BOGGED below RISING TIDE on 400KM long Beach Run + Swimming with wild dolphins!

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The tide is coming up so high.
Stop, stop, stop!
How are we going to do this?
We are taking on South Australia's most underrated coastal road trip.
What are we doing?
What's going on here?
One of the more surprising days I have had.
The world famous cat man.
Have you ever eaten cat?
No?
If we can pull this off,
this road trip will make the Great Ocean Road look like the Pacific Highway.
Even we can get it horribly wrong.
No, no, no, not there, not there.
This is no good.
The second leg of our Great South Australian adventure continues here,
in a little farm camp on the north-western end of Kangaroo Island.
The first part of our adventure saw us moving from the York Peninsula
all the way to Kangaroo Island to catch Marron
in the only place outside of WA it's known to be possible.
Put him in the Marron bag.
Oh, big dog.
For the record, for the record.
Big dog.
With part one of our mission achieved,
we find ourselves smack bang in one of Australia's most unique islands.
So, we've given ourselves a goal.
We've got a couple of days to achieve what we reckon
might just be Australia's most underrated coastal road trips.
From KI, we're going to try and make a trip all the way to Beachport,
staying on the sand and, of course, doing it the off-grid way.
I reckon if we can pull this off, I dare say,
this road trip will make the Great Ocean Road look like the Pacific Highway.
How good is this?
We have got the entire day to explore Kangaroo Island.
Now, I've got a mate that lives on the island
and he's given us a backtrack down through here and out through the forest
that we can take in order to get to some of the hidden gems on KI.
From what I've read, this place is sensational.
Let's stick to the old off-grid mentality,
leaving the blacktop behind.
Get off-road, see the sights and there is plenty to do.
Starting with a scratchy little track straight in here, mate.
I'll be the cat's whiskers.
If I fit, you'll fit.
Let's do it.
This is where the koalas will hang out.
Good vibes in here. I reckon we might see one today.
Apparently, they live in trees. I don't know much about koalas.
While we might be trying to look up the treetops,
it doesn't last long because the track we have ahead is pretty tricky
with plenty of fallen trees to manage.
It's not for nothing, though,
because we've been promised one of the most amazing beaches
at the end of this track.
But ahead, things are looking a little full on.
It's time for the big Y62 to get a workout.
This looks a bit spicy.
She's sort of washed out.
Careful.
There's a bit of a washout you're going to get over there.
Oh, that's nasty.
We're just hitting the base of the bar down here.
Not quite enough clearance, so I'm just going to build her up a bit
using some of these available rocks,
which I reckon the rocks are here for that very reason.
So what you want to try and do here is just lift those wheels up
just to give that bar a bit of clearance so he can scoot his way up.
Let's give that a go.
Real slow.
You get out of my way before I run you over.
I reckon you're going to get hung up here.
Oh, that's track building 101.
It's virtually a highway.
Track is open.
The track is open, I declare it open.
It's been a while since I've flexed those muscles,
but with the washout conquered, we're into clean air
and continue pushing north along the northern coast of Kai.
Not long down the road, we find Emu Bay.
And, well, I don't know what I was expecting,
but this has far surpassed it.
Will you have a go at that?
Wow, wow, wow.
What a stunning bloody beach to be able to drive on.
Mate, it's bloody incredible, and there's two other cars on here.
I reckon we go for a bit of a drive.
Yeah, buddy, send it, mate. Let's do a big lap.
That water is crystal clear.
Not only is it stunning,
but the promise of dolphins on the shore has become a reality.
We've just spotted the dolphins.
Oh, there's a lot of them.
Yeah.
Sick.
Oh, here comes...
Come on, Uncle Chris. Come on!
Here comes a special boat...
Our sicknesses, please. Have a look at it, will you?
Just soak it up.
Two people down there, nobody as far as the eye can see.
The rest of Australia is over that way.
Kangaroo Island.
And sure enough, Steph and Harley managed to get right out
and swim next to the pod of dolphins.
Now, if that's not living the bloody dream, I don't know what is.
One of the coolest things I've ever experienced.
This takes the cake, Harley.
That is it.
But, like, we've been to some pretty pristine beaches,
so I'm in crystal clear blue turquoise water with white sands,
but K.I., you're number one for me.
That was epic.
And this is why we do it, so we can have amazing moments like this.
