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Cape York 2010


Bushie

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Returning from our trip to the Cape here is my trip report.

We covered some 11000+km

Our original itinerary was as follows:

Nundle for overnight stop

Benarkin

Yepoon

Eungella NP

Eungella NP

Branston Beach

Cairns

Cairns

Roaring Meg Falls via Creb Track

Cooktown via Cape Tribulation

Cooktown

Cape Melville

Cape Melville explore

Musgrave via Bathurst Head

Archer River Camp (MK NP) via Coen

Chilli Beach via Archer River Roadhouse

Chilli Beach

Elliott Falls via Bramwell Junction

Cape York

Cape York

Cape York

Crystal Creek including Usher Point

Capt Billy Landing

Weipa

Weipa

Vardon Lagoon (MK NP) via Archer River Roadhouse

Musgrave Roadhouse

Poompuraaw

Kowanyama

Karumba via Dunbar

Burketown

Adels Grove via Gregory Downs

Adels Grove

Mt Isa

Mt Isa

Dimantina Nat Park via Boulia

Dimantina Nat Park

Blaydensburg Nat Park

Longreach

Jundah or Wellford

Quilpie

Engonia via Cunnamulla & Barringun

Louth

Louth

Louth

Louth

Louth

Sydney

On the trip were Perry(Numpty), Vince(Chenz) and Jan, Shorty(ShortyNSW), his daughter Elizabeth, and myself and Amanda.

All happily spread between 3 vehicles.

As it turned out there was quite a bit of variation to the itinerary before we had completed the trip, some were under our control others weren't.

The trip total distance was - 11199km

Damage report from my side amounts to a windscreen, and a braking problem, I'm leaning towards a crack somewhere in the brake booster.

We headed off at around 6:15am across Sydney to meet up with Chenz at Eastwood, we gave him a call as we crossed Silverwater bridge and met him at the traffic lights at the intersection of Marsden Road and KIssing Point road with perfect timing. From there it was a straightforward run up the F3/New England Hwy stopping for breakfast in Cessnock before arriving at Nundle at lunchtime(ish)

With our arrival the group was complete and ready to head off together the following morning.

Trip Distance 432km

Bushie

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Day 2 - 25th June Nundle to Nanango

Heading out in the morning we were met with the site of a camel train crossing the road outside the pub, lunch was at Wollengarra on the NSW/Qld border and we headed to the first change to the itinerary, rather than heading to Benarkin we made the decision to camp overnight at Nanango in the Lions Park, there were electric BBQs so we cooked up a quick meal before bedding down in the swags for the night.

Watching some of the activity in the adjacent park/toilet block I'm sure this is a popular pick up point for drugs of some description.

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Departure (Vince and Jans daughter was travelling with us to Cairns to take up her new posting with the Navy)

Everything looks nice and clean !!

Trip distance 697km

Bushie

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Day 3 - 26th June, Nanango to Yepoon

Heading for Yepoon after a quick breakfast of cereal and a couple of cups of tea, heavy fog on the way out. We encountered a couple of wide loads heading north, both Cat dump truck bodies, sans wheels and trays after negotiating past them in the fog we made a stop for morning tea on the side of the road.

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We had just completed when the first of the escorts for the wide loads appeared so a dash was made to get going before they arrived. Lunch stop was at Calliope Crossing, before heading off encountering another wide load (bulldozer) and heading for Yepoon. Camp for the night was at "The Causeway Caravan Park" at Emu Park. It would appear however that the park had let our booked spot go to someone else (after ringing us to confirm we were still coming) as the available space was tiny, and we had to park out on the street !!

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No space here

An afternoon walk and some photos were taken across the sand banks before returning for dinner of beef and vege stir fry in Plum sauce with noodles. There was a partial eclipse of the moon visible that evening.

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Driftwood

Trip distance - 582km

Bushie

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Day 4 - 27th June, Yepoon to Eungella

We were up at 6:00 as there was a local market and the stall holders started entering the caravan park.

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Moonset over the lake

Sausage sandwich for breakfast with onion and bbq sauce then on the road. Heading for Eungella National Park. The view was limited as thick fog prevailed with short bursts of clear warm sections. The spider webs on the roadside bushes were spectactular and all covered in dew. Stopped for morning tea at a ‘Revive & Survive’ spot just north of Marlborough.

