CAPE YORK PENINSULA!

Well the time has come for us to tackle 'The Cape'. NOTE This will be a VERY large post...EPIC even...it seemed epic at the time anyway...

15 days - 2385km

So we set off sans shockies...
(I will note, that I am writing this some weeks later in the comfort of a clean car/trailer tent and well showered- the dirt and corrogations a distant... but lasting memory. So I may reflect a little less on what was a big deal at the time...dust, dust holes, dusty roads....)

the moment when the bitumen became dust...

Day 1 (1/7/12) Stop 15 for the trip
Leave Cooktown.
We stopped to check out the Aboriginal Rock Art near Laura that I had wanted to see...if I had of known that it would be 100 degrees and a good climb up a very hot steep rocky track I might have re-thought that idea, but it was pretty good...worth the climb!

split rock

flying fox rock

George showing the common stance for a person on the rock art

I really have to walk all the way back down there??

Magnum & PI at the beginning of our journey, waiting patiently

We then needed a bit of refreshment and stopped at The Quinkan Hotel in Laura. Whilst we were enjoying our lunch..from the large lunch menu consisting of 4 varieties of toasted sandwiches, 2 of which were unavailable...hahahah...love it! Anyway...whilst sitting at the bar enjoying our toasties we nearly fell over to find everyone willing to pay the $110 for a carton of rum and $52 for a bottle of Beam...(little did we know that this would be the best price for a while!!)
I will also note...fuel...$1.709 for Diesel

My job on the journey - navigator/planner.
As the roads are a little hit and miss I had to cross reference from 4 different maps

We were going to stay here but were travelling OK so we pushed on to Musgrave Station.
Lovely lush grass camping with toilets and hot showers. I was kept up all night due to some odd bumps and noises, so I finally got out of bed to find out what it was to find...The fenced area we were camping in was full of cows! Seemed friendly enough although they liked eating the grass from under the tent and under the flamingos!

I should also mention this was the first time that we have seen a few people our age! Got talking to another couple in a camper trailer similar to ours and they were having heaps of trouble with dust getting in everything, I felt so sorry for them...it was everywhere!..Our trailer was going great so we felt pretty good...
281kms down

truck coming...

truck here...

Truck gone...

Day 2 (2/7/12) Stop 16
Leave Musgrave Station.
Price of Diesel $1.73
107kms more...
We headed on back up the Peninsula Development Road to Coen. It was a pretty tough day in the office for George who was wrestling Magnum over the dust holes, corregations and other cars... We were down to 20km/hr at a few stages in the hope that we werent going to rattle the whole car apart! Once again needed a refreshment stop at the 's'Exchange Hotel pretty funny! They even sell smokes individually!

We headed to a free camp on the side of the Coen River, commonly called 'The Bend' We got there early, which was lucky cause it filled up, QUICK. Lovely sandy beach area, nice clear water...oh and a LOVELY long drop! ;-)

After we set up we noticed that our Andersen plugs, that are our battery life-lines are all getting gritty and connections are being a little iffy. Gave them a clean out but they are still not fitting nicely, so we are currently zip-tieing them together whilst travelling.

Our neighbours kids were hell bent on catching 'red-claw' and 'cherapin' at night so they ran up and down the bank with torches chasing them, they caught 1...not sure how filling that will be??

Day 3 (3/7/12) Stop 17
Leave 'The Bend', 228km to next stop
Price of Diesel $1.75 one side of the road $1.85 on the other side of the road.

,,

Bridge over the Archer River

Nice camping on the banks of the Archer

And this was the most readable sign we could find!

Long haul in DUST DUST and more DUST.

Headed to the lovely Bramwell Station, the Northernmost operating Cattle Station in Australia. As we are a day ahead of schedule we stay here for 2 days...guess why?? They have a big screen TV and a bar and guess what...Its State of Origin...again... and we all know how that went...

the bar and the TV

It didnt stay this empty for long...

