The Surf hits Straddie

Me and my mates went camping on North Stradbroke Island in November of last year. North Stradbroke (or Straddie as it is affectionately known as) is a big sand island just east of Brisbane and Moreton Bay.

We only took two four-wheel drives on the trip: my Toyota Hilux Surf and a mate's Land Rover Defender. There was seven of us on the trip (if you include Mark and Danielle's dog), so with gear it was pretty cosy.

We camped at some random spot about halfway down the island on the eastern side. We just drove our trucks over the dunes and camped under some trees. It was really nice and quiet, and we barely saw a single other person anywhere near our camping spot.

We stayed there two nights. We spent the second day driving around the various lakes on the island and going for swims. Tough life, hey?

When it got really interesting, however, was on the way back on the third day. We had booked the ferry back for about 5pm and had decided to start heading back in the morning so that we could catch another swim or whatever on the way back.

I noticed that the sand was really hard to get through soon after we set off on the way back. It was really soft, even on the wet sand, and both trucks had to move really slowly through it. I couldn't even get past second gear.

When we got a couple of k's away from the exit off the beach, suddenly my truck was enveloped in a big cloud of steam. My girlfriend Sharon was so startled that she had the door open ready to jump out before I had managed to stop!

I got out and checked it out and one of my radiator hoses had busted and there was no water left in the radiator. And no, I wasn't carrying spare hoses. (quiet, mocking voices!) Stuck on the beach, with the tide coming in and about 2 hours until high tide!

We ended up having to leave my truck (which was a big ask for me) parked up as far as we could in dunes. We packed into the Land Rover, crawled along the rest of the beach and drove back to the main town on the island. It was also a Sunday, so there was nothing really open. Checked in at one store that was open - no hoses. But you can call the RACQ guy (automotive club that runs a mobile repair service) that works on the island... turns out he had gone on holiday the day before. I couldn't believe it. The best the shop guy could do for us is to give me this rubbery tabe that I could try to bind up the connection with.

Anyway, we headed back to the truck (which was still there, thankfully) and did our best to tape up the connection. Didn't even come close to working though, and all the water we put in just leaked straight out again. I had to just drive it for about a minute at a time and then stop until it cooled down, all the way back to the exit off the beach.

Once we got off the beach, it got even more interesting because then I had to get towed by the Land Rover along the roads back to the main town, where the ferry departs from. We didn't even have a proper tow rope, all we had was a snatch strap, which is uncomfortably short when you are going up and down sizeable hills. I didn't even have any brakes because my car wasn't running, so I had to use a combination of hand brake and clutch to stop myself from crashing in to the Land Rover on the way down the hills! Anyway, it was a quite a hairy experience.

Once we got on to the ferry (a later one, we missed the one at 5pm) and got back to the mainland I managed to get my friend's dad to come and help me out. He had the perfect size hose and hose clamps in his car - fixed it in about 15 minutes! Saved me a tow which would have cost between $100 and $200.

Needless to say, I have hoses and hose clamps sitting in my Surf all the time now. :)