Cape York Adventure June 2014 - Chatswood, Australia
Chatswood, Australia
Wednesday 04/06/14 Up at 0430 and on the road by 0625 with Martin in tow. Country looking pretty good as we drove through the Hunter Valley. Spotted one hot air balloon. Quick comfort stop in Muswellbrook. Stopped for coffee in Scone on our way again at 1020. Narrabri 1300. Fuel 71.38 litres $114. Good hamburger in Narrabri for lunch, $8. Fast run into St George arriving at 1705. Millage for the day 804.4 Stayed at the Merino Motor Inn $125, very comfortable. Had Chicken Schnitzel at the motel restaurant. Early to bed. Thursday 05/06/14 Up, breakfasted and on the road by 0720. Beautiful day, about 10 degrees. Roma 0920. Fuel 90.58 litres $143.03. Morning tea stop just outside of Roma. Lunch just outside of Roliston. Arrived Clermont 1600. Peppercorn Motel $135. Chef from Glasson in Ireland. Drive around town, refueled 80.41 litres $131.00. Dinner boys steak me chicken again. Lovely owner. Husband a farmer in the Darling Downs. Early to bed again. Friday 06/06/14. On the road again by 0720. Saw brolgas on the way to Charters Towers, other than that it was a pretty boring drive. Charters Towers is a very pretty town. Lovely Queensland buildings. Morning tea 120kms outside of Townsville. Arrived Townsville 1230. Had picnic lunch in a park on the waterfront, Prawns I'd bought in Clermomt yesterday from a mobile seafood truck from Yamba. Booked into Motel 1400 then drove down town parked the cars and had a wander around. Looked at Townsville Yacht Club and marina facilities. Got touch with Simons friend Moorie and met him for a drink at Herberts hotel and then had a Thai dinner. $35/head. Walked up the steep hill back to our Motel. Saturday 07/06/14 Up to Castle Hill to take in the view. Spectacular. Woollies shop, breakfast then off to buy a new pair of Blunstones as i had left mine in the motel in Clermont. Refuelled 91.8litres $142.20, and on our way to Cairns at 1040. Arrived 1515. Walked along the Esplanade. Iron man challenge on tomorrow so quite busy. Drove to caravan Pk Lippeys had booked, 15 kms out of town!! Cooked dinner in cabin. Sunday 08/06/14 Washing done in the morning. Has rained all night. Left Pk at about 1000 went and did last minute shopping. Martin off to the airport to collect Shari. Lippeys and Browns drove to Trinity Beach, Bourkes joined us 1/2hr later and we had a great Italian lunch at a very nice restaurant. Made our way to Karanda having a look at Barwon falls on the way. Arrived at the McCartheys at 1700. Lovely night with Kirsten, Ian and John. Lamb and delicious salads for dinner. Their house is an old queenslander that needs a lot of work and its huge!! Monday 09/06/14 Left Kirstens at 0900Had a quick look at Karunda. Visited Port Douglas, Mossman and Mossman Gorge, Cape Tribulation. Caught the car ferry across the Daintree River,$13.Drove through the Daintree, Spectacular. The forest really does meet the sea. Drove the Bloomfield track to Cooktown. Parts of it quite challenging. Some serious steep sections with that lovely sticky red mud. Numerous river crossings the most challenging being the Bloomfied causeway crossing. Strong flowing current and deep. Water up over our bonnet.River is known to have crocs in it. Passed the Lions Den Pub, didnt go in. Greast accommodation in Cooktown, Seaview Motel $85. Pub meal for dinner. Tuesday10/06/14 Lazy start in Cooktown. Went to the lookout, sensational views. Visited James Cook Museum. Very interesting. Left Cooktown at 1200. Some muddy sections and slippery in parts. Got to Hann River roadhouse 1615 and decided to call it quits for the night. also called in to Old Laura Station and Laura on the way. Lamb for dinner. Wednesday11/06/14wet Tony and i up early and had a shower. Heavy dew overnight, tent very wet. Left camp 0835. Had a look at amusgrave Roadhouse. Bit more upmarket than Hann. Morning tea on the road. Got to Coen about midday. Refueled and visited local museum. Obtained camping permit from a computer at the rangers office. QLD makes it very difficult. Have to camp in designated spots!!. Onto Archer River Roaadhouse for lunch. On the road again by 1400. Made camp at Rainforest Camp near Lockhart River about 1600. Damp and mozzies but a beautiful spot. Lots of birds. Bats made a racket all night. Thursday 12/06/14 Left camp about 0900 and went to rangers station to obtain camping permit for Chilli Beach off to visit Gordon airstrip which was used in WW11 by 7000 Americans and Australians. Visited Lockhart River Community, an indigenous dry community, with quite a good art gallery. Morning tea by the beach. Arrived Chilli Beach at lunch time to find someone in our spot. Had lunch while they packed up and had a lovely relaxing