Cape York and so much more

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Well here is a bit of a look at our trip to the tip of Cape York from Loxton in South Oz. Just some of the places we travelled through and will report on are
Outback NSW, Gold coast, Carnarvon Gorge, Barrier Reef, Atherton Tablelands, Daintree Rainforrest, Lakefield NP, Iron range NP, Frenchmans Track, Cape York Via OTL, Normanton, Lawn Hill NP, Birdsville and the Birdsville track.
I will add lots of pics, and it will probably take me a few days to complete the report. also i can only put relativly short posts on so will need to have multiple posts.

Well here goes. At the start of July we left home and headed Towards Menindee Lakes, our first point of interest. Menindee lakes is the main storage for the Lower Darling River and holds the key at the moment for South Oz's water supply. It was great to see them Chocka block full but disappointing to see the weir locked up tight as a drum not letting more than a few drops through.






After running into fellow PPer Foxclan and camping together at Trilby station we found our first of many water crossings for the trip out the back of Bourke at Dicks Dam.





It seems that every water hole in the outback was full after the floods earlier this year. the country was looking great.

Cheers Andrew

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A few days in we camped at a Place called Lake Yallia near Narrabri, an excellent camp spot and we had the entire lake to ourselves. this is also very close to Australia Telescope, a worthwhile visit if you are nearby.
Lake Yallia and Australia Telescope





East of Narrabri and not far of the road is Mt Kaputar NP and Sawn rocks, a very unusual rock formation that you reach after and easy short walk.



travelling on we went to Byron Bay to visit the Eastern most point of the Australian continent.



It was Bucketing with rain in Byron, so after only an overnighter we headed for the Gold Coast and the Theme Parks. This was the original intention of the trip as our son DJ (AKA CROC BAIT) is 11 years old and the missus thought it would be the ideal time to visit. I figured if we go that far why not continue onto the Cape

Cheers Andrew

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Well the theme parks on the Gold Coast are an excellent place to go for anyone who really enjoys stranding in line. Most of our time was spent lining up for upto an hour to go on a 2 minute ride. We all for the most part had a good time, and once on the rides they were great, but the standing around wore a bit thin pretty quickly. The highlight for me was going on the worlds fastest amusement ride, the 160km/hr tower of terror.





The stunt cars were great to watch and the Tigers at Dreamworld were also a highlight.








We live amongst the farms on the outskirts af a small country town (6000 people) and i often think i should move somewhere a bit quieter and smaller, so after 3 days on the Gold Coast all i could think about was heading bush again. so we headed for Carnarvon gorge. We found a lovely free camp spot near a lagoon south of Yuleba and then onto Carnarvon Gorge the next day.

Cheers Andrew

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Re: Cape York and so much more

Carnarvon Gorge is a beautiful place and an absolute paradise for those of us that enjoy bushwalking. Beautiful gorges and waterfalls, aboriginal art work, creeks and magnificent views from Boolimba Bluff make this a fabulous place to visit. The only down side is that there is only 1 place to camp and that is Takaraka resort which now holds our record as the most expensive place we have ever camped :evil: If it was one of the best places we ever camped it might have not felt so expensive, but with a campsite the size of a postage stamp that required us to peg our guy ropes in the neighbours camsite (they had theirs in our site) and facilities that looked good, but were for the most part filthy, it was a disapointing aspect to an otherwise fabulous place.







After cutting our visit shorter than it would have been in a more reasonably priced camp spot we then headed for Emerald where we found a lovely Campsite on private property at a place called Mountain High. $5 a night and we had our own private river, all the firewood you would ever need, and were told to make sure that we fill up all our water containers with their filtered water before we leave.
The mist rising from the river in the morning was just beautiful.



Cheers Andrew

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Still heading northwards we went to Eungella NP just out of Mackay. This is a beautiful area of rain forrest with ample opportunities for more bushwalking. Finch Hatton Gorge is well worth the effort to walk all the way in and the other walks can all be broken up into easy sections depending on your time and fitness levels. When travelling to Eungella you will pass the Pinnacles Pub, a "must do" is to stop and have one of their gourmet pies. the pies are huge, the staff are friendly, the service was excellent and the price was more than reasonable.
Our view from our front door was spectacular during the day, and on our first night we saw cane being burned off, very spectacular at night.







We also managed to see some wild Patypus at broken river, They are difficult to spot and even harder to photograph.