Reached Marian, west of Mackay and had lunch at the cricket grounds next to the Bowling Club. Jess then headed off to Bowen while we carried onto Eungella. The road up to Eungella is very steep but picturesque, on the way stopped at the ‘Skywalk’ lookout.

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Skywalk Lookout

Found the campsite, set up camp, kettle on then a beer for some and a cup of tea for others.

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Trip distance - 470km

Bushie

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Day 5 - 28th June, Eungella NP

Bacon and egg for breakfast after a slow morning. We then went to the Clarke Ridge walk, which went around the ridge edge, what a view and amazed at the work put into the track itself. We reached the Broken river, it once had a bridge across but that has long gone, the whole area was showing some significant damage to the vegetation from TC Ului earlier in the year with staghorns and shattered trees lying all over the area.

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Then it was out to the road and the walk back to the cars 2.1 kms uphill.

Back to camp for lunch. Lazy restful afternoon before heading to Eungella and to Peases Lookout,

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then back to town to find the Chalet for a drink. We dropped into the General store to ask the Chalet’s location to be told it was closed for renovation .

Back to camp and pick up some firewood on the way. We passed camp to head across the river to look at the old yards we could see from camp which were the location of the ‘diggings’ as well.

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Knowing we had a long drive we packed the car as much as possible ready for heading off tomorrow.

Trip distance 53km

Bushie

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Day 6 - 29th June Eungella to Cairns

Not long after setting off Chenz threw a fan belt broke, stopped on side of road to replace – 30 mins or so.

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Didn't like that belt anyway

Stopping for morning tea by the Bowen river, what a sight, all the debris in the trees from a recent flood at least 10m high checking the car for damage as we had hit a bad washout at speed– the eggs were all intact and the car seemed ok.

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Morning tea

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Bowen River

Heading towards Collinsville via Exmoor Road then onto Ayr via Strathalbyn road, lunch at Molonge creek causeway, we came out onto the Bruce highway again. We stopped at a scenic lookout for a stretch mid afternoon, turned the ignition key and ‘nothing’, switched the batteries over and started seems one of my 8yo optimas had finally given up.

Kept travelling (not that far to go) finally reaching Cairns at 7:30. Jan asked Jess to buy some dinner for us all. Jess arrived with 4 different pizza’s, 4 pasta’s, a garden salad and 2 bottles of soft drink, what a great kid.

We quickly devoured the pizza’s, then all had a shower not long after arriving and setting up. hot, very refreshing after a long very warm day.

Trip distance 787km

Bushie

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Day 7 - 30th June, Cairns

Today was a very relaxed day with a bacon and egg breakfast cooked on the BBQ at the camp kitchen. We booked the trip to Kuranda via the skyway and return via the Kuranda rail.

I headed down to the local autobarn and ordered a new battery for the Landy. At 11am we were picked up out the front of the caravan park and headed off to the skyway cable car. Stopping at a number of stops on the way to Kuranda

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Skyway

we had views of the closed forest and Barron falls

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Would love to see it in the wet

before arriving at Kuranda, for lunch we headed to the top pub for a couple of beers and a seafood basket.

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Lunch at the top pub

The train down the mountain departed at 2pm to head down to Cairns, whilst the trip is very scenic I found it slightly disappointing due to the inability to get a good view if you weren’t close to a window. The train had us back at Cairns station by 3:45pm and were were returned to the camp site.

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Kuranda Rail

I headed back to auto barn and picked the new battery ($429) and returned to fit it to the Landy.

Once to battery was fitted we headed into town to do shopping to restock ready for heading off on Friday morning, Thursday being a full day out.

Bushie

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Day 8 - 1st July, Cairns

Today was the reef cruise and snorkelling, after an early start and a breakfast of banana on toast we headed of to the Cairns marina for an 8:30 start aboard the Osprey V. Heading approx 25 nautical miles of the coast we came to the reef. Here we had the opportunity to snorkel over the coral reef that makes up part of the Great Barrier Reef. The variety of reef fish were astounding with some of us being lucky enough to get a glimpse of turtles and giant gropers.

