Cape York et al. - August

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Monday 1 August

I copped a few pinches and punches for the start of the month, and with the tracks we had planned I am sure there were more to come.

Another day on the road, not an early start as I would have liked, the kids (5 in total) are super hyped about hanging out and heading to the coast and somewhere they have only seen on TV and getting covered in dust.

I was hoping to reach Richmond, but as I was to find out along the way, time was no friend of mine. I have arranged to hook up with friends on 2 August from the NT who now lived at Taylors Beach.

Had to get off the road many times as the larger tanks - M1A1 Abrams (on trucks) rolled through.

Another 700 km punched out and a night at Julia Creek, a lovely little place. Kids have done fantastically on the road so far (some assistance from Nintendo, a toy bucket that is repacked at every stop and the occasional DVD).

Lots of Wedgies that ate too much having trouble taking flight, and another special breed now called LMP's (Last Minute Pigeons) that really just do not get it - no animals need to hunt with these guys around.

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Tuesday 2 August

Julia Creek = Bloody cold (even for an Alice resident)

On the road and stop off at Richmond for a caffeine hit and a photo opportunity.



Heading to Taylors Beach - looking forward to hitting the coast.

The change of scenery across the Flinders Highway was great - lots of animals to be seen; the likes of a bustard, emus, squished cats (feral?) sheep, cows, horses, and other good stuff like cane trains and lots of earth moving equipment.



The amount of damage still around from the cyclone is amazing - some tough people around here.

Into Taylors Beach late afternoon and hooked up with our friends at Taylors Beach Holiday Park. Great spot and treated like a king. Big BBQ dinner with people at the park and our friends. A beautiful spot and great crew.

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Day 4 Tuesday 3 August

Depart Taylors Beach for Wonga Beach (family catch up) via Cairns.

A great coffee on the way (outside a little town in a roadside stop on the right heading North, the shop was a caravan). Maybe Feluga? Don’t know – not in my notes and by this stage had no idea what day of the week it was.

Stop at TJM Cairns to buy a water bra – have a quick chat to the blokes there and they gave us a quick run down what they had heard (around 40 casualties so far from the OTT) Oh dear. I forgot about that after about 10kms, getting sick of the black top. Let me at it and a big ‘come on’ Leyton Hewitt style.

Great drive up to Wonga Beach, arrived in the afternoon and set up camp on the lawns behind the dunes of the beach. Well protected from the wind. It was overcast and raining. ‘It will pass’ as I downed another Tooheys thinking of the CREB. The Gods frowned upon me.

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Day 5 Wednesday 4 August

Dedicated to Wonga Beach. We really had some great hosts here sharing their home and local knowledge.

It absolutely bucketed down overnight and into the morning. Be good to spend indoors so we travelled to Mossman for a resupply and saw this bad boy. What a great unit.



After a shop and a quick visit to the local we headed back to Wonga. The rain had stopped....for now.

Early afternoon on the Daintree in the boat - kids loved it, said gooday to a big turtle and croc and returned for a play on the wind swept beach.

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Afternoon Day 5 - CREB track

Well after a few days rain which had ceased for most of the day, it was time to head to the CREB. My mate and I went, the families stayed behind - on reflection a good thing after our experience - so the little people didn't get frightened about the upcoming Frenchmans and OTT.

The 14kms to Daintree and we were greeted with the CREB OPEN sign - YES!

Another 10 or so tame kms and met the Daintree River, beautiful shallow hard bottomed crossing.

The terrain got a little steeper, the road became a little more clay based and angled and we were met with the infamous 'gate'.



On we went. It reminded me of that ride, the wild mouse the Carnys and the Luna Parks use to have. This was great, the adrenalin was going and this was fun. JRR Tolkein would love this stuff, where are your little hairy toed hobbits now helping us with the winch gear. I took some photos of one descent that was tricky, with an escape contingency (that I used). I could hardly walk up and down this stuff. I had to hold the roots of any shrub on the side and my appropriate footwear (thongs) kept getting pulled from my feet with the suction. I took the fall like Mike Tyson a few times. I could help but look over the sides a few times and was amazed by the drop offs - if you went down you would just disappear, gone, like Chris Skase in the night.

Anyway, I had to jump into the bush when the 100 series slid down sideways coming at me (undie change required, lucky cheese was in my diet on this trip). I snapped photos like crazy as I went bush, but my mate accelerated out nicely.

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We were then greeted into a false sense of security by this nice little tributary.



The 100 series climbed the next ascent (maybe 20 metres), muddies failing to grip about 5 from the top. The car then slid back like an ice skate and stopped on the level area at the base (undie change # 2 required but no new undies available). The track was fully sick, clay with rock underneath. Still couldn't walk on this stuff.

At this point we were 150 minutes and 9 kilometres into the track - my mate and I had to reconsider our position. It was getting later afternoon, not much light left, it was starting to rain again, we had done one seventh of the track, we didn't really want to turn back but we didn't know if the mother of all mothers was just around the bend calling us to spend the night there. The there was the drive back from Wajul Wajul, another 80 kms or so in the dark. There would be consequences if we didn't return!

We were well prepared for an overnighter - we had about 10 litres water, 6 bottles chardonnay and about 60 cans Tooheys! Maybe some kids treats as well (the ones down the sides and back of their seats by now)

We agreed (without playing scissor, rocks, paper) and turned around.

