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A beach driving adventure has cost some German backpackers their four-wheel drive after it got bogged in the mud and swallowed by a rising tide in the Northern Territory.

The vehicle of a would-be rescuer has also met a muddy end, stuck firmly in the notoriously hazardous sludge of Mindil Beach with a severed tow rope still attached.

Lifesaver Trevor Radburn made the discovery when he started his afternoon shift.

"I saw the aerial and the dark shape in the water ... and immediately assumed it was an overturned boat," he said.

"Upon getting out there [I found] it was actually two cars.

"One's bogged and the other one's come to tow the other one out and the tow rope's snapped, tide's come in and caught both the cars."

One eyewitness said German backpackers were driving the blue four-wheel drive Jeep on the beach when it became bogged after trying to help a jet ski rider who bottomed out in the shallows.

The ABC understands the other car, a ute, belongs to a Darwin local that also tried to help the backpackers.

The number plates had been removed from both cars.

One of the cars was surrounded with beer bottles and canned food. Oil was leaking from one of the vehicles.

"This is a dugong feeding area straight off Mindil Beach, there's a lot of sea grass here," Mr Radburn said.

The NT Environmental Protection Authority was informed of the oil leak.