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From my iPhone

Snorkelling however in the wind that was blowing combined with the tides made for some tiring leg work. Lunch was served up from 1130 through to 1pm and was a variety of cold meats, salads, sausages, steaks and prawns “a good aussie BBQ” as the crew described it. After lunch we moved to a separate area of the reef and we all had another snorkel, before the return trip to Cairns. By this time the wind was up to around 30knots and with the boat making about 25knots it was a reasonably rough trip back.

Returning to the caravan park for a quick shower we headed off again to “The Pier” pub for dinner. Amanda and I had a bucket of tiger prawns, which again proved almost too much for both of us. After a quick beer we headed of to bed, with rain setting in at around 11pm.

Bushie

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Day 9 - 2nd July Cairns to near Wujul Wujul

After packing up and heading to O’briens to get Chenzs windscreen chip repaired we headed off towards Daintree. At Daintree we were intending to head across the CREB track to Roaring Meg falls, but with the wet weather overnight and after venturing across the Daintree river it was decided that we were game but not foolhardy (especially as I had open diffs) and after slipping and sliding around on the slopes we decided to turn around and head up the Bloomfield track and back into Roaring Meg falls from the north.

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When we got to China Camp we were met by one of the ‘locals’ who informed us that they had closed Roaring Meg and that the fact that we had a permit from QNPS was irrelevant, they would not let us get in. We decided to retreat up the track a couple of km make our way well off the track and set up camp.

It appears that there was some dissent in the local aboriginal council and they would not 'honour' permits signed off by former council members. A disappointing turn of events, but such is life.

Dinner was a sweet curry cooked in the camp oven.

Trip distance 248km

Bushie

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Day 10 - 3rd July, near Wujul Wuijul to Cooktown

After breakfast we left the Roaring Meg area (not having seen the falls) and on the way out we encountered another group heading in and informed them of the plight we had come against, headed to the Lions Den for a quick stop some photos and a quick coffee/beer, depending on the fancy of the participants,

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Lions Den Hotel

from there it was a short run to Cooktown stopping at Black mountains for some photos, Black mountains are a collection of hills formed from an accumulation of broken granite rocks, again it is an area that the local aboriginal people would prefer that is not visited but instead just looked at from the roadside.

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Black Mountain

Once in Cooktown we booked in at the local caravan park, made lunch and then showered before heading to the museum to look at artefacts from the local area as well as relics from Captain James Cooks visit to the area when he holed the Endeavour. The afternoon was concluded with a few ales at the loacl pub before heading back to camp for dinner. The weather for the 5th day in a row has been windy with showers interspersed. The ranges around Cooktown as was Cairns are heavily cloaked in grey clouds.

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Cooktown

Trip distance

Bushie

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Day 11 - 4th July, Cooktown

Spent a relaxing day due to wet weather.

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Wet and windy in Cooktown

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Local critter

Did the mundane things like washing. Then into town for a laundromat to dry it all, and morning tea at the bakery. Back to the laudromat to pick up the dry washing. Then down to the wharf to have a bit of a look around.

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We then went to Grassy Hill lookout – if the weather had been clear it would have been spectacular – the wind was so strong it nearly blew us off our feet, and the roadworks didn't make for easy walking in thongs. Lunch then off to the cemetery for a look at the old graves. Back to camp for a cup of tea, a shower and change of clothes for drinks then dinner at the top pub – Roast for $24 for 2, can’t say the meal was great. Back to camp for port and some nibblies.

Trip distance 95km

Bushie

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Day 12 - 5th July, Cooktown to Lakefield

Cooktown was essentially the start of the real trip and the last we would see of bitumen for a few thousand kms. However not far from Cooktown Chenzs clutch had a hernia, we headed back to Cooktown to try and rectify the problem (we suspected a hydraulic problem most likely master cylinder), he arranged for a new parts to be posted to Bamaga as a precaution, we bled the clutch – all seemed OK.

I should point out that as the original clutch had done 250000km Chenz had decided to get it replaced, overhauled gearbox and new master and slave cylinders prior to the trip to say he was a bit ****ed would be an understatement!!

We set off again but it wasn’t long before Chenz was driving without a clutch.