The winch was used to pull us up the wetter slippery dips we came down before. The rain was increasing and we were laughing. We reinflated the tyres and had a few nervous laughs.

I rang the Daintree Information Centre and thay said people are not getting through - it was just too wet now. Two cars had completed 75% from Wajul but couldn't get through any more and turned around - they were evidently on the track for 18 hours - 4WD cred to you people!

We got back to Wonga, washed all the clay off, changed my undies and had many a beer and exaggerated the story immensely. Love it!

We 'heard' later at Coen that some poor sole got airlifted out after he attempted the track when is was closed, got stuck, his diffs were cactus and he was towing a trailer. From what I saw on a wet track I would prefer not to even tow a draught.

We will be back to conquer you CREB!

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Day 6 - 5 August

Depart Wonga for somewhere North. (raining again)

Head up to Cape Trib across the ferry, and stop off at Thornton Beach - great coffee and place to plan while the kids can run like crazy on the beach.



North of Cape Trib and onto the Bloomfield Track, pretty tame, although on a steep hill ascent I had the transmission temp warning come on, listened to the car, pulled over waited a few minutes and off again - not heard of since. I think was pushing it too hard in sports mode. From here on i left it in drive and let it work its magic, which was quite impressive. Got stuck behind three cars (low 4 first gear? not sure why) but lucky for me a cop car came through with lights and bells on so I stuck to his arse and overtook all the slower cars.

Visit to Black Mountain and onto Lions Den for lunch and the mandatory light beer, reflecting on the great times so far.





Off to Cooktown for a quick history lesson and refuel and onto Endeavour Falls Holiday Park. This place was a nice to stay with some great little water falls out the back that you can swim in.

Well I reckon this was the start of the good stuff North.

Tyres deflated here to 25 psi and brakes checked to suit the off road conditions. Bit more trip planning, more beer and more rain!

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

looks like you copped the creb ugly . yeah we heard the same story about the helicopter job . at least you had the right supplies for the creb . but whats with the light at the lions den .

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Kav, The dark background?= more rain for me!

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Day 7 - 6 August

Endeavour to Kalpowar (Lakefield NP)

This is where it started to fell like we were getting somewhere, a distinct lack of bitumen (but well maintained dirt roads) and the start of a few little water crossings.







Pressure to 25 psi and off via Old Laura on the Battle Camp Road. Some good history in these parts, gold, cattle, trains and the skirmishes in the 1870's between diggers and indigenous.



Some good waterholes to stop and check out as well not far from the main drag (6 & 12 mile) Nice spots.

Morning drive of around 160kms and into Kalpowar around lunchtime. The camp grounds filled up pretty quick after this and almost full by 3pm.

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Some good fishing (evidently) at Kalpowar just off the causeway (near the big tree to the left in the pic) Just got to watch for snapping lizards. A great spot to take a break, a few shallow rapids that can cater kids for a dip.

There were a few dead fish around, from a white spot disease. If you catch one and it has these spots it is no good for eating. Something that occurs this time of year? I probably wouldn't even kiss it like Rexy Hunt in case you wake up with the pox.





My mate overheard some blokes asking for a voltmeter with an electrical problem. Only happy to assist, you really don't want to get this far and encounter issues. I happened to have a meter and wandered over. Charging trouble to the rear battery powering the fridge, easily fixed - bad connection on the secondary battery. Charging nicely. A form of paying it forward I guess, I just did not know I was going to need some help in the near future. All comes out in the wash.

One thing that impressed me so far was the 'mateship', the willingness of people to help each other out. I think it comes with the country and the sense of adventure.

PS The Census lady found us here!

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Day 8 - 7 August

Kalpowar with intention to get to Chili Beach - but camped on the Wenlock.

Huge fry up for breakfast @ Kalpowar and feeling content - is it too early for a beer?

Visited White and Red Lilly Lagoons before leaving Lakefield.



Onto Musgrave for a chat, into Coen, refuell and resupply. I needed to top up the water in the camper and used the mechanics supply with a fair trade of beer for water (only a couple of bottles but they looked at me a bit crazy and took them - my prescious)

334 kms from Kalpowar is the righ turn to Lockhart River - 16 kms down this track is the Wenlock. Cross this and on your left is a dirt road that leads to good camping and the old Batavia Goldfield. Some people fossick in the river here - not sure of the results though. There is a grave down the track as well? This was one of the best bush camping places during the trip. Camp spots are also on the other side of the river which gives easier access to the water. The eastern side was steeper. The river was great, good temp and nice shallow sandy banks far reaching so you could have a splash if needed and see any prehistoric gate crashers.





Heaps of critters sighted today - dingo, goanna, magpie geese, brolgas, three tawny frog mouths, a nice fat bush turkey (still alive), lots of bats flying above the Wenlock and oh, a dead frog.



Well beer o'clock and relaxed (again) This spot has placed us well to get to Chili Beach tomorrow around lunch (111 kms).

[stevensr34 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close stevensr34]

Keeper - you chose to back-track on the CREB track at the right point - it is a bit further north of where you got to that the mother of all descents (and subsequent ascent) occurs... That is where you would have had no chance. We only got through because heading south, there was a detour around an ascent. Northbound, there was no detour around the other ascent.

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Thanks Rob - good to know. It definitely was getting more challenging with more rain and all!