afternoon. Very hot but a beautiful south easterly mad it 5 degrees cooler on the beach. Lamb chops for dinner and early to bed. Friday 13/06/14 Some rain overnight and some things got a little wet!! Left Chilli 0850 after managing to fry an egg on the griddle!! Could not find turn off for Frenhmans creek track but did find the Pascoe River track but decided to go the long way via the PDR. Early lunch at Mawson Telegraph Station. Lovely green shaded camping areas. Continued on and had a look at Bramwell station which has camping facilities and a Bar!!! Onto Bramwell Junction and refueled. Out to The Telegraph Track. First crossing hideous! Chicken run not much better. Lippeys across and winched themselves up the other side. Shari and Judy spat the dummy! Camped there at Palm creek for the night. Saturday 14/06/14 travelled to gunshot via PDA and bypass track. ON the way we got horribly bogged in a grey smelly bog hole. First attempt and a tow out from the Burkes resulted in a snapped tow cable. Second attempt successful. Mud was halfway up Judy's door so she couldn't get out.atched vehicles crossing at Gunshot&S and continued up southern arm of OTT . Martin bogged briefly at Cockatoo Crossing but was towed out without trouble. Continued on to Sailor Ck, which has a bridge. Decided to camp there as it was a disused linesman's camp about 2pm. Carol and Tony came thru about 3 hrs later with there new friends Darren and Simone who had helped them out further down the OTT. Sunday 15/06/14 Continued on OTT to Fruit Bat falls for a very welcoming swim. Massage under the waterfalls amazing. Then on to Eliot and Twin falls for another swim. Bumped into Darren and Simone again and followed them out over Canal Ck crossing. Travelled up the Northern arm of OTT with D and S leading crossing Sam Ck, Mistake Ck and Cannibal Ck all difficult river crossings. After carefully crossing Cyprus Ck,which is crossed using a rudimentary narrow log bridge, 2 more unnamed fords 1 of them bonnet dip and then were confronted by Nolans Brooke at Bridge Ck. This was a very deep crossing with a curve in it. When we got there another group was crossing each vehicle attaching a tow cable to the 1 following ti and towing it across. Darren who was leading us at this stage over ran the tow cable which wound around his axle and broke his CV joint and bent his steering arm. Because of this D&S were forced to stay at Nolans and remove CV joint ably helped by the blokes in the proceeding convoy. We had more trouble continuing up the OTT to the PDR. We had to shovel mud onto the track in order to pass over a difficult section of which we might otherwise rolled over. Tried to find a camp on the southern side of the Jardine but couldn't find anything suitable due to the amount of water lying around. so back onto the PDR and camped at a quarry. Monday 16/06/14 Up early> Tony noticed that we had a flat front Passenger tyre so a speedy change took place. Continued on to the Jardine River Ferry. Lovely camp site by the River. Purchased ferry ticket $129 per vehicle and crossed over. Went and had a look at the camping spots on the northern side of the Jardine, one in particular was quite lovely with a nice sandy beach but the usual croc warning signs. We managed to get bogged again but out in no time. getting a lot of practice at this now. Onto Bamaga then out to Sesia. Great campground with covered facilities with a sink and power. Ate at the restaurant there that night. Delicious food. 2 courses $30. Great value. Tuesday17/06/14 Up extra early as Browns and Burkes off to TI and Horn Islands. 0800 ferry to TI look 70minutes. Bus trip around island. Visited Green Hill which was a fortress in WW11. Good museum but not enough time to see everything. A quick look at the cemetery then back to the wharf to catch a smaller ferry to Horn Island. Lunch at "the resort" buffet Chinese and fish and chips. Then on the bus visiting the airfield, DC3 wreck and gunneries. Back on the little ferry to TI thethe big ferry to the mainland into a 20knot sou"easter. . Quiet afternoon. Chicken for dinner. Lippeys had dinner at the restaurant with D&S. Wednesday 18/06/14 Left Seisia 1030 after restocking in Bamaga. Stopped at the Croc Tent on our way to the Somerset ruins then the beach circuit back to the turn off to the Cape and straight up to the tip. !