In line with the great Australian tradition of long weekends, our four and half day celebration of Australia Day started on Wednesday for the six hour trek north to Port Gregory.
After a number of years of adventures ‘down south’ at Pemberton and Windy Harbour for our nation’s birthday bash it was determined that a new locale was needed and as I cast an eye over the the many fantastic destinations our great state has to offer, Port Gregory, a small town and fishing port in the Mid West region, beckoned.
Twenty people in 11 vehicles made the journey to Port Gregory.
A Perfect Australia Day at a Glorious Beach
The Port Gregory Caravan Park is very close to the beach and we booked out a large part of the powered camping area. Our usual practice is to to do the ‘big 4WD day’ on the first day of any trip while everyone is keen but Matt told me that Thursday was looking great for a ‘day at the beach’ and the remainder of the break less so. It was an easy decision to swap around the planning.
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- Early morning at Port Gregory jetty.
It was hot early. Anywhere on the Port Gregory beach is ideal and we set up a comfortable ‘camp’ for the day only a few hundred metres south of the jetty.
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- Port Gregory beach
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- Port Gregory jetty
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- Our beach camp.
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- Cooling off.
Reef Diving
Matt and Dan went out to the reef to do some diving.
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- Ready to go diving.
When they came back in with some fish others were keen to join them.
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- Back from fishing and diving.
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- Greg with a morwong.
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- Pied Oystercatchers
Dune Sliding Excitement
Scott and Helen went for a walk along the beach and met a group that had set up a water slide from the dunes to the beach. They had run out of petrol for their pump. We swapped petrol for access to the slide!
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- Greg on water slide.
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- Harrison gets air.
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- Harrison half way down.
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- Sebastien on water slide.
Dolphins
On the way to the water slide in Matt’s inflatable we came across a family of dolphins.
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- We came across a family of bottlenose dolphins as we were heading to the water slide.
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- The dolphins stayed around for some time.
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- Inside the reef at Port Gregory.
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- Mother and calf.
Surf Massage
The breaking surf massage was an interesting experience.
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- Water massage point
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- Sebastien’s King Canute impression.
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- Kim and Scott get a ‘breaking surf water massage’.
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- Kim and Scott at wave massager.
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- Kim and Scott at wave massager.
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- Kim and Scott at wave massager.
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- Kim and Scott at wave massager.
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- Kim and Scott at wave massager.
Cocktail Hour
Time to leave the beach and return to the caravan park for our ritual cocktail party.
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- The Aussie bar
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- A good selection.
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- Cocktails kicking in.
Boules is not exactly a traditional Aussie game but it kept the crowd amused between cocktails.
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- Matt’s turn at boules.
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- Close
Yes you can drive from Port Gregory to Kalbarri along the Beach
There is a lot of conjecture, online argument and downright misinformation about whether it is possible to drive from Port Gregory to Kalbarri and avoid private property that extends close to the beach
Horrocks
After a short delay to get everyone in line with the pre-determined schedule we left Port Gregory for the fishing and holiday hamlet of Horrocks.
Thirty kilometres south-east of Port Gregory, Horrocks is popular for swimming, fishing, surfing, diving, and windsurfing .
We aired down before heading north on the beach – not knowing that there is a much quicker way to the dunes.
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- Horrocks Beach
It was evident fairly quickly that the beach was not the way forward. We turned off the beach into Horrocks Dunes, a huge, wide open area of high dunes.
Loud Shirt Day at Horrocks Dunes
Today was designated ‘Loud Shirt Day’ despite Nick’s protestations that is was just so I could feel better about my wardrobe.
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- 4WDriver’s dream.
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- At the high point of Horrocks Dunes.
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- Big wide area in the Horrocks Dunes.
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- The Vitara, Rodeo and Prado line up.
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- High sand hill in Horrocks Dunes.
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- Big wide area in the Horrocks Dunes.
We drove to the end of dunes where there is a great view of the coastline from a high razorback dune.
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- Top of the sand ridge.
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- Loud shirt day.
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- High ridge dune north of Horrocks.
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- Kim and Jeff on the point of the dune.
Horrocks Beach
It was then back to the beach.
I got stuck on the beach and Matt got stuck snatching me out. We had to use the MaxTrax to extricate Matt and then added in an extra snatch strap to get me mobile again.
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- Bogged Rodeo ready to be snatched.
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- Matt hooking up snatch strap.
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- F250 bogged.
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- F250 ready to snatch again.
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- Bogged Rodeo ready to be snatched.
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- The Rodeo is back on firmer sand.
We then turned off that part of the beach and found the track that lead to the swimming beach.
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- North of Horrocks.
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- Lunch spot
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- Carrie and Tessa.
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- Petrels on the beach north of Horrocks.
After lunch we returned to the Horrocks Dunes and Matt found a high steep dune to tackle.
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- Matt takes the Effy down the high steep dune.
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- Matt needed to pour on the power to get up the slope.
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- Greg rolled two tyres off their rims.
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- Watching Greg change two wheels was good spectator sport.
Greg negotiated the dune easily but at the bottom he rolled the left tyres of their rims. Fortunately there was no damage done to the rubber. Once we got Greg mobile is was time to head back to the Caravan Park at Port Gregory.
Lynton Convict Hiring Depot
The next morning we packed up in pouring rain and headed home, stopping at the Lynton Convict Hiring Depot ruins along the way.
There’s enough attractions, enough dunes, enough challenges to warrant another trip to Port Gregory (or perhaps Lucky Bay) for Australia Day in 2018.
© Kim Epton 2017-2024
1052 words, 55 photographs, 8 videos.
Photographs/Videos
Micaela Anderson
Tania Hall
Nick Crane
Dan Wales
Helen Overstone
Kim Epton
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