Aussie Trekka
4x4 & Camping Australia
A family of 5 from New South Wales, Australia out there enjoying this awesome country we live in.
Camping, 4wheel driving, offroad adventures and generally good times.
Pepply Beach Camping, Coffs Harbour NSW Australia August 2016 Night 1.
Pebbly Beach has got to be once of the nicest beach spots i have camped at in a long time. I love the beach but over the last few years it’s been all about bush camping. More so i beach camped for the best part of half my life and it’s good to do something different for a change.
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Pebbly Beach Campground – Yuraygir National Park
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This place is not the easiest to get to after travelling up the highway from Coffs Harbour there is a 20 odd kilometer dirt road followed by a few K’s of beach driving and a river the was pretty deep. This trip is 4wd only as there are a few water crossing along the way.
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After the run along the beach you come to Station Creek this can get pretty deep at high tide.
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This is Darren coming across in his Defender 110.
As we got into camp Brenno got us to set up our camps so he could get plenty of photos for his feature article for an upcoming issue of 4wd Action.
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Each group set up one at a time so they could get photos and ask a few questions about the set up and why we like it. He also timed us to do some comparison but i’m not real sure how that would work out either cause everyone had something different. Although this is not how we would normally set up it was the best we could do with the room we had available.
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After all that was do it was relax time, turns out our campsite was the most convenient and the drinks started flowing.
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Dinner that night was some Brad’s Famous Ribs. Not sure what the rich people were doing on a Wednesday night but i bet it was enjoying life like we were.
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Waking up super early the next morning so i could do my exercise only to notice how awesome the clouds looked and that i could be in for a great sunrise. Grabbed my camera gear so i could capture the start to the morning. There is something special about see the sun rise.
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Back to camp and people were starting to stir, i got the fire going and my mate Dave got the kettle on and cooked up some awesome croissant bacon and egg rolls.
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It was then time to pack up and move on. We did a fair bit of driving through some back fire trails to get to the next spot. Leaving the camp site the same way we came in.
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This place although hard to get to does also get super busy. I have been here a time or two in the past and there have been no spots left. In saying that you could get lucky and i would say a mid week camp if an option would be advisable.
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Illaroo campground – Yuraygir National Park, Night two of 4wd Action Camp out.
For more information on fees and general info click here.
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This campground is just south of Grafton and was the location for our second night with 4wd Action. It is easily accessible by any vehicle and suited to any form of camping. The sites are large and can take the biggest of caravans.
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This campground is broken up into 3 sections a North and South area with a private gated off group area that needs to be pre booked.
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We camped in the Northern grounds up around the back and as you can see there is plenty of space.
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Illaroo is managed by a caretaker and is looked after really well. You can have fires but being that this place is located in a National Park you can’t cut your own wood. It is sold in the general store at Minne Waters (about 3 kilometers away) although i think this would be at a very premium rate. It would also be limited in the warmer months.
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There are two sections just for tent camping. This looked a little inconvenient to me as carrying gear and what not is a pain in the arse.
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Even though this is called beach front camping it is not as easy to get onto the beach as you would think or i would like. Speaking to an older couple they were disappointed as the women had a walker and could not get down the steep steps onto the beach. This can be sorted by a short drive as beach access for vehicles is really good.
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The beach is also a little strange with a few hundred meters of water leaching out of the ground. Not that it’s a massive issue but it is something to take note of as you can’t really put a towel down and get comfortable while the kids play at the water’s edge.
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This is a picture looking south from the closest access point from where we camped. You can see the water on the sand just up a aways from where i am. Here is a great place for kids to play. After walking around exploring what this great place had to offer it was back to camp for some brekkie and a photo shoot.
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Not going to lie there was really strange dynamic here for this photo shoot. No one left camp and went exploring around the campgrounds except for me, seems strange to go somewhere new and not even check it out.
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The way they had us positioned was that we were tucked up out of the way and had one or two pictures taken of our setup. It all seemed to be about the rooftop campers. Although you can see they used David’s swag in a few pictures. As soon as they were done with the pictures of themselves packing up they left. “that’s it guys we are done, thanks for coming see ya around” Um ok then, see ya.
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It was a great experience and i truly hope i get to do something like that again with Brendan and Jess.
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One last thing before i wrap this up is that there are rubbish facility but make sure you recycle or you will get an ear bashing from the local do gooders. I only had empty cans so i got out nice and quick.
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So this story came out in issue 259
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