Cape York or bust May 2012

[MidLifeCrisis Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close MidLifeCrisis]

Sorry about your mishap. It's got me thinking though - that water didn't seem overly deep. It's only just up to the base of the snorkel, so it's probably only a few inches deeper than the maximum that could be done without a snorkel. It looks like on the 150, your wading depth is not limited so much by the risk of sucking water, but by the risk of water damaging the electrics. Almost makes me wonder if there is any point in getting a snorkel at all. Or maybe a snorkel installation should be accompanied with a bilge pump down near the ECU's.

If this was a 120 the water would be up the windscreen, providing of course the rig was not floating like Bernies. I say that water was deep!

I agree with the comments I've read in this thread, I would be stressing and battling internally to keep my shit together to get the rig out as soon as possible. I take a little comfort in the fact that if I am going swimming my equaliser with snatch strap attached is connected before I enter the water. I reckon that after the personal time put into my rig that costs ranks second to actually losing it.

Well done on keeping your shite together and hope it all works out for you mate.
mlc

[wes Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wes]

well i too had the 120 swimming at nolans on our trip (which we only got back to the Gong Yesterday...trailer floated around on me and lost momemtum 3 metres from the end.water was up to the base of the passenger seat bum area and was covering my feet.completed the trip to the top with the airbag/seat light illuminated for the rest of the trip.
we also ended up doing frenchman's with trailer's heading east..
Lots of fun but not when water was entering whilst sitting at nolan's..

[derek11 Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close derek11]

well, 2 more weeks and the new Prado will be here. Already got a list for the build, with the bullbar/snorkle first then suspension upgrade. The youtube image of my old 150 Prado is already over 3000 hits, Nolans have been taking a few this year from reports, i hope people reading this trip report may have saved their rig from a fate like mine and was set up ready to be snatched as soon as they lost momentum. Next trip in the planning stages, going thru Kimberleys and then Gregory National Park so will do a trip report on those when done.

[leeboy Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close leeboy]

Yeh I had problems with O'briens in Cairns to and now go to Instant Windscreens, they seem to go that extra mile for you.

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

Hey derek. its great to hear you have a new rig coming your way... i leave for the cape on saturday voming and no we wont be crossing nolans brook. apparently 30 odd cars have drowned there this year!... We will do the OTT but wontbe taking too many risks in regards to deep water- we will just watch others do the deep stuff... i will start a trip report when im on the road... Cherrs bud. enjoy the new rig.

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

i leave for the cape on saturday voming and no we wont be crossing nolans brook. apparently 30 odd cars have drowned there this year!... We will do the OTT but wontbe taking too many risks in regards to deep water- we will just watch others do the deep stuff... i will start a trip report when im on the road... Cherrs bud. enjoy the new rig.

You should find that the creeks should be shallower as the season has progressed since the drownings in May/June. We went through there mid June to early July and 30 was the number then, so if it hasn't changed then the water has probably dropped in most areas

[Mark from Brisbane Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Mark from Brisbane]

I am just back (literally)....and did the OTT (yes I'll get to a report and photo's at some stage). We opted out of Nolans, did the rest but just backtracked and came out onto the PDR at Twins Falls.

I have a 150 so there was no way I was taking my Prado near water higher than I thought was acceptable.....by the way the number of "drownings" had moved to 37 when I was there....Jamie at Bramwell Junction told us that we would have been just plain stupid to take our Prado's through (there were three in my group 2 x 120's and my 150)....but then again we weren't lookimg to be "heroes" just a bunch of old farts having a good time.

We had wonderful weather whilst in the Cape, great time of the year to be there EXCEPT the PDR and especially the Bamaga Road were pretty bad (especially after the July School Holidays so I was told).

It's a fantastic part of the world, loved every minute of it...even Chilli Beach which was blowing a gale!!

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

Its great to hear the water has possibly dropped... 3 more sleeps and we head north... CANT WAIT!!!

[Peterpilot Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Peterpilot]

Have a good trip, take lotsa photos, we all like photos

[rally1 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close rally1]

Hi all
Just on the way home from cape done the whole OTT including nolans with planning ok found PDR road in good condition i thought
If any other PP are going up to the cape consider fellow road users and slow down on the PDR and enjoy your time up there.

cya

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

Thanks fellas, yep no worries rally1, ill try not to cut anyone off up there...but with a name like rally1 id guess you would know about crazy driving!
And as fot peter & roo, yes plenty of picks ill start a trip report the day we leave... Anyways im off for my holuday haircut- im getting a Cape York Mohowk!