Kangaroo Island is well known for its unique biodiversity,
and whilst a lot of the island is agricultural,
the locals have worked hard to maintain its natural habitats,
including dolphins, kangaroos,
and one of Australia's most famous animals, the old koala.
I don't know why I'm speaking with a low tone.
I just feel like it's the thing to do.
We got word on the grapevine that on the entire K.I. Island,
this is the place to come and find a koala.
Probably not very exciting for most of you,
but for me, I never get to see koalas.
We pop down here, the cars are just there,
I've walked 10 metres, have a go at old mate.
Old mate's having a nap.
Look at the nose on him.
I've slept in some dubious places in my time,
but that, if he has one wrong move, a bad dream, an itch, a cramp,
it's all over.
He's down here.
Well, there's only one thing left to do.
Get a selfie with a koala.
We don't get these furry little buggers on the west coast,
so for me to see one in the wild is really cool.
Whilst K.I. is famous for its native wildlife,
there's another famous feature of this island,
and something we just couldn't miss the opportunity to go and check out.
He's been a local on K.I. for a long time,
and goes by the name Barry,
or, as he is better known for reasons you're about to find out,
Catman.
Barry, or, well, the Catman,
describes himself as a hands-on environmentalist,
and has been culling feral cats
that have been threatening the native fauna on K.I. since 1996.
To help fund the resources needed to do this,
Barry has taken to experimenting with selling cat skins
for a variety of different uses.
Well, folks, there's rarely a day on Off Grid that I'm not surprised,
but today, one of the more surprising days I have had.
This is Barry, a.k.a...
Catman.
..the world-famous Catman.
Been on TV across the UK, newspapers.
To date, he has ridded the world
of 1,517 cats.
With help from other people.
He's a bit modest, this man.
He's actually done a heck of a lot of good
for the little island of Kangaroo Island out here,
getting rid of feral cats.
There are things in here, folks, that you will need to see to believe.
It's actually quite nice.
He's all right, nothing wrong with him.
Yeah, I keep a record of every cat I catch.
Black, female.
1,517 cats so far.
Have you ever eaten cat?
No.
No?
Dunny roll holder!
Of course it is.
These are all my favourites.
That's Splat.
That's what they call his gum.
This is the one with no name.
It's the softest.
Oh, three legs.
I was skinning him.
That's right.
There's no legs.
That's where the other leg got to.
But it was never there.
Right.
Oh, there's Longshot.
This is Roadie.
That's Bob.
Yep.
This is one-eyed.
He was signed by a band called One-Eyed Cats.
That was in the centre pages of Reader's Digest.
Reader's Digest.
Centre pages.
Yep.
I beat the Mythbusters.
And then we have the cat curtain.
Oh, that is fantastic.
That's called Curiosity or Birds Revenge.
Yeah, that's Curiosity killed the cat.
That is the stuff of...
I'll remember that for a long time.
In fact, if anyone has been to the museum, the Mona Museum,
you'll know what I'm referring to.
Now, look, whether you agree with Barry's methods or not,
it's no lie to say that managing the feral cat problem on KI
has been integral in keeping the unique biodiversity thriving.
A key to what makes this place so special.
If you're ever in the area and fancy yourself a cat stubby,
give Catman a visit.
Have you got a cat copy back there?
Meow.
Well, yep, seen everything now.
I could spend literally a month on this island
checking out the beaches and chilling,
but I've got a schedule, unfortunately,
and that involves a 4.30pm ferry.
We've got a hightailer, kids.
Oh, but I would love to stay here and swim with dolphins forever.
This has been magnificent.
I learnt one thing, though, from KI.
There is definitely more than one way to skin a cat.
Let's get on a ferry and get to the Coorong.
Yeah, that's it, mate. Let's get over to the Coorong.
This one is now a new bucket list item of mine,
being a recently adapted South Australian,
so I'm keen to get over there.
Let's get this ferry and get it done.
We could spend another month exploring this place,
and heck, we probably will one day,
but we are already a day into our four-day mission
to see if we can uncover the most underrated coastal road trip in Oz.
Of course, we're missing one thing,
and that's the beloved Mavericks.
KI was truly an incredible experience,
but I don't know how much longer I want to be without the vans.
You know what they say.
Once you go van life, you never go back.
It's true.
Right-o, plan for the day.
There she is right there, Kangaroo Island.
Fond memories, always will have.
It's one of those places I'm adding to the I'm coming back list,
Kangaroo Island.
