4wding The Margaret River Coast

Outdoor adventurers have it good in regards to planning their escapes these days. A quick Google search on even the most obscure location or trail will turn up pages upon pages of useful information, photo’s or even downloadable files to whack straight into your GPS and go. However, a search for 4wd tracks in Margaret River doesn’t turn up much, only hints and suggestions of the amazing places out there. Wise mob they are; must be trying to keep the best spots to themselves! And so with a couple of friends we planned a weekend to get to the bottom of what they’re hiding down there.

Throughout this post I will drop in a few GPS way-points for all the good bits.

North Point as it is known on the map is our first target (location: 34° 9’30.54″S, 115° 1’21.14″E). Becoming known to me through a mate a few years back it is the go to spot if you want to have the best chance of having a piece of South-West beach all to yourself. The quickest access to North Point is from Boranup Campground; the turnoff is unmarked and while the track is wide enough at first, it quickly forks out and narrows down to scuffed paint territory.

The lagoon at North Point

All the loss of paint is worth it though when you get to the end. I’m not going to lie, the weather was miserable this time around; so I’ll give you a photo from a previous and much sunnier visit.

From North Point, Boranup beach is to the South, and can be reached by heading south on the cape to cape track at the intersection ( location: 34° 9’27.10″S, 115° 2’53.23″E). I was hoping there might be a nice beach access for vehicles here but no such luck. Still, it is a nice stretch of beach for a walk or some fishing.

Heading north along the cape to cape track is easy going, tyre pressures down along here will make the limestone outcrops much more comfortable to scramble over. The nice wide track makes it tempting to pick up the pace traveling along here but don’t let temptation get the better of you. The cape to cape track is primarily a hikers track, and a very popular one! Even on our rainy weekend there were a few out walking so keep those speeds down.

The signposted lookout along the track also seems to have hikers in mind: There’s nowhere to turn around at the top! A bit of a pain to find out with 3 vehicles in convoy; so maybe parking up the truck and stretching the legs here is a good idea.You will pass many tracks shooting off to the sides as you continue north. Most of them dwindle down to a walking path; others just stop at a clearing with nothing to be seen. One of them is worth taking the detour though; Hooley Road intersection (located 34° 7’22.59″S, 115° 2’21.85″E) when taken to the west leads you to another stretch of beach boasting a massive reef, killer surf breaks and the most deadly 4wd beach access I have ever seen.

It would be unwise to tackle the descent without a winch; the extremely narrow track turns sharply to the left and if that wasn’t risky enough, part of the track had fallen into the ocean! Besides, the stormy weather had left us with very little beach to drive on anyway. To continue on from here is a matter of back tracking to the intersection you turned off for the beach and heading north again.

If you are using Hema maps; you might have been following a yellow marked track as we were. According to this, you should be turning left at the intersection of Brozie Road ( 34° 6’16.02″S, 115° 1’39.78″E) and shooting up an unmarked track not far past the turnoff. It would appear that the authorities have blocked this track off during a recent grading of Brozie Road (which leads nowhere I might add). So rather than making that left hand turn at Brozie road, you are going to need to continue along Georgette Rd at that intersection.

Of the whole drive so far this is the slowest, tightest and scratchiest bit of track; obviously rarely used by vehicles until they blocked off the track that we should have been using. But popping out into the Karri forest at the other end is your reward! Situated just left on the next cross road is the Point Rd camp ground which I mention in my Camping On The Margaret River Coast story. You could also access this spot by taking the Point Rd turnoff from Boranup Drive if you don’t fancy scratching your car up.

West of here is where I leave you. Point rd continues out to the ocean and meets with Conto Rd. The ocean front along here full of lookouts, rocky outcrops and cliffs was once accessible to 4wd’s only, but has now been opened up to the masses. From here you follow Conto Rd for the Conto’s Campground and to meet back up with Caves Road.

Alex