Stockton Sand Dunes

Now that I’ve got this new toy, of course I want to play with it every weekend. Unfortunately, for the full week after I bought it (you can read about that here), it rained.

On Saturday it finally cleared up. That meant we were in this predicament of great weather, but mud everywhere. Not much fun for a novice dirt-biker like me!

Thankfully nearby we have the fabulous Stockton Sand Dunes. These are apparently the largest shifting sand dunes in the Southern Hemisphere, and are open for 4WDs, quad bikes, dirt bikes, horses, etc. Damp sand is so much more fun than wet mud!

Click here for a map of the Stockton Sand Dunes.

So, some of the usual suspects (Scott, Burgo and I) headed off for a ride in the sand. I’d never done this before, so it was bound to be a learning experience.

Scott, doing his best to hide my DRZ400 from view!

One of the first things I learned was that it’s easy to fall off in the thick dry sand.  The next thing I learned was that the best way through is to stand up, give it plenty of revs, and plough through.  I also got pretty good at seeking out the darker, damp sand – it is much firmer, and therefore, much easier to ride on.

At the Northern end of the dunes, there are a bunch of squatters’ huts, called “Tin City”.  Apparently they were built before WWII, then commandeered by the army. After WWII, they were given back to the squatters. People live there, paying no rates or rent. The council has allowed them to stay, as long as there are no new ones built, and if for some reason one falls down, it can not be rebuilt. Not only that, but they are not allowed to be bought or sold.

You can see "Tin City" in the background here

From here, we headed on up to Anna Bay, where we had a quick lunch before the trek back home again.  On the way home, Burgo ploughed through some particularly soft sand, and came to an abrupt stop, stalling the bike.  After a while, it became clear that no matter how much he heaved on the starter (his is a kick-start model), it wasn’t going to fire up.  Scott doubled back to have a look.

Burgo, in the distance, stuck.

It turns out that when he’d come off, the front wheel had swung around so that the bars hit the stops on the frame.  The only problem with that was that there was an electrical wire that had dropped down to sit neatly on the frame stop.  This made quite an effective kill-switch!

Maybe I should go and have a closer look...

There's the problem! Got a soldering iron?

Nearly there. This should get you home.

Once the wire had been located and joined back together, Burgo jumped on the starter again. After a couple of kicks, it fired into life, and we were on our way again.

As soon as I got home, I got the power washer out, and made sure that all the sand and salt was thoroughly hosed off.  The last thing I want to see is the new bike being plagued by rust.  In fact, once I’d cleaned it and dried it, I went over the bike with some WD40 and a rag, and wiped anything that looked like it might rust.  I even squirted some into the frame drain holes.  You can never be too fussy!

All up, it was a great ride. It’s certainly on my list of things to do again.  Next time, we’ll turn south from where we entered the beach – only a 100 metres or so down the beach is the “Sygna” shipreck – a 53,000 tonne Norwegian bulk freighter that ran aground in the 1970′s.

Here’s more on Tin City

Here’s more on the Sygna

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