Call me crazy, you wouldn't be the first! We've decided to head for Cape York again - only this time, we're planning on getting there with both Triton and Swifty intact!
DAY 1: TOWNSVILLE TO FISHERY FALLS
You may remember that we tackled the trip last October, with our original Swifty. We got as far as 30km north of Musgrave Station, on the Peninsula Development Road, when the unthinkable happened. We managed to get caught in soft sand whilst rounding a corner, the van bounced, fishtailed into the back of the Triton, before flipping onto its roof and basically exploding into millions of pieces.
However, every cloud has its silver lining, and only one egg got broken!!
Anyway, we resolved to do it again; the trip, not the accident! And thanks to the fabulous CIL Insurance company, we were given a brand new Swift, which we've since taken halfway around Australia, without any further incidents!
So here we are again, heading north from Townsville, through Ingham, Cardwell and past Tully (yes, it was raining!), where the Cane Mill was working overtime, processing tones of freshly harvested cane.
We continued north through Innisfail, where we waited patiently for a very very long train to pass...!
About half an hour further on, we stopped for the night just south of Cairns at a quaint little place called Fishery Falls. We wanted to be hitting the road by 7am so we'd hit Archer Point, south of Cooktown, as early as possible. The last time we did this trip, it was right at the very end of the season (that being the main reason why the roads were so bad!). But it did mean that everybody else was heading south and we pretty much had ever campsite to ourselves. This time, we are traveling slap bang in the middle of School holidays, at the start of the caravanning season, so we're expecting it to be very busy. The trade-off, we're hoping, is that the roads will be in better nick. There are only so many foot-high corrugations you can take before the novelty wears off!
We set up the van as it started to rain. There was a revolting odour coming from the cupboard next to the sink and we were all gagging. Steve admitted he had found some very slimy potatoes in there but had thrown them out. On closer inspection, we discovered that some feral mouldy potato juice had soaked into the wood and was causing the fouls stench! It was an emergency! There was no way we could breathe that in all night and survive! So Steve went to the office and borrowed a bottle of industrial strength bleach which he then bravely scrubbed the horrible stain until he conquered the long! What a hero! After that drama, we all went to the adjacent pub for a snack and a cold beverage or two.
At 8.45pm we were the only ones left and the publican turned away a couple of punters before bolting the front door. He then proceeded to sit right across from us and stared intently at us! Laura asked if he was wanting to close up but he said no so we ordered another drink. He begrudgingly poured one and then resumed glaring at us til we'd finished it and then unceremoniously slammed the shutter behind us as we left, just on 9pm! Wow, they really know how to party on a Saturday night in Fishery Falls!!
We turned in early as the rain continued to fall outside, but we were warm and snug inside Swifty.
DAY 2: FISHERY FALLS TO ARCHER POINT
it rained all night and was pretty misty and cool when we woke up at 6.30am. Steve was having second thoughts about getting out of bed, despite his plan to leave by 7am!
We finally got ourselves going and left just before 8am. The clouds were very low and the rain continued to fall as we headed up the switchback road through the Kuranda Ranges.
Laura managed to navigate us up through the slippery. wet, winding road to Mareeba and the Atherton Tablelands as the sun came out briefly. We swapped drivers at Mt Molloy and filled up with fuel the Palmer River Roadhouse. We met a nice couple also from Townsville, on their maiden voyage in their brand new off road double axle rig,who'd accidentally sliced through their electrical cords that morning. But it hasn't dampened their spirits and they were continuing on.
We reflected on how much we'd learned in the last 12 months, from other campers as well as by making mistakes ourselves and just how much we enjoyed the whole lifestyle and the people we meet along the way.
We will be revisiting the Palmer River area again on the way back, as we're planning on leaving Swifty at the Roadhouse and just taking the Triton to visit Maytown, the old gold mining ghost town.
The sun came out as we headed further north up the Mulligan Hwy and it warmed up nicely to 27 degrees.
We reached the turn off to Archer Point about 1pm and followed the dirt road for just over 10km until over a ridge we could see the ocean sparkling in the sun! We immediately got excited as we followed the road past the famous lighthouse.
Last year we had scoped out the most perfect campsite, right on the beach, on the North side of the lighthouse. This time we really wanted to camp there, so we crossed our fingers that there would be space!!
Laura took the UHF radio and hopped out of the Triton to walk down the steep, rutted track, while Steve and Dan stayed at the top. Success! There was only one small set up and plenty of room for us! Steve guided the Triton and Swifty slowly down to the grassed area, right on the beach and we set up camp.
We were so excited! It is the most idyllic setting and we couldn't believe our luck when the other campers packed up and left soon after...! Maybe it had something to do with the Country music we were playing at 1000 decibels? Just kidding! Various other campers came down then turned around and left throughout the afternoon too, so we had the place all to ourselves. Bliss!!
Steve even built an ensuite!!!!
DAY 3: ARCHER POINT
We woke to the sounds of the waves gently lapping on the shore, not 20m from our campsite. The sky was blue with just a few fluffy clouds, there was just a gentle breeze and absolutely zero threat of rain! What a difference from when we were here in October last year. Then, the wind was consistently gale force and it was very wet and rainy the whole time. It could not have been more different! Plus, we had definitely scored the best campsite in the area!
We got up late, lazed around on the beach, paddled about in the shallows (yes there were crocs in the area, and we weren't taking any chances!), we even half heartedly chucked a line in. After a late lunch of last night's leftovers, Steve and Laura took a walk up to the lighthouse where they met a lovely couple who'd been on the road for four years!
Dan and Steve were also treated to a free hair wash by Laura. Dan's blood curdling screams as the cold water hit his scalp could be heard up to 30km away!!
The rest of the day was spent reading, snoozing and generally relaxing. We still couldn't believe our luck having the whole beach to ourselves, in the middle of the school holidays!
As the sun started to go down, Steve and Dan lit the fire in preparation for a BBQ dinner. We hadn't caught anything except bait, so it was looking like ham steaks and tiny taters yum yum!!
Just before sundown Steve and Dan were on the beach fishing and practicing martial arts (as you do!), when they spotted a large Loggerhead turtle feeding near the rocks.
We watched intently to make 100% sure it wasn't a croc and obligingly it popped its head up for us! Phew - panic averted. We knew there was a big croc urking around, as the locals had warned us when we arrived.
After dinner we relaxed around the fire, savouring the beauty and tranquility, ready to head up to Laura in the morning, where the bitumen ends and the dirt begins 😀
DAY 4: ARCHER PT TO LAURA
We woke to a blazing blue yet cloudy sky with a gentle breeze coming off the ocean. Two guys were fishing on the beach and Dan joined them. He didn't catch anything himself, but they kindly let him help them gut and clean one of theirs. Yuk!!!! Dan liked it though, so that's the main thing!!
After a leisurely brekkie of scrambled eggs and fresh coffee, we packed up and headed our just before 10am.
Laura videoed Steve towing Swifty up the steep rutted track; the Triton handled it with ease.
As we left Archer Point, we all agreed it was a magic spot - one of the best so far on our travels. We'd be back for sure.
We arrived into Laura after a very easy hour and 45 mins later. We smiled a wry smile as we passed the Laura Roadhouse, which is where we'd mistakenly ended up with a tank full of unleaded instead of diesel, last year!
A few minutes later, the familiar friendly sight of Harold's ("H") general store/motel/petrol station/fishing supplies shop came into view...
We reintroduced ourselves to H and Leanne and they remembered us immediately. We all had a good laugh as we reminisced about how we had managed to drain the fuel tank when everyone said it wasn't possible!
For those who don't remember; the Triton's fuel tank, like most modern vehicles, is fitted with a safety valve. This valve is designed to stop fuel pouring out if the vehicle flips onto its roof. It also prevents fuel from being siphoned out in the "traditional" way. There is also no drain underneath the tank, like some vehicles. So we had to work out a way around it.
Long story short, we ended up blowing it out of the fuel pump with H's air compressor stuffed into the fill-up inlet! We will never forget how much he helped us out that day and how wonderful his motel room was for the night!
This time, however, we were staying behind the old Quinkan Pub, in what is really an extension of their beer garden. It's pretty basic but the place is full of character and we wanted to put some money into the little community.
We spent the rest of the day wandering around Laura, checking out the tiny airstrip, the Police station, gaol and enjoying a game of charades in the beer garden before devouring an enormous dinner of chicken snitty and steak before retiring at about 7.30pm!
Tomorrow we hit the dirt!!
DAY 5: LAURA TO COEN
The day dawned with perfect blue cloudless skies and 22 degrees.
We hit the road at 8.15am, after pausing to let the tyres down to 28. It was a strange feeling of excitement mixed with a little bit of trepidation as we left the blacktop and headed into the dirt.
The road was dry, gravelly and in good condition with virtually no corrugations. There was virtually no traffic except the odd local steaming along at 80-109kph, flinging stones as they burned past. We sat on about 50 kph as it was steady and safe and let the idiots pass us!
