Sunday 26th May

Having made the decision last night today we’re leaving Cooktown and heading for the Cape but because we can’t go through the Lakefield NP we have to retrace our steps to Lakeland before we can get onto a northerly heading.    The first part of the road is sealed so we can make good time but once pass Laura and get onto the Peninsular Development Road, the tarred bits become shorter and fewer and we are travelling on dirt again, this section, which is not too bad, includes lots of creek crossings and amazingly is used by trucks going to Weipa and road trains transporting roadbase for the roadworks. 

 

After Musgrave we are moving along a track just off the main road, looking for a lunch stop, when my rear offside wheel breaks through a thinly disguised and quite deep washout.  The front wheel didn’t go in because of the weight of the caravan.   From even a cursory glance we are clearly not going to drive out of here!  

The biggest issue is that the towing hitch is essentially buried in the ground and as long as it stays like that we’re going nowhere. After a discussion with Brad we decide that we have to get the back wheel back up as close to ground level as we can.   Unfortunately we can’t get a jack under the axle and the chassis has to lift a long way before the wheel starts to come up.   Fortunately we have three bottle jacks which get the wheel up far enough to get some rocks under.    Repeating this operation a couple of time, the girls collecting rocks together with Brad’s dry stone wall building skills, gets the wheel up almost far enough.   A passing traveller brings his hilift jack over and that gives us enough height to get another layer of wall built.   Then it’s a simple low range, forward a little, pack the rocks again and then slowly backwards and onto the track! It had been pretty hot and sticky work!

By this time lunch is a thing of the past and we travel only as far as the next gravel pit where decide to stop for the night.   We toast our diligence with a few glasses of wine and put today down to experience.   OK, so we had a problem but with everyone’s efforts we got ourselves out of it.

Monday 27th May

Heading north still on the Peninsular Development Road, more of the same as yesterday but today we encountered some pretty bad corrugations and we were travelling at quite a sedate pace.     We’re looking for a place to stop for lunch which is marked on ‘WikiCamps’, an app which is our sort of bible for these trips, but it looks as though it’s on the way to Port Stewart.   Anyway,we travel down a reasonably good track until we come a creek crossing which does not appeal to us so this is the lunch stop!   Whilst it’s not deep enough for crocs the bed is soft and this can be a problem, particularly with 3.5 tonnes on your tow bar!

 

After lunch a relatively easy run for an hour then corrugations again which are a pain.   After Coen there is a quarantine station where will be checked on the way down the peninsular to ensure that we are not carrying nasty fruit bugs.    We stop to get some useful information from the Inspector who is happy to chat.    The next 30 ks to Archer River Station take us a long time due to the road conditions but we’re there before dark and have time to set up camp (no sites just pick your spot) and have a shower.

A young  guy comes over to talk about Bushtrackers so we invite him and his wife  (Tim & Kim) to join us for a bit of satellite spotting.    Turns out they work for a bank,but we won’t hold that against them!    Anyway, collectively we achieve 13 satellites, according to Brad that’s one short of our record but Pat, Denise and myself are dubious!

Tuesday 28th May

From the camp site we turn onto the track and almost immediately cross the Archer River.

Until a week ago this causeway was under nearly 2metres of water and there were cars and trucks stacked north and southbound waiting for the water to go down.   The authorities close it as soon as it gets to 400mm over the concrete because it’ so fast-flowing that vehicles can easily get swept off the causeway. It’s also the reason we spent extra nights at previous night spots as we were waiting for the news that the road was open again.

There is 60ks of sealed road north from Archer River and so we make good time but get lulled into a false sense of security as the 60ks is soon over and we back to dirt and some not very pleasant corrugations.

We pass a place called Picaninny Plains and wonder if that is politically correct these days!   Shortly after this the Peninsular road heads off to the left to Weipa leaving us on The Old Telegraph Track.   This was pushed through in the late 19th c in the process of running the new telegraph line from Adelaide to Darwin, an absolutely amazing feat of engineering, determination and fortitude.  The story is told in The Singing Line, written by Alice Thomson, the great grand daughter of the Alice after whom Alice Springs is named.

By lunch time we have reached Morton Telegraph Station, one of the original relay stations on the telegraph line, which is now a camping ground with a small collection of old radio equipment and other collectables from its telegraph station days.   Apparently this place is renowned for its pies!   Pies are not our normal fare so we leave it to our resident expert Brad, to assess the pies.    He was not overly impressed!

