Bouncer & Mallow’s road trip to Dirk Hartog Island September 2020
Approx 2000kms travelled in 8 days…
So we set off on Sunday the 6th September on our trip to Dirk Hartog.
I was loaded with plenty of fuel, food, beer, movies and books.
Sunday was approx 600ks to Billabong Roadhouse to sleep for the night.
What a great start to the trip, no fuels stops required till then, thanks to my extra tank of 120L, heaps of bugs died on my windscreen and good tunes!
The room was simple and all I needed and dinner was great!
Monday morning I started early as I was headed to Steep Point and what a drive that was.
I have to say I was nervous… I’d heard some average stories about the road conditions….
But it was actually really good! The first couple hundred ks is gravel broke up by about 1k of bitumen before gravel again.
The corregations weren’t as bad as I thought.
Got to the air down spot and went down to 19psi…the road got a but softer, the when they tell you to go to below 20psi I dropped to 15psi.
I got chatting to a really nice fella who worked at the salt mines as I was airing down he was pretty stoked to see me travelling this alone.
Once I was down I soldiered on!
The next section was lots of fun and I was definitely clenching my ass cheeks!
But Mallow took to it like a legend!!
The corregations after the soft sand were shit!
And then….. We made it! Checked in with the ranger, got my allocated spot then headed past to see Steep Point! Wow! What a spot!
It was windy but I couldn’t belive we got there!!
This was definitely a proud solo girl moment!
Took some photos, met some people, had a beer and headed to my camp site to set up.
Now I have to say I had 2 new items with me this trip, my new Darche Eclipse 270 awning and my spare tyre bin bag (thanks mum and dad)!
The awning was super easy to set up and could handle the breeze no issues.
The following morning I was booked on the 8.30am barge to the island so packed up early and was ready to go by… Like 7am haha
So I waited with the others and took my spot in line across.
I’ve never driven my car on or off a barge so that was definitely one for the books!
Met Kieran the skipper who lives on the island, and what a bloke!
Getting off the other side was exciting and he pointed me where to head.
So my first of 5 nights was at Notch Point, followed by 2 nights Turtle Bay, 1 night at Urchin Point and the last night back at the Homestead Bay.
The roads are corregated, rocky and sandy all rolled in and all at once!
I stopped around the point to surf points and saw the bay of sharks 👌🏼😮 which was absolutely amazing!
Then headed to the blowholes as both these are at the bottom of the island and easiest to see first!
The sound the blowholes make was incredible! 😲 (For any of the videos make sure sound is on!)
Notch Point I had all to myself for most the day and it was heaven!!
Tried my hand at fishing here… Nope, nuffin!
Wednesday morning I headed to Turtle Bay, perched on the cliff, a tiny spot for a car and maybe a trailer is the solo spot for the night!
Let’s just say the mozzies were friendly on this island.
Thursday my birthday, I was greeted by a dozen dolphins in the shallows and jumping whales all day!
My mum had given me a little package to open… She got me a beautiful glass whale among other things but how good was her timing in me seeing whales!
This was the first year in 33 that I wasn’t able to speak to my family.. I lost signal Wednesday night and didn’t get it back till sat morning 😭
Went round to Cape Inscription and checked out the lighthouse and the markers for Dirck and W De Vlamingh.
Friday night was at Urchin Point where there was actually a shack there you could use to eat in and sleep in if you wanted.
Lots of people had written some amazing little notes so I added mine to the place.
And my last night was at Homestead for a welcome shower!!!
Now I have missed out a few items in the above information….
I stopped off at the following places along the way around the island:
Quoin Bluff South
Louisa Bay
Sandy Point (swam here)
Withnell Point (had lunch on the beach here)
Dampier Landing (didn’t go on the beach as it was ssuuupppeeerrr soft)
The Block and
Mystery Beach
Now I was advised by 2 people who live on the island to take the coastal Offroad section between Mystery Beach and Quoin Head as I wouldn’t regret it!
So I thought what the hell… Why not! How hard can it be?
Well it wasn’t hard and it was absolutely stunning!
But…. The rocks in one point got the better of me.
Now I’ll tell you right now… I’d never changed a tyre in my life.
Had all the gear and some idea but never done it.
And… It happened… I got a flat passenger front tyre. Well huff… I got out..
Got out the gear and thought how hard can it be… I radioed for help just in case but I was so far off the ‘main road’ noone was around.
So my dearly departed Michael Brockman helped me put my big girl pants on and on a rocky cliff top… I changed my first tyre….
It took me about 1.5hrs I reckon… And it wasn’t fun!
But off I went and was a little more cautious… But still enjoying the drive!
Decided against actually going to see Quoin Head and Charlie’s Harbour Lookout as I was now without a spare tyre.
As I’m heading across the island back towards my last stop…. Guess what….
Another blow out!
SAME BLOODY TYRE I’D JUST CHANGED!
So as you can imagine I threw all my toys out of the pram and was ready to get air lifted home!
So once again, radioed for anyone to help and got all the gear out… And someone answered my call!
A family were staying 5mins away on the beach and came to my rescue! Josh and Amy and their 2 kids. 👌🏼😍
So Josh didn’t know what else we could so really as the whole side was was split… So we tried to find the hole in the one I first swapped out to see if we could plug it… And what would you know we did! Phew… It was holding air and seemed a goer!
So after my second swap in less then 3 hrs I was on the road again, plugged and still without a spare.
Well wasn’t I driving like a nanna.
They stayed with me for a bit till they turned off to their camp. And I limped the 37ks to my camp…. I was stuffed and in need of a beer!!!
And the whole time Mallow was just cruising like nothing happened. She never skipped a beat!
So I ran into Tyler who told me the track was amazing and had joked about ‘how good are ya at changing tyres’ and I gave him a bit of shit about him jinxing me! Ha
But I was at camp, in one piece without a spare but hanging for the shower.
I was lucky enough to have a mate staying on the island and the group welcomed me for dinner on Saturday night, just what I needed! Thanks Garry Silk 👌🏼👍🏼
So Sunday morning comes and I didn’t get much sleep… Stressing a bit over how I was going to get through the road conditions to basically Geraldton to get new tyres….
So I got up super early and headed to where the barge picks us up just so I could take my time… Nanna driving again… Wasn’t too bad… Got the barge across at about 8.45 and put a little more air in the tyres and started the trek home…
I met some amazing people in this trip, blew Alot of people away by doing it solo as a female and I’m so lucky to be able to!
So glad I have the balls to do these sorts of trips and be able to get myself out of trouble if/when required. Thanks to everyone I met for their words of encouragement and their conversation.
So I made it to Billabong roadhouse for some lunch on sunday by about half 1… Called my folks to let them know I was OK!
Booked a room at Intown Apartments Geraldton and planned to get to Tyrepower Geraldton as soon as they opened this morning.
Was first in, they had my tyres and could have me sorted within the hour! Great service thank you!
So I landed back at my place at about 2.30 14th September.
I unpacked… Packed away, put washing on, took the car to get washed and at about 6pm tonight got to sit down and breathe…
Thank you for reading this far!
Bouncer & Mallow Adventures 