George joined a random game of cricket...somehow I managed to be 'drink wench'

The Station itself was really nice, basic grass camping, toilets, showers, meals and a bar. They also had a brolga that hung out with the potty calves and a large group of ginea fowl. Oh and the best part...a fat piggy! He was the pet of the station house a couple of 100m away and he squeezed under the gate and harassed people for scraps...stealing rubbish bags and being chased off out the gate everyday. Some kids were teasing him pretending that they had food in their hands and getting him to chase them..so he bit them...(was pretty minor bite but the pool little fella thought he was dieing!)
We also discovered when we arrived here that the DUST had gotten in EVERYWHERE! We had suffered the same fate as the other couple we met up with...It had gotten in at the join of the rubber seal around the tent base, and because the trailer was then full of dust it had gone up through the finger holes and power plug holes we cut into the base to open from inside the tent and was all over our bed..none of which is easily fixed on the road..so we travelled the rest of the trip with black plastic over everything in the trailer and plugged up the holes under the bed.

no this is not fake tan...I was permanently orange from the dust!

Whilst we were here we ducked over to THE OLD TELEGRAPH TRACK... to check out Palm Creek Crossing (the first crossing) and then duck round via the Gunshot Bypass Road to see  the notorious Gunshot Crossing!

The Beginning of the OTT

Magnum at the first crossing...

Palm Creek - photos never show how steep it really was..

Palm Creek

one of the few telegraph poles still remaining

GUN SHOT

crowds of onlookers to see someone cross the proper Gunshot Crossing

they made him wait for ages here for lots of photos...poor bugger

 

next contender...ripped through it!

then the bikers gave it a go!
 We were sure there was going to be carnage

This is the chicken track to get past Gunshot...still pretty hairy

This is 'sling shot' the other alternative...pretty slushy at the moment

whoops...wrong way...

Day 5 (5/7/12) Stop 18
Leave Bramwell Station for Elliot Falls. 126kms
We had to pre-book any National Park stops before we left so our itinery is a little fluid but has a few days that we have to be places and certain times..this was one of them...I wish we had of booked for a few more days..but I got the last site for a week when I booked back in Cooktown. It was lovely!
Oh yeah, pretty sure Diesel at Bramwell Roadhouse was $2.10.

Number Plate Tree at Bramwell Junction Roadhouse

To get to the National Park you have to duck onto the Old Telegraph Track for a little while.

another number plate tree at the crossing to get to Elliot Falls

Magnum going for a dip

Magnum cruised through...a little wet but all good...

mmm...chilli and garlic damper

chicken skewers

The falls were so so nice, there are actually 3-4 falls right along the river but 'The Saucepan' was our favourite! So clear that I got my snorkelling gear out so I could check out the fish and big rocks under the falls... wish I had weights with me as the current was so strong under the falls that I couldnt see much with nothing to hold onto down there...but so nice and refreshing...This was the first time since we started that I could actually see my skin under the red dust...cause even after showers and washing your hands its still there!

The Saucpan Falls



Elliot Falls

Twin Falls

The campgrounds were well maintained and lots of loos. This is were I started my mission to see a Cuscus (a rare possum) or a Tree Kangaroo...I dragged George out at night with torches wandering around for ages...nothing...

Day 6 Stop 19
Leave Elliot Falls for a short stint to Loyalty Beach and the top of Australia. 82kms.
We headed back down the Telegraph Track to the Peninsula Dev. Road and headed up towards the Jardine River Ferry. It was a short trip so we packed up slowly and parked in the day parks and went back for a last swim. Roads were pretty good and we were making good time.
We get to the Ferry at 12.10....

After waiting with the many many others that kept on arriving and wondering what the hold up was...

The beginning of the line up!

The shortest ferry ride ever!

we fueled up at $2.10 and paid our $99 to cross what seemed like the shortest ferry ride ever! But your $99 allowed you to camp in any of the National Parks north of the Jardine...so I guess it was OK..IF that was what we were doing! Oh well, the only other way is the old river crossing which has been basically NON PASSABLE for some time. And the current was so strong that the ferry completely changes direction half way through the crossing!
So after 2+ hours of waiting, over we went and continued to Bamaga, Seisa and Loyalty Beach, where we were camping for 3 days.
Loyalty Beach was a nice campsite, older facilites but nice, we had been told to camp at least 1 row back from the beach to act as a croc buffer...we thought they were joking! But there are several local crocs that patrol that long strip of beach. Also there are a couple of really big ones that live in the river mouth, which has the BEST crab fishing...we spoke to many who knowingly put their pots in the tidal flats and checked them on foot everyday..evidence of crocs but they didnt see any...so not sure about that one..

mmm!!...random visitor walked into the campsite whilst I was typing a blog entry...
it really didnt want to leave...seemed nice enough though...

