Cape York Report August 2012

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

Just up from the Canal Ck exit we saw this set-up of parts in a little clearing on the right of the track through some trees. It was pretty cool to see out in the middle of nowhere. My friend didn't even spot it so it was lucky that I did as this was a little gem. Some people are so clever to think of doing this. In case you can't tell from the photos, there's a bull bar, an exhaust, a drive shaft, 4 mudflaps and a side step all assorted in the shape of where they'd be on a car. If I was unlucky enough to have any parts fall off my car on my next trip up here I'd save it for this.

For those that haven't been to the Cape and are unsure of what it meant, the chicken track message written on the bull bar refers to Gunshot.

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

This is the OTT about 20 mins north of Canal Ck. My friend has way better pictures of this cambered part of the track when he was following closely behind that I'm yet to get off him at the time of posting this, but it was really cambered for lengthy periods in a few sections. It was slow going because at times it felt like the car was close to tipping over. It was a bit nerve racking at times. The camber here is nothing compared to the worst of it.

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

The OTT between Canal Ck & Sam Ck (10 min south of Sam Ck).
Also one of the original telegraph poles that still stand.

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

What a fantastic trip! I've so got to do it one day........

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

Thanks squish. It definitely has a lot of offer everyone. To be honest, the trip can be relatively easy or as difficult as you want it to be as well. When you're on the OTT you'll know what I mean.

This is the very clean & slightly turquoise Sam Ck. We reached it 45 mins after leaving Eliot Falls. It's so similar looking to Canal Ck and at times later on when referring to the crossings we had difficulty differentiating between the two & couldn't remember which one was which.

There was a family camping here and the father had two big dogs by his side when they came out to watch us do the crossing. Pig hunting dogs I'd assume because one was your classic Bull Arab X and the other had something else in it we couldn't tell, but just had the look of pig hunting dogs. I didn't see their camp site set-up as it was concealed behind thick bush, but wondered where they put their dogs when traveling. I thought they must've been towing a trailer or camper and had the dogs in the back of a ute in a designated dog cage. We did see a handful of different travelers in the Cape with dogs. We saw most of them when we stayed at Dulhunty for two nights. We were camped right above the creek there and a few people would pull up and let the dogs out for a run in the water and the dogs loved it and the owners got a lot of joy out seeing their pets happy too. It would be hard on an animal bringing it up into the Cape in the car though with the rough roads and the length of time spent in the car.

Well that little story of the two dogs was one way we differentiated between Canal Ck and Sam Ck. The other was the difference in difficulty when entering the creek. Sam Ck required extra care on approach. Instead of driving straight through it we decided to take what we thought would be the easier route. If you were to go straight through, there was a bit of a drop off into the water on entry. It'd be an entry done quite slowly and I wasn't comfortable with possibly plonking the bottom half of the radiator fan into the water while the car was barely moving. So we took the little bypass track to the left to the shorter crossing. It was a fun little track. Potholed, cambered and slippery. This route was tricky but the easiest. The last photo was taken a split second after the rear end slipped down the camber by nearly a foot.

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

Before entering the water I paused for about a minute. It was going to test the suspension possibly beyond it's full stretch of articulation. The car was already cambered to the front right a fair bit and when putting the front right tyre into the further drop off in the water I was concerned it was going to bring the back left wheel off the ground which wouldn't have been good given the soil was a bit slippery too. I've done that before in a situation like this and it's not the best feeling. I remembered what I did then to counter that and that's to just give it some gas and plow through it with a bit of speed and not drive it slowly which would only make it worse. So I did after a nerve racking little wait and that method pulled up trumps again! The photo flattens out the angle the car was at a bit, and my wife was unfortunately too concerned herself for what was going to happen if I dropped that front right wheel into the drop off in the water and didn't take a photo at that exact point which would've been a good one. The first picture shows the force being placed on the rear diver's side tyre of the Prado due to the camber. These tyres are light truck construction too and they're bulging.

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

The picture of the Patrol entering the creek shows how the articulation of the suspension got tested here.

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

The mother from the family of campers was having a chat to our partners while us guys did the creek crossing, so we parked the cars after the crossing and got out to have a quick chat. One of the below photos shows the guy's two dogs by his side. She said they were camping there for a few days because it was a quiet spot and commented on the Sam Ck crossing being a bit trickier than it looks. She also gave us a pointer thinking that we were crossing Nolan's later on today or tomorrow. She said hug the bank to the left. We later found this to be very true.

