Cape York 2010

[Bushie]

Day 24 - 17th July, Chilli Beach

Today started with a walk along the beach just after sunrise and taking a few photos, before back to camp for a bacon and egg breakfast.

Chilli Beach

It was then off to Portland Roads for a look around and morning tea at the ‘Out of the Blue cafe’.

After morning tea we wandered out towards the mangroves and found some old land rovers, Perry and Shorty collected the indicator stalks and some of the name/instruction plates.

Old Landys

We than headed back to camp where Vince and I managed to get a fresh coconut out of a tree, Jan Amanda and Elizabeth had a swim in an ocean pool and Vince and I joined them later.

Shorty and Perry had gone on another raiding party to gather old Land Rover parts, when they arrived back we all had lunch and then decided to head down to Lochardt River for a look around. The first stop was the airport which had started life as Gordon field a WW2 bomber field built by American and Australian engineers.

Operation "Blow Down" was also conducted in the Iron Range area

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Blowdown

Iron Range Airfield

Replenishing our water supplies from the terminal building we headed to the wharf at Lochardt river and then over to the Claudie river when Vince thew in a line with no luck, but we did spot a Palm Cockatoo before Vince had to go into the ‘croc’ infested waters to recover his lure.

Lockhart Wharf

From there it was back to camp for dinner, when once again the wind came up and we had more showers come through some of which were heavy.

After washing up it was time for an early night.

Trip distance - 117km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 25 - 18th July, Chilli Beach to Mungkhan Kandju NP

After breaking camp we were on the way by 08:30 heading for Archer river roadhouse, stopping for morning tea on the road just after crossing the Pascoe River. Parts of the old road were still visible and we found one of the old bridges.

Old bridge butress

Lunch and refuel was done at Archer road house before heading off into Munghan Kandju National Park and Horsetail waterhole on the lower reaches of the Archer River, approx 120km from the Peninsular developmental road.

This guy was reluctant to move over

Although we had booked the camp site when we arrived there were already numerous campers in place, and so had to camp further up the waterhole.

Horsetailer waterhole camp (Mungkhan Kandju NP)

After setting up Vince, Perry and Shorty headed off in Shortys boat for a fish. They returned with a Sooty Grunter and a file snake that had managed to hook itself. Everyone tried the file snake after Shorty had cooked it on the fire.

Trip distance - 340km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 26 - 19th July, Archer River - Mungkhan Kandju NP

After a lazy start to the day, we had a pancake breakfast followed by a very welcome shower. Vince Perry and Elizabeth went off fishing, while we lazed around camp, for a while. The fishers arrived back at around lunchtime with 5 more sooty grunter, and a barra caught by Elizabeth.

Mornings catch

The Qld NPWS people arrived and we had a yarn to them about various things that affect the park including the extensive burning program. Shorty, Amanda and myself went for a trip down the river, spotting a number of birds and a croc slide.

Mungkhan Kandju birdlife

The remains from the fish that had been filleted were put on a sand bar near camp for the (mainly) whistling kites to feed on and at one stage there were probably 10 of them on the ground eating with more in the trees. They were quick to disperse when the sea eagle made its rounds.

Whistling Kites

Sea Eagle

A late lunch of ham, cheese and pepperoni jaffles was had before I went for a wander up the waterhole, other than a few birds and one large splash near the waters edge there was not much to see though, when I got back Vince, Perry and Elizabeth had gone fishing again. They were successful this time with more Barramundi, sooty Grunter and catfish.

Dinner naturally was fresh fish

Trip distance - 0

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 27 - 20th July, Archer River to Lukin River

An early pack up was made to enable us to get on the road and make some miles towards Pormpuraaw. On the way out of the park there was again plenty of birdlife and on approaching one of the creeks a turtle was wandering along the wheel ruts and we nearly ran over it, after the obligatory stop to look and take photographs

Wandering turtle

we were on the way again stopping just out on the main road for our morning cuppa in the eco-billies. Lunch was again a meat pie and a beer in the pub at Coen with a stock up of some of the more essential items from the store, margerine, milk and some meat. From Coen we headed to Musgrave to refuel before turning onto the road to Pormpuraaw, somewhere between Coen and Musgrave the UHF radio stopped transmitting and we were unable to change channels.

