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Well we've just come back from a 2 trip up the Cape and what an awesome experience. There's so much up there to do and see that it's just not possible to see it all in 2 weeks. What we did see was nothing short of spectacular. This is a trip that everyone should do once in their life. There's everything from great 4x4 action to breath taking scenery to real life cowboys and aboriginal culture that will blow you away.
I'll have to keep this thread rolling as I've got a mountain of photos to show you guys but I just haven't had a chance to get them all sorted and I need to work out a way to display them without crashing everyones puters!
The Prado performed exceptionally well with no problems to report other than she's still got red dust coming out of her even after 2 days of scrubbing. There's also a few new rattles and squeeks but that's to be expected after the 675,780,930 corrugations we drove over for the trip.
A few photos to get the the thread under way.
The prado kitted up before she hit the red stuff
DIY camp table and "bunnings" pre made drawer system! These worked a treat, I had my third battery strapped down in behind them which never came out and a big box of tools which I hardly needed to get into to, our bags then sat on top of that stuff so everything worked well.
Inverter and CTEK battery charger
Self siphoning Jerry cans. I made up some ply to level out the floor where the middle row seats normally sit and made up Jerry can holders with one sitting higher than the other with a hose between the two. This meant that the jerry cans never had to be swapped and there was easy access to the water through the door.
:!: Onto the good stuff.
:arrow: We drove from Cairns to the Lions Den hotel via Cape trib and the bloomfield track. We stayed at the LDH the first night, what an awesome pub and camp ground out the back! Unfortunately I don't know what happened to the photos of the pub but I'll try to get some soon.
Camp site out the back of the LDH
:arrow: We then pushed on through Cooktown and into the Lakefield NP.
Black Mountain
Isabella Falls
The Nifold Plain
Low Lakes
2nd Nights stay was at Hann River crossing, this was a great place to flick a lure, although I had a few strikes I bloody missed ever fish!
:arrow: The next day way headed out of Lakefield NP and up to Archer River for the night. This is another top spot well worth the stay. You can stay in the river (on the river sand of course) or in the camping grounds just before the river on the sth side.
Following on from Archer River we ventured into the Iron Range NP and to Chili beach, Portland Roads and Lockart River
Mt Tozer
Chili Beach (Stayed the night here, very bloody windy, make sure you get a sheltered spot here)
Portland Roads
Lockart River @ the beach
:arrow: Next up was the frenchmans track which is pretty rutted out and 2nd to 3rd gear most of the way for 50kms, but it was an awesome track! :twisted:
Pascoe River crossing on the FT was great fun although our Nissan friends were a bit hesitant, photos don't really do it justice.
Coming into the river
And out the other side
The prado breezed through it
Air back up and bolt to Weipa for the Night
:arrow: That night saw us stay in Weipa which we stayed at for a few days to do the mine tour and enjoy the sunsets
Traffic lights out here? :shock:
Ah yes, better give way to these suckers!
Couple of pics from the mine
Bauxite just dug up at ground level
Crack a tinny and sit down to this at our campsite.
:arrow: From Weipa we headed back up the Peninsula development track to Bramwell Junction and onto the Old Telegraph track.
And the infamous gunshot! We didn't do this section and no one else had attempted it either, it was virtually just a straight drop down that anyone would be crazy to do, the track was overgrown and had been left just as other ramps had.
We did however do another section that was still pretty hairy and was enough to have the sheilas packing their dacks!
Spare parts
Our Nissan friends got a puncture in the side wall of one of their tyres, so we stopped at the camping area and changed tyres and headed on to Cockatoo creek for the night.
Cockatoo creek was a great spot to camp with a couple of beautiful sites off to the sides. This is where we also repaired the puncture with a tube.
The next day saw us move on to fruit bat and eliot/twin falls, what a great spot to cool off and kick back for an hour of two!
This is where we got off the OTL and treked to Seisa (Loyality beach is the best place to stay here in our opinion), we would have liked to have gone further but we were limited by our weakest link... A bloody Nissan! Anyway it didn't matter as everything you do up there is sure to keep you happy!
As we strolled into Loyalty beach for the night, this is what greeted us as we cracked another tinny!
