4WD Adventure – Esperance to Israelite Bay

In 2023 my dad visited us from Switzerland and amongst all the trips we took him on, one was the 4WD adventure along the coast from Esperance to Israelite Bay. I haven’t done the whole stretch, and my partner did it decades ago, so it was good fun for all of us.

We started off at Wylie Head Beach at the East end of Esperance with the first mission being to get over Wylie Head Rock. While my Dad was happy to just cruise along the beach in a 4WD as this was very new to him, we knew what was ahead of us. When we got to Wylie Head Rock, dad was stunned that we would attempt to drive over it, especially as I took him for a walk over the rock a few days ago and he saw the bog holes and the scratches on the protruding rocks.

Here are some photos, but they do not really do justice, as usual. Better check out the youtube – I put a video of our Wylie Rock mission up.

The beach gets a new name after the rock: Wylie Bay Beach. We drove along that to the dead end and then took the detour around the rocky outcrop to get to Lucky Bay.

At Lucky Bay we didn’t encounter the Kangaroos on the beach as you always see in the brochures, instead we met two parties in trouble. The first was a couple in a 2WD that was bogged (= tyres dug that deep into the sand that the car doesn’t go anywhere anymore). We helped them out with maxxtrax and manpower (there were plenty of onlookers willing to help push). Further up the beach it got even better. We found the ranger bogged below the tideline! Here we had to use our winch to pull him out. You’d think the rangers get some 4WD tutorials before they patrol the beaches, haha.

On the way out we drove past the line of parked up cars and vans enjoying the nice weather and a swim.

Do you want to see more of the fun? Here is my video of it on youtube:

After that we explored the Dunes near Dunns Rock before we found camp for the night at the beach in a sheltered inlet. Well, at least my partner and I set up in the sheltered area; dad decided to pitch the tent on the hill, exposed to the wind but with a fantastic view.

A lazy morning and some cruising on the beach.

In the afternoon we headed towards Cape Arid and showed dad where we got stuck 5 years ago. Dad and my partner had this game going – whenever my dad said “no, you can’t” my partner went “oh yes, you can”. So we did the loop through the dunes again, unfortunately the track had eroded and we did not only get bogged, we took the tyre off the rim!

Here is the video to the mishaps with lots more of the action:

Not too long, before we found a good flat area to fix the tyre. We washed the rim very well to get all the sand out. The idea was to set fire on the rim to put the tyre back on. We tried every spray can we had, but nothing worked. In the end we used petrol and that did the trick!

We woke up to a flat tyre! We pumped it up and kept cruising. We headed along the beach as far as we could and then took the closest track to the coast until we hit the beach again.

Along the way we stopped for a fish and caught one for dinner! Well for the next day, as we had spareribs on the menu this day. We stayed at the beach for camp and cooked the ribs in the camp oven – a new experience for dad.

The tyre was flat again the next morning. We pumped it up and went in search of some better ground. There we took it off the rim again. How ironic.

We washed the rim again and put sealant in before pumping it up with the air compressor.

The leaking problem solved we went on exploring the coast. We came across a few iffy sections but mastered them all with no further issues – or so we thought…

Here is a quick summary of some of the sections on youtube:

At the old telegraph station, at Israelite Bay, was our end of the beach trip. We took the clear ground as an opportunity to check the ute and see what was banging underneath. We’d broken the outer tie rod end. We took it off and fixed it as good as we could and were confident the end result would get us through.

We explored the old Telegraph Station which was very interesting. For Australian Standards its very old and we wondered about a few of the items lying around as well as where they might have got the water for the pool from.

After a quick look at the beach and remains of the old jetty we headed inland towards Mt Rugged where we camped the night. We cooked fish patties, haven’t had them for years!

Early in the morning we climbed Mt Rugged in rather misty weather. It felt like we’re in the alpine region. What a mountain! Was good fun climbing it.

Then it was time to head back to Esperance. We didn’t want to go along the highway, we wanted to stay in the bush as long as we could. So we took a back track that takes you to Esperance. Along the track we startled a mob of Emu chicks. They kept running away from us on the track. Took a long time for them to realise that turning into the bush would be the easier option.

Explored in Feb 2023, written June 2025