We had decided the previous night to travel to Lakefield NP instead of heading to Cape Melville due to all the rain and advice from the campsite owner. (I later heard that quite a few people had been stuck out that way)

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Lunch was at Old Laura, then on a bulldusty track we made our way into Lakefield National Park to camp at Bottom Whiphandle waterhole. On the way through we stopped in at the Red Lily lagoon which was alive with Red Tailed Black Cockatoos, a flock of probably 150 birds.

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Red Lily Lagoon

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Red Tailed Blacks

The tents were erected and the we then worked on Chenzs car replacing the clutch master cylinder internals, luckily I had brought the old internals from a clutch master cylinder as the piston was different and the seal from the kit I had wouldn't fit. ( a lesson for the future). It did appear that there was a casting/machining defect in the cylinder bore as well.

After dark we went down to the waterhole to see if we could see any crocs just a few ‘pink eyes’ though, The mozzies and bugs are bad!!!!

Trip Distance 290km

Bushie

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Day 13 - 6th July, Lakefield to Wenlock River

We set off in good spirits as Chenzs clutch seemed to be fixed. The road is very dusty.

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Track out from Bottom Whiphandle

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Hann Crossing

We arrived at Musgrave Roadhouse to the call from Chenz ‘The clutch has gone again’. After some discussion the clutch was bled again getting a little air and the fluid topped up.

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Musgrave - we kept meeting the Land Rover County

On the road again towards Coen. Lunch at the Exchange pub (known as the Sexchange) – meat pie and a cold drink/beer.

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Exchange Hotel - Coen

A purchase from the general store , a top up of fuel and we’re off again. We turned off into Mungkan Kandju NP, stopped at the self registration board to find the notice ‘Park closed due to rain affected roads’ – bugger.

We decided to head towards Chilli Beach and stop at the Batavia gold fields on the Wenlock river on the Portlands Roads road. We found a nice waterhole on a track just before the river and set up camp for the night or two. The guys started to work on Chenzs car but will more than likely have to do it tomorrow. I checked in with VKS for all vehicles and sent spot position.

Bushie

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Day 14 - 7th July, Wenlock River

The day started with a sleep in until around 0730, after a lazy breakfast a bit of a sit around we decided that we would tackle Chenzs slave cylinder after morning tea. I took the slave cylinder out after a bit of a battle with getting spanners and sockets onto nuts etc.

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Pleasant spot

Once again the slave cylinder was different to the kit that I had amongst my spare parts, we took a gamble and after cleaning things up put it back into the car with the original seals. Bleeding the slave showed that things were not going to work with the fluid level dropping quickly (it appears we had made things worse).

A quick decision was made to head back to Archer River road house and order parts,

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We aren't the only ones with apparent problems

they ended up coming from Cairns to Weipa and we aim to pick them up on Friday . (The assistance by all was greatly appreciated, the mechanic in Sydney rang Cairns, the guy in Cairns told us they were in the mail and what time they were expected in Weipa).

Meanwhile while we were at the roadhouse the others went for a swim and explore (gold prospecting). Our lunch was at the roadhouse and was a couple of beers and a hamburger, returning to camp I had a quick shower and then headed down to the river for a swim.

Once back in camp the decision was that tonight would be roast night. Pork, beef and veges were to be the order of the evening preceeded by drinks/nuts etc.

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Fishing apparently fixes almost anything

Tomorrow we will head to Weipa and fix up the clutch hydraulics hopefully once and for all.

Trip Distance 109km

Bushie

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Day 15 - 8th July, Wenlock River to Weipa

After breakfast of toast and jam, we packed up and were ready to go.

We pushed Chenzs backwards to enable him to get a tow off Shorty to the Portland Roads road. We had decided to leave Chenzs car there while we all went to the Batavia goldfield ruins for a look, and as Shorty put it photograph the "old rust".

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Old Rust

Back to Chenzs car and after making sure he started off OK, we were following. Shorty was ahead letting Chenz know of any problems and checking for oncoming traffic when we turned onto the main road to Weipa, all clear and no problems. The road was in good condition and we had no problems. We reached Weipa and had to cross a haul road and stop at the traffic lights, Chenz slowed right down to make sure he did not have to stop.