   

Our preferred destination for tonight is Bramwell Station, a working cattle station and road construction contracting business.  The latter is probably a pretty good little earner up here, since maintaining these roads must be a bit like painting the Forth Bridge, as they need re-building after every wet season. There is a plan to seal the roads which is an on-going project.  

At Bramwell Station we opt for a package deal which includes the camp fees, happy hour (half-priced drinks), dinner and musical entertainment.

The half-price drinks would be good if they had some decent wine! After half a glass I had to go and get a proper bottle from the caravan.   The meal was good and the entertainment was good fun, a guitar-playing guy from Brisbane who was probably in his late fifties played lots of 60s and 70s stuff that we could all sing along with, altogether a good evening.

Wednesday 29th May

Back on the corrugations again this morning heading up through the Jardine River NP where some of it is actually sealed road.  This is not quite rainforest but it is nevertheless very dense, to the point where our HEMA navigator and our HF radio both lose satellite contact!

Our intention was to stay at a free camp near Fruit Bat Falls but three vehicles had got there before us so we found a gravel pit about 3ks up the road for our night stop.

Pat and I decided to unhitch the cruiser and go back to Fruit Bat for a swim, so here is our wedding anniversary photograph.

   

In the morning we discovered some green tree ants in some nearby saplings where they had sort of sewn the leaves together to form a nest.   Apparently they have a nasty bite.

 

Thursday 30th May

We’re quite excited today as we head north yet again because today we will reach our destination, Punsand Bay, on the Cape York Peninsular.   On the way we have to cross the Jardine River, fortunately this achieved by ferry.   Whilst paying we discover that the local taking our money is called Brad so we have an instant talking point.    The river is less than 100m wide at this point but is very fast flowing.   Three local rangers were waiting to go across and started chatting. They asked where we would be staying and when we told them Punsand Bay they said that was a good choice as in the night young local kids wander around looking for things to steal.  Not a nice thing for them to have to tell visitors about their own people.

PAT’S VIDEO

After crossing it is an easy run up to Punsand Bay where we will staying for the next few days.  Our campsites are virtually on the beach but there is a camper trailer in front of us, so if any hungry crocs decide to come up the beach they can feast on them first!   We are advised not to swim in the sea, as apart from saltwater crocs there are quite a few other nasty stinging things in the water! Pity.

     

Since we’ve had a long day and have our safe arrival to celebrate, we decide to go to the camp bar for tea.   Brad and Denise want to order pizza which is not our normal fare, however, since the bases are gluten free we eventually agree to share, Pat with Denise and Roger with Brad.   They are actually quite nice but we suspect that there was something artificial in the sauce.

So here we are, at the top of Cape York, sitting outside our caravans looking at the ocean, how lucky are we!

Friday 31st May

We have booked our island trip for Monday, which meant we had to book another night here, no problem.  Having sorted out the admin we decide to pack a picnic lunch and go to ‘the tip’.

The drive there through the rain forest is interesting but we have  to make way for the ‘rushalongs’, who are a nuisance and potentially dangerous as they insist on travelling as fast as possible on these dirt tracks, which are in pretty poor condition and essentially single track.   There are also have some deepish creek crossings (see pictures from Sunday), which we tend to be wary of, you never know how deep the hole is!

When we get to the tip the place is crowded with cars trying find places to park in a pretty small car park – and this is the ‘quiet season’!  We hate to think what it’s like in the school holidays, again we applaud our decision to come at this time.  

I think we all thought that we would get out of the car and there would be ‘the tip’ in front of us but no, we have quite a steep climb up a rocky hill which stands about 40m above sea level then another 300m of rocky track to get to the point.

WE’RE THERE!!  It has taken 6 weeks and we have covered 6,500 ks to get here on some pretty grotty roads.   There are only 2 or 3 caravans at Punsand Bay, amongst the camper trailers and tents, but we know other Bushtracker owners who have brought their vans up here so we were pretty confident that it could be done.

We wait while a family all have their photos taken standing next to the marker.   It reads, quite mundanely, “You are standing at the northernmost point on the Australian continent”.   Actually, what else you could say really!   Then it’s our turn and a nice young lady does the honours.

     

 

We figured we’d earned our lunch by the time we got back to the car park.   During our break this ‘bloke’ turned up with his All Terrain Vehicle and was obviously trying to impress his girlfriend but she did not appear to be enjoying herself!  He clearly wanted to show off by roaring down onto the beach past a sign declaring that ‘NO vehicles were allowed on the beach’, which he would probably ignored but there was a traditional owner nearby and he clearly wasn’t going on the beach whilst he was there!  So they just sat there!

