Ninety Mile Beach – Stage 5

Afternoon – 2 April 2017

Following lunch at the 90 Mile Beach Retreat the decision was made to leave the bike on the D-Max and I would walk the remaining 11km along the beach to the Lock Sport Causeway. By walking without having to push the bike, I could make better time. I packed my small backpack with all my essentials including kit that was usually stored in the pouch on the bike frame. I re-entered the beach at 14:00.

The walk along the beach was relatively uneventful. I did meet a few fishing people who were braving the squally conditions. One guy even had a two-metre-long electric powered submarine fishing drone that trolled up and down out past the shore break.

I was feeling good about my progress as I walked up the access path towards the Lock Sport Causeway carpark at 16:58. I stopped halfway up the path to use my Garmin GPS to make a waypoint reference. To my horror, I could not locate it in my backpack. After frantically removing all the items from the backpack, checking carefully I confirmed I had lost it somewhere on the beach. At this point, Joanne came down the path to greet me. The tide was still going out, it was about one hour before last light, I would go back and look for it. Recorded in my waterproof notebook on page eight “3.5km to L.S”. I knew at that point on the beach I had removed a number of items from my backpack, it was likely I had left the handheld Garmin GPS on the sand there. With just the satphone in one hand and a water bottle in the other, I raced back down the beach. When I reached the submarine drone man a good while later, I knew I had passed the point where I had last used the GPS, it had gone to God.

Not happy Jan!

It was now getting dark further searching was fruitless. Bashing my way through the bush behind the beach I eventually found a gravel road. After a bit of back and forwarding I finally met up with Joanne thanks again to some assistance from the drone fisherman. Never found out if he caught anything. I had a few other issues on my mind, so never asked about his exploits. Joanne and I drove up to the township of Lock Sport and spent the night in a cabin that was smaller than the caravan we picked up in Melbourne a few days later.

Jo’s Report

Met Chris at finish point to find him despairing he had left his GPS on the beach. Sadly he went back in search of it so trusty road crew drove back to cabin accommodation to await re-run of pick up. The re-run ended up being at 7pm in the dark, the weary trekker decided to cut through the scrub and leave the beach so putting my 4×4 skills to the test again. With the bush lit up with our powerful spots and bar driving lights, I managed a dozen three point turns and a short trek up a gas line service track to eventually find him back about 7km on the very corrugated Beach Road. A local fisherman driving past informed me where my husband was back further south on Beach Road – he must have thought bloody mad city bloke!! Road crew must have been a bit soft in the head as I took travel mug of hot tea and chocolate – but not very impressed if honest!!!