We stopped for the night near Strathhaven station on the south side of the road, on the Lukin River, where Elizabeth had sighted a fresh water crocodile in a pond next to the road

Freshie

(our first sighting – she is doing well being the first to catch a barramundi for the trip as well). Shorty got a flat tyre that needed changing and we decided the tyre was cactus. Vinces radio had also stopped working due to a power supply problem. I fixed our radio finding a broken wire in the microphone and resoldering with the 12V iron. Vinces radio we got working by bodgying up a power supply from one of the main vehicle fuses. Dinner was salad (ingedients aquired at Coen) and barramundi that Vince caught the day before. As it again came over overcast we headed under the awnings for a night in the swags. As it turned out it was a dry warm night.

Road to Pormpuraaw

Trip distance - 339km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 28 - 21st July, Lukin River to Pormpuraaw

A bit of a non hurried pack up due to the short distance to Poompuraaw we had to travel.

Camp

Breakfast was toast and the obligatory cup of tea after a look at the crock. The road itself is in quite good condition with roadworks being underway.We passed a car with doors open just stopped on the road, Vince later said that he saw the guys off in the bush catching a pig. Upon arriving we located the Council building where we obtained our camping permit – we were informed that the fee was $50 (per vehicle) not $33 as quoted – oh well!! Just hope the campsite is half decent.

The camp sites are right on the beach, at the mouth of the Chapman River and there is a shelter and shower and toilet. We decided to sleep in the shelter in swags. After a late morning tea, Perry and Vince decided to set the cray traps in the river, there were some crocs on the river bank around 2 1/2m long,

Local friends

Pelicans scaring the fish

Shorty and Elizabeth went for a drive up the beach, the rest of us went for a walk along the beach . We all had a shower – cold water only (not too bad). The hunter gatherers (Vince and Perry) returned from fishing once again successful with 2 barramundi and a threadfin salmon. Freshly cooked they were delicious for dinner with mashed sweet potato, potato and onion.

The idea of sleeping in the shelter was not such a good idea though, apparently it was owned by one of the locals, he was a bit vague as to whether we could sleep there as the shelter hadn't had a smoking ceremony, after agreeing we could sleep there a rather arrogant 'ranger' arrived to get us to move on due to complaints from the locals.

Trip distance - 162km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 29 - 22 July, Pormpuraaw to Mitchell River

After a rather broken nights sleep due to the local population driving around and through the camp as well as performing a solitary ‘smoking’ ceremony at the hut, and the persisant mozzies, we broke camp and headed towards Kowanyamma.

The road started out reasonably good but once past the road crews quickly deteriorated into just two wheel ruts and was quite rough, it was similar to the Donahue highway in the 80s with some very bad and large bulldust patches, and would easily rate as the worse stretch of road from a dust perspective for the whole trip so far.

We stopped for lunch just past the Alice river crossing where we helped a German couple, that had been staying at Pormpuraaw campground get their caravan through one of the sandier patches.

Alice River

We had told them that we would be going through and if they were concerned about the Mitchell river crossing to wait for us and we would help them. As it turned out we caught up with them, and another couple in a patrol at the Mitchell river crossing.

After a bit of a reconnoitre Shorty headed across first through the double crossing where the water was around 5-600mm deep but there was a rather steep exit out of the river, which held him up for a while. Perry followed and we were third.

The Red Terror - Perry at the wheel

We waited as the other two cars crossed, the merc got over without a problem (a bit of wheel spin up the bank, but otherwise good, now without the van),

the patrol was towing the campervan across all was well till he tried to get up the bank, the tight turn and steepness was his problem, a bit of digging and chopping of a tree branch and he was snatched up.

Mitchell River crossing

We then went on a bit to find a campsite on the river, two minutes down the track and we found a dusty spot off the road and next to the river to camp. We decided that it was too hot to set up camp straight away so we went back down to the river for a swim.

Vince, Elizabeth and Perry all went for a fish while the rest of us relaxed.

When the fishermen came back we set up camp and had dinner.

