Mata from the swimming pool we noticed a goanna starting to climb one of the large gumtrees between our site and the pool. Unfortunately for the goanna, two corellas didn’t want it to climb that tree and were flying around the tree squawking and attacking the goanna to stop it going up the tree. We got back to our site and sat down to relax when the determined goanna had another go at climbing up the tree, with a similar result, except that the corellas kept chasing the goanna this time to the extent that it ran over to our site right beside Meg’s chair, and took shelter under Mata.
Much later the goanna did climb up the same tree with no opposition from the corellas this time, so we weren’t sure what the point of the earlier attacks were.
We didn’t require much for dinner after our good lunch, so we did our usual first night away meal of cheese and caramelised onion chutney.
We had internet earlier in the day, but it went down with sun for some odd reason, and there was no TV signal, so we had to watch the news on the tablet using my mobile for a hotspot.
And that was day one!
Day Two - Noosa North Shore 04 December, 2021
Day two started around 7:30 a.m with hot drinks and a fry up for brekky.
We didn’t have any firm plans for the day, apart from walking to the Noosa North Shore Hotel for lunch. The only reason we spent two nights in this campground was that they didn’t allow bookings for a single night over weekends, so it was a good chance to chill for the day.
Even at that time of the day it was quite hot so we jumped in the pool to cool down.
It was such a beautiful day that I decided to walk the 1.5 km to the Noosa North Shore beach First Cutting (beach access) for a swim in the ocean.
The beach, a section that is not accessible by vehicles, was picture-perfect and the water a comfortable temperature for swimming.
The surf was quite vicious, knocking me off my feet a couple of times, but fun to actually have some waves, unlike our beach at Scarborough.
After the swim I walked along the beach for half a kilometre or so enjoying the tranquility, the sun and the crashing waves.
After walking back to the campground, we walked through a bush track to the Noosa North Shore Getaway Bar & Bistro for lunch and a drink. The hotel is quite large and open and airy, so it was a very pleasant lunch venue. After lunch we called into the retreat shop so Meg could buy a new pair of thongs because her existing thongs were threatening to blow out.
Back at the campground we had another swim to cool off after the walk back from the hotel.
The afternoon sun had been an issue for us the day before in the late afternoon, so we rigged up our spare tarpaulin as a sunshade on the west end of Mata.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and enjoying our surrounds and the local wildlife.
Dinner was chilli and rice, followed by more frustration trying to watch the news on TV, but still didn’t have any TV reception. We did have internet again though so we had to utilise the tablet to watch the news.
Had an early night in expectation of a big day doing the sand driving course the next day.
Day Three - Noosa North Shore Sand Driving Course 05 December, 2021
As anticipated, we had an early start to the day, which was good because as well as doing the sand driving course we were also moving to another campground for our final night of this expedition.
After drinks and breakfast we packed up and drove further along the road, past where I’d walked to the beach the day before, to a public dump point to empty the toilet cassette, just in case there was going to be any radical driving on the sand.
It was still too early to go to the meeting point for the sand driving course, so we drove back to First Cutting, parked up and went for a walk along the beach. It wasn’t as pleasant as the day before because it was overcast and there was a strong easterly wind blowing, so we didn’t walk too far.
Our next stop was the course meeting point, which was in a parking area across the road from the Noosa North Shore Hotel. It was way earlier than the appointed meeting time of 10:00 a.m. but there were already some other participants and the course instructor, David, there.
We stood around talking to others while waiting for the rest of the participants to turn up, which was almost 10:00 a.m. by that time. There were six other participants.
The course started with about 45 minutes of theory, safety, tips etc. before we all reduced our tyre pressures ready for driving on the sand. We set our tyre pressures to 24 front and 28 rear.
We then drove in convoy to Third Cutting entrance, which was not far past the dump point we’d been to earlier, and pulled up to engage Low 4WD to ensure we wouldn’t get stuck in the soft sand at the entrance. We stayed in Low 4WD for the first part of the day.