Next to Eungella NP is Mia Mia state forrest and after getting some trip notes for a 4WD track we headed out for some fun. With a lot of tracks leading off in different directions and our trip notes not really matching the area, we spent a lot of the day "geographically challenged" but found some good tracks and eventually emerged at the intended spot about 6 hours later.







Cheers Andrew

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Fom Mackay up to cairns via the Atherton Table lands is a lovely part of the country (when it stops raining) Waterfalls and gorges are abundant, the most spectacular of the falls would have to be Wallaman Falls, Australias longest single drop falls.









More Rainforrest around this area and the Curtain Fig tree was a great example of a type of tree we had seen alswhere on our walking through the forrest, bascially the seed is depositied in the upper part of a host tree before sending roots all the way to the ground. after many years the fig tree eventually strangles the host and you are left with a very strange looking tree.



It was very wet around this area with fog and low visibility, heading towards Atherton i witnessed a car slide straight of the edge of the road, fortunately no one was hurt, and after arranging for the emergency services to come and sort things out we continued on our way.



Cheers Andrew

[Schaffer Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Schaffer]

Re: Cape York and so much more

The reports is comming up nicely so far Andrew. Look foward to reading more.

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Thanks Nick, its hard to condense 8 weeks into a readable report. obviously i have many more pics than i could possibly put on here, so if your interested i will have my laptop in Adelaide for the GTG and lots of pics.

Travelling up the east coast one of the things that surprised me was the size of the town/cities (remember i think my town of 6000 people is a bit to big, and i dont even live in town). Mackay was huge, as soon as i arrived in Townsville i was overwhelmed with the feeling "get me the hell out of here". up until this point i had been thinking Cairns would be something like Broome, maybe 15 - 20,000 people. WRONG. Despite its size, 130,000 people i think, Cairns was the pick of the larger cities and felt a bit more spread out and more like a big (very big) country town. It was at this point that our friends who stayed at home working for the first 2 1/2 weeks of our trip arrived after travelling non stop for a few days to get to Cairns.

Lots of experiences in life seem to be good or bad depending on first impressions, on a day trip out to Mareeba where it was dry for the first time in a while, we went to Skybury coffee, they do tours of the coffee / Banana farm, they have a lovely restaurant and it was a great place to relax on the balcony sipping coffee (or earl grey tea in my case). The experience however got of to a great start when only a few steps out of the car park we were accousted by the local Cocky who would not let us pass until he had gone round and untied everyones shoelaces. Lots of photos and everyone just about rolling on the floor laughing at the antics. :lol: :lol: It seems it is often these little things that really stick in your memory.









it was here that our son "croc bait" left his camera behind. it was several days before we realised and by this time we were many hundreds of kilometeres away. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology and Prado Point i was able to PM Foxclan who we had run into on our second day, i knew he was in the area around this time and he was able to collect the camera which we will be getting off him when we meet at the GTG in a week or so. Thanks Troy.

Cheers Andrew

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While in Cairns we did the obligitory trip out to the Green Island and the Barrier reef, We got to view the reef travelling in a semi submersible boat, basically a glass bottomed boat, but you sit below the water line and look out the windows to your side. this was an excellent way to view the reef without getting wet. "croc bait" who has for a few years now been telling us that he wants to be a marine Bioligist just loved the snorkelling








After Cairns we headed north again this time to Mossman and the Daintree as well as Port Douglas. Mossman gorge was special as well as all of this area.





We took the opportunity do do a croc spotting tour along the Daintree River, this was one of the best thinks we did as not only did we get to see crocs in their natural habitat, it was very educational and filled us with confidence about dealing with any croc issues we might encounter on our journey north. The guy driving the boat was very knowledgable and enthusiastic, he also exploded many of the "myths" about crocs. Fat Albert was the biggest of the many that we saw @ around 5 1/2 metres long and very "fat". We saw big crocs, baby crocs, and just flat out lazy crocs.








Cheers Andrew

[ozwapet2 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close ozwapet2]

Re: Cape York and so much more

Interesting reading and pics so far. Some things going on my list. ( not the theme parks though )
I reckon it would be great just travelling around all the lesser known National Parks in Qld and NSW. Looking on the map there's lots of them.

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ozwapet2 wrote
I reckon it would be great just travelling around all the lesser known National Parks in Qld and NSW. Looking on the map there's lots of them.

I agree, we visited a few of the lesser known ones. I think that it would be worth while checking the even lesser known state forrests as i reckon 4wdriving and camping options would be better. NP's tend to be about what you cant do, and where you cant go or camp. As for the theme parks, been there done that, cant say as i would want to go back again, its just one of those things you do for kids.