So after setting up on the first day we headed to Pajinka (the tip) on the next day to get ourselves as far North as we could!

you go from dusty roads, to rainforest, to rocks on the way to the tip

one of several croc infested creek crossings, we werent brave enough
to walk it first and just ploughed on through!

view from the rocks on the way to the tip

getting closer to the tip

the marker even closer to the tip!

almost there!

We made it!

walking back from the tip

The easy alternative is to walk along the beach at low tide and climb up the last little bit!
But you dont get the awesome view!

Fuel/food here is really expensive but the range was pretty good as they have a local butcher, baker and a few supermarkets.
We headed out to the WWII plane wrecks....

the guard croc at the croc tent!

there were supposed to be more wrecks around so we followed a well worn track...
that got skinnier and skinnier

we had to limbo a few trees hanging from other trees... in the end it got so skinny we had to make our own track and head back...yet again another Sherii navigation oversight!

We went to the camp bar/restaurant for our last night at the top...

view from our chairs...

Day 9 (9/7/12) Stop 20.
Leave Loyalty to head to Moreton Telegraph Station 300kms away. It was my turn to drive as George had had enough of the bumps and dirt. The roads on the Northern part were pretty good but it takes some getting used to it. The most effective corrogation technique we found was drop tyre pressure to 30psi and 70-90kms/hr over them...makes cornering fun, some corners are more drifting rather than turning...lots of fun towing a 1.2 tonne trailer! We also found out that when you empty the jerry cans from the front our weight distribution was a little off and with not much we could do about it it meant every large bump...it just kept bouncing! Great first day of driving for me! ;-)
We had planned to drop our trailer and head down the OTT to check out Nolans Brook, a creek crossing that had supposedly claimed 32 cars this season...not too hard but its DEEP with big holes...a brand new prado had succumbed when we were on our way up...we heard of several cars being put on the barge back to Cairns...oops!
So after dropping the trailer, locking her up on the side of the road, I headed down the OTT to Nolans Brook...poor George was nearly suffering multiple heart attacks with me driving..turns out when your trying to nagivate a large hole in the road you also need to be looking for places to pull over so that you can let passing traffic past.. I had a few coming round the corner and seeing 3 oncoming cars in my face moments...oops...anyway...what seemed like a long way down the track we could hear water..we were close...and then...THE BIGGEST BOG HOLE that not only was big, we couldnt see the end of it...we tried to walk past to see if the crossing was just around the corner but it was not in sight...We were there on our own and with noone to snatch stap to and no trees to winch to we were not going to tackle that...so we turned tail back to the trailer, via a few more hairy moments of me not looking far enough down the track to see that there are cars coming...
Picked up the trailer and kept on to Moreton.
We passed a ute that had rolled over with 3 guys inside, there were heaps of people already there but they had all walked away...and walking is all they will be doing, the car was a writeoff. George and I were very impressed though by their tiedown ability. Their grissly rack had done 3 rolls with the car then flown off down the road 50m and EVERYTHING was still perfectly tied on, not a thing had come off! Nice work boys! We saw them all again at Bramwell and Weipa later on.

Termite Mounds near Bramwell Junction

Moreton telegraph station.
Nice little station stop with a river that runs along beside, supposedly great for barra but noone seemed to be having any luck when we were there.

track down to the river

the river...it was almost nothing..its several meters high in the wet!

Georges best friend...Aeroguard!

Day 10 (10/7/12) Stop 21
Off to Weipa - 133kms via Batavia Downs (a private road that they allow traffic on part of the year)
There had been a little rain so the dust was so much better but made it a little more slippery, more fun driving for me!

mining in Weipa

The big eagle and barra

the big willie wagtail

oh and the big saw fish!

there were pictures of a croc at reception sitting exactly where that guys boat was...
he had just come in for some beers...