Between Laura and Hann River Roadhouse the road was generally pretty good. There were some minor corrugations but nothing too bad and any 2 wheel drive vehicle would be fine with care. Plus there were a handful of stretches of sealed road where you could speed up a little to make up a bit of time.
We arrived safely at Hann River at 9.30am after narrowly missing one of local Bustards crossing the road. Ozzie the emu was there as usual doing his thing!
The 60km between Hann River and Nusgrave was uneventful the road was reLly good with minimal corrugations and long stretches of bitumen.
As usual,the main hazards were other drivers overtaking at ridiculous speeds. We were traveling safely at between 60-70km but they were doing over 100km. Crazy fools.
The other thing was that we noticed quite a few people stopped on the side of the road just chatting or doing running repairs, but none of them had their hazard lights on. Very dangerous,since clouds of dust are very hard to see through.
There was a fair bit of roadworks going on too; mostly just damping and rolling, since the major works had been carried out last year.
All in all, we made up a bit of time and arrived at Musgrave at 10.45am.
The 108km ofroad between Musgrave and Coen was considerably worse; just like last October. There were more corrugations and the base was more soft sand than hard packed gravel. Uncomfortable and a lot slower, but still achievable in a 2 wheel drive car or touring caravan/Motorhome. Infact, we even saw a Britz camper and a Toyota Coaster at Musgrave, plus several touring caravans, proving our point!
There was a fair bit of bitumen which gave instant relief from the vibrations and chattering teeth, and there were Surveyors around, so we could foresee more blacktop going in before long.
Overall however,we were happily noticing a huge improvement to our ride with our new Ironman suspension and Cooper tyres. Just in time for the PDR to get sealed!! LOL
About 30km north of Musgrave, we came upon the site of our accident last year. It didn't look anything different or worse than any other corner on the PDR.
It was a sobering moment, as we remembered that day, but also a very positive one, as we passed by, a little bit older and a lot wiser!
The road between Musgrave and Coen is very winding, with a lot of dips and blind corners to navigate. We took it slow and steady, despite several hoons and big trucks steaming south at breakneck speed and throwing up clouds of blinding dust. All part of the adventure!!
The last 40km before Coen, the traffic heading south increased and we were thoroughly disgusted at the other drivers' lethal driving by the time we hit the bitumen. Never mind those bloody corrugations; the worst hazards by far are idiots behind the wheel!!
As we neared Coen, the storm clouds started gathering and it got quite dark. We crossed our fingers,hoping we'd be set up before the rain!
Coen township itself is very rundown and not pleasing to the eye, with emaciated dogs prowling around and a generally unsafe vibe.
Where we were staying however, at the Bend campground, just north of town, was beautiful. Right on the river and very peaceful and natural.
We set up super fast and had snags on by 12.45pm!
After lunch we amused ourselves by watching people getting bogged on the other side of the creek and then we went off to explore another campsite called Charlie's Mine, just the other side of Coen. We had to drive past the garbage tip to get there, and as we arrived, we instantly for the creeps. It was like something out of Wolf Creek, with rickety sheds full of rusted machine parts and obscene sculptures outside the toilets, together with signs warning about people being naked.... We left. Quickly.
Back at camp we went for a quick dip in the creek but it was too full of screaming toddlers to feel very relaxing so we went for a walk instead. We stumbled across an excellent campsite, just south of ours, that was completely secluded and had its own river frontage. Definitely one for next time!
By late afternoon the whole campsite was chockablock and it might as well have been a Big 4!
After dinner we watched a couple of locals catching crayfish. One shone a torch at the creek and suddenly all you could see were little red eyes glowing like goals in the dark. Then, the other one expertly inhaled them with his 3 pronged spear. They caught four good sized shellfish in about 5 minutes. Dinner, done!
Early to bed for an early start.
DAY 6: COEN TO MORETON TELEGRAPH STATION
We left at 8am to get some kilometers under our belt before the traffic. The road was excellent and included a magic 50km stretch of smooth asphalt.
After the Weipa turnoff, the road narrowed considerably but was still in excellent condition.
We arrived at Moreton Telegraph Station by 11.30am and it was still as beautiful as we remembered it. Lush, green, grassy campsites, right beside the Wenlock River.
We set up under a beautiful old mango tree and then treated ourselves to an early lunch of hot pies before taking a look around their fascinating little museum, which chronicled the Station's history since its inception in 1887.
After lunch, we did all our washing and had nice hot showers, while the campground was still fairly empty. We knew from experience that there would be long queues later.
We then decided to do a 2km nature walk and we're lucky enough to see a large yellow spotted monitor lizard and the recent tracks of a large Goanna.
We knew not to swim in the Wenlock as it's croc infested. However, we met one family who proudly announced they'd been swimming in it all afternoon and that the warnings were just for "stupid people". Enough said. We stayed out.
The campsite filled up steadily as the day progressed and was packed by 4pm with people stil arriving as the light faded.
We met one nice couple, towing an older Jayco Hawk, who'd nearly run out of food so were staying an extra night, where they could at least get pies and sausage rolls!
Before dinner, Steve put his corflute panels over the vents in the van door and behind the fridge. He then taped them securely with waterproof tape, in readiness for the much anticipated creek crossing the next day.
We then lit the fire and had yummy taco boats for dinner before hitting the sack.
DAY 7: MORETON TO ELIOT FALLS
We hit the road again about 8am and were traveling at a decent 70-80kph, when we were nearly forced off the road by a motley group of quad bike riders, weaving all over the road and overtaking each other on blind corners. We continued on for about 40km. until we reached Bramwell Station, where we filled up with fuel for $2.11 a litre!
The quad bike riders were also there and we grumbled about them to the Manager who also rolled his eyes in agreement and said they'd managed to get some special permit that allowed them to drive on the PDR. We didn't notice anything about them having a permit to drive like idiots though.
As we left Bramwell, the road was good m, so we bowled along at about 70kph, but we were soon caught up in the middle of another group. This time it was 4 middle aged women in 4WDs who were in a big hurry. They also wanted to play chicken with us, by overtaking us at high speed on blind corners, flinging stones out, with their trailers fishtailing crazily behind them. We could hear them cackling over the UHF for quite a while after they'd disappeared from view, with such gems as, "Hey Cheryl, do ya reckon I should put it into 4 wheel drive yet, darl?".... Yes "darl", you should've been in 4WD for the last 500km, you bogun nincompoop!
Lets just say that traveling in peak season and in the school holidays, attracts a very different type of camper than we'd experienced last October. I don't even want to go into the state most of the toilets were left in, the litter people left behind or the generators that ran all night at free camps this trip. Suffice it to say that whilst traveling out of season is risky due to worse road conditions, we felt the peace and quality of travellers far made up for it!
And while I'm on the subject of road conditions, as we started to climb the ridge about 35km south of Eliot Falls, the road suddenly deteriorated into horrible, soft, deep corrugations. The kind that no amount of altered tyre pressure or change in speed would fix. So we bumped and juddered along for a grueling 20km until we were rewarded with a nice long stretch of bitumen; taking us almost up to our turn-off. We heard later that there were reports that the Old Telegraph Track at that point was actually in better condition than the PDR!
We turned off towards Fruit Bat, Twin and Eliot Falls and then, when the road forks again, we headed towards Scrubby Creek.
When we arrived there was a log jam of vehicles and trailers at both the entry and exit to the creek. People were standing around umming and ahhing, with their vehicles parked haphazardly all over the place. Yet another example of the complete lack of campers' etiquette in peak season.
We'd heard at Moreton that the water was about 1m deep and Steve watched a couple of vehicles cross the creek to confirm the depth. Laura went across the other side with the UHF, to clear the exit path and get ready to video the crossing.
After checking all the taped seals, putting the Triton into low-range and turning off the aircon he left all the weekend warriors, and headed for the creek.
Laura was watching from the far bank and as the Triton hit the muddy water, it created a big bow wave, which sloshed up over the bonnet and onto the windscreen. It looked for one split second as if the Triton and Swifty were going to be completely submerged, but then a moment later, the Triton's headlights emerged. Steve gunned it and they roared up the exit as all the onlookers applauded. Steve 1: Scrubby Creek 0!!
We had prebooked site 8, which is nice and big, has a fire pit and plenty of shade. We set up easily and quickly and then ran down to the 3 amazing swimming holes, The Saucepan, Eliot Falls and Twin Falls. Completely awesome; a true oasis in the Outback!
We spent the rest of the day swimming, relaxing and strolling around the campsite, making notes about which site was the best for next time. We settled on 8,15 and 22 as the top choices.
Dinner was special; a gourmet feast of Honey Soy Chicken and rice, made by Steve from two dehydrated packs he'd bought from Anaconda!! It was actually really really yummy!! We discussed whether we should buy a dehydrating machine and a cryowrapper so we could make our own.
After yet another hilarious game of charades we turned in for the night, knowing we'd have another full day there again the next day.
