Cape york july-august 2012

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

Well I have been back for about 6 weeks now and used every excuse in the book not to do this report so am finally sitting down to do one and will add lots of photo's (as I know everyone, including me, loves it when people put photo's in). I'll probably do this over the course of this weekend as it's a bit of a time consuming excercise, but I hope those that have never been, or those that have enjoy.

The trip in a nutshell,

******3 Prado's, 2 120's and my 150

******The Cape, including the OTT (bar Nolans) from mid July to early August.

Two were from Newcastle and myself from Brizvegas, we met in Cairns, then up to Cape Tribulation, the Bloomfield Track to Cooktown had a few days there for a look and then off we went.

Here is the three vehicles as we depart Cairns.



Cape Tribulation Sunset (this is indeed a pretty spot)



The Bloomfield Track (very easy run but worth the trip), we were considering the Creb Track but with all the rain in the North the week before we got there that had been closed.

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

I won't bother with any Cooktown photo's, pretty touristy (rather then 4WD specific). It was blowing a gale for the 2 days we were there, they tell me it's like that most of time....very uncomfortable I must say and as a result I wouldn't rush back there but am pleased to have seen it.

From Cooktown we took Battlecamp Road to Kalpowar Crossing Campground, we had heard the road wasn't too good after the rain but in fact it was brilliant, which taught us the first thing up here, "don't believe what most people tell you as what they think is bad can be your quite good!!"

Here we are "airing down" as we get on to the corrugations.



And collecting wood, that's me and my 150



Plenty of wildlife, this I reckon is a "lucky shot" and bloody pleased it wasn't about 5 seconds slower!!

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

I can REALLY reccomend the Battlecamp Road option up to join the PDR, takes a couple of days but gee it's a top option.



We get to Kalpowar, beautiful spot would have been great for a swim BUT (and like everywhere up here)....NO NO NO!!



But the campground was nice anyway (cold showers and good toilets here).



And plenty of these on the road across to Musgrave.

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

A lunch stop at Musgrave Road House and on to the PDR (nice pies)



And finally on the PDR, 1.6 Million Corrugations to go!!



And as always, more wildlife!!



We then divert from the PDR across to Chilli Beach, the road conditions change rapidly and quite a few water crossings none of which were very deep.

[JoshF Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JoshF]

We get to Kalpowar, beautiful spot would have been great for a swim BUT (and like everywhere up here)....NO NO NO!!

There was 1 x 1 metre freshie sitting on the rocks at Kalpowar when we went through in June/July

[outback7 Banned Find all posts View Profile Close outback7]

A lunch stop at Musgrave Road House and on to the PDR (nice pies)



And finally on the PDR, 1.6 Million Corrugations to go!!



And as always, more wildlife!!



We then divert from the PDR across to Chilli Beach, the road conditions change rapidly and quite a few water crossings none of which were very deep.

Great Pic's mate. Thanks for the post. How did the 150 go? Any problems?

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

The 150 performed flawlessly....as you can see I have added after market Springs / Shocks, which in my opinion is a good addition, I alo have airbags in the back so it rides nice and level. I just run BFG A/T's, lots up there were running Muddies but for what I do the AT's are fine.

Yes saw Crocs at Bloomfield Falls, Kalpower but didn't get any close up photo's ( a couple from a fair distance but not exciting enough to put in).

Anway onwards we go to Chilli Beach



And don't you love red mud (well I do anyway!!)



Crossing the Wenlock



The "Triplets" (as we called our three silver Prado's) at Chillie Beach Turn off (just before going into the camp ground)

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

Our Chilli Camp, a bit breezy but no where near as bad as Cooktown. Now Chilli does get a bad wrap at times, wind and rubbish on the beach. The rubbish mostly comes from South East Asia, in on the tides. We were lucky there had been a bit of a clean up in the immediate area in front of us just the previous week, the bags of rubbish were there for the rangers to collect. It's a bit sad really as it's a bloody spectacular spot, anyway here's a few photos to whet your appetite.

Our home away from home



And I did say it was nice!!



And the sunsets were even better



This is at Portland Roads (just down from Chilli a little)

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

From here we went over to Weipa, I won't bother with that section as it's not terribly interesting, we mainly went to reprovision and spend a day checking vehicles.

From here up to Bramwell Junction (and what a top bloke Jamie is!!!)

Do we go left or right?? (we actually went right and stayed overnight)



Next morning "hi ho hi ho off to work we go"!!

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

The entrance



The exit (with an old cruiser coming the other way

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

The OTT (The track rather than the water crossings, here's a few photo's

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

And some more, with some of the water crossings...note we elected as a group, and not being "hard core" to avoid Nolans Brook, so about the deepest crossing we had was into Elliot Falls (much to our surprise) which would have been above wheel height.

Anyway here's some more random photo's from our day on the OTT

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

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

It was great fun, we had a ball, took it easy and managed all the crossings.....it was a pity though that we didn't camp on the OTT as there was some great spots. We had our wives with us and the offer of a hot shower and toilets at Bramwell was too great to refuse, so that wasn't to be....we did stay overnight (and wish it was two) at Elliott / Twin falls....what a spot!!! No Crocs here so a swin was def in the mix!!

Sorry couldn't resist one more of the "mighty Prado"



They are indeed "something special"



AND the water was magnificent



The coming in water crossing, deeper than it looks by the way!!

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

From Elliot Falls we travelled back to the Bamaga Road (bypassing the northern section of the OTT) and then via the Jardine River Ferry to Bamaga and our end point, Loyalty Beach campground.

Good spot there, to me much better than the Seisa Holiday Park (where we were going to go).....we had 4 nights there during which we did the following,

The Tip

Day trip to Thursday Island

Day of rest (more vehicle checking and we took the oppoortunity to unpack and repack and do a little cleaning up).

You will have all seen a myriad of photo's of the Tip and Thursday Island so I won't bother with those but I'll add a few of the glorius Sunsets up that way, a real highlight for me (after the OTT of course).







And my favourite (just taken on the I-Phone)