Cape York Report August 2012

[TimA Member Find all posts View Profile Close TimA]

Hey Brett,

Great report. Loving it. Do you regret not doing Nolans yourself? I would err on the side of caution myself. But the temptation must be there.

Tim

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

Thanks very much, Mark. And to answer your question, TimA, is to basically repeat what Mark just mentioned. For the whole time we planned this trip, not once did we consider crossing Nolans. While driving the OTT we never once considered crossing Nolans. While watching others cross it we still never considered crossing it ourselves. Me and my friend joked about it at one stage while camping there and the girls thought we were serious haha. We had no temptation to cross it whatsoever. You can still do a proper Cape trip without driving it so don't think if you don't cross it you haven't done the trip properly. The way we looked at it was we needed our cars to get home. We value our cars and weren't going to risk flooding or drowning them in the water as it's a calculated risk that is sometimes out of your control. Plus mine's a petrol. If we got temporarily stuck in Nolans then we certainly weren't going to consider ripping the seats and carpet out at the campsite as part of the experience that's for sure. If I was 18 or 19 again I'd probably be tempted to do it. You've got an approx 75% chance of getting through I heard because it snags 1 in every 4 cars on average, so technically the odds are in your favour. As a spectator it's an awesome place and offers great entertainment value... Yes, unfortunately at the expense of others from time to time. But, by all means if others want to do it then that's their choice. It'd be a huge buzz to do it and would fill you with a huge sense of accomplishment, and I wouldn't take that away from anyone who's crossed it or would like to in the future.

The next three photos are the last of Nolans and show a ute which got stuck. The girlfriend of the guy driving it was standing next to us taking photos and was all smiles, peaches and cream until his car got stuck. She then got upset and looked at all of us and shouted, "Can we get some hands on this!!" She got a few strange looks from people. To paint the scenario, the boyfriend's car was bogged down in soft sand on an incline in the water. One guy ran behind the ute trying to push it forward. There could've been 10 people behind that ute trying to push it out and it wasn't going to make any difference whatsoever. There were also 2 people rigging up the snatch strap very shortly after who were part of their group. How many more do you need on a snatch strap?? We didn't force him to drive Nolans. We weren't laughing or smiling because we were respectful of his misfortune, just cringing and eagerly watching like the 30 other people there. The little so and so then barged past someone knocking them while she stormed off sulking. Would've been a fun trip with her in the car afterwards blaming us for the soaked interior.... None of which would've been her boyfriend's fault mind you. It all would've been our fault somehow.



Just a word of advice, if you want to camp at Nolans but don't want to be relied upon to pull people out every time the lead vehicle gets stuck, then don't camp at the first camp site on the R.H.S on the northern bank. Most people wouldn't mind helping those in trouble, but it would get a bit annoying when it happens several times a day. The family camping in that spot when we stayed at Nolans had a great vantage spot, but they also had to quickly jump in their car a few times and race around to pull stuck vehicles out throughout the day. I think they were a bit over it towards the end. Especially if you had a rooftop tent opened out and a side awning all set-up and someone comes along and buries their car in Nolans. Even though it'd take you a fair while to pack it all away you'd still be obliged to pull/winch their car out. So if that's not your cup of tea then camp out of site where the donut clearing is. If you want to perform recoveries for people all day long which would be fun for some then by all means camp in that other spot or even leave your car parked near the northern exit and some people will ask for your help even before they cross. But you'd no doubt be helping people a few times during your stay.

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

It was time to move onto the Dulhunty River camping area for a relaxing 2 night stay. We flew south along the dusty corrugated PDR for a couple of hours and took the turn off to get back onto the Tele track to head a little further south to Dulhunty. We were looking forward to staying here as we didn't really get a good look at it when we passed through on the way north and from what we saw it did look good.

On the way the terrain turned into low level scattered shrubs and grasslands as far as the eye could see. The lack of nutrients in the soil and wind conditions in this area prevent the growth of tall trees, hence the region being named the "Heathlands Resources Reserve."

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

As we neared the OTT the scrub began to grow more dense and the trees were getting taller.
It was great to get back on the OTT for the short while we were on it for again. We crossed Bertie Ck once more.

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When we arrived at Dulhunty we found the best campsite instantly. It was on the southern bank just on the left corner of the entrance to the creek. The site was elevated about 3 meters above the track and offered a great view of all the cars crossing the creek and your very own personal walking path down into the water. After our first night we were also lucky enough to have the entire place to ourselves for almost the whole day. There were no other campers and only half a dozen cars approx crossed the river until later on in the afternoon. The crossing itself is only a few inches deep with a sandy bottom. Surprisingly we didn't take many photos at this place for some reason. I don't know why, but I guess we were just too caught up with relaxing and lazing about at this point and it was a great spot to do it.