DAY 7: ELIOT FALLS
We slept in and ate sizzling crispy bacon and popcorn in our pjs whilst we soaked up the gorgeous bush setting.
By late morning we were organized enough to blow up our airbeds and then we trotted off down to the Saucepan with them. We jumped into the clear, cool water and "swam" down the river til we hit the rapids above Eliot Falls. After half scrambling, half falling down the rocky cliffside, we then floated down to the waterfall at the head of Twin Falls.
We had a few bumps and scratches but nothing that could dampen our sense of achievement and excitement.
We spent the rest of the day splashing around in the sun in the warm swimming hole below Twin Falls, before returning to our camp site and enjoying a siesta.
We bumped into the friendly couple with the Jayco again, who'd managed to restock their pantry and had a nice chat about our campers.
We then had a tasty Spag Bol around the fire before bed.
DAY 8: ELIOT FALLS TO BAMAGA!!
We were up and at em super early and had pancakes for brekkie before hitting the road at 7.45am. Steve had retaped all the vents and the van door so we were ready to cross Scrubby Ck again. We renamed the Triton "The Tug"!
The rain had been falling softly overnight and got heavier as we neared the creek. We had let the tyres down to 25, to see if just that few psi would improve the ride over the corrugations.
There was nobody at Scrubby Ck this time, so we ploughed straight through with no problem at all. We hit the PDR at 8.25am and after checking no water had got in, we headed north.
The rain cleared and the clouds lifted, so that a bit of blue peeked out. The softer tyres were definitely making a difference and we cruised along at about 60kph towards the Jardine River ferry. The ferry could possibly be the world's most expensive cruise, at $130 for the 30 second ride! There is going to be a bridge built soon, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.
There was a good section of bitumen, so it was only the last 17km of dirt. Last year, this stretch of the road was absolutely the worst of the whole trip. The corrugations were about a foot deep and it took us over an hour to do 15km.
This time, it was still absolutely shocking, but the gutter thankfully was still ok.
They really need to regrade it mid year or pave it! Absolutely horrendous. The only saving grace was that gutter was still passable, so if you'd got this far in your normal car or bus, you'd still be able to make it to the ferry.
As we continued merrily along in the gutter, the sun came out and it turned into a perfect day.
We made the ferry at 9.40am, paid our $129 (remembering to keep the receipt very safe in the glove box cos they won't let you back on the return ferry without it!) and drove straight on without any waiting.
The other side was a different story. We counted over 60 vehicles waiting to come south, plus another dozen behind them. They would've been in for a wait of at least two hours. We made a note to NOT arrive at that time on the way back!
The road on the northern side was in 100% better condition than the southern side; flat, hard and easy. We bowled along at 70kph, instead of the 20kph we'd got used to on the other side.
As we travelled the 30kms to Loyalty Beach, it was 26 degrees; warm and sunny. We were all excited to be nearing our destination.
We did get detoured via the airport, probably because they were fixing the main road. We did have to slow back down to about 40kph, but It wasn't too bad.
We arrived into Bamaga at 10.30am and Loyalty Beach at 10.45am.
WE MADE IT!!!
We got the last beachfront site and power, which was an unexpected bonus!
After a bit of R&R and a walk around the (packed) campground, we drove up to the Croc Tent, which is owned and run by our friends Dale and Le-Anne. It was great to see them again. Their old boxer Cassius was as gorgeous and slobbery as ever and they'd also had a litter of puppies in the last few weeks, which were beyond adorable. Laura wanted to take them all home!
We took a shortcut through the forest back to Loyalty Beach and spent the evening at the adjoining Fishing Lodge, enjoying the best fish and chips in the world (according to Steve). We were treated to awesome entertainment by a group of youngsters doing traditional dances from the Torres Strait.
What a great day. You know that moment when you realize how blessed your life is?
We were in great spirits as we walked back to our campsite, right on the sand.... Just perfect 💕
Even when our delightful drunken yobbo of a neighbour started abusing us over the way we'd parked the Triton, it couldn't wipe the smiles of our faces.
DAY 9: LOYALTY BEACH
About 2am we were awoken suddenly by wild galloping and neighing as a bunch of wild horses stampeded through the campground. We were glad to be in a bright white structure off the ground, rather than in a small dark tent in the way of flailing hooves!
At daylight we got up; the bins had been raided by the feral brumbies, and the rubbish was being raked up by the staff. They said it has been happening more and more recently and they'd put signs up earning people not to leave food out or tents unzipped!
Steve was busy fixing the tonneau cover where the corrugations had destroyed the rivets in the hinge.
He managed to fix it, but the lock had also been warped and snapped the key in half. Not having a spare, we went off to see Michael and Sarah at Spares & Repairs, which is also the local RACQ depot.
On the way there we saw some local kids larking around...
Michael was flat out fixing his own RACQ tow truck, but was happy to help us out.
We tried a multitude of different keys without success, so had no choice but to order a new set from Mitsubishi and hope they got here in time. Meanwhile, it was back to good ole gaff tape!
Dan made a new friend at the yard, Falcon, the cat who'd been named after the car it arrived in, on the back of the flatbed!
We stopped off at Bamaga BP ($1.69/L) and rushed into the little shop that we'd fallen in love with last year. It had been extended and now sold hot food as well as cold. Unfortunately, the two Indian girls serving, were extremely hard to understand, which was frustrating, and than when we finally did grasp what they were saying, they had nothing left on the menu (this was at 11.30am), they only had a couple of $7 sandwiches left, that were 3 days old and we couldn't have toasties either, because their machine was switched off for the day!
We ended up with $5 Cold-dogs (yuk) and a slight sad feeling that change isn't always for the good.
We then set off to visit Somerset Beach, which we'd heard was absolutely stunning and we weren't disappointed! It has an amazing rainforest backdrop and overlooks beautiful Albany Island. It's also a natural harbour. In fact during WWII, there were plans to turn it into a major Port. Luckily, those plans were shelved and it remains beautifully untouched.
The camping area above the beach was not particularly special and quite cramped, but it would a wonderful place in the off season, when you'd probably have it all to yourself. Another note for next time!
The area is steeped in history, being the site of the Jardine family's Homestead when they first arrived from the UK. Their grave sites are also here, although their bodies were exhumed and relocated back to the old country in 2013. There are also old cannons from those days. It was very interesting, but the site could be a really good tourist destination if it was maintained better.
We then headed back to camp through the cool, shady rainforest track; Laura took the wheel to do a small creek crossing. Ok, it was only ankle deep and 3m wide, but you gotta start somewhere!
We made a fire on "our" beach and grilled local snags on the hot plate over the flames.
Another great day 😀
DAY 10: LOYALTY BEACH
A totally lazy day spent strolling along the beach, catching up on reading, laundry and just chillaxing, observing the helicopters swooping low over the beach as part of their scenic tour :). You can see how close they land to us, in the background of the pic below.
Steve and Dan went off to the shooting range to get it set up for the safety courses Steve would be running later in the week.
Just a beautiful, restful day. Teriyaki chicken stir fry for dinner; a quick shooing off of a horse with its head in the bin and then sleepy bye byes.
DAY 11: THE TIP!
After a brekkie of pancakes and trifle (don't ask!), we went off down the short cut to the Croc Tent, en route to Pajinka - The Tip!
The day was beautifully warm and sunny, although it had again rained in the night.
We were all excited to be heading to the most northerly part of the Australian mainland; even though we'd done it before, it's still an amazing feeling.
We headed into the jungle, which got thicker and darker as we went on. It was like driving through a tunnel.
The 20km of dirt road was fine, just narrow and winding. We passed by the ruins of the now derelict Pajinka Wilderness Resort which is sadly being swallowed by the jungle. We did some research and found out the following info:
Cape York Wilderness Lodge was opened in 1986 by Bush Pilot Airways (later Air Queensland) which reportedly owned 3600 acres of land including The Tip itself. The resort cost $1.2 million and was known for its fishing charters and a popular Indigenous experience it offered to guests. Ownership changed to another airline, the now defunct Ansett Australia, and later to Qantas Airlines, who owned it at the time it was sold to the Injinoo Aboriginal Cooperation in 1992. The resort, by then renamed the Pajinka Wilderness Lodge, closed in 2002 for renovations and was due to reopen in 2003, but it never did. “Poor management” was one of the key reasons given as to why the lodge closed and there are reports of clashes between Indigenous staff from different clans and a staff walk-out over unpaid wages.
We squeezed past a few tour buses coming the other way and finally emerged out of the dense foliage, into the bright sunshine.
It was very busy and the little car parking area was crammed full. Very different from last October when we had the place to ourselves.
On the upside though, the tide was out so we took the easy route across the beach instead of clambering high up over the hill!
We made it in about 10 minutes and had to queue for a space to have our photo taken as there were about 25 people already there.
The tide was on the turn and was absolutely flying through the channel between us and York Island, not to mention bring full of sharks and probably crocs too. But it was still just as stunning as ever 😀
We walked back to the Triton and realized we were all peckish so we decided to go to Punsand Bay for their famously delicious (and infamously expensive) wood fired pizza. Last year the oven was closed down for the end of the season, so we missed out.
