Maui – Wowee!

So…you spend tons of money to rent your dream “Camper4WDAdventureVehicle” (C4WDAV) in AUSTRALIA and what do you want to do?…immediately take it offroad!!! When Sarah and I decided to rent the C4WDAV we had a variety of insurance coverage options. I like to think that I tend to be a super user - I may be the only guy in D.C. who actually uses his SUV for its SUV (4WD) purposes. Therefore, after careful consideration we chose the full coverage option. Full coverage means that provided I don’t flood the vehicle (river crossing or tidal incident) it’s covered… After looking at the pictures on the internet of people who flooded their cars, the idea haunted my dreams several times.
Sarah and I intended that our first beach outing would be on Fraser island BUT we found that we could drive on the beach from nearly 70 kilometers south of Fraser to the Fraser Barge, this was an option that I couldn’t pass up.
In Australia the tidal fluctuations are significant and it is necessary drive on the beach 2 hours either side of low tide to ensure that you will not get stuck on the beach (AKA “bogged”). We reached the beach at about 4PM, three hours before high tide. Immediately I was interested in checking out the beach….testing the truck…the campground up the road would still be there when I was done. We found the entrance and much to Sarah’s chagrin I locked the hubs, threw it in 4WD and we were off!
We rented the newest, best and most powerful C4WDAV that’s in Australia (The MAUI). This puppy has Toyota’s largest turbo diesel motor producing massive torque (Toyota standards), carries 180L of fuel and 55L of fresh water…all this is riding on 4 tires that rival the best cookie cutters (narrow) I’ve seen to date.
As we took off on apron to the beach I realized immediately that 1. I didn’t have enough power 2. The tide was nearly all the way in. Within 15 seconds of entering the beach…20 seconds of 4WD being engaged and we were bogged…not only that, my dream was coming true, bogged close to the surf with the tide coming in… This is as close as I have ever been to a full panic, I actually thought to myself slow down and breathe…in all of my climbing that was a new feeling to me. My wife sitting next to me was silent…I could tell, she had nothing to say to me (now you know my panic). I tried everything…low range, 1,2…nothing, just the frame in the sand. What else can you do in the sand but air down (create a larger footprint with the tire)? I instructed Sarah and we let the tires down. After letting air out several times finally I was able to move the truck to the edge of the surf where the sand was just a little bit more firm. Finally after multiple attempts to get back up the apron and to the road, the truck was out. 15 minutes of torture…(and a few more hours of my wife not talking to me).