:arrow: We based ourselves at loyalty beach for 4 nights while we tripped around and discovered yet more awesome spots.
WWII Beaufort bomber crashed 10/10/1943 near higgins field, all on board survived after port motor failed.
WWII DC-3 crashed also near higgins field, this plane was on it way from Brisbane to new guinea when it crashed and all on board lost their lives.
Seisa wharf
Flicking a lure at the wharf (didn't do much good)
Communal tinny at Loyalty beach, you can hire this out.
Another terrible sunset
:arrow: Heading towards the tip brought us to somerset and then on to the tip, the pinnacle of the trip!
One of the beaches on the circuit around somerset
A mural built out of crap found off the beaches... It really is a shame to see how much rubbish is washed onto the beaches up there. Most of it comes from passing ships. We found old tv's, toothbrushes enough thongs to take your pick if you have a blow out, even a bloody tinny with the ass end ripped out of it!
And to the very top of mainland oz, heading to the tip
We made it!
What a sense of acheivement when you travel through the cape and finally arrive at your final northern destination... the northern most part of the Australian mainland!
Crack the champagne and celebrate woohoo!
(I'd forgotten how bad champagne really was! haha)
:arrow: After coming down from our great acheivement, we headed back south (obviously) and took a 4x4 track to Punsand bay, unfortunately the 4x4 action shots are lacking as we were too busy getting through most of the good stuff!
Punsand bay is a beautiful spot. The camping facilities seem to be catered more for the backpacker. As far as the camp site went we prefered our spot at Loyalty beach. Everything up the top is very close so we found having a base and travelling around was the best solution.
A stop at lockerbie and the croc tent is worth a look, we even got to feed some piglets there some twisties! :roll:
As the day finally came to an end, we were treated to... yep you guessed it... another fabulous sunset!
:arrow: Finally it came time to head back south again, it was hard to leave our spot on the beach but all good things have to come to an end!
We left Loyality beach and headed back down south to Fruit bat falls for another swim before pushing on to Captain Billies landing for a captain cook. A top spot only made bad by more strong wind which was pretty common along the east coast.
We left captain billies landing after a look around and camped the night at Bramwell junction, where only a few km before our bullbar paid for itself when we hit a decent sized roo at around 110km/h. Only damage was a smashed spotlight protector and a reshaped number plate.
The campsite here was ok by cape standards, it's not really a spot you'd mark in for a stay unless you wanted to stay there to get up early and do the OTL, we would've stayed at Captain Billies Landing but it was way too windy.
:arrow: The last leg of our journey took us down to Laura and out to Jowalbinna to explore some of the Quinkan Aboriginal rock art. This place is a must stay/see in everyway. The campsite and facilities were second to none and the rock art will blow you away.
Jowalbinna camp grounds
Beautiful morning light (got a little creative with the subject... haha)
Scenery from up where the artwork is.
And the artwork
I would recommend that anyone going up the cape and is interested in aboriginal artwork to go to Jowalbinna and spend a couple of days here. It really is a spectacular spot. There are paintings all through the area and you are able to explore the ridge lines and escarpments and find paintings as they were hundreds of years ago. These paintings are rated as the 6th best in the world. There are some paintings that you are not shown and in particular, some from the Palmer river days with paintings of horses and whitemen with handle bar moustaches and guns holstered on their hips. We were only told of these paintings and can only hope to see them one day. The best we did was saw an old miners shovel found at an art site that is beleived to have been stolen from the goldfields some 30km away.
Jowalbinna is also the start of the old coach road into the old Maytown area at palmer river. We didn't do this track as it's a 5 hour journey in which covers 30km of rugged track. Something I think us FNQ boys should organise to do one of these days.
Well that pretty well wraps up the trip. I have few more photos that I'll add in at some stage so keep an eye out for them.
It really is a trip you should do if you can, our friends drove from Warrnambool in Victoria so you guys who think it's too far should have a crack at it... You wont regret it in anyway. You just need to make sure you're well prepared for anything that may happen to your truck, and trust me we saw plenty of domestics along the way were old mate and the missus were blewing because things were going wrong and they weren't prepared for it.