After lunch we went out to Somerset Beach, an idyllic spot where another QLD BT owner brings his van.    The tide is out revealing several different colours of sand / clay and lots of hermit crab and  and pippi holes.    There are memorials and graves here for the pearl divers and the landowners of the 19th c who came here and ran cattle, amazing.   Mangroves dominate the ends of the beach and are exposed at low tide revealing a tangle of roots which provide shelter and hiding places for fish and shellfish when the tide is in.

   

After Somerset we decide to try a track called the Five Beaches, it is definitely a 4×4 track, low range, first gear for nearly 15ks, with some fairly tricky steep descents and lots very hard rocks to drive over slowly.   Also, there are some very soft sandy sections with deep ruts.   It is sometime since we have done anything like this but the technique(s) come back and we feel pretty confident in the Troopy.    The sections between the beaches are through thick rainforest, to the extent that both the GPS and my HF radio lose their satellite connections!

These are still clips from dashcam footage so they’re not brilliant also it was a bit overcast.

           We had had a vehicle following us for a while and at times getting a bit close behind Brad, in these conditions you should keep a good, safe distance from the vehicle in front, so Brad let the other car pull alongside and asked him if he wanted to go past us.   They said, “no”, we’re quite happy following you”.   

  Sometimes you have to look before you leap!  

  This one was nasty, the dark rock on the left has a 500 mm drop off it, so we needed to be able to keep to the right with very margin of error.

  The beaches were good hard sand so no real worries there.

  The rain forest is really beautiful but just imagine what the early explorers had to contend with.

When we got back onto some semblance of decent track we stopped for a quick debrief.   The two guys in the car behind were from Israel (might have been father and son?) came up and shook our hands enthusiastically.   They had decided that discretion was the better part of valour and were not going to go down the track but they saw us going and thought it might be safe to follow us.   They were very appreciative.

It was more than enough for us and luckily it was wine o’clock by the time we got back.

The two youngsters we met at Archer River arrived today, they had been to Chilli Beach but it was so windy there they only stayed one night.

Saturday and Sunday we decided would be rest days and we used them to catch up with the odd job on the caravan and bringing the blog up to date.   Unfortunately we have no internet signal so we can’t publish it yet! in fact we have had no signal since leaving Cooktown.

Monday 3rd June

We have an earlyish start today, about 7.0am as we are going to the Islands and catch the boat at Seisa, leaving at 8.30am.   The boat with Captain Dave has six passengers, four of us and another couple.   It is roughly an hours trip across to Friday Island our first stop.  Here they grow cultured pearls, we are treated to a video but it is the Martin Clunes one about the Torres Straits islands in general, although Kaiku is featured.   The owner, who no longer dives for pearls himself, now makes jewellery made from the shells and the pearls. Pat buys a pair of small earrings.

   

We have a cup of tea provided and a rather nice small square of sago with custard on top presented on an oyster shell!   The place is owned by a Japanese man who has lived there for 37 years, he is assisted by Japanese backpackers.

Our next stop is Thursday Island where we are met by Frank, an islander who is quite a character and who drives us to a couple of the island’s interesting places.   The first is Green Hill Fort built in the 1890s to defend Australia against an attack by the Russians!

There are three 7”? guns pointing in strategic directions but which never fired in anger.    The fort was used during WWII as a signals station.

The views from the hilltop are fantastic out over the island and back to the Australian mainland.

  Friday Island. Thursday Is. town and harbour.  The Australian mainland is out there somewhere!

The second stopping off point is the large  Japanese cemetery which contains the graves of some 700 Japanese pearl divers and their descendants, very poignant.

 

The metal turtles in the photo represent the five main islands in the Torres Strait group.

Lunch at the pub is is good, grilled Spanish Mackerel and a very nice salad.  This pub is famous as “the most northerly Australian pub”.   Unfortunately, it being Mabo Day, the cultural centre is closed so we missed out on that.  The local people here are so full of life and happy and proud of their Island and their link with Australia.

Our next stop is Horn Island where the only place of interest is the Museum, which is the single handed achievement of a lady who thought that the island’s contribution to WWII should not be forgotten.

On the way back we saw our first crocodile, it looks like a log in the photo (telephoto from a boat!) but the log slid into the water and anyway that’s as close as we want to get!

The boat trip back was a bit lumpy and there was a thick bank of rain between us and the mainland but we managed to return safely.

The Endeavor and Torres Straits are remarkably shallow, no more than 20m and considerably less in places, this is significant because the tides run through here at up to 12 knots, which makes for some very choppy waters.

Tomorrow we leave here and head south slowly.

The Tip, bin there, done that!