Punsand Bay also has scenic flight helicopters which tend to be cheaper than the ones off Loyalty Beach. They are Robinson R44s and they're smaller and more economical to run than the bigger Jet Rangers from Loyalty Beach. You also get a better experience in the Littke Robinsons, as they have no doors and so you get a much better all round view.
The 11km dirt road from the Croc Tent to Punsand Bay was pretty good with a few washouts. We sat on 40km and made steady progress. Last October this road was so bad we nearly didn't bother.
We arrived only to be told no pizzas til 5pm except on Sundays 😟 Not to worry, we had $20 burgers instead!!
The beach was beautiful; too bad you can't swim due to crocs of course though! We watched the helicopters take off which was very cool, but at $130 per person for 15 minutes, that was as close as we were getting!
Happily full, we returned back to camp, via the bottle shop, where we purchased a carton of beer. Due to the strict alcohol limits in Bamaga, you can only buy one case per vehicle. The delightful young lady working there kindly suggested we could purchase another one if we just drive around the corner and dropped off the first one.... Perhaps we looked like we needed it!
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and chatting with other campers. As night fell we ate our simple dinner of chicken rolls around the now customary fire on "our" beach before having an early night.
DAY 12: BAMAGA
We were up and on our way to the rifle range by 7.30am. Steve was running the first of four, much needed courses in firearms safety, for the local population. We were expecting a few students including the local police! Whilst they are licensed to carry firearms in the course of their duties, most of them don't hold a recreational license. Makes sense, but still seems strange that we were training the cops!
The range is deep in the bush surrounding Bamaga with only basic facilities. Nevertheless we got it looking professional and set up plenty of neon pink targets, some fashioned from old plastic bottles and coconuts and some we brought with us.
We had 5 students and they were a great bunch. It was a fun morning.
After the course finished we scoffed up last night's leftovers before zipping over to Spares and Repairs to see if our replacement locks had arrived yet from Cairns. They hadn't, so we headed back to Loyalty Beach for the afternoon.
We did some work on the rapidly expanding Glampers Gone Wild! Facebook group and then Steve made his world-famous Frypan Pizza.
After dinner, we had yet another horsey visitor, so we chased it off, flapping towels at it while it rolled it's eyes at our stupidity and ambled off at its own pace.
We had decided to amend our itinerary a little, so we could take a trip over to Thursday Island on Sunday. It was somewhere we'd never made time to visit, and everyone we knew was raving about it. So that was that. We decided this year we were gonna do it.
Dan had to catch a plane back to Townsville in the morning, so he got all packed up and ready to go before we fell into bed.
DAY 14: BAMAGA
The morning was a carbon copy of the previous day, with another safety course bring run.
Dan had to leave to get back in time for school. He was very excited to fly by himself though, as he hopped onto the 30 seater Dash-8 plane, bound for Cairns late morning,
Bamaga Airport is so quaint. The 12 space car park was desolate when we arrived at 10am. Then became suddenly full of fully optioned 4WDs for about 30 minutes, then was completely empty again!
Right at the entrance, there is a memorial to those who perished in a flight from Bamaga 20 years ago. Dan commented to the sole check-in clerk (who was also the baggage handler, ground marshall, vending machine fixer and cleaner), that perhaps that wasn't what arriving passengers really wanted to see just before they took off. The man said he couldn't agree more as he cheerfully handed Dan his handwritten boarding pass...!
After seeing Dan off, we did some shopping and spent the afternoon back at camp relaxing and doing the admin for the course. As night fell, the horses turned up as usual and we did our best to get rid of them. They are so tame a d friendly it does seem such a shame, but they wreck people's camps and go through the bins, so not a good idea to encourage them
DAY 16: BAMAGA
The morning was spent having a leisurely breakfast before settling down to plan our next trip. We feel so lucky to be able to plan another trip whilst we're still on one! We had wanted to go to Thursday Island or TI as the locals call it, bit the weather was against us and reluctantly it got put on the back burner.
So for our next camping trip, we are planning on heading from Townsville to Melbourne, via Central West NSW; stopping for the weekend at Cowra between 23-25 September, to take in the Cherry Blossom Festival.
After that, we headed out to the Range again to run our 3rd safety course.
We had 6 more students from the local community who were a really fun bunch. They were also very keen to help us spread the word about our safety courses. It was great to feel so much respect and acceptance and after the course, we were on a big high. Oh I nearly forgot to mention that a horse decided to amble past the Range, so we had to close down while we shooed it off! It didn't seem to afraid one little bit!
We have been seriously considering moving up here for a year, to work with the community and to experience the culture you really have to become part of it. Every time we visit, we fall more and more in love with the land, the history and the people. We will keep you posted!
We were so busy talking about how we might do it, we suddenly realized we hadn't eat, so we mozied over to the Fishing Lodge for a delicious $18 roast! Ah, this is definitely the life!
After doing the usual shooing off horses around the campground, we noticed how many people had left and how much quieter it was. Much nicer 😀
DAY 16: SEISIA
We awoke to a warm, rainy day and stayed in bed for a while, trying to decide whether it was worth doing our washing! Ah the stress!!
We then had to have bacon & egg toasted (well, frypanned) sangers to help us decide. Lo and behold, the clouds blew away, revealing blue skies!
After a spot of housework, we headed out to the Croc Tent.
When we got there we found out that poor Dale and his two boys both had chickenpox and Lee-Ann was holding the fort! Ouch! We couldn't stay long cos they're all in quarantine and Laura hasn't had Chicken Pox before (or as one of the boys called it, "Chicken Pops"!
We did have a quick chat about something which I can't announce yet, but if you refer back to a thought we had yesterday afternoon, it might give you a clue...!!! We did pick up a new travelling companion while we were there - meet Schnappy.
The rest of the day was spent strolling along the beach and then drinks and dinner before bed.
DAY 17: SEISIA
We were supposed to have left the day before, but we were STILL waiting for the damn part for the tonneau cover. Truth is, there are much worse places to be stuck for an extra day!!
The weather was still pretty rainy so after we'd finished packing up ready to go, we decided to just drive around and explore a bit around Seisia.
The supply boat, Toll Warrender, was just pulling into Seisia wharf so we watched, fascinated by all the crazy stuff on it... There were shipping containers of course, but also a truck, a boat and other things which looked like fridges.
The Toll only comes once a week and absolutely everything that's needed comes either via the Toll Warrender or the MV Trinity Bay. You can even go on a cruise on the MV Trinity Bay which goes from Cairns to Thursday Island and Bamaga in a continuous loop. You can also take your car and caravan on it! One way to avoid those bloody corrugations!
Next, we visited the Freebird Cafe, but it was closed so we had a look around the craft shop next door.
After restocking at the community supermarket, we went across to the Seisia Palms servo for fuel. Unfortunately they were all sold out, which actually may not have been a bad thing, since there have been reports their fuel is contaminated from rusty storage tanks.
We still had to get bread, because the first supermarket was out, so we went back into Bamaga, as their supermarket is a lot bigger (but more expensive)!
As soon as we arrived, Laura spotted a group of extremely thin dogs, looking very sad and hungry. So of course, she has to feed them. 4 family packs of sausages later, she finally allowed herself to be dragged away, but not before she'd complained to the Councul and the RSPCA; those dogs have owners; they're not strays!
After that it was back to the campsite for dinner. Steve declared he was going to make something special...
Apparently it was going to be full of iron...! Ok sorry that was a Dad joke! It was actually very yummy!
Sadly no fire as it was raining, but it was still warm enough to sit outside in the almost empty campsite and watch the stars on our last night at The Tip. Although, something tells me, we might be back before too long....!
DAY 18: SEISIA TO.... SEISIA!!
We had been promised our missing part would be available at 3pm so we got up late and had a very leisurely morning, since the rain was falling pretty hard outside. A few trash mags and cups of tea later we galvanized ourselves into action and started packing up.
We had been having an ongoing problem with the van leaking ever since it was virtually rebuilt after our last trip. Unbeknownst to us it had been running off the roof, pooling in a hollow on the side of the van and then running issued the cavity behind the cupboards. We had noticed a musty smell, but had just put it down to Dan's socks!!
At any rate, we did a bit more investigation because our rug inside the van was suddenly wet. When we removed the panel we found a pool of stinking dirty water.
We immediately notified Jayco of yet another Warranty repair and they booked us in for the day after we were due to get back. Meanwhile, Steve siliconed around the area the water had been getting in, whilst Laura mopped out and dried the cavity with a fan.
The sun came out very briefly and we took the opportunity to pack down the van while it was dry before heading into Bamaga.
Unfortunately, we waited until 4pm and the part was still MIA, so back we went and rechecked in!!
The lovely Alex at the Kiosk did a double take as we reappeared! Apparently we're not that easy to get rid of!!
