VENTURER HIGHWAY
On WA’s Coral Coast, 4WD-ers look and learn
When you’re poised to steer your four-wheel drive on to a sharpish, rocky descent — one you’ve never seen before — it’s handy to have a trusted guide for the way down. Enter David Wilson, whose reassuring voice comes over the two-way: “Engage four-wheel drive low-range, first gear, turn wide then tight right around the outcrop. Then aim for me.”
At a crawl, we do just that, stop short of running over the instructor’s toes then sweep away as he directs us off the hill and on to the next climb.
The process is repeated on successive days of the Isuzu I-Venture Club tour of WA’s Coral Coast, in addition to checking the historical sights, savouring the natural beauty, slamming up dunes and splashing through mud.
The itinerary takes us from Geraldton to Kalbarri, via the poignant HMAS Sydney memorial, the enigmatic Lynton Convict Depot and the lurid pink and salty Hutt Lagoon at Port Gregory.
Most owners of the MU-X and D-Max vehicles on the tour had done a one-day Isuzu training course at Lancelin, north of Perth, and whetted their appetites for the three-day event.
Generally there are a dozen vehicles on the one-dayers and our touring convoy comes to 15 — a figure that Wilson, ever upbeat, describes as “manageable”.
As terrain and varying driver pace put about a kilometre between the lead truck and the tailend Charlie, we relay directions when there is line-of-sight for the radio. There is plenty of banter and sharing of local information over the airwaves.
Wilson rates the camaraderie as an equal benefit to the enhanced skills of the crew. Beyond the common trait of Isuzu ownership, he reckons all come away with greater confidence and understanding of what the vehicles can do and how to exploit it safely.
We also get to practise, or at least observe, recovery routines as trucks driven too timidly lose momentum and stick in the ruts on a dune exercise. Wilson deliberately bogs the lead truck in a soft creek bed for a battle of leading brand recovery tracks.
After massive sprays of sand, plenty of shovelling and judicious throttle work, there
are cheers as the diminutive “volunteer” driver liberates the ute.
There is also virtually hands-on instruction as Wilson reaches through the window to turn a steering wheel to the precise angle to avoid creasing bodywork.
No one needs to be shy about their capabilities or limitations at the wheel, not that anyone in the convoy seems over-confident.
Wilson (below, centre) heads off looming errors with rapid-fire chat, frequent instructions to halt and on-the-spot inventiveness, the sort that comes from 26 years in the business.
The Kalbarri leg takes us out via expanses of wattle and wildflowers to the national park and the stupendous Nature’s Window rock formation above the Murchison River gorge.
Next comes the varied terrain of Murchison House station, which at 140,000 hectares spills over the horizon in every direction.
From the homestead, the tracks in turn are soft sand and bumpy limestone. We spear through the former as what Wilson calls “the veg” — chiefly wattle — slaps at mirrors and puts pinstripe marks down the flanks.
On the limestone, we tap on and off the throttle to creep over the intrusive rocks, noting the path of the preceding truck.
Plenty of go-pedal brings us to the windy crest of a massive dune, where we pause for a 360-degree view of the station, the river below and the Indian Ocean.
Back down from the heights, we tackle the tracks with growing confidence, then get all technical crossing a gully — it had washed out in the days since the recce on the route.
There is a final nip-and-tuck, full-throttle climb through the sand, where wind has covered the previous track. There is just enough moisture below the surface to give deflated tyres sufficient bite.
We head for Geraldton, weary but wiser.
visiting Hamelin Pool, located about one hour from Monkey Mia on the Shark Bay World Heritage Drive.
Upon first glance, the stromatolites are not much to look at, akin to large cauliflowers carved from rock. It’s not until you learn their story and understand their place in the evolutionary history of the world that they reveal their true beauty.
Stromatolites are living fossils and a modern-day example of the earliest known life forms on Earth. Hamelin Pool is one of only two places where you can easily view living stromatolites, the other being the Bahamas. It is the oldest and largest colony on the planet, dating back more than
3.5 billion years.
SHELL BEACH
The stark white sand that the Coral Coast is famous for makes way for billions of tiny white cockleshells at the aptly named Shell Beach, located roughly halfway between Hamelin Pool and Monkey Mia on the Shark Bay World Heritage World Drive.
Being one of the only places like it on Earth, Shell Beach is another one-of-a-kind destination near Monkey Mia.
With rolling dunes and cockleshells as far as the eye can see (and in some places 10m deep), bordered by the clear turquoise water, there is no shortage of Insta-worthy photo opportunities here.
The water at Shell Beach is twice as salty as normal sea water, so if you take a dip – or should I say, float – be prepared to come out with a fine dusting of salt on your skin and in your hair.