Some of us swam in the water (it was very cold). We also plonked our camp chairs to the side of the crossing in the 6 inch deep water and chilled out for a few hours with a few drinks. There were heaps of little minnows in the water to focus on too. We were feeding them flies constantly. The flies up here were dumb. Further south in the country when they land on you, you've got no chance of ever being able to swat one with your bare hand. But at Dulhunty, almost any fly that landed on you, you could swat. We'd brush the dead flies in the water and the small fish were having a field day on them. After a while they kept expecting food from us and were schooling very close eagerly awaiting the next fly to drop in. After a couple of hours we closed the kitchen and moved back up to our campsite.



If you have Ron & Viv Moon's Cape York book you might have read their story of them canoeing in the Dulhunty and having a scary encounter with a 3m crocodile that converged on their canoe and was frightingly close as it watched them glide passed silently with their hearts in the pit of their stomachs. Not to worry, it wasn't anywhere near this spot. That happened further up towards the mouth. Personally I think they were nuts to be in there in a canoe in the first place. Val Plumwood nearly lost her life in Kakadu in 1985 doing the exact same thing. Her injuries were horrific, but she managed to keep her legs after extensive operations. And that was from a 2.5m long croc.

Later in the afternoon some young guns rocked up from the north in their mega lifted 4wds. One guy who had an 80 series Land Cruiser with a 6 inch lift thought it'd be a top idea to try and drive his car up the two vertical entrances which run down towards the river bank from up above that must've been able to be used once upon a time. With his mates and us glued to the action he tried to drive up the left gunshot like track several times. With no luck, he then had a crack at the 2nd one on the right of the first one. This one was cambered and his car looked like it was going to roll onto its side when his car was near vertical. But to be expected, there was no way he was going to get up it. It was entertaining to watch though and we even joked when we first saw them drive in that one of them would have a crack at those two hills.

This was the track on the left that he first had a crack at. It's about 5 meters of near vertical drop.
Later on after he and his mates set-up camp they were cutting down living trees with a chainsaw for their fire.... Another group of knuckle heads in a different campsite were doing it after dark that night as well. There were a lot of tree stumps a few meters into the bush around the perimeter here that had been cut with chainsaws for firewood. The 1 to 2 foot high stumps left behind were a bit of a giveaway and there were a lot of them around. We had camp fires here ourselves but went to the little extra effort of walking further away and deeper into the bush to find the fallen timber.

We never got a photo of the young gun trying to drive up the steep tracks as it all happened so quickly after they drove in and none of us wanted to take our eyes of it to grab the camera just in case we missed something.



I'd highly recommend a night's stay or two at Dulhunty. Probably more so on the way back south as we did when you're in a more relaxed frame of mind. It's great to chill-out here for a couple of days. There's a lot of large camp sites here that can cater for big groups without being on top of each other and plenty of trees to string a hammock in between and to provide shade during the hot days. Camp close to the water if you can to shorten your walk to it. Plus it's nice to go to sleep at night listening to the high volume of water gushing over the waterfall.

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

When we left Dulhunty we headed to Bramwell Junction again via the speedy PDR to get photos next to one of the big termite mounds across the road from the kioske. This should be a must on anyone's trip up to the Cape.

Our destination today was Musgrave RH which was going to be our overnight stay before heading into Lakefield NP.



As part of our lengthy drive today we stopped in at the Archer River RH for lunch. We ordered 1 @ Archer Burger each. It was a boiling hot day today and the cold drinks we ordered with our burgers went down well. The burgers were awesome! They were big and stacked tall, and the best part was it didn't fall apart in your hands either. While here I had a quick chat to a bloke about Lakefield NP too see if he'd been there and could share any advice on the area in general and the waterholes. He stayed at a few of them on his way up and said he saw a few crocs getting around. He was unfortunate enough to have 3 punctured tyres on his trip so far. When I looked, he was running standard road tyres on that big heavy 100 series Land Cruiser of his.

While waiting for our burgers one of the small group of policemen who stopped in for lunch was walking around and peering in the windows of cars that were parked around the area. We still didn't put our front number plates back on after driving the OTT on the way up but he didn't seem to care as he didn't try and find out who the cars belonged to. He must've been looking for visible alcohol and to see if anyone had more than one carton of beer or pre-mix spirits in their cars. They had two marked police 4wd's and an unmarked silver 100 series Land Cruiser with all the kit on it including a rear steel bar, dual wheel carrier & a full length roof cage. Those police cover a pretty wide area so would need a few cars to be in several places at once if need be.

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

After spending the night at Musgrave RH, we packed up and left at 9am to make our way to Lakefield NP. We had no idea what to expect when heading there as we never did any research on the place. The idea was thrown around when we were camped at Nolans and we only definitely decided we were staying in Lakefield NP when we were camped at Dulhunty.