We set up the van in literally 5 minutes flat and then headed across to the pub in the pouring rain, for a beer and a feed.
Sadly they were fully booked for dinner and sitting in the soggy beer garden by ourselves really didn't appeal so we gave up and went home for tuna mac and bed!
DAY 19: SEISIA TO BRAMWELL STATION
Up at the crack of brunch, we packed up and chicken gravy rolls at the Kiosk before heading out to Spares & Repairs for the umpteenth time. Laura went out and bought pretty much all the dog good she could lay her hands on and fed all the skinny dogs again. We had found out that the Council receives zero funding for animal control. There is a vet who flies in once every couple of months but can't do any neutering etc for free. Hmm? Something needs to be done.
At 12.30pm the most amazing thing happened ... The check in/baggage handler/airport marshall/cleaner guy rocked up to the mechanics, got out and had a package in his hand with our name on it! Turns out he's the local parcel delivery guy too!
Man were we glad to see him!!! Turns out that all the freight from the past week had been sitting at Cairns airport, waiting to get on a plane, but because every flight had been fully booked, there was no spare weight allowance left for it.
So, finally, we left Bamaga and headed out past the DC10 Memorial Road towards the ferry.
The weather was the same as it had been for the last 6 days; 27 degrees but cloudy, rainy and windy. Not that we cared - we were just happy to be on the road again 😎
We made it to the ferry at exactly 1.15pm. And there was NO QUEUE on our side woo hoo!! There was about 25 vehicles waiting on the other side though. Must be our lucky day!! We had heard that the river was so shallow, the barge could only take one or two vehicles across and as we sailed across we could definitely see the bottom only about 40cm deep.
We finally hit a little stretch of bitumen which gave our chattering teeth a rest from the corrugations, although we knew the badly corrugated stretch of road known as the Bypass over the ridge, south of Twin Falls wasn't too far ahead!
We weren't too fussed; we ambled along quite happily, occasionally wondering what what might be sloshing around in the fridge!
We'd decided to change our original itinerary and spend the night at Bramwell Station Stay. Some people love it and others hate it, so we thought we'd see for ourselves.
About 30km north of Bramwell, we stopped off at the Kennedy Camp which marks the spot where 3 members of an explorer team passed away from the harsh conditions. Still it is a beautiful spot with views to the ocean.
Shortly after we started seeing the super tall termite mounds, we passed Bramwell Junction and gratefully turned off the PDR amidst road works that looked like they were just about to seal the road. It was good knowing the worst roads were behind us and we drove the final 10km to the Station, arriving just before 5pm. It had been a hard 4 hour drive and we were tired and dusty, but it felt really good to have some good miles under our belts after being "grounded" at Bamaga for those extra days.
We set up in 10 minutes; had quick showers and were in Ken Godfrey's awesome shed by 6pm, listening to him tell the history of Bramwell Station and eagerly awaiting the massive buffet dinner. The shed was full of Maroon and Blue jerseys - of course - it was the 3rd State of Origin!
We had the most delicious buffet meal and stuffed ourselves stupid!
We knew there were going to be a few running repairs in the morning, so we left the diehards to enjoy the game whilst we party-pooped our way to bed about 8.30pm.
DAY 20: BRAMWELL TO CHILLI BEACH
We awoke to a beautiful sunny, breezy day so the first thing we did was do the washing. The tonneau cover has rattled loose once again so poor Steve had to rivet it back together again, after he'd fitted the new barrel locks. Laura busied herself with brushing red dust of everything in the back of the Triton and cleaning the inside of the van.
We then discovered the drivers side indicator wasn't working, so that was another bush repair. Looking around the campsite however, pretty much everyone had their bonnets up and their toolkits out, so we certainly weren't alone.
The indicator wasn't fixable so swearing and stamping our feet, we towed our suddenly unroadworthy van back onto the Telegraph Rd at 10.30am.
We hit Moreton Telegraph Station an easy 40 mins later. We commented that Moreton definitely is a nicer place to stay than Bramwell; if they were to put in a restaurant they give Bramwell a run for their money. If they started selling fuel, we reckoned they'd put Bramwell out the f business! Meanwhile, it would easily doable to stay at Moreton and drive to Bramwell for their amazing dinner.
The road after Bramwell was considerably slower than the 70-80kph we'd been doing, but still very good an and virtually uncorrugated.
We also spotted a lone cyclist around the start of Frenchmans Track but that was the extent of the traffic, bar a couple of 4WDs who overtook us.
We hit the intersection with the PDR from Weipa at 12.15pm and the turn off to Chili Beach about 7 mins later. So far, we'd made good time, but we'd heard it was at least a two hour drive from the turnoff, with the road being both rough, winding and steep as it crossed over the Gt Dividing Range, before it flattened out and hit the coastline. Plus it had started raining again, so we were gonna take it slow and steady.
We were pretty excited to be finally heading towards the Coady, since the whole area is not only beautiful, but steeped in history.
The road was very good for the first 15k and we were able to do about 65kph to the old Batavia Goldfields ruins. They were doing roadworks along this stretch, which was good to see.
We wound our way through the gum trees along a very tight, sandy, washed out track and then suddenly we were surrounded by huge pieces of rusted out machinery. It was fascinating to wander around and we wished we could've seen it when it was in its heyday. There's also a terrific bush campsite right next to a towering old boiler which we earmarked for next time. It would be really cool to camp amidst the ghostly wrecks at night time.
A few km's further on, we saw the entrance to Chuulangun camp which we heard is great for groups; with creek side spots, toilets and a donkey-shower - where you light a fire underneath the pot belly, to warm the water as you shower.
We continued our eastwood trek, through more roadworks and a along a really good gravelly road surface which allowed us to do about 55kph.
45 mins after leaving the Batavia ruins, we crossed the beautiful Pascoe River Causeway, about 15km south of the other end of Frenchmans Track. There were numerous shallow creek crossings, most of them nicely concreted into easy causeways.
The country around us was truly stunning and nowhere near as steep or rugged as we'd been led to believe. Or maybe we'd just gotten so used to it!
There was beautiful yellow waffle in flower as we got closer to the coast, and the beautiful Iron Range came into view.
We stopped off at the Mt Tozer lookout which is really beautiful.
Soon after, we entered Cassowary country; the vegetation completely changed into thick jungle as we descended towards the coast. It was exactly like driving through the Daintree.
After about 15km of winding through bamboo and dense rainforest, we turned off and headed 11km south into Lockhart River township, to fill up with fuel.
We arrived into Lockart River at 3.30pm, after really enjoying the drive. It had in fact taken us 2 hrs from Batavia, but it didn't feel as long because the road was good, with just right amount of challenge to be fun, plus the scenery was just stunning.
Sadly, Lockhart River township was extremely disappointing. Between the reinforced steel cage around the fuel bowsers, the roller shutters over the shopfronts to the piles of stinking garbage everywhere, it was not a place you'd want to be after dark, or actually anytime at all! There was one local lady who showed us how to use the self-serve, pre-pay fuel bowser, which was helpful!
We filled up and legged it outta there and headed back north for about 30 km to Chili Beach. The jungle gave way to coastal eucalyptus as we drove.
The closer we got to the beach, the rougher the track got, with deep corrugations, potholes and washouts. Then suddenly, bitumen!! Looked brand new too!!
Pretty soon, however, it ran out and we were back to corrugations.
It didn't matter though cos pretty soo. We arrived at Chili Beach and it was magnificent!!
We set up camp and strolled along the beach before lighting a roaring fire. Our lovely neighbours, John and Marg from Tassie came over and shared their delicious minestrone soup with us and we chatted around the fire. It was a beautiful evening and not even that windy!
DAY 21: CHILI BEACH TO BATAVIA GOLDFIELDS
Because we'd lost two days due to wIting for the parts at Bamaga, we only had one night left at Chili Beach. Steve tried to book an extra night but it was showing as full, despite it being 80% empty, exactly like Eliot Falls. They really need to change the system; it's not helping anyone!
Not that we cared though, we'd decided to go back to Batavia Goldfields for the night!!
We packed up, played silly games with "Yorik" and "Horatio" our new pet coconuts, and had one last stroll along the beautiful deserted beach before heading out at 10am.
We stopped off at a local fisherman a house and bought some beautiful fresh caught reef fish for dinner. Then we headed over to Portland Roads township (Pop.7) to the Out of the Blue cafe for a slice of Sheree's famous cheesecake.
Oh my, was it good or what! Portland Roads is beyond tiny. It's one dead end road with the most picture perfect views over the ocean and the most fantastic cafe ever. And that's it! No signal, no wifi, no tv, nothing just the the sea, the beach, fishing, birds and sun. Absolute paradise. We didn't want to leave.
We did have to do some quick running repairs to the Triton where the brush guard underneath the engine had lost a couple of bolts through vibration, but Steve fixed it quick smart.
We set off towards Batavia about 12.15pm and bowled along quite merrily, making good time.
We even saw a Cassowary crossing a creek in front of us, which was really special and the first wild one Laura had ever seen.