It was during the crossing that Vince gave himself a bit of a scare. While he was in the middle of the river (to mark a deep hole) we had all returned to get the vehicles. Vince noticed a large dark shadow moving fast through the water towards him. After missing a few heartbeats he realised it was the shadow of some birds overhead

Trip distance - 110km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 30 - 23th July, Mitchell River to Karumba

Back on the track again after jump starting Vince (it would appear that the Pascoe crossing had finally killed his alternator) we were back on the bulldust track again heading for Kowanyamma and the Gulf developmental road.

Mitchell River

After getting slightly disorientated at Kowanyamma we headed out of town and had morning tea. Lunch was on the bank of the Staaten River,

we were just about the head off when a triple road train passed after what we thought was a reasonable time we headed off but caught up with it at a river crossing. Vince (with Perry driving) nearly ran into the back of the road train in the dust, but headed off the left side of the road, over the side of a causeway, (nearly a trip stopper) fortunately it was just a matter of reversing back onto the road. Heading to Karumba to find an auto electrician (unsuccessfully) we decided to book into the caravan park (grey gonad heaven) and fit the spare alternator. The temperature on arrival in Karumba was 34deg. First however we headed to the pub

The Animal bar

for a beer and bought some prawns for dinner. Set up at the caravan park, the alternator was changed and we had a dinner of prawns and salad and a few more beers , then a very welcome shower before heading to bed as it cooled off.

Trip distance - 441km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 31 - 24th July, Karumba to Burketown

After a relaxed packup we headed to the servo to refuel and then round to the point to look over the gulf, talk about grey gonad heaven, there were hundreds of people fishing off the beach.

After buying some more prawns (another kilo for dinner) we stopped at the bakery to get an apple scroll and vanilla slice for morning tea. Heading of towards Normanton, we stopped just on the outskirts of town for our morning cuppa and the products from the bakery, before heading in to look at the replica of ‘Kris of the Savannah’ an 8.26m crocodile shot just downstream from Normanton in 1957.

Officially recorded as the largest croc in the world.

From there it was a quick trip to Normanton Station to look at the Gulflander Rail Motors and other items in the Normanton Rail Museum.

We then headed out of town and turned towards Burketown having lunch on the side of the road near a waterhole visiting the site of Burke and Wills camp 119, their last before reaching the waters of the gulf.

After lunch it was on the road again towards Burketown stopping at the Leichardt River and falls for a swim (above the falls in the rapids),

Leichardt Falls

before heading off again looking for a campsite before Burketown. As no campsite was found, we made the decision to head into Burketown, pick up a case of beer for Vince, when we were crossing the Albert River we decided we would come back and camp on the bank of the river. Camp was quickly set up (swag and mozzy net) under a full moon. A very generous kilo of prawns was shared between Amanda and I with a few beers.

Trip distance - 336km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 32 - 25th July, Burketown to Adels Grove

An easy pack up mainly due to the fact that only the swags were out, we headed back to Burketown but the servo didn’t open until 9am so we pressed on deciding to get fuel down the track.

Old rust

Old! flood markers

It wasn’t long before we arrived at Gregory Downs pub to refuel, have a quick beer and a pie for morning tea.

From Gregory Downs we headed off towards Adels Grove passing 6 road trains out of the Zinfex Century mine that created huge dust clouds bringing us to a stop until they passed.

Once past the mine entry road there was only the odd grey nomad to contend with before we arrived at Adels Grove just before lunch. After lunch we were all into the waterhole for a very refreshing swim.

Trip distance -223km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 33 - 26th July, Adels Grove

Bacon and egg for breakfast then it was off to Lawn Hill NP. We did a walk around the gorge to Indarri falls, the upper gorge lookout and Dawarri?? Lookout taking around 7km before returning to the cars for lunch.

After lunch we hired canoes and went paddling up the gorge stopping for a swim at Indarri falls. It was then a short portage into the upper gorge to continue paddling, we saw a freshwater croc whilst in the upper gorge basking on the bank he would have been around 2 to 2-1/2m long and got slightly agitated with a growl as we approached. Another swim was called for at the far end of upper gorge before a relaxing paddle back to the end of the gorge. Returning to Adels Grove we became part of the icecream and toilet tour :shock: before reverting to a few beers at the bar.