We're camped, or strewed, it's hard to say,
but just up in here at the moment,
and we're going to make a move today,
up around and down, crossing over.
We've actually got to do a saltwater crossing.
A little bit sketchy. I'm a little bit ego about that,
to get us into the Coorong.
From there, down here to Robe.
If you've never been to Robe,
it has a beach to the north that is absolutely stunning.
You can drive on it, we might even do so.
And then the most iconic four-wheel drive beach run in Australia,
in my humble opinion, everyone knows about it,
Robe to Beachport.
What a trip. Stuff dreams are made of.
In any one of those sections, we're doing them all.
Right-o, that's another camp done and dusted.
Just about to head off.
Before we do, check out the new roller roof rack right here.
What I love about this is the modular design,
basically, that's a big way of saying,
you can customise it to your needs.
Shovel on one side, got a light bar there,
gas bottle had to come up here, I don't want this in the canopy,
so that's a no-brainer. Solar panel over to the left,
that leaves all this space here for firewood,
or if I didn't have a rooftop tent,
would perfectly fit a swag there.
So, I've customised the roof rack
to exactly how I need it.
You might put the solar panel somewhere else,
your shovel over here,
you might not have a gas bottle,
you might have some recovery board somewhere,
but basically, you can customise your roof rack
to exactly how you need it.
For me, out bush, it's just another
bit of kit that's just so damn handy.
And, solid as a rock.
The Coorong is the next leg of this trip
and lies about 100 or so clicks
south of last night's camp.
The Coorong is a long stretch of sand
that runs south-east along the coast
and it's unique for its
stretching lagoon that separates it
from the ocean by some pretty
almighty sand dunes.
Now, we've got our eyes
set on, apparently,
an absolutely spectacular
campsite that lies in
between the lagoon and the ocean
at the foothills of the dunes,
which means we're going to have to find a way to cross
this body of water.
She's a bit tight!
This is where good mirrors
pay for themselves in half an hour.
Clear views, I've gotten used
to them now and I could not do
this type of driving without that
rear vision that I've got from these clear views.
It just makes my job in here so much easier.
And remind me of my ears.
Right out there. Get them out there.
Two tips I'll give you that I've sort of
learnt myself over the last couple of years.
One, look up more than you normally would
because, especially
with Steph and Harley, their van's a lot
higher than their vehicle. Second tip I can give you
is to take all of your corners
a lot wider than
you ordinarily would. What that does is it
gives you an arc for your van to follow.
If you don't, if you take the corner as you would
normally, nice and sharp, your van
will come inside the vehicle and take
the corner even sharper. So if you've got
objects on the inside of the corner,
your van will clip them on the way around. That's how
you'll do damage to your van.
We've got a little tunnel of love here, mate.
If you can get through here without touching a branch,
I'll buy you a carton of beer.
Look, I'm not making bets
the other way though.
Yeah, that's tight.
You might not, I just knocked most of them out of the way.
Yeah, I'm not feeling as confident.
Look, almost. Almost got through, but I think
I might have just got one on the way out.
I think we just called that one even.
Lucky they build those Mavericks tough.
Folks, it may not look like it,
but I promise we are edging
ever closer to the coast.
But just as we make it out of the scrub,
there's one more, quite major
challenge that confronts us.
Crikey, Moses.
I think we're
in the White Simpson Desert.
According to my research, there's supposed to be
an ocean here.
What is going on here?
Look at that.
Now you said
there was a crossing.
What are we crossing?
We're crossing over the Coorong.
We got rid of the water.
This is not what I was expecting. This is awesome.
The fact of the matter is you can only do this crossing
at certain times of the year and when the
tides commit, even at those times of the year.
I think
based on what I can see here,
we have absolutely nailed it.
Look at that. Look at it.
It's the Coorong.
Welcome to the Coorong.
Just get out there and
sniff that salty
sea air.
I'm like a dog.
Like a dog in the back of a ute.
Once you get across
the crossing, we've got a campsite on the other side,
which I think, we'll see how we feel.
We might leave the vans there, but the barrier for us
of course are these massive sand dunes through here
which you'd just be silly to try and take a caravan through.
You wouldn't get a caravan through them.
So we might drop the vans off on this side here,
make camp for the night,
jump up over the dunes, go for a drive on the beach,
come on back, marin pasta.
Oh my lord.