Just before Canoe Creek, the black cloud which had been gathering above us, suddenly burst and sheets of rain came down. The hard packed red clay road turned into a gluey, slippery brown ice rink and we started to fish tail horribly. It reminded us of our experience on the Oodnadatta Track in Dec last year, during a flash flood.
For the next 5km, we put it in low range 4WD and crawled along st 2kph. The hairiest part was virtually sliding down into Canoe Creek and then climbing up the long, steep bank on the other side, with Swifty gracefully swing out from side to side behind us!
There was someone in front of us, towing a camper trailer, who came so close to completely losing it, it jackknifed across the road. But he managed at the last minute to get control back and made it up the hill! Phew!
Literally 10 minutes later, the blue sky returned and the road was completely bone dry!
Apart from stupid drivers emerging suddenly out of the dust cloud and roaring past us at ridiculous speeds, (usually on our side of the road, around blind corners), the rest of the drive was very pleasant and uneventful.
It would be fair to say that this leg of our trip has been one of absolute favourites - even with probably the most challenging driving conditions so far - and we planned to definitely revisit in the not too distant future.
We arrived at Boiler Campsite at 2.30pm and set up for the night. It was so beautiful and quiet and we felt like we were the only ones around.
We were planning to bake the local fish we'd bought at Portland Roads in the fire, so Steve went off into bush with his Husky and came back with half a tree!
He then raked up all the coals from the previous fire and lit a big new one over the top, including lots of coconuts.
It started to burn nicely, and the sir started to full with the rich aroma of toasted coconut. He then basted the beautiful reef fish fillets in a mixture of salt, olive oil, lime juice and coconut, before wrapping it tightly in foil.
After the fire had been burning for a couple of hours, it had reduced down to a good sized mound of glowing, aromatic coals.
He dug a pit in the centre and laid the fish parcel, in it, before topping it with more red hot coals.
Then we sat back and had a beer as we waiting for the coconut fire to work its magic.
He removed the silver parcel from the fire and unwrapped it to reveal perfectly cooked, moist, delicious coconut & lime fish!
It was so tasty, and we polished it off with a side of veggie rice, before sitting around our lovely fire.
It was like sitting in an amphitheatre; a perfect circle, surrounded by trees, hiding us from the outside world, with the roof open to the stars.
Just before bed, we went for a walk around the ruins. The moonlight was so bright, we had shadows! We didn't even really need torches, except to search in the bush for animals rustling around. We saw a cane toad and heard what was probably a pig, but other than that it was totally quiet.
Yep, a perfect night 😀
DAY 22: BATAVIA TO MUSGRAVE
We were nearly out of water, clean clothes and fuel, so we reluctantly decided to leave our perfect bush camp, and head to Musgrave Roadhouse for the night. It would then be a much shorter drive to Kalpowar the following day.
We vowed to be back; possibly with a group of family and loved ones, in the near future.
It was a beautiful, warm and sunny day so we slept in, and headed out at 10am. Half an hour later, we hit the PDR and made it easily to Archer River by 11am.
We begrudgingly coughed up $2/L for diesel and headed down to Coen. We arrived at midday and somehow, word had got around that The Dog Lady was here... All the skinny mums dogs and pups suddenly appeared out of nowhere!
Laura shared out what was supposed to have been our dinner (with Steve's blessing) and all the new mums got a nice bellyful. They were all so friendly and had such gentle natures, even though they were terribly thin, had rampant skin infections, were infested with fleas and most were limping, presumably from either being hit by cars or something else even the tiny pups were in the same sorry state.
Laura vowed right there and then that she was going to do something about this situation as soon as she could. First and foremost there needs to be a neutering program on the whole Peninsula, followed up with educating the locals on appropriate care of their animals.
Coen is not a particularly welcoming place. People are doing it tough here and you see a lot of drunkeness and loitering around town; men, women and teens. We stocked up with what we needed and got out.
At 12.30om, we continued southwards, towards Musgrave. About 40km out, the road deteriorated into sandy corrugations, making for a very bumpy ride.
We passed our 2015 crash site again, giving silent thanks that history had not repeated itself.
We pulled into the Roadhouse at 2.15pm and set up in the lovely grassy camping area, under a beautiful shade tree. There was only one other camper when we arrived - Harry-Diculous - according to the sign on his car!
After doing all our chores; refilling the tanks with water, refilling the triton and the jerry cans with diesel, washing all our dusty clothes and ourselves; we had a beautiful relaxing afternoon doing some people watching.
We were surprised to spot an old truck towing a fairground ride. We had a bit of a chat and turns out they were going to Aracoon. We asked them if they knew Harry Diculous; they said no, but maybe he could join them!
By 5pm, the campground was bursting at the seams, as one camper put it, "tighter than a Big 4"!
We had a scrumptious early dinner of the famous Musgrave $10 burgers. While we waited, we looked around their info corner - hopefully these weren't on the menu!
After dinner we had an early night. Tomorrow we were planning to turn off the PDR and head into the uncharted waters (well for us, anyway!) of the Lakefield National Park. We had booked into Kalpowar Crossing for 3 days, and we were planning to leave Swifty there for a day whilst we 4WD'd up to Cape Melville.
DAY 22: MUSGRAVE TO KALPOWAR
We allowed ourselves a sleep in and by 10am, the campground was empty again, except for some bovine visitors around the fuel pumps!
We collected all our clean dry washing, had a good brekkie and then discovered that the trailer lights weren't working. However, the indicator that wasn't working yesterday, was now working perfectly! Ah well, must be a short then. We tried to fix it but no go, so we headed out anyway. We were going to be driving off road for the next few hours anyway, so we decided not to worry about it.
We left Musgrave at 10.15am and headed east along Lakefield Road towards Kalpowar. it was a beautifully warm sunny day, although the night had been really cold.
The road was excellent - better than the PDR by far - and there was hardly any traffic except a couple of hardcore cyclists and the odd road train, so we kept up a steady 70kph.
About half an hour along, we stopped at Lotusbird Lagoon, which was just beautiful, an oasis of bird life and white water lilies. Stunning. Probably full of crocs though!
We also found some large bones - soup anyone !
About 10 mins up the road, we went into the bush to check put Sweetwater Lake campground. It was pretty soft sand, but nice and dry, so we went for it. We spotted some more painted face wallabies watching us as we picked our way through the mangroves.
The lake itself was a little sister to Lotysbird, but surrounded by thu k mangrove and mud. The campsite was just a scrape. There was a nice track which we walked along for a bit, admiring the peace and quiet and the magnificent magnetic termite mounds.
We carried on, deeper into the National Park, as the road turned south towards Cooktown. We were more than impressed by the road and could understand why people choose to come this way even though it's longer.
Shortly afterwards, we crossed Saltwater Creek, which has a few sandy camp spots along it. It was quite mozzie-Ish though.
Suddenly the canopy gave way to the vast, grassy Nifold flood plain, with thousands upon thousands of termite mounds, as far as the eye could see. With the sun beating down it was difficult to imagine, but this whole area would be under water in the wet season.
As we neared the Hann River, the low level eucalypt forest returned and the track narrowed again.
We crossed the river easily over the causeway. In the Wet, however, it would be about 500m wide, going by the width of the banks and rocky bottom. Today, it was a mere trickle. The camp spots were well spread out, but had no shade and really not the best we'd ever seen.
Just up a bit further, we came upon the ruins of the old Breeze Homestead, set amongst towering mango trees, and overlooking yet another beautiful lily lagoon. It looked like it had had a cattle dip and yards; probably from the early-mid 20th century. A beautiful spot for a picnic.
We passed Red Lily and White Lily lagoons and then about 10km further, we could see Kalpowar Crossing about 3km to the east. Unfortunately, you can't get to it across the swamp and the river, so you have to drive about 7km further south, loop around just south of Lakefield Ranger Station and then drive back up. Not that we minded; it was a beautiful, easy drive; we were just excited to get there!
We arrived into Kalpowar Crossing and passed the sign to Cape Melville pointing across the river. It was so pretty, with lots of shade, grassy sites and the sound of running water not far off. As we drove around looking for our prebooked site number, Laura realized that somehow Steve knew where to go. The sound of rushing water grew louder and then suddenly he stopped at the best site in the whole campground! It was the biggest, with the best aspect and had an awesome view, right over the Normanby River Rapids. Laura was ecstatic and Steve looked pretty proud too!
Once we'd calmed down a bit, we set up and then took a walk down to check out the causeway across the river. We were planning to drive across it in the morning on our way up to Cape Melville. It looked pretty good, only about 40cm deep at the deepest part, so we were happy with that. There had been a recent croc sighting at the causeway, so we were very careful not to stand within a few metres of the water's edge.
After dinner, we went for a walk with the torches, to see if we could find any cherubin (freshwater prawns) in the river. Stupidly we were in thongs and when we came upon a snake on the path, we decided perhaps it wasn't the best idea we've ever had. Yes it was only a little children's python, but where there's one snake, there'll be others around and neither of us wanted to step on a brown snake.
