09/07/2004 - Stage 2, Day 42, Page 1 of 2 - Cairns QLD - The day after KATIE'S BIRTHDAY!!

Well we planned to go out diving off Cairns last time we updated the website, but by the end of that day we had completely scrapped that plan and devised another!

New Destination - Cape York - the northern most tip of Australia! The map said it was 974km on the most direct route from Cairns - about 850 to 900km of which is dirt road.

Well before take off we had a sporting extravaganza to attend (16-06-2004) - the Rugby League State of Origin. We ended up going out to a fancy out-door pub thingie with a big screen and lots of locals. I went for NSW and Bradley for QLD. Needless to say I lost. Damn it! Met some lovely locals though, drank some of the local brew and had a merry time none the less. No pics though...

Got up early the next day ready to blast off to the Cape, after replenishing the supplies of course. Spoke to Ingvorsen and he recommended the coast road north to Cooktown via Cape Tribulation and the Lion's Den Hotel, so off we went. Past Mossman and across the vehicle ferry into the Daintree National Park. Checked out Cape Kimberley, then pretty much stayed on the road north through the rainforest. Stopped at the info centre which had a cool looking rainforest canopy boardwalk, but they wanted $20 EACH to have a wander on it. We explained that we didn't want to BUY the boardwalk, just to take a short stroll on it. The guy wouldn't budge and we wouldn't fork out the cash, so no further news on the canopy boardwalk.

Stopped at a groovy lookout though and took a picture.


Very disappointed not to see a cassowary that day. Pulled into the camping ground at Noah Head. Would have been a nice spot to camp if it hadn't been full as a boot! Continued on to Cape Tribulation in search of somewhere to park up and managed to get a good spot in the caravan park there. That night we had a couple of visitors... A frog or a toad - we weren't sure, so we took a photo instead of squashing it. A few friendly australian brush turkeys (Alectura lathami). And a wild pig who was chasing one of the turkeys only about 2m from our camp in the undergrowth, but we didn't get him on film.







Got keen with the camera timer that night and took our own photo.


Got up at dawn the next morning and made a lovely tropical fruit salad with honey yoghurt for breakfast. Collected the tripod and walked down the beach to get a picture of me eating breakfast - I just knew you'd all want a self portrait of that! (Scroll to the right on these pics, because they're wide panoramas)




Packed up and headed north at about 9.30 that morning (18/06/2004) on the dirt track via Bloomfield and Helenvale towards Cooktown. The track passed through rainforest all the way and we had to ford stacks of creeks along the way - it was a great road to take (thanks to Ingvorsen for the tip!).

As it turned out, we had a very strange radio experience on the track just north of Cape Tribulation. Now Bradley keeps the UHF radio on 'scan' all of the time so that we hear everything that everybody says on every channel. We've heard about every single farmer's cow troubles, every tourists woe and every truck driver's underpants phobia (well, one truck driver's underpants issues anyway). We're often driving peacefully along a lovely stretch of road in the countryside admiring the scenery when bradley quickly turns the music down and the UHF radio up with a comment like, "they're rounding up cows". Well zip-a-dee-doo-dah to them! Humm, I'm a little off track here, so back to the story.

As always we have the UHF radio on scan on the dirt road north of Cape Tribulation and we hear something along the lines of:

"Lead vehicle to John, come in John"
"John here"
"Approaching a creek crossing John. Take it very slowly. Out"

"John to Frank, come in Frank"
"Yeah John"
"Creek crossing coming up. Take it really slow. Out"

"Frank to Computer Culture, come in Computer Culture"
"Computer Culture Baby Oil here"
"Approaching a creek. Keep it very slow"

etc, etc, etc...

There were 6 vehicles in this convoy and they were all within site of each other! We were behind them and every time there was a bump (and there were hundreds of them), a creek (most of which were nothing more than a puddle) or an oncoming vehicle (stacks of them too); the message was relayed from one dick-nose to the next. We could literally see the first car slowing down for a puddle and the radio would start to prattle on - puddle ahead john, puddle ahead frank, puddle ahead computer culture, puddle ahead dim wit four, puddle ahead looser five, puddle ahead jerk-off six. And you'd have thought we were on a main highway with the number of oncoming cars we heard about. Oncoming, oncoming, oncoming, oncoming, oncoming, oncoming - then one measly car would pass us on the EASILY three-vehicle-wide relatively well graded road! What a pack of losers! And they were all in hire cars too... What a suprise.