It was 10:40am at this stage, the day was on the cusp of beginning to heat up and we were 40 mins away from reaching the PDR to bypass Nolans and continue north on the Jardine River ferry up to Seisia.

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

This is the OTT a bit further north of Sam Ck. The track was quite sandy for a fair while after the creek. In some spots we spotted pigs hoof prints in the sand on the track. They looked like they were made by a heavier animal with hooves, but not big enough to be cattle. Plus there were a few pigs around.



Continuing straight on the right of the sign will take you to the notorious Nolan's Brook (aka Bridge Ck). We turned left at this sign to rejoin the PDR to bypass Nolans. You can rejoin the last little bit of the OTT just north of Nolans from the PDR approx 11km south of the Jardine River.

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This is the track heading back to the PDR.

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

We then approached an unforeseen T junction in the road which confused us as we didn't know which one would get us back to the PDR quicker. It wasn't signed and both tracks looked as well used as one another. So we pulled over for a 10 minute break in the nice hot sun and checked the Hema map again.



The map wasn't of any help with this T junction. We figured if we kept going straight we'd just run parallel with the PDR for a bit longer before rejoining it, and if we turned left it'd be the most direct route. Being the dry season, the sun was lower in the northern sky but at this time of day it wasn't of much help to indicate which way was west and which was north because we thought we were already heading in a westerly direction. A couple rocked up in a late model Ford Courier after we were pulled over for close to 10 minutes. They looked puzzled like we did when we found it. We spoke a little of which way we thought was the right way and he said his satnav was showing the track to the left as linking up with the PDR only a couple of km's away. He said the straight track wasn't even showing up. Just as he was about to drive down the track he smiled and said, "If I come back you know it's the wrong way."

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

We got back in the cars 5 minutes after the Courier went down the track and we continued towards the PDR. We didn't see him heading back so it was a good sign. Before we knew it we approached the PDR from the side track and immediately saw a car passing at 80km/h approx. It was going to be a welcome change traveling at high speed again as opposed to the average 15-20km/h on the OTT (not that any of it wasn't enjoyable). We'd be able to cover the longer distance remaining so much quicker now. We traveled north at 100km/h for another 25 minutes before reaching the Jardine River. The PDR got pretty rough up here in sections. The corrugations were higher and spaced further apart and shook the car in a way I cannot describe, it didn't feel good & I couldn't wait to get off it.

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

The Jardine River ferry office is located a few hundred meters from the southern bank. The ferry office also sells fuel. The ferry and the office is run by the people from the Injinoo tribe and the money made is filtered back into the community. Behind the ferry office is a house that we assumed the operators stay in during their few days of work at a time until the shift change then they get replaced by others for another few days. This office has EFTPOS like all the roadhouses in the cape. Cash isn't really required for your trip up here but it's always good to carry a bit just in case.

We pulled in to fill up with fuel and the ferry cost was $78 return for us at this time. We were expecting to pay up to $100 so that wasn't too bad I guess.

The office clerk asked me if I went through Nolans. I said we bypassed Nolans and took the track just south to the PDR and came up that way. He then commented that there was a Landcruiser really badly stuck in it earlier in the year. I asked, "Was that a 200 series?" (Because I remembered reading about that one). He said it was and that it had to be towed all the way to Bamaga. He added, "We get a few every now and again."

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The Jardine River ferry & the campgrounds near the river for those who want to take a break after a long drive or arrive too late for the ferry and need to spend the night.
They also have toilets here with hand pump soap. Yes hand pump soap... Sweet luxuries are few and far between up here.

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And yes we're still fueling up. Just like almost everywhere else in the Cape along the way, unleaded costs more than diesel.... Bugger! My friend was now winning 3-0 in the diesel vs unleaded price Pepsi Challenge.

After we filled up with fuel the ferry operator came up to us at our cars and asked if we were going on the ferry. We replied, Yes." He then said it was their lunch break now and asked if it was alright if we waited an hour until they finished. We didn't mind at all and it gave us an excuse to relax and unwind for an hour during the hottest time of the day up here. We moved our cars to the camping area and parked under the shade of a tree. So from noon to 1pm we walked around, had some nice mouth watering cold cans of soft drink, did a bit of this and a bit of that, took some photos, sat in the camping/picnic area for a bit and watched others rock up in their cars from both directions one by one occasionally over the course of the next 60 minutes.

There were also a few quarantine signs about throughout the Cape.