DAY 23: CAPE MELVILLE or not...
The day didn't start off too well; the big gas bottle ran out and the interior lights spontaneously stopped working. We discovered that our back up gas bottle didn't fit the connector. That was annoying, because it meant we suddenly had no fridge. We could still cook on our outdoor stove or over the fire, but having no fridge was a serious problem since it meant WARM BEER! Obviously this was a major drama and the closest town of Laura was a 170km, 3 hour round trip...
Whilst we pondered our options, we went to chat to a couple in the campground who had a futuristic looking camper called an Ultimate Xplore GT.
I think it's fair to say that we fell in love at first sight. With their camper, I mean, not the couple.
It was shaped like the nose cone of a plane, with a full off road suspension, gull wing doors at the front, a rear entry and a huge king size bed that jutted out to one side. It was designed and made by a family of Australian boat builders and you could instantly see it, in the single piece fiberglass "hull" and marine style interior fit out.
Cathy and Ron, the lovely owners were kind enough to give us a guided tour and also allowed us to watch them pack it down.
On a day when we were fed up with problems with Swifty, it fired up our imaginations.... Could this be the trailer that would go wherever the Triton could?
Back to the gas problem. In the end, we managed to persuade ourselves that if we stopped off at the Old Laura Homestead and the Bridge to Nowhere, we could justify the trip as sightseeing, with a stop off at the gas shop while we were there! Plus it was raining and overcast, so Cape Melville was put off til the next day. (Note; If you've read our Kooroorinya Falls blog, you'll recognize a bit of a pattern forming!)
So off we went at about 10.30am. We stopped at Catfish Waterhole and Kennedy Bend, as we'd heard there were crocs there, but we didn't spot any.
The road was great! Much better than the PDR. We saw lots more fairground people travelling north, presumably to Aracoon.
We arrived into Laura about midday and went straight to the Quinkan Hotel for lunch. Then we refueled the Triton and swapped the gas bottle before heading out to see the Bridge to Nowhere.
As it turned out, the history behind the bridge was really interesting and a bit sad too. It would make a really good campsite though!
After that, we headed up to the Laura Homestead ruins. It had once been a thriving Cattle Station but was abandoned in the 1960s and has been left to crumble ever since. It was interesting but it could've been so much better if it was maintained and preserved. In another 50 years, there would probably be nothing left. It was a shame; the Pioneering history of Australia is so important and deserves to be better preserved.
After that, we trundled back to Kalpowar and cooked roast spuds in the fire for dinner.
Our neighbours were trying out all kinds of bait for the cherubin and so far they'd found that a combo of cat food and apples seemed to work best. We donated our onion skins to their latest experiment, on the condition they shared the catch!!
After dinner we took the torches and went down to the river. We saw a couple of tiny little frogs but nothing else.
Steve braved the cold showers: Laura was too chicken!!
DAY 24: CAPE MELVILLE again.?
The day dawned bright and sunny until 9am, when it started to sprinkle. Steve got a fright when he went to boot his boots on and a little striped frog leapt out!!
Steve then did another temporary fix on the door latch which had broken, while Laura was told to go have a (cold) shower, or else!
About 11am, the sun came out and we left Swify behind, as headed north towards Cape Melville. We'd heard the road was very wet so we decided to see how we went and if it got too hairy, we'd just turn back.
We crossed the river over the causeway without any problems.
We drove for about half an hour at a good speed, past numerous lily ponds, some with huge red-headed Jabiru wading across and families of cows standing in the cool mud. We also saw either a Goanna or large Monitor scuttle across the road and a wild dog not long after. We also saw several wallabies hopping around; there aren't kangaroos on the Cape.
We crossed Marrett Ck and then turned due east towards Cape Melville. The sign said it was 46km; so far so good.
The road was still excellent, with just a few slightly muddy areas, but nothing too bad. There was also a fair bit of traffic coming back from the Cape, all in one piece, which was encouraging.
We passed Rock Stacker Lagoon about 20 mins after the turn off, with its totally creepy row of skulls and bones, strung between two trees.
Steve reckoned it was made by bored road workers; but horror movie-lover Laura, was certain there would be a far scarier story!
The road then suddenly narrowed, but was still good and hard. Plus there were plant machines working on it, so no worries so far.
The road became more of a basic track through the bush, but was still easily passable.
As we came over a ridge, we were greeted by a terrific view of the Melville Ranges rising over the plains before the ocean. Stunning.
Twenty minutes later, we arrived at the remains of Wakooka Homestead.
Whilst we were laughing at our mistake, a couple of other 4WDs, both towing tinnies. A group of four friends got out and we had a few good laughs chatting to them. They were heading out further to the coast and they told us that the next 40km would take us over an hour and was very slow going.
We decided to give it a miss this time since it was already after lunch and no way did we want to be driving back in the dark.
We did decide that next time, we would do the 180km 4WD track from Wakooka to Cooktown, over a couple of days, tenting it halfway.
On the way back to camp, we picked up some deadwood for the fire.
We also went over a tiny bridge at Marrett Ck, that was made out of nothing but 6 split logs! Laura held her breath til we were safely over it!
Once back at camp, we shared a fabulous meal with our lovely neighbours, Jen & Dennis. We enjoyed camp fire pizza (thank you Steve), and cherubin, caught that day by Dennis.
We had a great laugh and chat with them, late into the night. They've been coming to Kalpowar Crossing for over a decade, and they have named all the local wildlife; there was "the Kids" - two gorgeous Tawny Frogmouths, who came to visit us. "Chunky", the Monitor lizard - who was named for the chunks missing out of his tail. "Big Boy", "Pearl" and a couple more - crocodiles! It was a great night under the light of the full moon.
DAY 25: KALPOWAR TO ENDEAVOUR FALLS
Laura made pineapple pancakes to share between us and our new friends and then we packed up and headed out, after swapping contact details. We felt very privileged to have met such an interesting and lovely couple, and hoped we'd meet up again.
Across the causeway, we parked up and Steve took Laura along the riverbank to show her some amazing fossils and huge croc tracks that Dennis had shown him the night before.
As we walked further away from the crossing, it grew very still and increasingly dark and difficult to pick our way through tangled trees and vines. It was very creepy as it got darker and quieter. We both felt we were being watched as we tiptoed around billabongs and it got swampy and muddy underfoot. It felt extremely croccy and we were very alert, quiet and careful as we pushed further.
We found a dead black snake sand shortly afterwards we came upon massive crocodile tracks. We judged it would've been over 3.5m long, going by the width of the belly slide and the distance between footprints. It was interesting and scary at the same time and we left soon afterwards. It was a relief to emerge from the dank, twilight of the deep creek swamp, back into the sunlight.
The fossils were huge and you could imagine there would be many more encased inside the thousands of boulders alongside the river.
We then headed south, around 11.30am, towards our next stop at Endeavour Falls.
About an hour later, we crossed the Laura River, behind the old homestead. We noted for future, that camp no.1 was huge and private and would be perfect for a group.
As it started to rain, we continued along Battle Camp Rd, which was named for a famous battle between white settlers and aborigines in the 1800s.
About 20km in, between Lake Emma and Battle Camp Station, the road became very muddy and we slipped around for a bit, nice and slowly, as the sun came out. There was quite a bit of traffic on this stretch, travelling much too fast as usual, zigzagging all over the place. We just pulled over and let them all pass us and get out of our way!
We created the rise at Battle Camp Station to see the beautiful vista below us of the road winding east through the Audaer Ranges in the distance.
The road hardened up as we drove along and was well graded, so we happily bowled along at about 60kph.
We crossed the Normanby River, just as it started to rain again. The entry was quite muddy and the creek probably about 50cm deep on a concreted base. The exit was partially sealed, which was good, since it was quite steep and was around a tight corner.
Successful across we continued on, slow and steady, as the wet road climbed up and around the Range. 
Steve walked across and then came back so excited, saying he'd found an amazing campsite on the other side. Well, he wasn't kidding. The Triton tugged Swifty across effortlessly and on the other side, as promised, was the most idyllic riverside camp you could ever imagine!
We were in our usual 'end of trip' mood; half happy, half sad. We were busting to be home in some ways. We knew the van would be going in for some repairs as usual and there was going to be a LOT of cleaning! We also knew it wouldn't be long before we were heading out again.
We hit bitumen shortly afterwards, which helped clean the tyres if nothing else!
The road then wound back down quite steeply until we found ours legs back on the flat. It was a truly spectacular view down the valley, with the red streak of road etched into the mountainside.
As we neared Isabella Falls, the sky darkened again quite dramatically and the rainforest looked so wild and beautiful in its rawness against the sky. The road once again became muddy and slippery, so we just took our time.
The Isabella Falls ford was only about 20cm deep, if that, and the rain stopped as we crossed the creek.
The vegetation was now thick rainforest, classic Daintree style, as we turned south at 2pm for the last 4km to Endeavour Falls.