We couldn't believe that anyone would take off into the bush with the call sign "computer culture". There were geeks in the bush!!! We thought we'd left them all behind at the last internet cafe in Cairns where we updated our website. The geeks also seemed to have been surfing too many porn sites. At one point they went from calling themselves 'computer culture baby oil' to calling themselves 'computer culture bestiality'. Not only were there geeks in the bush, these were desperado geeks with a penchant for wildlife!!!!!! AGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

We took a couple of pictures of us heading down the hill to cross the Bloomfield River just before Wujal Wujal.




Next stop was the Lion's Den Hotel for lunch - a compulsory stop by all accounts. It was one of those pubs with writing all over the walls from the travellers that have stopped there in years gone by. One group claimed to have made it to the tip of Cape York and back some years ago in i think a HJ Holden. After returning from the tip, I would have to say that this was some feat. We were later told they've got fabulous accommodation at the Lion's Den for about $5 to $6 per night, but we didn't know it when we stopped there. Got a couple of pics though.




After lunch we took off into Cooktown, but stopped at the Black Mountain National Park on the way for a quick look-see and a pic-ee.


Didn't spend much time in Cooktown, little more than a toilet stop actually. One thing we did do there was decide which way to proceed. There were basically three options for the road north up the Cape. Option one (the least intrepid option) was to go via Battle Camp and Laura and head straight up the main dirt track running up the centre of the Cape York Peninsula. Option two was to go via Battle Camp to Old Laura and then head north through the Lakefield National Park for a hundred odd km before rejoining the main peninsula track north. Option three (by far the most intrepid option) was to travel pretty much north from Cooktown skirting the coast (marked on the map as 'rough track') through the Mt Webb National Park, the Starcke National Park, the Munburra Resource Reserve and the Cape Melville National Park before joining the option two track in the middle of the Lakefield National Park at Lakefield. To my delight, bradley suggested we take Option three - the most adventerous and remote track! Yipeeeee!

In hind sight, we never would have been able to 'do' this track if we didn't have the guide book we bought in Cairns - the book was vital and thank god we had it! Up to about the Starcke Homestead the track was in good enough condition that we would have driven our Flinder's Island special bush bashing 1979 Corona station wagon along it. We took a picture of the track through the grassy plains approaching Starcke Homestead.


In the 37km between Starcke Homestead and Starcke River the track deteriorated badly. VERY BADLY! Over this section of the track our top speed was 20km/hr, and it was very short lived! There was no way a non-4WD vehicle would get through this piece of track in the condition we found it! We took a picture of one of the boggy sections of the track and then a movie (from inside the car) of us driving through it.


P1010077.avi (3.5MB)

There were heaps of other boggy sections, but I was too busy laughing to take pictures.

We pulled up pretty late and very buggered that night (18/06/2004) just north of the Starcke River crossing at around 5.30 or 6.00pm. We literally just had a couple of crumpets and went to sleep!

The next morning there was a cool spider on the outside of the car, but he was really small and the camera wouldn't focus on him properly (there's no manual focus). So I got one fuzzy picture for Sally and an accidental movie. The movie's very short, and a little clearer than the picture - I didn't know I had the camera set to movie!


P1010078.avi (0.3MB)

After we packed up and drove back onto the track the next morning I got all keen and got up onto the roof of the car to take a picture of our track for you all.


About 16km later we forded the Jeannie River and then tried to enter the Cape Melville National Park. I say tried, because we got bogged in the process! Yippeeeeeee! It was great! I'd bought a winch for Bradley for christmas and until now we'd never used it. It would have taken hours to get out of the bog without the winch, but it only took about 10mins with our fancy winch! Here's us all stuck in the bog.






Here's us just past the bog.