223km with one gear change 2nd to 5th

We found the camping ground without too much trouble, set the tents up and then had lunch – leftover roast beef sandwiches. Chenz went to the post office to check if his spare parts had arrived. A quick trip into the local shops. We then had a swim in the swimming pool – nice to cool down, we then had a shower, yeah clean hair. Our clothes washing was done and hung on the clothes line. Then off to the pub to join the others for a drink via a walk along the beach to the Albatross Hotel on the beach front.

Dinner was a quickly purchased roast chicken and a throw together salad, and yoghurt from Woolies. Afer dinner we sat along the beachfront looking out over the ocean and watching the stars whilst partaking of a nice cold ale.

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Weipa Sunset

Trip distance 223km

Bushie

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Day 16 - 9th July, Weipa

Today was to be a leisurely day with Numpty and Chenz leaving early to go on a fishing charter with Barra Dave, they headed up the river and the rest of us just lounged around the camp.

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Red Winged Parrot

First thing though we headed to the post office on the of chance that the parts had arrived – unfortunately not. The post master though was very helpful and told us he would be there until around 6:30pm and to knock on the back door, or even on Saturday afternoon if needed.

We then headed off to the shops to buy a bit of meat, and get a coffee. On returning from the shops we headed to the caravan park office and booked us all in on the mine tour. Chenz and Numpty arrived back at about 12:45 with a couple of nice fish (approx $70/fish ) that were going to provide dinner if someone could catch some chips.

After a quick lunch we headed off on the mine tour which took us around Weipa pointing out some of the older parts of town, especially some that had been revegetated and turned into parks. At the Andoom mine we were taken out to one of the working pits along the haul roads (shared with 300 tonne tippers). Then across to the dump and loading area where to bauxite is loaded onto trains for the short trip to the wharf.

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Weipa Operations

Once back, the parts were in at the post office so it was back to the campsite to fit the master and slave cylinders, once they were just about fitted Shorty headed off to catch the chips and had a successful outing coming back with both chips and chicken wings for an entree.

After washing up we decided to head out to the Mission Creek bridge to see if we could spy some crocs. Whilst not certain we were fairly sure we saw a couple of them floating past in the water near the bridge. When we set off from the campsite our clutch didn’t feel right and checking the fluid level it was right down, Shorty provided some fluid and I topped up, driving back to camp all seemed OK and it stayed that way for the rest of the trip requiring no further top up, a bit of a mystery ?

Once back at camp we headed for the showers some beers, and then bed.

Bushie

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Day 17 - 10th July, Weipa to Bertie Creek

After packing up the first stop was the BP to refuel and grab some more brake fluid, we then headed out of town to find the road to Batavia Downs from Sudley and across to the Old Telegraph track stopping for a look around at Moreton Telegraph station on the Wenlock before heading through onto the track.

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Wenlock River

We stopped for a quick morning tea on the side of the road and then hit the old telegraph track from Bramwell Junction north, the first creek crossing (Palm Creek) had a collection of vehicles deciding whether they would cross and how. Shorty offered to go first, followed by Chenz and then us, this put us ahead of the group and we stopped for lunch just past the second crossing, completing lunch just as the first of the following vehicles arrived.

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Palm Creek crossing

We headed across and camped on the bank of Bertie Creek. A very refreshing swim was taken in the creek before having drinks (more) and nibbles on the side of the creek.

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Afternoon Nibblies

Dinner was cooked and the swags set up as the sun set.

As it was a clear star studded sky we decided to swag it for the night (a mistake) at approximately 11 pm it started to sprinkle with rain and progressively got heavier, it was obvious that the tarp (a late setup) was not going to keep out the rain so we set up the tent, bedding was variously wet to damp but the tent was now up.

I decided that as I was wet and dirty another dip in the creek was in order, so at midnight on a night in the middle of July we were swimming naked in the creek before wandering back to the tent to get dry in just a pair of sandals and a head light. (sorry no photos :shock: :shock: )

Trip distance 219km

Bushie

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Day 18 - 11th July, Bertie Creek to Nolans Brook

After a messy packup due to the wet gear we headed off, hoping to make the old Jardine river crossing for the nights camp. The first major obstacle was Gunshot creek which we arrived at shortly after. There were already a significant number of vehicles waiting to make the crossing with more wanting to come across from the northern bank. With one vehicle already in the creek needing to be winched out to the south, one from the south attempting to head north and 15 others waiting to go north we estimated at least 3 to 4 hours wait before we could cross and elected to take the bypass.

