Tip Trippin to Pajinka... The Cape... Sep 2012

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

Well well well... all I can say is man Was our trip north abolutely amazing...
Is hard to find a way to start up this report after reading Bretts wicked account of his trip north, but all in all I think I will share some pics and a few stories of the laughs we had along the way...

What I will do is a bit of an all round balanced report of everything we got up too and seen along the way... not just dirt ripping 4X4ing... all though there will be plenty of that as well!!!

As with all good road trips, alot of time was spent prepping the car and the camper and to be honest the whole rig came up pretty sweet. I had me great mate from Adelaide lined up to meet us in Cairns and I left Mackay with 2 other rigs from the Mackay 4x4 club and we all headed north together ..



Note how clean everything looks! A classic 'Before' photo!

We spent our first night at 'Toomulla', just north of Townsville... It wasnt any more then a free camp near the beach that gave us a place to rest and we took off eary the next day heading north...



Driving thru Tulley we decided to have lunch at the 'Alligators nest'... Its a nice creek in which all the locals swim in.. its recommended for a stop off there- really choice spot.

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

Yep so from Tully hit the road bound for Cairns and to see me mate I hadnt caught up with for years... and the rig at that stage was still looking pretty bloody shiny!!



Anyways the pranks started straight away as soon as we hit cairns, catching up with me bud Mark it was too may beers with too may obstacles to lift me feet over... Yep I was put on me arse by an exposed tree stump...



The campers in the caravan park... ahh hot showers... they proved to be a rare thing over the coming weeks!



Anyways we hit the road from Cairns bound for Helensvale and The Lions Den Hotel the next morning... Finally the trip was starting in a proper fashion!

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Convoy work on bitumen thru Mossman and onto the Daintree River ferry...





And the Daintree River...



The scenery really changed once we got over that ferry... into the Daintree we went!

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

Anyways from Cape Tribulation we moved onto the Bloomfield track... We really didnt know what to expect but we didnt really find it too much of a challenge except for the near vertical climbiing that was required to get over the Donovan Range... The steep inclines were actually concreted and Im glad they were... I wouldn't want to be on this track in the rain -even with the concreted roads it would be nothing short of a slip and slide!





It doesnt look much in the photos but these hills were a Low range 1st gear job... bloody hard work on the 1kz with the fully loaded camper!

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

So after a good run thru the Daintree we ended up at the Lions Den Hotel for the night... I arrived there to find my 2 week old 78ltr ARB fridge reading -20degrees on the display... that was something that proved to test my patience over the next 4 weeks... A brand new 'offroad' fridge shat itself on the first dirt road it was driven on... more to come on that one though...

The lions den was a pretty place, we made camp for the night and met a bloke with a schimck 120 kz like mine... upgraded his suspension to heavy duty and the strut had popped thru the top hat and he was stranded... he ended up driving like that to Cooktown for repairs... I seen him again at Palm creek and it was deemed an assembly fault by whoever installed it for him... bloody great place to have a failure like that!!!

anyways a few pics...

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

It was great to catch up with me 'Brother from another Mother'... Skins- bloody top bloke...



The kids loved writing on the walls...



and the lion...



and from there it was on to Cooktown to sort the fridge problem out...It was popping an ERR 1 code which the book said only an ARB dealer could fix... it wasnt looking good...

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

Bummer about the fridge Drew. Back to powdered milk mate.
Keep the good trip report coming mate.
John (##########).

Tehehe... yea roo the fridge was a bummer but it all worked out ok in the end... Errr warm longlife milk isnt really that nice...

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

So from the Lions Den we hit cooktown and into phone range to ring ARB in mackay... there was nothing they could do exept recommend I head back to Cairns to get it sorted out. Extremely pissed off and knowing going back to cairns wasnt an option we headed of for the the 'Battlecamp' Road.

And the tyres dropped a few more PSI!!! YEE HAHH



And I had an obligation to let her have a drive a some point!!!



Our first Battlecamp water crossing... its was really shallow so skins gave it the berries for a photo!



Most of the road was in really good condition and the scrub was just choice looking...

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

So after a bit of letting 'Her' drive... we made it to 'Old Laura Homestead'... I have never seen a dead bat hanging in a tree before...



The old homestead



And I reckon this must have been a Nissan...



And it wouldnt be a Cape York Report without a pic of a Termite mound!

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On from Old Laura we camped at Hahn River crossing... It was our first taste of corrigations and bulldust... all in all it wasnt anyproblems at all. Hahn river - Not a bad spot, we didnt see any crocs and we caught no fish...







And the first break down was from the Nissan... (as expected)... A loose Drag link needed a little TLC and the wheel alignment was naffed afterwards...

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Lakefield was full of Photo snap opportunities and the pics really didnt do the landscape any justice... Its just too nice..



And we moved on to Musgarve so we could shoot up the PDR and get onto the OTT

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So thinking back to the PDR part of the voyage, I must say its nothing really special exept for the fact it gets you north... The PDR was a car pounder... bull dust, corrigations, dips and loose rocks...

But we made to Coen and had to stop for a beer at 'The Sexchange Hotel'



As I said not much to say about the PDR, but at Archer River we all got free M&m's from a bash car... bloody legends... they raise heaps of cash for charity.



North of Archer river was getting pretty hairy on the PDR, Zero visibilty bull dust, big bounching rocks and triple trailer mine haul trucks... Not Fun.

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So after 'Smashing' our way up the PDR another 170kms we pulled over for a car check at the Bramwell station turnoff..



I knew the rig had been copping an absoulte pounding that day and I decided to have a walk around the car and trailer... yep it did copp a hammering on that PDR!



and the LHS shocky mount plate got bent and the stabilising leg base got broken...

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So after a beer to cool off with, we cruised the final 10kms up to Bramwell junction and the start of the OTT...



We took on some diesel and rolled on to Palm Creek where we decided to stay for 2 nights to have a break and watch a heap of people crunch their cars!!!



Our first view of palm creek...



Pretty knarly kind of drop in... It was quickly decided it wouldnt be a good idea to put the camper trailers through it!

[Bidla Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bidla]

Looking forward to the next installment Drew! Great write up!

The outcome from the rear shock mount was...???