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

Salt Water Ck was the first water hole we came to. We drove over the causeway and then pulled over for a quick look. The campgrounds here were 150m back from the water. It was so dry out here and all the creeks and rivers were reduced to a series of water holes which was where the camp sites were located. We weren't keen to get too close to the water though.

In my opinion the Lakefield NP waterholes probably are't the most ideal place to camp with young children unless you watched them like hawks, had good control over them and could trust them not to wander off and go near the water.

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

Lakefield NP

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Lakefield NP

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

We pulled in at the Lakefield Ranger Base to book our camping permits for two nights. Where we'd camp at this stage was still unknown which was part of the appeal. On the outside deck of the ranger station there was a computer which you use to book your campsite(s) with. Next to the computer on the window were a series of printed photos of recent large crocodile sightings. The photos were dated and also showed the location they were spotted and were as recent 2 weeks ago with the largest crocodile in the pictures being spotted at Catfish Waterhole. There was also an A4 sized folder on a plastic chair with all the info you needed of all the camp sites in Lakefield NP. We flicked through the folder 3 times over and decided on 12 Mile Waterhole. Plus my friend had a Cape York book that recommended it as a standout spot along with 2 or 3 others in Lakefield NP. So we booked our camping there for 2 nights in site# 2. We wanted site# 1 but it was showing as being booked out already for one of the nights we were staying there. Another plus was that 12 Mile Waterhole was fairly remote when compared to most of the others. Most of the others were only a few km's from the main track whereas 12 Mile Waterhole was at the end of a 15km side track.

A ranger had just finished speaking to someone in her office and came outside to see how we were going. We mentioned we had just booked our campsites at 12 Mile Waterhole and she said there had just been a large crocodile sighting there a few days ago. I asked if the campsites were safe from crocodiles. She said they were, and the campsites that were level with the water were placed 150m back from the waterholes. The ones where the banks were a steep/vertical drop into the water were placed right beside the water because obviously the crocodiles couldn't climb those banks.

In a shed about 30 meters away from the office was this croc trap. It was pretty cool to see one of these up close, but it was only just over 3 meters long so I wondered how they caught the big crocs with it.

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

Across the road from the ranger base were some helpful signs. We made a short detour and headed to Kalpowar to top up with drinking water before heading to 12 Mile Waterhole. I filled up my 60 litres worth of Coleman water bladders from the taps provided with some good old tannin stained drinking water with a dash of crocodile urine mixed in haha (boil before use).

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Just down the road we could see the submerged causeway of the Kalpowar Crossing and thought we'd drive across it then turn around and come back, just to say that we drove it. It was pretty cool and when we were driving back on it, it felt like driving on water with the view we had.

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It was then time to make our 1 hour drive to 12 Mile Waterhole to set-up camp. To say I was really looking forward to this would be an understatement. It was another new place we hadn't been to before and we also knew very little about it which added to the appeal, and had no idea what to expect. Plus the others were hoping to see some crocodiles in the wild and this was going to be a good place for guaranteed sightings. For some unknown reason I had it pictured in my mind well and truly before we reached it that Lakefield NP would have green bushland. I don't know why... But it was really quite the opposite with what we saw of it. It was so dry and the further we drove towards 12 Mile Waterhole the dryer it got. Shortly after we took the 15km side track to the waterhole it was like viewing everything in black and white vision. Or sepia to describe it more accurately. Bone dry! I loved it for what it was! I thought the terrain and scenery was magnificent. It was baron and that's what appealed to me.

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We passed this billabong on the way that was well hidden behind the long dry grass. I had to stand on the side step of the car to get a better view of it. There was a well warn narrow walking track leading to the left hand edge of the water that was either made by people looking to wet a lure or pigs, or maybe both. I wasn't that keen to get that close to the water here though. The land was too level with the edge of the water and you'd be a sitting duck if you went within 2 meters of it.



The bull dust was pretty bad along this track and definitely the worst dust we'd experienced on the trip so far. We were only driving fairly slow on it and from the view through the side mirrors you couldn't see past the rear bumper bar and the back of the car from the thick dust. In the rear view mirror all I could see was dust rolling in waves against the rear window. I was to find out later when opening the boot that the dust was pooling and collecting in piles on the carpet. It was making its way through the drain holes and the long slot underneath the rear door from the door stop bracket, up inside the door and pouring out through any opening, crack and crevice it could find on the inside of the door. I'd never seen anything like it. The dust had the finest particles that would penetrate into anywhere and they did. Next time I take a track like this I'll try and plug the holes with Blu-tak if I can to reduce the dust ingression. Even when we later walked on the track there was a cloud of dust ankle high following you as you walked. When you stomped on the dirt it was like stomping on sand under water. A cloud of it just kicked up in a ring and slowly drifted off and disbanded.