As we pulled up, the rain clouds parted and the sun came out. Everything was sparkling and fresh, as we set up in the pristine park, among sky high Palm trees and lush green grass. It was such an overload to our senses, after spending so much time in the dust and scrub - we were quite overcome!
After setting up and doing our washing, we took a wander to the Falls, at the rear of the property. There was so much rushing water it was a sight to see. We'd have loved to jump in for a swim but a croc had recently moved in, so that idea was foiled.
As it approached evening, we cooked up the beautiful gourmet snags we'd bought from H in Laura, whilst we prepared for movie nite! Yes, you read right!
Steve had the brilliant idea of putting the laptop outside to play a movie, and we pulled up our chairs, made some popcorn and had our own drive-in! He always has the best ideas!
It was so fun, watching a movie under the stars and then we had nice hot showers and went to bed, ready for a big drive out to the abandoned mining township of Maytown.
DAY 26: ENDEAVOUR FALLS TO MAYTOWN
It rained all night and we had a repeat problem of the water leaking into the chassis, so we dried the mats as best we could, whilst mildly cursing under our breath. The camp ground was so pretty however, and we had leftover snags for brekkie, so we soon cheered up.
We had decided to take the southern route to Maytown since the northern approach, along the old Coach Rd is hardcore 4WD. With all the recent rain, it would be silly to even attempt it.
We set off about 9.30am and drove through incredibly green, lush paddocks full of fat longhorn beef cattle.
The road to Cooktown was very muddy and slippery but it they were doing roadwork so hopefully sealing it soon.
The Triton, Swifty and me, Mingo, were completely filthy anyway, so we blended in well!
We stopped off in Cooktown about half an hour later to restock and visit the famous Bargain Barn, which sells everything from welders to clothing!
About 11am, Steve took the Triton out of 4WD, for the first time in nearly 4 weeks, and we headed south down the Mulligan Hwy. We passed the turn off to Archer Pt and Black Mountain, and followed the road as it turned inland towards Lakeland and then Palmer River.
Just before Palmer River Roadhouse, the sun came out and we stopped briefly at the Janes Earl lookout for the terrific views across the range to the coast.
We stopped in for a break at the Roadhouse at 12.30pm to check the road conditions to Maytown, but also to look around their fascinating little museum.
We continued to be fascinated by the history of the brief but intense gold rush in the area - between 1873 and 1884. Maytown sprung up and had a community of 10,000 people, with no less than 12 hotels and 3 banks. By 1900 it was abandoned. You could only imagine the exciting times that were held, fueled by gold fever!
We turned off the Hwy, onto Whites Creek Rd, 15km south of the Roadhouse at 1.10pm and stopped to go back into 4WD although the dirt road was well graded and gravelly. The Roadhouse staff has told us they'd had no rain for 3 months!
5km in, we entered Bonny Glen pastoral lease, and the road wound up and around dry, eucalypt scrubby hills for another 17km. A total change of flora than in Cooktown.
The view was spectacular including a huge freshwater lake.
At 2.10pm we crossed the old airstrip, just west of Granite Ck, which is approximately two thirds of the way to Maytown.
At 2.30pm we stopped at the Sam Elliott Lookout Cairn, which is 16km before Maytown.
At 3pm we drove into the Goldfields and got completely lost!! The map the NP had up was outdated and no longer made any sense. We finally gave up when we were confronted by a hill so steep, it was more like an escarpment, and with washouts and giant sized steps to boot!
According to the map, the campground was just a few hundred meters away, but there was no way we could get to it. So we had no choice but to turn back. We cheered ourselves up by checking out the amazing old mine sites, plus one which was like a palace, with a massive front entrance and sculptures in gold and iron.
At 4pm, tired and dusty, we turned back and headed for Maytown, hoping to find somewhere else to camp for the night.
We arrived at a sandy bottomed dry creek bed and were in two minds whether to chance getting bogged.
The cows had even mowed the grass for us!
We had a good ole feast of Stagg Chilli and then settled in by the fire.
As darkness fell, we got the torch and went looking for cherubin. There were so many! And big ones too! Plus Redclaw and freshwater crabs all over the place! The whole River was absolutely heaving with food! Next time we definitely we're bringing the nets!
A head of cattle ambled past on their way to their drinking hole and Steve had a standoff with a young bullock, who was pawing the ground ready to charge. Luckily he was pretty easy to scare off! Later on, we heard some very loud bellowing from the other side of the river. We reckoned it was either a T-Rex or a cow giving birth. Or maybe Big Foot! After all we were seriously remote, being 3 hrs from anywhere. We were glad we had our PLB, plenty of fuel, food and water, plus a jump start kit. You would not want to come this far away from civilization without all the above and probably a Satellite phone as well.
After a totally awesome evening under the stars, we turned in. Two very happy campers.
DAY 27: MAYTOWN TO TULLY
We awoke to dazzling blue skies and our beautiful shady riverside spot looked even more idyllic than the day before.
We had our brekkie overlooking the beautiful River and shoals of fish came to say hello! It was like they'd never seen humans before. You could literally have reached in and just scooped them out.
We packed up in the certain knowledge that we had found possibly the best campsite in the whole of Queensland, and we were already planning to come back.
There was one moment when the car wouldn't start, but Steve popped the bonnet and checked the battery terminals. One was slightly loose and as soon as he fixed it, the car started first go. It could also explain the intermittentl problem with the van lights too. Another lesson learnt!
Laura kept out of the way whilst Steve's head was under the hood, and did some bush art....!
We drove back across the sandy riverbed into Maytown and spent an enjoyable half hour exploring the remains, including the replica miners hut.
We then set off at 10.20am, bound for our last destination for this trip - Tully Gorge.
As we drove the 80km of roller coaster dirt road, Laura logged accurate markers all the way back to the Mulligan Hwy, for easier navigation next time!
There were dozens and dozens of cars coming the other way, most towing dirt bikes. We guessed it must be a Bike Club. Pity none of them seemed able to drive a car properly though, as they roared past on our side of the road!
We reached the Mulligan Hwy at 12.45pm, swapped drivers and headed off down the bitumen to refuel at the beautifully renovated Mt Carbine Roadhouse (it's for sale!), at 1.25pm.
It was a nice easy hour's drive through the sunshine, to the bustling town of Mareeba.
At 3.15pm, we stopped at the Henry Ross Lookout, with its sweeping views of Cairns, just before passing under the Kuranda Skyrail.
Half an hour later, we drove through Cairns and the Cairns Show was on. So that explained all the dirt bike riders up at Maytown - it was a long weekend!
We carried on south, down the Bruce Hwy, past the Pyramid, through Babinda (Umbrella Town), past the cane fields and banana plantations of Innisfail and on to Tully.
It was getting late, plus there had been a LOT of rain and it was likely the Gorge campground would be very boggy. So we decided to treat ourselves for our last night and go to Googarra Beach instead.
What a pretty little spot! All beautifully grassed, with a lovely pool, big open area at the back, spotless amenities and the best camp kitchen/laundry/group BBQ area we'd ever seen! Plus, it had a pub, cafe and fuel on site!
Chatting with the friendly staff, we found out that they'd had so much rain, even by Tully's standards, that the Sugar Mill had stopped pressing for 3 days. Now that's a lot of rain! It had certainly been a strange dry season up the Cape this year. Looking back, it rained pretty much every day.
After two huge burgers and one drink each, we fell asleep, quite contented.
DAY 28: TULLY TO TOWNSVILLE
Our last day!
We awoke to another beautiful day of blue skies and sun, with dew on the grass and everything looking freshly washed. Except the Triton and Swifty of course, who were still proudly wearing nice brown dust jackets.
After a leisurely cuppa we packed up and headed south about 9.45am, through the familiar cane fields. The clouds hung low over the range as usual, but the sky was clear and blue.
It's a funny feeling; every trip we do together is a reflection on the strength of our relationship. We feel a sense of pride that we get through the ups and downs as a team, and our bond grows stronger as a result. Occasionally we get cranky of course, but never for long and we truly savour every moment and how incredibly lucky we are to be living our lives with this amount of freedom. To be able to explore the most amazing country in the world, is a true gift. To do it with your soulmate is the icing on the cake.
Half an hour later, we stopped off at Cardwell for egg and bacon rolls and a look around the little beachfront markets. It could not have been a more perfect morning.
Walking back, we saw another Ultimate camper. It did look damn good!
Half an hour later, we passed through Ingham on the last 100km stretch back to Townsville. We'd heard it had been raining pretty well non-stop since we'd been away, so we were curious to see whether it had become Brownsville or not! The weather was definitely weird; no proper wet season for 4 years and then rain all through the dry season...
We were home before 1pm. Another epic adventure under our belts. Cleaning and washing were put on the back burner for the rest of the day as we allowed ourselves to adjust to being back in civilization. Trust me, it really does take a while!
Hope you enjoyed reading about our latest trip and will join me for our next one.
Much love,
Mingo xxx
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