Trip distance 22km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 34 - 27th July, Adels Grove

At around 1:30am Amanda woke, unfortunately firing from both ends, I spent the rest of the night waiting outside the womens toilets, at 5am she was stable enough to take some medication and I boiled up some drinking water for during the day. Jan supplied some stemetil to help with the vomiting and Amanda was able to take a bit of a rest. This messed up our plans to head to Mt Isa today and has now been placed on the back burner until tomorrow.

The rest of the Edjits went to the shop for a coffee/hot chocolate while I stayed behind with Amanda. As she didn’t feel up to travelling we lounged around the camp for the morning.

Forced lay day

Trip distance - 0km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 36 -29th July, Mt Isa

After a lazy start to the day we headed into town to stock up on food and have breakfast at a cafe, and get various bits and pieces. Lunch was foregone for the day and replaced with an icecream after a swim.

I replaced the blown fuse for the radio (a short somewhere in the horn circuit) and then removed and washed out the rear door lock mechanism which allowed it to lock again. After lunch (3pm ish) we headed out to Lake Moondarra with the makings of a chicken dinner, Perry Vince and Elizabeth went for a fish the rest of us sat around and talked.

Lake Moondarra

After dusk we headed back to camp via the city lookout

Mt Isa by night

did a bit of packing up, as we were able to use the camp kitchen for breakfast the next morning. A late night shower was in order before heading for the sack.

Trip distance - 59km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 37 - 30th July, Mt Isa to Diamantina Lakes NP

A very early pack up was made due to having used the camp kitchen and we were on the road by 07:20am heading towards Boulia on a good but narrow bitumen road. Arriving in Boulia we topped up with fuel and then headed off towards Diamantina Lakes stopping for lunch and collecting firewood on the way. Arriving at Diamantina lakes around 2:45pm. We set up camp and tuned into VKS for the afternoon schedule, getting a weather forecast for the area (chance of rain/showers with a possible thunderstorm). With camp set up we settled for a beer and some afternoon nibbles.

Hunter Gorge - Diamantina Lakes NP

The clouds were definitely looking a bit ominous by early evening.

Trip distance - 498km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 38 - 31st July, Diamantina Lakes NP

In the early hours of the morning a cold change came through and the wind blew like buggery, we had to remove the awning from the tent as the guys had been dislodged and shortly after it started to rain.

The ground being clay became very sticky and breakfast was cooked (bacon/eggs) in a jumper and the driza-bone.

Amanda and Jan had a bake off for morning tea with Amanda doing Apricot scones and Jan producing some date scones, this with a hot cuppa made a good morning tea on a decidedly cold and windy day.

Dinner time came around and this was the night of our ‘Black Tie Dinner’ a good fire was going to provide the coals for the roast,

Hard to beat gidgee for coals

everyone was dressed in their finest gear (shorts, white shirt, black jacket and black tie). Dinner was a great meal roast beef and lamb and roast veges cooked to perfection, followed by an apple and sultana dessert cooked by Elizabeth under guidance from Amanda.

Traditional 'Black Tie' Dinner

Note the ad-hoc wind break it was quite cool to say the least

Trip distance - 0km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 39 - 1st August, Diamantina Lakes to Longreach

After packing up camp we headed out towards Longreach via Old Cork and Cork. Morning tea was at the Old Cork Homestead on the Diamantina. Plenty of people (well 3) stopped us on the way in asking about road conditions as apparently there had been a lot more rain around both Birdsville and the Winton areas

Old Cork Homestead ruins

Heading off Vince stopped a couple of times to collect some old insulators from the old telephone line that would have serviced the properties. During the days while collecting insulators a length of 8 gauge fencing wire became wrapped around his front drive shaft taking some time to remove and would cause a problem later.

What a top looking vehicle

Lunch stop was at the edge of western river with us arriving in Longreach mid afternoon and booking into the discovery caravan park. Dinner on the BBQ at the camp kitchen, a nice feed of yellowbelly and veges that Vince had caught at Diamantina Lakes. The caravan park had a karaoke night going which saw Vince capably performing ‘Mustang Sally and Pretty Woman’ and Shorty embarrassed Elizabeth with his rendition of ‘Rocky Racoon’,

A nice hot shower was had by all before retiring to the swags for a night sleep, there were more shooting stars during the first 10 minutes than I had seen on the whole trip to this point.

