"Mudlo Rocks has become an Easter spectacle"

WATCHING beach drivers take on the surf at Australia's "Mudlo Rocks has become an Easter spectacle".

Crowds took their vantage points on the rocks, sand dunes and on the beach to watch 4WD drivers take on the surf and the rocks at Rainbow Beach.

Many spectators came prepared with eskies and chairs so they could settle in and enjoy the two-hour spectacle.

This year a full moon and swell from a tropical cyclone off Fiji combined to generate higher tides and expose rocks just south of Rainbow Beach.

The rocks were trafficable at low tide, but just an hour either side of low water mark made negotiating the rocks tricky.

Drivers who waited an hour and a half or two hours after low tide started taking real risks.

Drivers ploughed through considerable water, dodging underwater rocks to take the shortcut to and from Double Island Pt.

The half-hour trip across the Freshwater Track, the only other way back to Rainbow, became a two-hour journey.

On Good Friday a driver of a Toyota Rav 4 found out how unforgiving the Mudlo Rocks could be when the vehicle and trailer were swamped by the incoming tide.

One tourist watching from the beach said it was like sitting beside the road and waiting for a car accident to happen.

Watching man and machine take on the rising tide was pretty entertaining for everyone else on the beach.