Pieman Heads Tasmania.

The picture was taken on the way back from Pieman Heads heading south down the north-west coast.

The tide was out and a creek had flowed down the beach cutting a 4-6ft deep trench through the sand.

Two snatch straps were looped together and fixed to the back of my vehicle and two other vehicles were strapped together facing the opposite way. I was to drive out into the `surf' as the waves went out to get around the washed out trench. If I got stuck the straps were to be attached to the other two vehicles so I could be extracted as quickly as possible.

As it was there was no difficulty and it was just a matter of driving through a maximum of about 15" of water between the waves. The other vehicles also made it OK.

The trip into Pieman was quite an adventure - the residents of the community access it across the river by boat and very few vehicles had ever come in from the south - they were quite surprised to see us. From memory it was a 5 or 6 day round-trip.

Richard Clarke

See also the Australia 4WD page