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Original ? Gunshot Crossing

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A Newer crossing

Morning tea stop was at the start of the bypass before we headed off to Fruit Bat Falls for lunch after a refreshing swim.

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Fruit Bat Falls

After lunch we made our way to Elliot and Twin Falls for another swim and some photos, the difference in the water temperature between The Elliot fall creek and Twin falls was remarkable although the swimming holes were only around 100m apart.

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Elliot Falls

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Twin Falls

From Elliot falls we were back onto the Old Telegraph Line again where we caught up with a group of 14 4wds and camper trailers also heading for the old Jardine Crossing.

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One of the lesser crossings (Sailor Ck? )

After a deep swampy crossing we arrived at Nolans Creek and watched the camper trailers get drowned one after another getting bogged in metre deep water.

As they were taking a significant time to cross we decided to camp at Nolans Brook for the night, only to find that the camper trailer group camped on the northern bank.

Another swim was in order in the perfectly clear warm water,

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Nolans Brook

Trip distance 130km

Bushie

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Day 19 - 12th July, Nolans Brook to Punsand Bay

We made an early start to get ahead of the camper trailer group. We had to cross Nolans Brook, which most of the trailer group seemed to get stuck in, but we had figured out that if we took a particular line from a different entry point we should be ok. A photographer from offroad images was taking photos of us as we crossed, so will have to track down some of the pics.

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ShortyNSW in Nolans Brook

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Yours truely - Nolans Brook

Chenz crossing

We travelled along the old telegraph track to the old Jardine river crossing – looked at the old crossing there were a few croc slides where crocs had been resting on the river bank (but could not see any) we boiled the eco-billies, had morning tea and then headed off the the ferry crossing just as the camper trailer group arrived.

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Jardine River

A two minute ride on the ferry (plus $88) to the other side. On the main road to Punsand bay, we stopped at Bamaga to check in at the post office for Vince’s parts (nothing there – we figured that they were not sent), we had a quick lunch of pie from the bakery store and bought some bread then we were off.

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Jardine Ferry

Believe it or not we had trouble finding the road out of Bamaga .

We reached Punsand Bay without further trouble, set up camp, then back to the main campsite area to have a swim and a drink from the bar, booked our tour for the next day to Thursday Island admired the three dutch girls named 'staff' that were working there .

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Sunset Punsand Bay

During the night we heard a helicopter going up and down the beach, we thought that they were probably looking for someone – the helicopter left and we went back to sleep.

Trip distance - 130km

Bushie

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Day 20 - 13th July, Thursday Island

At 7:15 we were out on the beach for the trip to Thursday Island – A short boat ride out to the ‘Robert Henry’ waiting to take us to TI. 1:20 minutes later and we arrived.

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TI waterfront

Off the Robert Henry onto a bus for a 2 hour tour around the island, a quick look at the town centre and shown where the churches and pubs were, onto Greenhill Fort,

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Greenhill Fort

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Artillery Piece

had a quick look around, a look at the hospital and how close it was to the waterfront (4 mtrs), The cemetery – Japanese, islander, Islamic graves, the Japanese graves are apparently the reason TI was not bombed during WW2

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Japanese Grave

then to Pearl Island seafood factory for a tasting.

Thomas (our bus/tour guide) then took us back to The Torres Hotel (the top pub in Aus.) where we were left to our own devices.

We went to look at the first church on the island in which parts of the steam ship SS Quetta reside, out from Edinburgh she struck Quetta rocks and 133 of 236 passengers lost their lives.

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We went to the memorial park then the cultural centre where there was a lot of art from locals – all very interesting (and expensive). We then went around the town, we stopped at one store, it had gelato’s (very refreshing), purchased 'Iland' shirts/shorts and sarongs (we all decided that the Island look under black jackets was the way to go for Louth Races).

We travelled further through town and stopped at the post office but they didn’t have post cards. We stopped at the pearl shop where the girls had a good look around, but Jan and Elizabeth were the only ones to buy something.

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TI Post Office

We then walked back through town to the pub to have lunch – Amanda and I shared a fishermans basket – very nice from local produce.

