Wednesday 12th June

A typical night in the tropics, wet underfoot and wet in the air.

This morning we went to the Daintree, the world renowned rainforest ecosystem and took a boat trip up the Daintree River and got up pretty close to some crocodiles, these crocs are obviously quite comfortable with the boats and are able to get plenty of food in the river, surprisingly we’re told that they only need a kilo a week, which is understandable if the spend most of their time lying in the sun!

This one is called Lizzie, she’s 35 years old and about 2.5m long, apparently crocs come to edge of the river when the tide is higher and lurk in the shallows waiting for any unsuspecting prey, such as cows, pigs, fish, humans, in fact anything that gets within range.   Then they just stay where they are as the tide goes down, that’s why Lizzie has this small log across her back, it floated there when she was partly submerged and stayed there as the water dropped!

The one on the right is a sort of reddy colour is 3.5m long, they think from having been in a different river for some time.

Below is Scuter, a newcomer, about 3m long, which they don’t know too much about yet, including whether it is a female or a male, although it is more likely to be a female because it’s sharing a sandbank with Scarface who is a very scary 6metres long!

        The crocs weren’t the only things we saw but they were probably the most impressive!

Below is a green tree frog, not easy to spot, unless you’re tree snake!      The Sacred Kingfisher is really colourful and the Night Heron, beautifully coloured but difficult to photograph!  

       

The Daintree river runs through dense rainforest, which grows right down to the water’s edge mostly in the form of mangroves.

  This sign is at the jetty that the croc viewing boat trips leave from!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

We had lunch in the small tourist village of Daintree itself and have ‘what else’ but a smoked crocodile salad, we have had croc before but were reminded of it’s very delicate taste.

After lunch we went to see Mosman Gorge, not a particularly steep sided gorge but the river is quite fast flowing and tumbles over large boulders, which the rainforest surrounding makes it looks pretty spectacular with the sun on it.

        A very ‘mobile’ suspension bridge crosses the gorge but it is very much like a fairground cakewalk and because it doesn’t stay still long enough to take photos from it even with only one person on it.

Thursday 13th June

We have some good news today which is that the road from Dunbar to Normanton is open, which not only saves us several hundred ks but also means that we don’t have to retrace our steps.  It also means that we can visit Chillagoe caves which are series of limestone caves with guided tours in some of them.

We leave this campsite this morning and will stop in Mareeba to shop, empty the cassettes, fill up with water and of course, visit the Coffee Works for a coffee before heading for Chillagoe.

We find a camp site on the way on a bend at Eureka Crossing, it’s a bit noisy to start with because they are harvesting sugar cane but it’s quiet all night until about 0530.

Friday 14th June

In Chillagoe we’re camping behind the pub, it’s free but you are expected to swing by for a beer.   We decide to have dinner and it’s not bad washed down by a seriously underpriced Hunter SBS!   We decided to go to see the Arches and Balancing Rock this afternoon and also go out to the smelter ruins.

The Arches are formed where water has eroded the limestone, they have some interesting formations outside and there is some interesting colouring inside   There are also some interesting aboriginal paintings.   Balancing Rock, certainly looks like its balancing but it isn’t really.

          

Saturday 15th June

Today we are doing a cave tour, our guide is Eddie an aboriginal from the local area, he is very knowledgeable but speaks very quickly.

To get access to the cave we have to go up about 300 steps!   These are all structural as are the stainless steel walkways inside the cave making it very accessible. it is one of the best limestone caves we have visited. You can see all the different stages of the common formations in a relatively small area. It is a fairly newly discovered cave that is totally unspoilt, it is well lit for one tour a day and the guide is very knowledgable. It has bats and one was a bit of an exhibitionist that kept us amused and the cameras clicking.

           

After lunch we head off towards Normanton, 580ks down the track.    We had been warned that the road was very poor but the people who told us that had obviously not been up the Cape York peninsular recently!   It is really quite good and we make better progress than we expected and find a nice spot for a campsite about 300m off the road, on a nice flat area, watched by a herd of cattle.   Unfortunately there is a fair bit of cloud and satellite sightings are few and far between.

 

Sunday 16th June

Travelling today on quite a good road and it gives a chance for the drivers to have a look at the scenery instead of concentrating 100% on the road, which is essential on poor dirt roads.