Trip distance - 520km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 40 - 2nd August - Longreach

Breakfast was again off the bbq at the camp kitchen, pancakes and plenty of tea. After breakfast we headed off to the Stockmans Hall of fame for a comprehensive look around.

Brolgas wandering through campground

Stockmans Hall of Fame

After the Hall of fame we headed off to the QANTAS founders museum and did the 747 and 707 tours.

747 c,oc,kpit :evil:

Both of the museums are both well worth a visit.

While we were at the hall of fame we found out that the 2010 Louth races had been cancelled due to the track being under water, so we had to revise our plans for the route home.

Afternoon tea/lunch was a meat pie and cake at a local bakery before we refuelled and headed off towards Ilfracombe to look at the community museum that lines the main road.

Ilfracombe Community Museum

From there we turned towards Isisford and made camp at the site of the old 12 mile hotel for the night.

Trip distance - 49km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 41 - 3rd August, Isisford to Langlo River

Heading off towards Charleville Vince Perry and Jan were again collecting insulators from the side of the road.

Lunch

Vinces clutch started to play up again so we looked for a place to camp for the night, pulling up near the Langlo river. During the day his front drive shaft had to be removed before failing completely, we think as a result of damage to the uni from the wire earlier.

Totally stuffed

Vince cooked up a roo curry and we bled the clutch getting some function back. A huge fire was built and we sat there for a while before heading into the swags.

Trip distance - 410km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 43 - 5th August, Goodooga

Today was a lay day at Gnomery, Vince took us all for a look around the place. Unfortunately it was quite wet and being black soil restricted our movements, it didn’t however stop me getting bogged and necessitating our second use of a snatch strap to get me out.

Black soil

Eventually after a good look around we headed back to camp for a roast pork and veges dinner.

Another dip in the bore drain was had before retiring to the shed for a few drinks and then bed.

Trip distance - 79km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 44 - 6th August, Goodooga to Nundle

From Goodooga we headed off to Nundle, our new destination as a result of the cancellation of the Louth Races. Here we were to meet up with most of the crowd that would have been at Louth. The trip through to Nundle was uneventful, and we picked up more clutch parts for Vince in Tamworth, including a new flexible hose (the only part that hadn’t been replaced). Dinner was at the Peel Valley Inn, where we all wore the loud (Hawiian) ‘Iland’ shirts we had bought on Thursday Island.

No pics for today

Trip distance - 582km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 45 - 7th August, Nundle

One of the first things to do for the day was to replace the flexible hose on Vinces Landy, we also put in another new slave cylinder. Once it was all in and bled we headed up into the Hanging Rock state forest for a bit of a poke around and some lunch, before back to the house and a nice warm fire.

Shortys special filing cabinet food store .

Nearly the end of a long trip

Trip distance - 67km

Bushie

[Bushie]

Day 46 - 8th August, Nundle to Home

Edjits 2010 Cape York

All that was left now was to say our goodbyes to everyone and head down the road to home.

The end of another successful Edjits Odyssey.

Trip distance - 435km

I'd like to thank all the participants, Amanda (my wife) Vince and Jan, Shorty and trainee Edjit Elizabeth, and Perry for making yet another very enjoyable journey.

Would I do it all again ? Probably - Definitely, even though this trip was a lot more driving with less 4wding, it's a different part of the country and much busier than where we normally go.

Speaking of which time to start thinking and working towards our 2012 epic.

Thankyou

[Bushie]

Fuel figures

11199Km @ average 11.4litre/100.

Total cost of fuel $1891.96

Bushie

[Bushie]

Turns out the short with the horn has been self healing . I can only think that it had filled with water and with the dust caused some form of short, but all seems OK now.

The trip

Defenderdoor

Dust - What dust ??

Bushie

[M&S]

Great photos and write up, many thanks for sharing.

Looks like a fab time was had. I really need to get over and visit my cousin...and borrow his truck

[landroversforever]

Some stunning photographs there Bushie .

thanks for sharing the trip, I always love write ups like these