How stunning.
With the miniature desert safely crossed,
we're into dune territory and these are
not mucking around.
Well, this is a bit
bloody lovely. Sand dunes
in the back. With a perfect little spot
located to leave the vans for base camp,
we unhitch and go see what all the fuss
is about. Righto, check this out. I just timed
myself from jumping out of the Y62
in camp here to fully unhitching
the van. I'm off. A minute
and ten seconds. The van is now
off. We're going to go for a bit of an explore. You know, we're here
so often. Don't want to get
a van. You can't go anywhere. You're not going to see Australia in a van.
You can't drive anywhere. You've got to stay
in caravan parks. Have a look at
where we are. Have a look at where we've been.
Dinner tonight, marin
pasta because we went across to Kangaroo
Island. Left the vans on one side, went across the other.
Saw the whole lot. You get back tonight,
long hot shower, king size
bed. I've got a diesel heater in this
bad boy if it's chilly tomorrow morning.
Vans don't stop you
going places. They facilitate
you going places. And right
now, I'm going up there.
Want to come? You can see ahead
why we left the vans at base camp.
These dunes are going to be a challenge just for the rigs
themselves, let alone towing the vans.
Nah.
No, he has not.
I've
got to be cocky with the old PSIs
of the tyres, didn't I? Yeah, I remember
somebody just mentioning that. Ah, she
be right. I'll be right. 25 will do.
I've completely
underestimated just how soft this sand is
and the dune is steep.
And well, I may still have
too much air in my tyres.
There's nothing more embarrassing than the reverse
of shame after you've just said
I'm alright. I don't
need to put my tyres down to 15.
It's like the most embarrassing
reverse you'll ever do. Especially when you've
got a couple of peanuts in the D-Max
back here just laughing at you.
Saying, can they go first?
I'll show them. Snug.
Snug. Okay, I hope you
appreciate what I'm doing right now because I'm putting on a clinic.
And the clinic is based around
the difference that tyre pressures will
make. So what I've done here, folks, is I've shown you
what happens when you get your tyre pressures wrong
on purpose, of course. I've done it on purpose for your
own sake. And now what I'm going to do is I'm going to show you
the big difference that tyre pressures make when you get to the
right pressure. Okay, so it's all for you guys.
Very gracious of you, my
friends. My only advice
would be just probably don't be scared of it this time,
mate. Feel free to use that right foot.
Actually, my secret weapon, I didn't dial
in the throttle controller, so
I'm going to go from adaptive
to ultimate 7.
Let's give it another go. I'm nervous. You've got this,
Uncle Gaz. I believe in you.
See that difference? Instantly off the
line there. We got a bit more
punch. With everything dialed in properly
this time, the Y62 makes
light work of the gene.
Sometimes you've got to learn the hard way.
Since you're at the top there, I'd just like to
take this opportunity just to offer my
sincerest apologies for all banter.
Now that it's my turn to drive
up, I hope you'll forgive me.
No, I believe it's game on.
Righto,
let's see if the kids can do this first time
and show me up.
That is a bit rough.
He's done it!
First go, baby, first
go. With the fun out of the way,
we get atop the dunes and
the view is truly
breathtaking. What does
this remind you of? This reminds
me of that time it took me 14
goes to get up that sandy hill
on our way to Cow Cup in WA.
The Yeager Up sand dunes, exactly.
Looks very, very similar
indeed. It also looks very similar
to Fowler's Bay.
Took the words right out of our mouth.
Either way, these sand dunes
are deluxe. They're so lush
to drive on. This is glorious.
And I
will
always
love you.
Is that gas? Yeah.
Always entertaining, that man.
According to the GPS,
once we take a right-hander
just here, we should have the
entire Southern Ocean
at our disposal. It's just on that
nice light in the afternoon
too. Things are starting to light up.
Ah, there it is.
This is nice.
Looky that, Mama.
Looky that. Stunning.
And just like that, we get the rigs
onto this wild southern coast.
Big fact about this big
beach. Stretches
for 194
kilometres. Why is that important?
Well, at 194
kilometres, it makes it
Australia's longest
beach. That's right.
I'm currently on Australia's
longest beach. If you were to drive it from
one end all the way to the other, it'd be nearly
400 kilometres
of beach. I haven't got the fuel
for that. I physically can't do it. Definitely
a cool thing to do. Drive along
the longest beach in Australia.