/2 hr walk to the tip over rocks and a Just as hard walk back via rocks and beach. Onto Punsand Bay to camp the night. Beaut spot right on the beach. Shame you cant swim. Ate at the restaurant and watched State of Origin. Blues 6 Maroons 4. Thursday 19/06/14 Quiet day doing nothing. Fixed solar panels, read and showered. Tony Caral and tony did a helicopter flight in the afternoon. Pork chops for dinner. Friday 20/06/14 Slow pack up and gone at 1030. Back to Croc tent and into Bamaga for a stock up. Detol stops you scratching midge bites!! Crayfish pie for an early lunch. Drove out to the airport to drop Shari off. On the way looked at WW11 plane crash sites. Left Shari at 1330 for a 1600 flight and drove out to Mutee Heads. North camp good. Drove out to the south camps, all taken. Great spot at the mouth of the Jardine. Lowered tyre pressure as lots of sand. Back to North camp. 2 couples there from Vic but plenty of room. Nice quiet afternoon with a beer by the sea. Water looks so inviting but you cant swim. Chicken for dinner. Saturday 21/06/14 Up early. Beautiful morning although there are flies. Said goodbye to Darren and Simone then went and had a look at the old radar station. Back on the PDR.Across the Jardine on the ferry. 3 shitbox rally cars there. Blokes from Sydney who had flown to Broome for the car auctions and now are driving to the tip. Plenty of traffic on PDR and road very corrugated. Drove 30kms out to Captain Billy's Landing. Great spot but very windy. Lippeys had there lunch and then left us as they have to be back in Sydney by next Friday. Browns and Burke decided to stay the night. Had a lovely afternoon sitting on the beach reading albeit very windy and even a little cool. Tried putting the tent up but the ground was really hard. Slept on the tables in the shelter the night. Engel fridge has spat the dummy!! Very comfortable. 2 brothers from Melbourne also camped there. Sunday 22/06/14 Left Captain Billy's around 0845. Arrived Weipa around 1300. booked into the campground. got a waterfront spot. Had a drive around ending up at the pub for a late lunch. Another quiet afternoon spent washing and reading and a very welcome shower. Beautiful sunset over the ocean and a very late chilli con carne dinner after such a late lunch. Monday 23/06/14 Up early and did a bus tour of the town and Bauxite mine.Huge production and very interesting. Left Weipa at 1200 after buying some veges at a very well stocked Woolworths. Also refueled. 133litres. Bush camped 5 kms south of Coen 850 metres from the road. Great spot. Tuesday 24/06/14 Left camp 0845 after cooked breaky. Drove 60 kms out to Point Stewart. Good fishing and crabbing apparently but not the best place to camp. Nano access to the heads and very swampy. Would only go there if you had a boat.Made our way down the PDR. Really bad corrugations and an amazing amount of vehicles heading north. Well over 150. Tried to get to Palmerville station but the fellow at Hann RH said the track was closed. Decided to go on to Laura. Asked at the pub and they said there was some loony out at Palmerville. Suggested asking the Police. The nutter at Palmerville is out on bail for murder and doesn't like people around his place, so after much deliberation we turned back and will drive the long way to Karumba. Thought we'd find bush camping but no luck and as it was getting dark we camped at Palmer River Roadhouse. $10 each. Camped next to some nice young kids from Temora heading up to the Cape. Wednesday 25/06/14 Up early and had a shower and breakfast. Topped up with fuel. On our way at 0840. Turned off PDR to go back way to the Burke Development Road via Hurricane and St George Homesteads. Had morning tea by a lake with water lilies, water birds and brolgas. Drove another 30kms and came across 2 miners who informed us we couldn't get through that way. Chatted for 1/2 hr and then turned back to PDR. Drove through Mareeba, Dimbula, refuelled at Chillagoe , which has a lovely camping area and continued on the BDR on route to Karumba and camped 17 kms out of Chillagoe near an old mine site. Disused railway line so plenty of sleepers for a great fire. Steak and veges for dinner. Thursday 26/06/14. Up and on the road by 0840. Morning tea stop by Dead Cow Lagoon. Huge lagoon with water lillies, water birds and a pair of Brolgas. Have been driving alongside Mitchell River all day but haven't caught sight of it. 260 kms east of Karumba took a track to the right and drove out to the river. Had lunch there then decided to stay the night. 