Once all vehicles were on the beach heading north, David, communicating via UHF radio, got us to drive up into the soft sand at the top of the beach to get a feel for what our vehicles are capable of. Of course Mata handled it with ease and Meg was having fun doing all the driving!
After a few kilometres of driving in the soft sand we stopped to see how everyone was feeling so far and for Dave to provide some more insights on beach hazards.
The next part of the drive was longer and faster, between 50 - 80 km/h, so we switched to 4WD High for that section.
About 20 km along the beach we stopped just past the entrance to the Freshwater Picnic Area to get one of the other participants deliberately bogged, so we could then look at recovery techniques. Unfortunately, the bogging was done too well, down to the chassis, and the recovery took about an hour, which was way past our lunchtime.
The initial attempts to free the bogged vehicle using Maxtrax recovery tracks was a failure, even using four recovery tracks. The next attempt at recovery was to use a kinetic rope attached to another participant’s vehicle, and this thankfully was successful because we were starving by that point.
The convoy then drove the short distance to the Freshwater Picnic Area where we sat at picnic tables to eat our lunch and commune with other participants for about 45 minutes.
After lunch we started the drive back to Third Cutting, then back to the car park where we’d started earlier in the day.
Dave debriefed us on the day, then we had to reinflate our tyres back to normal road pressures.
That was the end of the course, so we headed for the Noosa North Shore Beach Campground, which wasn’t far from Third Cutting where we’d just come from. The campground was a bit more basic, and busier, than the previous camp, and was right beside the ocean.
After setting up we went for a walk to the beach with the intention of having a swim but the tide was low, the water was really rough, and there was a howling easterly, so we flagged that idea.
Back at Mata we turned on the main cabin fan to try and lower the temperature inside somewhat, however we had to turn it off again because it was making a horrible metallic grating noise.
We had a well-deserved beer and wine or two while winding down for the day, and we had Q sauce and pasta for dinner.
It had been a long tiring day so heads hit pillows quite early.
Day Four - Noosa North to Scarborough 06 December, 2021
Another early rising today because we were so early to bed the night before.
After breakfast we packed up ready to head home, and emptied the toilet cassette at the campground on the way out.
We’d read about and seen a Car Spa, not far from the hotel, that we wanted to stop at to give Mata a thorough rinsing underneath after spending the day on the beach the previous day. After leaving the campground we drove to the Car Spa and decided to just do the underbody wash, as Mata was relatively clean from overnight rain showers. I think the cost for the underbody wash was around $7, which gave us 3 minutes of very strong spraying, while moving the vehicle backwards and forwards slightly for that time, to ensure everything was thoroughly rinsed.
After the Car Spa, it was back to the Tewantin Ferry for the short trip across to the mainland.
Once we got out on the highway it was close to morning tea time and Meg came up with the idea of stopping at the Ginger Factory in Yandina for a coffee, so we pulled off the highway and headed for the factory.
The Ginger Cafe is a large, open, airy cafe with well spaced out seating.
It seems we were attracting wildlife on this expedition. After our food arrived we had an admirer pop up on a rock beside the table, which then engaged in a staring competition with us - maybe trying to hypnotise us into giving it some food.
We bought a few bits and pieces at the shop on the way out, then got back on the highway for the drive home.
During the journey home Meg spoke to Luke at Explorer about the noisy fan, and he said we could go in on Wednesday morning to have it looked at. That meant that we had to go to Rothwell to pick up the Mazda and take both vehicles home for a couple of nights. We arrived back in Scarborough about midday.
After lunch we went across the road to Mata to check the TV and see if it would work there. After scanning it found some DTV channels, but no ABC. Something else to ask Luke about. While there we also checked that the DVD player integrated into the TV worked, which it did.
Meg took Mata into Explorer the following Wednesday, where the fan was fixed quickly. Meg asked about the TV and it was explained that it won’t work in many places just because of poor reception, and that ABC isn’t fully digital, so it is less likely to work than other channels. Looks like an antenna upgrade might be required.
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