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Australias 'Top Pub'

We spent the rest of the afternoon in the pub, talking at one point with the fellow who created a stir with his s.o.s. from his ‘spot’ as he was stuck in his car with the tide coming in further up the coast (hence the helicopter the night before, it did demonstrate that they worked, even if "Bog Boy" only needed a quick snatch)

The trip back was a bit rougher but still extremely enjoyable, with a detour past Possession Island.

A drink on the beach with mixed nuts for nibbles then dinner of satay beef and vegetables.

Bushie

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Day 21 - 14th July, Cape York, Bamaga and surrounds

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Early light over Cape York

After a breakfast of pancakes we headed off to the Cape, via the back tracks from Punsand Bay passing the spot where “bog boy” had got stuck and set of the ‘SOS’ on his spot tracker resulting in the helicopter searching Punsand Bay late in the evening the previous night.

Once at ‘The Cape’ we sent a spot message, then headed back to the parking area for morning tea.

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Edjits at the Tip

After our cuppa we headed of to ‘Old Somerset' Homestead where there was very little to see any more just a couple of old canons and the Mango trees that surrounded the house, from there it was down to Somerset beach for lunch in the shelter and some photos before heading to ‘Fly Point’, the water was very turbulant off Fly Point as a result of the currents around Albany Island.

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Fly Point

From there we headed around the 5 beaches track finishing at Nathau Beach.

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Start of the 5 Beaches run

5 beaches

An investigation of the old WW2 aircraft wrecks that had crashed around ‘Jacky Jacky’ airfield (Bamaga Airport) bought us to a DC3 that had crashed in 1945 and a Beaufort bomber that crashed around the same time,

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DC3 wreck

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Bristol Beaufort wreck

we had trouble locating the Kittyhawk although did find what may have been some remains (burnt but obvious aircraft parts). From the aircraft wrecks we headed back to camp where Amanda did some washing and we had a few drinks before dinner.

Trip distance - 129km

Bushie

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Day 22 - 15th July, Punsand Bay to Bramwell Junction

A quick breakfast and pack up saw us on the road at approx 0840hrs heading to Bamaga for fuel and a few quick stock items before hitting the road and heading to Captain Billys landing for lunch.

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Beach at Captain Billys

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The Landing

The landing was apparently put in to allow cattle to be transported by barge to markets at Bamaga and Weipa

After deciding not to camp at Captain Billys due to the exposed campsite and the strong winds we headed off towards Bramwell junction looking for some where to camp for the evening, discarding a camp at a Telstra tower, we ended up camping off the southern bypass on Schramm creek. Some minor repairs for Shorty to his laptop recharging and Vince to his flurotube lighting a beer and broad bean chips were gratefully downed. Amanda and I headed down to the creek and had a wash/shower with just a bowl tipping cool water over ourselves to wash off the dust. A pleasant night was spent in the swag under the stars.

Trip distance - 339km

Bushie

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Day 23 - 16th July, Bramwell Junction to Chilli Beach

After Vince had checked the yabbie traps and had caught just one yabbie and a few freshwater prawns (???), we packed up and headed down a small section of the original telegraph track before taking the southern bypass back past Bramwell junction and turning off onto Frenchmans track.

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The track wandered through some woodland before decending down a steep cutting onto the Wenlock river,

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Wenlock River

this was the spot for morning tea, before heading off again along the track to the Pascoe River. The approaches to the Pascoe were much more cut up and the crossing quite deep ( around 700-800mm). We all tarped up and Shorty was the first to cross followed by us and the Vince,

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Pascoe Crossing

we all crossed with no difficulties and with varying small amounts of water into the cabins. The exit of the crossing up the bank was steep and fairly chopped up, a little road building was called for to enable us to get up the exit, Vince and Shorty with a rear locker had little problem.

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At the top was a real rugged erosion gully system so we stopped for some photos.

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From here on was a very uneventful trip back out onto the Portland Roads road and headed into Chilli beach to camp for a couple of nights. After setting up camp we headed out to walk up the northern end of the beach and round the headland, while Vince tried his luck fishing from the beach. Back at camp we had a few beers, and then Amanda cooked up honey chilli chicken for dinner.

Trip distance - 149km

Bushie

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