Cape York et al. - August

[ondaboat Coopers Pale Ale Find all posts View Profile Close ondaboat]

Thanks Keeper for a great report. Good to see all went well n not too many problems.
PS Hope your still being a "grot monster" n livin the dream for the rest of your leave.

Regards Adam

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

thanks for sharing keeper .i was interested to hear about the taipans as i ran over one not far out of moreton station . i remember exactly what he looked like and he was a western taipan . theyre not supposed to be anywhere near there according to the qld gov website .

[Boomslang Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Boomslang]

Best trip report ever. It was like tuning in to a gripping series every night. You should sell the rights to make this a TV series. Thanks for sharing with us.

[TFPRDO Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close TFPRDO]

Well done Keeper. Amazing to take the time to do this and with such passion. I reckon I was about three to four days in front of you and it was as if I was reading from my own journal, almost spooky. We did exactly the same route inluding Fairfield but we went to Undara Lava Caves and had a couple of nights at Cobalt Gorge (highly recommended), then back towards Bundy. Other than the first and final roads, we covered exactly the same areas and had the most unbelievable time. Am now currently planning the next one, with long service next year and the wifes in two, think we can stretch 4 to 5 months of this next time.

Cheers

[Keeper Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeper]

Thanks Melbo, Kav, Ondaboat, Boomslang & TFPRDO for the comments fellas, I appreciate the feedback. I love this stuff, good to share the experience and it is great that so many share the passion as well, it is not a holiday, it is an adventure - still reliving it now with the biggest smile on my face!

Boomslang - every time I see your name come up I can't help but think of Freestyler by the Boomfunk MCs (like a word association I think). Its all good mate, I love that song! As for the TV stuff, I will leave that to Roothy and his minions - what a life but.

TFPRDO - it would have been great to meet on the track, so many of us around but so little exposure. Glad you had a great time, its hard not too hay?

Chat soon no doubt.

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Great stuff Keeper....I am doing the Cape in 2012 so all great information!!

And loved the photo's

[Keeper Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeper]

Mark - thanks mate. Its great sitting back and doing research, YouTube is great too with a few new additions lately! It changes so quickly as well, once that water drops a little in Palm Creek and it isn't carried up the southern exit, it is no problem to climb, when it is wet it's a different story, like I found with the CREB!

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

Yeah mate we did over 12 months of research for our Simpson crossing (well not just that the whole trip) and it really really pays off...we were so well prepared and nothing ended up fazing us at all....unlike some dickheads we met (bogged) going across in a Ford Territory and Subaru Outback...ill prepared, wrong vehicles and bloody lucky not to be in a far worse situation that they were.

[pradogang Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close pradogang]

A great report mate. I am doing the Cape in 2013 with Bidla and some other friends. We will refer to your report often as we continue with our preparation.
cheers

Jim

[Keeper Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeper]

Pradogang - you will have a blast; it always good to travel with another vehicle (for many reasons!). The HEMA Australia Road and 4WD Atlas was really handy as a reference as well. Only about $30 and has heaps of useful information. If you have any other questions let me know (PM?) and I will do my best to help you out.

[Boomslang Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Boomslang]

Pradogang - you will have a blast; it always good to travel with another vehicle (for many reasons!). The HEMA Australia Road and 4WD Atlas was really handy as a reference as well. Only about $30 and has heaps of useful information. If you have any other questions let me know (PM?) and I will do my best to help you out.

We used the $30 Cape York atlas all the time. It covers everything north of Cairns in great detail with good advice also. Includes detail info on the CREB, OTT and Frenchmans. Good thing about this is if you have the Hema maps running on Oziexplorer, you can cross reference between the GPS and the atlas with ease.

[Keeper Member Find all posts View Profile Close Keeper]

I am having a look at some recent Cape York footage on YouTube (because I just want to go back) - check this out, a causeway crossing on the Bloomfield River gone wrong (info on the page say they came out OK).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeit-OPv3OA

[wooley Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close wooley]

I am having a look at some recent Cape York footage on YouTube (because I just want to go back) - check this out, a causeway crossing on the Bloomfield River gone wrong (info on the page say they came out OK).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yeit-OPv3OA

sucks to be them.

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

it doesn't get much more wrong than that .

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

Thanks for all the trip reports and comments guys, I love reading it. I'll be driving up the OTT in approx August/September 2012 with 2 to 3 other cars. I've done a hell of a lot of research on the cape over the last few months and all these threads are extremely valuable knowledge for anyone planning a trip like this. I'll no doubt have plenty of A4 pages of typed up notes stapled together of everything I could possibly need to know with me on the trip next year.

I'm just wondering how many km's approx of corrugations are there in the longest stretch of road with them? I've driven rough corrugations plenty of times nice and slow at about 20km/h in the past just so my car didn't shake to bits. And I'm aware the ones on the OTT & PDR may appear to run for ever. But I'd be happy to drive them nice and slow (provided there wasn't a 100km straight stretch of them or anything) to increase my chances of making it back to Brissy problem free without the worry of bolts working themselves loose. We'd take between 3 to 4 weeks to do the trip so really there's no rushing to be done. Just lots of exploring of surrounding areas on the way up to the tip. I'm excited already and can't wait to go. I find myself looking up heaps of threads on it almost everyday and YouTubing everything you can YouTube about the cape. 12 long months to wait and lots of planning & preparing.

I've just got to buy a few big ticket items first... Alloy winch bar and prob 9000lb winch to suit, new springs & shocks, Rhino Alloy Tray and 3 way fridge. I know a very friendly bloke who owns a certain shop and can get these items for me for cost + labour for fitting which will help more than words can describe and save me about $2,000.