But with the southerly swell a bit
too wild for us to dip our toes, and
the sun slowly fading, I reckon it's
about time we get back to base camp.
To have the vans on
grass with a June backdrop like
that, well, we are being treated
tonight. I tell you what,
South Australia does not
disappoint.
To make things even
better, tonight we're cooking up these
delicious K.I. Marron in what
is quickly becoming an off-grid
specialty.
Just taking five to just suck it
all in. Look at that view.
A surprise
camp. We were told there was a
camp over here, but you know, you never really pin your
hopes on it that much. Have a look at
that. We're the only ones here. Again,
yet again, we're the only ones here. Now,
I'm always that bloke that's giving
you folk at home bucket list ideas
from my travels, but
it's been refreshing for me to be able to tick off
a few of my own. It's
late February right now, well and
truly out of Marron season, and
I'm about to have a feed of Marron pasta, my favourite
food in the entire world, in
South Australia. For me, that is a
huge bucket list item ticked off.
I've now visited the Coorong, also
another bucket list item ticked off,
but the biggest one of all folks,
this right here
is episode two of season
three of
Off Grid. Who would have thought?
It's been a dream of mine for so long
to try and make it work
that somehow, travelling around
Australia, showing all of you the stuff
that I froth on, can work.
The biggest year we have ever
put together so far.
Bucket list items!
Tick them off one by one.
They might be little tiny ones, they might
be huge ones, but they all
bloody matter. Whatever you're doing right
now, make sure you're working towards
putting a tick in a box on your next
bucket list item. And for me,
just going down there and grabbing a beer.
I told you, they can be little small
ones. I reckon you
should all have one menu,
one menu item, one recipe
that you do really well. Now look, I'm still working on
mine, but I think I've got it pretty much perfected,
and that is the old humble Marron pasta.
I was going to do something radically different tonight, and I thought, no,
don't change perfection.
That's why I don't change what I look like too much.
Crickets are chirping.
So tonight we're going to have
Marron pasta, caught on Kangaroo
Island in late February
in South Australia. Totally foreign to
me, because I know that it'll come out
really nice. Now, Steph, can you do me
a favour, mate? I am hopeless
at cooking pasta. I either undercook it or
overcook it, but you're bloody brilliant. Can I do my thing, mate?
What's your thing? I want to open it
with a bang. Okay, go for it.
I love doing that.
Look at that! So you know what I'm
doing here. We've done it so many times before.
Just a bit of onion. Right, I'm also going to add just a
bit of bacon in here. We've got some red chilli,
and we've got some jalepenos.
So we'll chuck those in now and just cook those off
in there so that everyone has to have the same
heat ratio. We're going to
get that all down. I'm going to chop up me mazza,
add that, add the pasta, some capers,
garlic, munja munja.
Right, we have the final ingredients
required for Gazza's
Mazza! Yes! Pasta!
Can I try some of that? Yeah, it's a bit
um, it's got a bit gluggy.
Mmm, no, that's good.
Try to stick it to the
thing that's done. Let's see if it sticks.
Yeah, that's done!
That is done! We'll claim that
as done. Yeah, we'll get that tomorrow.
Chuck that down there, mate, because I'm going to add that in individually,
in individual bits. Okay.
For garnish.
Bring her in! Right.
Mate, I'm here to contribute too.
Ooh, I think I can do one,
I think I can do one thing per bowl.
Mmm.
Gazza's Mazza's. Amazing!
As I said,
just learn one
recipe well. Mate, tick,
tick that off your bucket list. I think I can. You've done that.
That is superb. I'm pretty sure the only recipe
you have is pasta.
Pasta, bolognese,
marin pasta. It's true, you can't really go.
You nail each one of them, and it's delicious.
Like kids in a candy shop.
What a way to see out a brilliant day.
And tomorrow, we continue
our coastal road trip south to one
of South Australia's most iconic
beach runs.
It is that time of year again, guys. Winter is
fast approaching, and Snatch have a
whole new range of winter jackets
to keep you nice and toasty.
Like his and hers puffer
jackets. Or this raincoat,
which packs up ridiculously small into this
little bag, perfect to keep in
every 4WD glovebox.
And this nifty 3-in-1 jacket, which is
a bit of a combo of both.
It's not only a super warm jacket, but
it's also waterproof, and check this out.
You can zip out the puffer jacket.