When we were setting up, we hear a big RIIIPPP! One of the poles has worn throught the seam of the tent roof, so I did my best upolstering whilst standing on my trusty 'A' frame bed ladder (thanks dad and steve) It was really hard work sewing up 6 layers of canvas and a rubber seal with the only cotton I could find that I had triple over to be 6 strands thick! I broke 2 needles, 2 threaders, 2 safteypins and a nail..but I got it done...bit rough and ready but it seems to be doing the trick.

After we had set up at Weipa, everyone was saying how great the fishing was here....so George bought himself the cheapest rod/reel etc that we could find ($40 combo) and we headed to the jetty...
I got the first catch

it was a very smelly...rock fish...

After we got to the jetty we found that our small road was...shall we say..insufficient... the locals fish with 80lb minimum line! And a few hours later we found out why, the lady down from us was fishing with 100ish lb line on a hand line and pulls up the biggest spotted cod! and then another...and then another! And there were Huge Queenfish and sharks lurking in the lights at night chasing the bait fish.
But we had lots of interest with the smaller 'fingermark' fish, we caught so many of them... The Brim were just starting to bite when we left, a local guy was pulling them in by the bucket!

We have had lots of interest in our flamingos along the way but there were lots of regular visitors and questions about them here. We have yet to name them as I cant really think of a good name...one suggestion was "Flame" and "Ingo"...what do you recon?

first sunset we had seen for a while, so EVERYONE was on the beach taking photos!

Day 13 Stop 22
Meluna Station is 110kms from Weipa.
We headed off down this track to the station, that kept going and going and when we arrived the whole place was empty but there was a fuss on the airstrip out the back..there were 3 planes including the Royal Flying Doctors and 2 ambulances...after flagging someone down we found out there had been an accident on the road couple of locals speeding and rolled the car a few times, didnt look too good, but they recon they will be OK. After checking that they were OK to accept campers we set up...it was really wierd being the first ones there..
We had to do a VERY basic setup...the ground was so hard that our tent pegs were bending. but a little floppy tent roof never killed anyone...unless it rains...but it didnt so it was fine...but it was HOT HOT HOT.

But to my amazement, they had a pool...a lovely cool awesome pool.. I spent a good part of the afternoon in the pool...until...more people arrived...damn...and they wanted to get in the pool too...oh well...

They also had a ping pong and pool table, so we had a great game of pong, of which I was the winner! then we started a new set before it got too dark to keep playing (lucky as George was up a few games on me!) So officially I am still the title holder ;-)

Whipped up some dinner and a game of pool then off to bed.

Day 14 Stop 23
We had planned to head to Chilli Beach for a night but it was 200+kms away and we spoke to a family that had just been there and they said it was really windy (which we knew) and the beach is covered in rubbish, like 10m thick along the whole beach line and after the rain the creek crossings to get in there were pretty hairy and they wouldnt suggest going alone without someone to snatch you out. So we headed on the long haul out of the Cape back to Lakeland...515kms
It was a very rough and dusty ride back out...George had taken the reins back...secretly I think he couldnt hold onto the Jesus handles anymore...

We got to Lakeland tired and dusty to find..they were booked out...

dust on the inside...

safety first...

Quick run all the speed cameras now!

We had also heard that they have a free weed sprayer that you can drive over to wash your car. We found it after searching for ages and ages...it was big and a sign said this is designed for large vehicles only...Im not surprised! I thought we were going to lift off, the jets were insane...it was a pretty rough job but it meant we could see the car colour!
So we headed to a free camp closeby called Earls Lookout...we drove up and up a range and we are thinking where on earth can this camp be?? GPS says 1km...we come around the corner to see a track to the lookout...it literally was a bitumen road that people just camped along...fine for a caravan, but no good for a camper trailer!
So we continued on to Palmer River Roadhouse....but thats another story...

And so after 2 weeks of dirt roads, ruts, dust, dips, some awesome scenery and crazy 4x4 tracks, crossings and fun...we were finally out of the Cape...

We have decided to come back another time with a group of prepared vehicles...it will be so much fun to do the OTT in full with a group of friends! So till next time Cape York....