Morning tea by the Mitchell River. We found it difficult to find a site for the night but eventually spied a track that went round the back of a pond/dam a reasonable distance off the road. this would do.

  and a Saurus Crane

Monday 17th June

We were expecting the road conditions to stay the same but almost as soon as we’re out on the track it deteriorates and the corrugations become annoying.  

Just before lunch we come across a breakdown, there are three vehicles, one of which has shed a tyre.   Not so much of a problem you would think, however, the previous owner of this vehicle had for some reason welded ethe hub end cap on!   This meant the wheel hub couldn’t be removed from the axle!   When we got there two young men had been busy trying to smash the the rim to bits to get it off!!!   We offered them an angle grinder which, with a bit of patience would have cut through the holes in the aluminium hub and allow them to lever it over the weld.   Clearly patience was not one of their attributes and they proceeded to try to grind down the weld!!!!!   We watched until they had finally smashed the hub off, god knows what damage had been done to the diff end of the axle! They drove off. We had lunch and then set out again.   A ute went past us like a bat out of hell and 10 mins later we were flagged down by the same ute – they had a blow-out and had no spare!!!!   These guys are locals!  Anyway, they had let the ‘old fella’ set out walking to Normanton about 60ks away to get help.    Anyway, to cut a long story short, Brad gave him a lift into Normanton.

We have a planned night stop about 30ks out of Normanton but since we were already there we decided to go to the caravan park.   We got ourselves established and settled in for the evening.

Tuesday 18th June

Its Denise’s birthday today.

Pat is up with the lark (galahs!) to get several lots of washing done.

Roger did some checks and maintenance under the van by that time it was lunch.    Shopping was the order of the afternoon and then it was time to go across the road for Denise’s birthday dinner.   Well,we had a meal and Denise got a special sweet which Brad ate most of.   

Wine, well the less said about the wine the better!

Back at the campsite we opened a decent bottle and made up for it!

Wednesday 19th June

Another fairly busy day getting ready for a longish leg as the next part of the trip, hopefully across the Gulf to Mataranka, about 900ks via Lawn Hill Gorge.

Tonight we had another birthday meal for Denise.   Pat made a starter, salmon & avocado, followed by Denise’s lamb roast, a very nice meal washed down with some very nice wine.

  

Thursday 20th June

A surprisingly efficient start this morning (considering the amount of alcohol imbibed last evening!

The road is good, sealed for a long way out of Normanton but eventually we get to some dirt again and the dust!   As has happened so many times on this trip we get idiots without their lights on coming out of the dust behind us, they can’t see but they just come round us anyway!

This country was inundated in the recent floods and poignant reminders of that is the grass and cow carcasses on the fences.

  

The Flinders River crossinging is a nice place to stop for morning tea and the base of a small hill, prominent in this flat country, does well for lunch.

Termite mounds are very common in the north of the country, in all sizes from 300mm to 4000mm, all different shapes and different colours because they reflect the colour of the soil.

   

Just before Leichart River we come across two cyclists!   We are roughly 150ks from Normanton and another 100ks to Burketown.   This is a dirt road with some quite bad corrugations and very dusty – good luck to them, especially as they are riding into the wind.

By 1500 we have arrived at Leichardt River and Falls where we plan to camp tonight.   It is a beautiful spot and not over populated like the last time we were here, so it is relatively easy to find somewhere to park.

 

      The wind was quite cold tonight which restricted our satellite spotting  but we managed four, a poor night for us!

Friday 21st June

Burketown is our target for morning tea but we are a little late by the time we have stopped to look at the  hot spring.  The spring is it is about 750 metres deep and runs about 80m³ per day and smells awful from the sulphur but it is pretty colourful from all the minerals that it brings up from the earth.

 

We go out to the ‘Wharf’, on the Albert River, just outside the town, for morning tea, where a new boat ramp and mooring facilities which were opened this April. Very impressive.  There is also a free camp here but it would be pretty windy.   The fishermen aren’t catching any fish here either.

We’ve sort of set out on the way home now but not by any direct route.    From here we’re going across the Gulf with a deviation south by about 100ks to revisit Lawn Hill Gorge in the National Park as Brad and Denise have never been there.