How cool is that? So check out Snatch's
new winter range at 4WD247.com
and get yourself nice and warm
for some winter camping.
What a cracking spot. I tell you what, it looked even
better as the sun was rising this morning.
Uncle Gaz is out there with his morning coffee,
staring at the sand dunes, and we
thought we would cook up a delicious
little omelette for the crew this morning
right here in the van. How are we looking on?
Today marks
day 3 on our road trip via
the coast, and so far we have
not been disappointed.
Whilst the Coorong has so much more to explore,
we've got to push on south to our
next destination, and arguably
one of the best of the lot. The road
to Beachport Beach Run.
Just getting packed up.
The old camera crew are packed as well. You know, something
we don't show often is just
how much gear the camera crew take, and
they are subject to the letter
of the law just like anyone else.
And that's why we've got the Pedders load
rider system in the D-MAX. It's mainly
because we get different
camera crew using the same vehicle.
The different crew takes different
gear, so there's never a constant load
in this vehicle. It always fluctuates.
So whoever's driving the vehicle
can look down at the load rider
system and just make sure at all times
once they're fully loaded that they are
under GVM. Because
as we all know, if you're over GVM, something
happens, well, kiss your insurance
goodbye. These guys,
I tell you what, it is like travelling
with some sort of ring tail circus.
There's all sorts of things that come out of here.
I don't even know what they do. I've never even seen them use those.
I don't even know what they are.
Well I've got to say, I'm a little envious
that you two can just hop down to the Coorong
any time you like. We are
pretty lucky where we are. We've seen some pretty
special sights just outside our back
door. You know, listen, what do you reckon for a bit
of beach driving? A little bit of, maybe
the most iconic, maybe the most famous
beach run in Australia. Robe to
Beachboard. Love it. Lead the way, mate.
It's been
just so refreshing for me, doing the last
year and a half, two years of off-grid
and seeing areas
that are completely new to me that have
blown my mind. I kind of got a little bit
concerned, I guess is the best way to put it,
that maybe I'd seen a great
deal of Australia. Turns out, I'm an idiot.
Absolute idiot. There's
a huge amount of Australia
I'm yet to see, which has just been like a breath of
fresh air. Coorong as an example.
Kangaroo Island is another classic example.
Places that I definitely want to
come back to. And I reckon there'd
be hundreds and hundreds more.
So I'm going to put the question out to you folks.
Let me know, where do you reckon I'd be blown
away with next? You know me, you know what I'm into.
Tough tracks, maybe not so much these
days, I've kind of been there, done that. Big sweeping
views, super remote,
maybe a little bit of fishing. Your backyard.
Where can I come and say hello
to next? Australia, we
are so bloody lucky
to have this. So folks, in the comments down below,
let me know. I might come and
say g'day at your local watering hole.
Yosh out.
As we say goodbye to the Coorong, we run
another hundred or so k south until
we reach our grand finale for this
epic coastal road trip.
If you've done the Great
Ocean Road, then this run is going to blow your
socks off. Of course, these
beaches are notorious for their softer sand
and rocky dunes, so with the vans at
Base Camp, we crack on. Road to
Beachport. Perhaps the most iconic
beach run in Australia. Just coming
up over a sand dune and the view
is bloody stunning. Oh my
lord. I reckon there's something so magical
about being on a beach when it's a bit moody
like this. Luckily we got all
our swimming out of our system on KI
because with this weather coming, the conditions
have really turned against us.
And that little bit of rain is making this sand
tricky to navigate.
This track consists of lots of little
beaches, all joined by sand dunes.
You've got to navigate your way through to get
to the next beach. Unlike most
dunes though, these ones contain
rocky climbs and descents
that you would otherwise think to find in a place like
the Glasshouse Mountains.
As we get further along,
the sand gets softer.
And in a moment of
lapse to judgement, our cameraman has
driven towards the water to set up for a
shot. And all of a sudden,
he runs into some major trouble.
Oh, wouldn't be going that close to the ocean. That's soft
as... Oh no, no, no!
Stop, stop, stop, stop! Oh
no! Camera car's on its chassis.
Camera car is on its chassis.
Of course, when it rains
it pours and we must have hit a very
soft spot because as Steph and Harley
go to get in front for a tow, their
D-Max goes straight down
right next to the camera car. This is no good.
This is... Alright, let's see if we can't
get him out of here before that tide comes in.