Anyway heading north again up the Bloomfield track, (we had planned to drive the CREB track but it was closed) a great drive, a few minor water crossings, nothing very challenging except for being very steep! we used LL on several of the decents to hold us back and even then needed the odd bit of brake. Would be real interesting in the wet. At the end of the track you cross the Bloomfield river, before going onto the Lions Den Hotel, one of those pubs that you just have to stop at, even for a non drinker such as me.









It looked like they had good camp facilities but we pushed on to Archer Point just south of Cooktown. It was extremely windy here and we were going to camp before the lighthouse but some locals pointed us in the direction of a sheltered bay past the lighthouse, a fun track to get down to it and out of the wind.




Cheers Andrew

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Earlier in the trip i had planned to climb Mount Bartle Frere, QLD's highest mountain. however due to the fact that it was bucketing with rain and i didnt fancy a 12 hour hike to the top of a mountain that was likely to be clouded in, in the pouring rain, i gave it a miss. When we got to Cooktown i decided to hike to the top of Mt Cook, a much easier 3 hour hike and it was not raining although the humidity was probably 98%. The bottom half of the hike is fairly straight forward following a distinct track, but as you get towards the halfway mark it turns into rain forrest and this part of the track is a lot more adventurous, muddy, steep and overgrown. i thought that at one stage a Machetti would have been useful to hack my way through. Call me strange but i loved it.
After Cooktown we headed to Endeavour Falls, and onto Isabella Falls that actually cuts the road, and you drive over the top part of the waterfall, Then onto Lakefield NP and Kalpower crossing.







We camped at Kalpower and although we didnt need to cross the causeway as we were not going to Cape Melville (the track was closed anyway, maybe next time) we drove across it just for the fun and the photos.


Cheers Andrew

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Traveling through the Lakefield NP you will find White lily Lagoon, followed not long after by Red Lily Lagoon, both are worth a visit with white lily being right on the road and a short drive into Red Lily. The bird life here is abundant and great to see.










A view of the dust in the mirror



While i was taking photos in the mirror the missus was having one of her few stints behind the wheel on the whole trip, and what did she do? she broke the car. well thats my story and i am sticking to it. A funny noise had developed and after stopping to check and changing drivers, and stopping again we found the problem, the bit of plastic that goes form the inner gaurd to the bull bar had come loose and was rubbing on the tyre. out with the toolbox and a few new bolts brought along just for this occasion and it was better than new.





not long after this stop my mate called on the UHF with a problem, when we returned we found that he had shredded a pefectly good BFG. We are both thinking now that a TPMS would be a good insurance policy.



Cheers Andrew

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Re: Cape York and so much more

Thanks for the great report n pics,always like to check out peoples travels out there.

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So after an eventful morning fixing cars and changing tyres we made it to Coen, just North of the town on the Coen river there is a fantastic and very popular camp spot. most of the spots on the road side of the river were taken, so after checking out the river crossing and selecting a suitable route we crossed over and set up for a lovely nights camp. The next morning when we left my mate was first in line and headed across the river taking a slightly different line to the one we chose the night before. Yep he got stuck in the middle of the river.








My mate is relativly inexperienced when it comes to 4wdriving, especially river crossings, and his wife even more so. She was getting very worried as the water started coming through the doors. I had to disconnect my trailer and then quickly find an alternate route to get around and in front of my mate to pull him out, i had forgotten about my new maxtrax on the roof. Anyway a gentle pull was all that was needed and he was out of the river, but with very wet carpet. I went back and collected my trailer and crossed over no dramas, much to the disappointment of the onlookers who were hoping for more action. Some guys in a shack overlooking the crossing told us afterwards that they see the same thing almost every morning.

Between the Blown tyre and getting stuck in the river, added to a few other earlier issues that i wont go into, my mate and particularly his wife were starting to wonder what they had let themselves in for. It was then onto Archer River where we came across a group of 4 four wheel motorbikes, 3 of them towing trailers who were going to do the OTL all the way to the top. This group was the talk of the cape while we were up there and although we spotted them a few more times we didnt get to speak to them again. We did notice when we got to the tip that the wife who wasnt towing a trailer was no longer with the group, we heard from some other people that she had rolled her quad going into Palm creek and had been flown back to Cairns with her leg broken in 2 places and a busted ankle.




Cheers Andrew