Anyway save up for it or sell the kids, tell the boss you're going on holidays and book it in.
Hope to see you all up here soon!!!
Cheers and thanks for your patience!
I'll have to keep this thread rolling as I've got a mountain of photos to show you guys but I just haven't had a chance to get them all sorted and I need to work out a way to display them without crashing everyones puters!
The Prado performed exceptionally well with no problems to report other than she's still got red dust coming out of her even after 2 days of scrubbing. There's also a few new rattles and squeeks but that's to be expected after the 675,780,930 corrugations we drove over for the trip.
A few photos to get the the thread under way.
The prado kitted up before she hit the red stuff
DIY camp table and "bunnings" pre made drawer system! These worked a treat, I had my third battery strapped down in behind them which never came out and a big box of tools which I hardly needed to get into to, our bags then sat on top of that stuff so everything worked well.
Inverter and CTEK battery charger
Self siphoning Jerry cans. I made up some ply to level out the floor where the middle row seats normally sit and made up Jerry can holders with one sitting higher than the other with a hose between the two. This meant that the jerry cans never had to be swapped and there was easy access to the water through the door.
:!: Onto the good stuff.
:arrow: We drove from Cairns to the Lions Den hotel via Cape trib and the bloomfield track. We stayed at the LDH the first night, what an awesome pub and camp ground out the back! Unfortunately I don't know what happened to the photos of the pub but I'll try to get some soon.
Camp site out the back of the LDH
:arrow: We then pushed on through Cooktown and into the Lakefield NP.
Black Mountain
Isabella Falls
The Nifold Plain
Low Lakes
2nd Nights stay was at Hann River crossing, this was a great place to flick a lure, although I had a few strikes I bloody missed ever fish!
:arrow: The next day way headed out of Lakefield NP and up to Archer River for the night. This is another top spot well worth the stay. You can stay in the river (on the river sand of course) or in the camping grounds just before the river on the sth side.
Following on from Archer River we ventured into the Iron Range NP and to Chili beach, Portland Roads and Lockart River
Mt Tozer
Chili Beach (Stayed the night here, very bloody windy, make sure you get a sheltered spot here)
Portland Roads
Lockart River @ the beach
:arrow: Next up was the frenchmans track which is pretty rutted out and 2nd to 3rd gear most of the way for 50kms, but it was an awesome track! :twisted:
Pascoe River crossing on the FT was great fun although our Nissan friends were a bit hesitant, photos don't really do it justice.
Coming into the river
And out the other side
The prado breezed through it
Air back up and bolt to Weipa for the Night
:arrow: That night saw us stay in Weipa which we stayed at for a few days to do the mine tour and enjoy the sunsets
Traffic lights out here? :shock:
Ah yes, better give way to these suckers!
Couple of pics from the mine
Bauxite just dug up at ground level
Crack a tinny and sit down to this at our campsite.
:arrow: From Weipa we headed back up the Peninsula development track to Bramwell Junction and onto the Old Telegraph track.
And the infamous gunshot! We didn't do this section and no one else had attempted it either, it was virtually just a straight drop down that anyone would be crazy to do, the track was overgrown and had been left just as other ramps had.
We did however do another section that was still pretty hairy and was enough to have the sheilas packing their dacks!
Spare parts
Our Nissan friends got a puncture in the side wall of one of their tyres, so we stopped at the camping area and changed tyres and headed on to Cockatoo creek for the night.
Cockatoo creek was a great spot to camp with a couple of beautiful sites off to the sides. This is where we also repaired the puncture with a tube.
The next day saw us move on to fruit bat and eliot/twin falls, what a great spot to cool off and kick back for an hour of two!
This is where we got off the OTL and treked to Seisa (Loyality beach is the best place to stay here in our opinion), we would have liked to have gone further but we were limited by our weakest link... A bloody Nissan! Anyway it didn't matter as everything you do up there is sure to keep you happy!
As we strolled into Loyalty beach for the night, this is what greeted us as we cracked another tinny!
:arrow: We based ourselves at loyalty beach for 4 nights while we tripped around and discovered yet more awesome spots.