Luckily I've kept the Y62 on the highline
so we've got a decent anchor point.
It's actually
no one's fault. What's happened is the camera car's come down
here because the beach is summer now and the
beaches have been super hard all the way along.
Camera car's gone down
and Steph and Harley have done the exact right thing.
Come around to try and give him a bit of a snatch or even just
help him out on the winch.
And they've gone down...
I saw it happen. They came around him and
they just went straight down in this soft
sand. They've both done the right thing
though and neither one of them has spun the tyres
too much which means
if I act as a bit of a...
There's nothing to winch off except me so I might run
up here because if I come down
and get stuck we are in a real pickle. We'll get a
winch out and a winch extension strap. Let's get him out of there.
That's actually
a lot more serious than I thought.
From where I'm sitting here I couldn't see
just how bad the white D-Max
is on the driver's side though. Way
down. And they're
five
metres from the water. I don't want to put this
vehicle in peril because then we've got nothing to winch off.
That's a perfect direct pull
and hopefully I'm big and heavy enough
to act as an anchor point. If not
we're in strife here.
The tide is coming up so high.
I don't know how much longer we have.
Just using a extension strap
here, winch extension strap, just to make sure we've
got plenty of room. Can I have a fracko more?
Beautiful!
Righto mate, I'm in park, foot on the brake.
Go for it. Let the winch try and pull you out of there.
See if it'll just pop you up. Yeah, copy.
Alright, I'm ready to go.
It's a good thing I've been here before and it really
does pay to make sure you've got a good winch
like the rumbers here to get out of
sticky situations just like this.
Yeah, we've got her.
Woo! Woohoo!
Lovely. That is out. I'm back
up on hard track. Let's get the camera car
out now because that water is coming up
very close. Jeez, that makes me edgy.
I'm ready when you are, Stephanie.
Alright, let's do it.
Keep going.
Keep going. Don't drive.
No drive. Just the winch.
She's following me backwards.
Come on, come on. We got this.
Give it a bit of drive.
Yeah, that's
the go. Let the winch do the work, mate.
See if you can drive from there.
Yeah, you're good. Lovely, mate.
Lovely. Woohoo!
Love your work.
I tell you what, I reckon if we hung around
for another 15 minutes,
that water would probably fill that hole up
pretty quickly. Yeah, we'd be swimming.
Now, with that out of the way,
we haven't got far to go. Alright, can we finish
this up? Go hook up the vans. I've got
a bit of an idea. Take the kids back down
onto a beach. It's a little bit
more agreeable for the vans than this one
right here. Can you imagine having the vans on down here?
That's why you unhook them and do this.
That's what it's all about.
It is what it is all about. Frothing! Come on,
let's get out of here. Now look, it's not the way
I envisaged our epic road trip to end,
but you've got the heart pumping
and everyone's out safely. So all
in all, let's call it a good bit of fun.
Well, I'll happily
say that this has got to be one of the
best coastal road trip runs
from KI all the way to
well, nearly to Beachport
with some of the most iconic beach driving
I've ever done. And a
really special way to end this one that
I'm keen to share with you guys.
Yeah, this will be perfect right here.
So
last year I lost my
dog. She passed away and
she was my best mate. Went everywhere
with me. Jumped in the Forby,
in all my Forbys. In fact, I've still got hair
as any dog owner will know
through every single four-wheel drive that I own.
And when she went,
as dogs do,
completely broke me. I was
down for days.
But you've got to pick yourself back up, right?
So this year I've decided
she's coming around Australia with me.
So I've grabbed an old film canister, that's right.
I'm old enough that once upon a time I actually shot
on film. And I
popped a few of her ashes in a film
canister. She used to love beaches, man.
She would run up and down on
the beach, barking in the waves.
She loved beaches. So whenever I get to a spot
that I reckon Saffron would have loved,
I'm just going to take a little bit of her ashes
and I'm just going to
sprinkle them on the beach. Now, the funny thing here
is, this is a national park.
Dogs aren't allowed in national parks and I reckon
she would have loved that. So
Saff, this is for you, mate.
Why don't you
go for a run on the beach?
And I'm going to do that
on every nice beach I come to around
Australia.
Well there you have it. A coastal road trip for the ages
and one I will definitely be back to do
all over again.
For us, I think the pub has a stool
with my name on it. But for you
folks, well, it won't be long
before we are back for another adventure
of Off Grid.