2 other lots of campers. A farming couple from Wentworrh and a couple from Darwin. Surveyors there as well surveying the causeway. It had shifted and a new one is to be installed. Quiet afternoon spent reading. After dinner a 3 car convoy came through from the east. Property owner towed first car through. About an hr later the farmer from Wentworth spotted a crocodile. Very exciting!! Koolath crossing. Friday27/06/14 Got up early to watch the sun rise. Beautiful. Whilst I was making breakfast Tony noticed a croc slide across the ramp to the causeway and within 2 metres of our tent!! Yikes. Leisurely breakfast, slow pack up and still on the road by 0900. After morning tea stop we crossed the Gilbert River and spotted crocodiles. Lots of them, ranging from 2 metres to about 5 metres. Arrived Karumba 1300. Booked into caravan Pk had a quick look around and some lunch at the only cafe. Fishermans paradise, have never seen so many boat trailers!! Shower and washing done headed off to Karumba Point to the Sunset Tavern to watch the sunset over the Gulf of Carpenteria. Beautiful. Had seafood platter at the pub then back to camp at 2000. Saturday28/06/14 Left Karumba 0900. We have decided to go to Lawn Hill National Park as so many people have recommended it. Martin has decided to go on to Mt Isa and not come with us. Arrived Normanton around 1000 restocked and then discovered Martin was not with us. Drove 28kms back towards Karumba to find Martin on the side of the road with a flat battery. After trying jump starting we towed him, again, and clutch started. No battery to be had in Normanton so after queuing for diesel we headed off to The Burke and Wills Roadhouse, a quick lunch and timber transfer and we send our goodbyes to Martin , he to Cloncurry/Mt Isa and us to Lawn Hill. Camped at Adels Grove. Fabulous camping amongst trees and palms. Big steaks and 128 for dinner. Sunday 29/06/14 Slept in till 0700 as it was so dark in campground. After breakfast pack up and drove out to Lawm Hill National Pk. Planned to do a medium walk to Indarri Falls but took a wrong turn and did the most difficult walk. Extremely steep and rocky but the views were fantastic. Tony reckons was doesn't kill you makes you stronger. I beg to differ. Ran in to the couple from Townsville who we camped next to in Karumba. They said they had never seen the Park so dry. Left Park at 1215. Arrived Mount Isa 1645. Had a drive around, booked into Spinafex Motel $175, a little exy but comfortable. Chinese for dinner, ok. Monday 30/06/14 After a woollies top up and a bit more fuel we left Mt Isa 0915. Drove to Cloncurry and caught up with Martin who has been there for 2 nights to see if they can fix his car. Seems they don't have a starter motor so his best bet is Longreach, so Longreach for him and we head towards Boulia, through Duchess, 1 pub, population 3 and on to Darjerra for lunch.have noticed he have a crack in our windscreen, again. Loads of wedge tail eagles about, unfortunately a lot of dead ones. Onto Boulia then turned right onto Springdale St track and out to Diamantina National Park and camped at Gum Hole water hole. Fantastic spot. Lots of birds. Could easily stay for a few days. Steak and left over Chinese veges for dinner. Tuesday 01/07/14 Woke to fabulous bird sounds. Hundreds of corellas and about 20 brolga flew over the waterhole. First really cold morning since we have left home. Ice on the tent!! On the road at 0825. Looked at Hunter Gorge camp. Not as good as Gum Hole. Long drive to Birdsville Development Road. Arrived Windorah 1345, steak sandwich at the pub, which is for sale. Chatted to couple from Baulkham Hills. Off again by 1430. Camped 55.5kms western side of Quilpie. Great spot, plenty of timber so had a great big fire and steak again for dinner. Wednesday 02/07/14 Woke to a glorious sunrise. Had beans and bacon for breaky, packed up and on the road by 0840. Not nearly as cold as yesterday morning. Quilpie at 0915. Onto Toonpine, not much happening there, Eulo and Cunnamulla. Lunch in the park in Cunnamulla, refueled and on our way again by about 1400. Took the Bourke Rd towards Culgoa National park via Jobs Gate. Arrived camp ground about 1700. No one there. Great camp. Had the last of the steak thank goodness! No more red meat for a while. Thursday 03/07/14 Up late, breakfast and on the road at 0935. Drove through Goodooga and onto Lightning Ridge. Booked into Bluey Motel then out to the artesian springs for a soak. Back to motel for lunch then a wander around town and back to the springs for another soak at 1700. Bowling club for dinner, chicken schnitzel!!! Friday 04/07/14 Up 0630 and off to the springs for a dip. Only 6 other people there. Back to motel for showers and breaky. American couple in the room next to us from Washington state travelling with their 2 daughters, son in laws and 2 grand daughters to celebrate their 50 th wedding anniversary. Gave me a quilting pin! On the road again by 0835. Have decided to go to Orange via Come-By-Chance and Pilliga. Coffee at the only cafe in Pilliga. Arrived Orange 1630. Lovely night at the Fitsimons. Salman for dinner. Saturday 05/07/14 Lazy breakfast then off to have a look at Maddyi-Rose and Toby's new business in the making. A cafe, men's wear shop and eventually a bar as well. Left Orange 1045, pies for lunch at Pie in the Sky. Home 1430.