WWII Beaufort bomber crashed 10/10/1943 near higgins field, all on board survived after port motor failed.
WWII DC-3 crashed also near higgins field, this plane was on it way from Brisbane to new guinea when it crashed and all on board lost their lives.
Seisa wharf
Flicking a lure at the wharf (didn't do much good)
Communal tinny at Loyalty beach, you can hire this out.
Another terrible sunset
:arrow: Heading towards the tip brought us to somerset and then on to the tip, the pinnacle of the trip!
One of the beaches on the circuit around somerset
A mural built out of crap found off the beaches... It really is a shame to see how much rubbish is washed onto the beaches up there. Most of it comes from passing ships. We found old tv's, toothbrushes enough thongs to take your pick if you have a blow out, even a bloody tinny with the ass end ripped out of it!
And to the very top of mainland oz, heading to the tip
We made it!
What a sense of acheivement when you travel through the cape and finally arrive at your final northern destination... the northern most part of the Australian mainland!
Crack the champagne and celebrate woohoo!
(I'd forgotten how bad champagne really was! haha):arrow: After coming down from our great acheivement, we headed back south (obviously) and took a 4x4 track to Punsand bay, unfortunately the 4x4 action shots are lacking as we were too busy getting through most of the good stuff!
Punsand bay is a beautiful spot. The camping facilities seem to be catered more for the backpacker. As far as the camp site went we prefered our spot at Loyalty beach. Everything up the top is very close so we found having a base and travelling around was the best solution.
A stop at lockerbie and the croc tent is worth a look, we even got to feed some piglets there some twisties! :roll:
As the day finally came to an end, we were treated to... yep you guessed it... another fabulous sunset!
:arrow: Finally it came time to head back south again, it was hard to leave our spot on the beach but all good things have to come to an end!
We left Loyality beach and headed back down south to Fruit bat falls for another swim before pushing on to Captain Billies landing for a captain cook. A top spot only made bad by more strong wind which was pretty common along the east coast.
We left captain billies landing after a look around and camped the night at Bramwell junction, where only a few km before our bullbar paid for itself when we hit a decent sized roo at around 110km/h. Only damage was a smashed spotlight protector and a reshaped number plate.
The campsite here was ok by cape standards, it's not really a spot you'd mark in for a stay unless you wanted to stay there to get up early and do the OTL, we would've stayed at Captain Billies Landing but it was way too windy.
:arrow: The last leg of our journey took us down to Laura and out to Jowalbinna to explore some of the Quinkan Aboriginal rock art. This place is a must stay/see in everyway. The campsite and facilities were second to none and the rock art will blow you away.
Jowalbinna camp grounds
Beautiful morning light (got a little creative with the subject... haha)
Scenery from up where the artwork is.
And the artwork
I would recommend that anyone going up the cape and is interested in aboriginal artwork to go to Jowalbinna and spend a couple of days here. It really is a spectacular spot. There are paintings all through the area and you are able to explore the ridge lines and escarpments and find paintings as they were hundreds of years ago. These paintings are rated as the 6th best in the world. There are some paintings that you are not shown and in particular, some from the Palmer river days with paintings of horses and whitemen with handle bar moustaches and guns holstered on their hips. We were only told of these paintings and can only hope to see them one day. The best we did was saw an old miners shovel found at an art site that is beleived to have been stolen from the goldfields some 30km away.
Jowalbinna is also the start of the old coach road into the old Maytown area at palmer river. We didn't do this track as it's a 5 hour journey in which covers 30km of rugged track. Something I think us FNQ boys should organise to do one of these days.
Well that pretty well wraps up the trip. I have few more photos that I'll add in at some stage so keep an eye out for them.
It really is a trip you should do if you can, our friends drove from Warrnambool in Victoria so you guys who think it's too far should have a crack at it... You wont regret it in anyway. You just need to make sure you're well prepared for anything that may happen to your truck, and trust me we saw plenty of domestics along the way were old mate and the missus were blewing because things were going wrong and they weren't prepared for it.
Anyway save up for it or sell the kids, tell the boss you're going on holidays and book it in.
Hope to see you all up here soon!!!
Cheers and thanks for your patience!
Snaga
)
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