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

Anyways im off for my holuday haircut- im getting a Cape York Mohowk!

You should get the banana one, it goes ear to ear instead

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

You should get the banana one, it goes ear to ear instead

A banana mohawk? Geez if i only knew! Too late i have already gone north south on it!

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

We did the Cape in early July. The tele track was in good nic but Nolan's was a bit deep. Got one 120 series stuck and a bit wet but got it out ok. Towed the rest through with an 80 series. Hope the wat levels have dropped by then. I would not have done it without the 80 parked on the other side.
It's a great trip have fun!
Ps Crystal creek is a great spot to camp.

[Brett1979 Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Brett1979]

I just got back from the Cape on Saturday. I'll post a trip report soon with pics. 18 psi in the tyres and 90-100km/h over the corrugations worked well for us to really smooth the road out because any slower than 70km/h and our cars shook pretty badly & we tried to avoid that as much as possible. Up near the Jardine River the corrugations are higher and spaced further apart so not even 100km/h will save you there. The body of the car shakes really badly in a way that's hard to describe. But in the most part the corrugations are pretty smooth at 100km/h and much like driving over a permanent cattle grid. The worse ones are like driving over railway sleepers. We were told by someone that Battle Camp Rd was rough but it was in excellent smooth condition when compared to the PDR. We met them way up the Cape so they must've been on drugs to think it was worse. We camped on the north side of Nolan's for a night but didn't cross it and witnessed many cars attempt it. Almost all of the cars got stuck. There were even lifted Patrols & a Landcruiser who'd drivers didn't even walk Nolans. They got out, had a look from the bank and had a smoke each then on they went and plowed in straight up the middle. They all got stuck in the same spot and all winched out off the same tree and none of them used a tree truck protector and the tree they were using was ring barked really badly. None of them were prepared and all had their cars flooded. Once all got through they left their cars idling for 45 minutes on the other side while they cleaned the water out of their cars and ringed water out of their belongings. And then the 3 blokes walked the crossing afterwards and "thought" the L.H.S path (heading north) was the best route, which was right. Only 3 cars out of approx 10 made it through Nolans without getting stuck. Another 10 approx were dragged through by another car with a snatch on the other side. Did we make the right choice by not driving it? You betcha! All of the crossings seemed about a foot shallower than normal with the exception being Nolans which was just as deep as always.

We encountered a few people with car problems in our travels. We didn't have any ourselves. I did a little more damage to my left side step when dropping into Palm Ck, I copped a small dent in the R.H.S rear plastic wheel guard when hooking the car too close to the tree when entering Cockatoo Ck, and also dislodged a small bit of plastic trim above the front R.H.S wheel arch from the corrugations.

Overall it was a fantastic trip. We also got plenty of pics of crocs when camping at 12 Mile Lagoon in Lakefield NP for 2 nights on our way back. My friend and I had 4 scary altercations with a family of wild pigs in this same area when we went for one last walk to photograph crocodiles 1.5 hrs before dark as we were leaving the next morning. We had to climb trees on two of the occasions due to an angry big mother pig with two babies. There was also a short tempered male that was close to 200kg in size close by and he had a go at us. He also snarled at us from the bushes a few hrs earlier when we went for a walk with our partners to the same location and we turned around and went back the way we came after hearing his warning. Even though they had thick black coats they were difficult to see until they got within 5 meters of you at times due to the dry thick scrub that was sometimes 2m high. We could hear them prior and just stuck near trees in fear of being charged as at times there was 10m between trees. I'm aware of what pigs can do to you so we stuck by trees for protection. What was supposed to be a 40 minute approx return trip turned into a 1.5 hr trip due to trying to evade the pigs and we got back just on dark. We were only able to get pics of one of the babies which was a bugger but we were more concerned about our safety, but we did do a reenactment for the girls the next morning who laughed while taking pictures of us up the same trees we were stuck in for a while and where we saw the pigs. They did think our pig stories were very funny. We did end up making it to the water hole to take more pics of the crocs and our last pig altercation (the most scary of all) happened on our way back. I wouldn't recommend walking this area if you camp there. We chose the spot due to its remoteness and it was nice. The lagoon is also loaded with crocs. We heard from another traveler that Horse Shoe Lagoon also had a lot of crocs. But then again they all would.