I took a picture of a creek crossing in the Cape Melville National Park. It doesn't look very steep in the picture, but the drop in sure felt steep!




The park was pretty much grassy open woodland. We found a bull prepared to pose for a photo - and yes, bradley assured me he was definitely a bull, I myself hadn't bothered to check.


Not far past the bull we took a picture of the track. It was pretty overgrown. Bradley could only see his driver's side wheel track and I could only see the passenger side one. I had to call out when we were approaching a pot hole on my side.


About 10km before Wakooka Outstation the track rose up a little onto a hill and I took a picture of the view.


Stopped for lunch about 6km past Wakooka (just past a large dam). I took some pics of a little skink while we were there.






We went through two deep water crossings today - no pictures though. On the last one the water was almost up to the windows and we got reeds on the car bonnet and the windscreen. They were stacks of fun!

Took a picture of the grassy plains and termite mounds.


We stopped to camp for the night about 10km before Kalpowar Station in the bush beside the road. I took pictures of a cool beetle and a lizard when we pulled up.






Next morning (20/06/2004) I got up early and cleaned up the dishes from the night before - I even got the tripod and camera out to collect evidence!


And what was bradley doing????



Old Bradley's just not a morning person!

Entered the Lakefield National Park this morning and turned north at Lakefield, just past Kalpowar Station. Not far down the track we saw a big flock of red-tailed black-cockatoos (Calyptorhynchus banksii). Didn't get a picture though - they took off before I could get the camera out!

When we crossed the Morehead River we saw a lovely black-fronted dottrell (Elseyornis melanops), but couldn't get close enough for a picture.

Took a picture of the grassy plains and termite mounds a little further on. It's a really wide panorama and you'll have to scroll right lots to see it all.


Near saltwater Crossing we saw a black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus). Got a picture of this one.


Not much to report between there and Musgrave, where we stopped for a shower, 2 beers and a hamburger each. Very good hamburgers too.

Snooping around I managed to find a coconut palm (from which I collected us 4 free coconuts) and a lovely paw paw tree from which I convinced bradley to pluck us a lovely paw paw!




Drove north from Musgrave past Coen and the quarantine station (where we stopped for another beer). After that we pulled into a little side track to camp for the night.

Well in the time between pulling off the main road and stopping to camp, bradley managed to crash twice! Three beers and two crashes this afternoon! The first crash was so small that there's not even a mark on troopie to prove it ever happened, but the second left evidence. Although if the truth be known, you'd have to look pretty hard to find it. Nevertheless, poor old bradley was stricken. His bottom lip dangled listlessly for the entire evening and he mumbled things like 'troopie's not a virgin anymore'. Not even the stewed lamb with artichokes and mint cheered him up (and it usually leaves him with a broad smile).

We packed up the next day (21/06/2004) and took off to Aurukun Aboriginal Community on the gulf of Carpentaria south of Weipa. We stayed there for two nights with Bradley's cousin Heath and Julia. They had a couple of really cool dogs called Sledge and Bung, but we forgot to take photos. We had a lovely rest there and Heath even took us out fishing into the Gulf where we caught a couple of fish each, although bradley caught the only legal to keep fish - a 45cm grassy sweetlip. Julia sizzled it up when we got home and we supped on it that night.




There was a coconut palm in Heath and Julia's back yard so we knocked down a couple of young coconuts - very delicious. Unfortunately, poor old Bradley stabbed his hand with his pocket knife trying to take the top off one of the coconuts and he vowed never to help with the coconuts again! (hopefully he'll repent in the near future!)

Learnt a lot about pig hunting in Aurukun - just in theory though, no practical experience gained! In his spare time, Bradley's cousin Heath hunts feral pigs for sport and for dog food. It's a fairly gruesome business. He puts these fancy protective jackets on the dogs and takes them out with him. He doesn't take a gun though, just a long knife - pig hunting it seems is a very close up and personal sport! No gun at a distance! Apparently the dogs chase and grab a wild pig around the head. After the dogs have taken hold of it, Heath runs up and grabs it by the back leg to partially immobilise it before stabbing it in the heart with his long knife to kill it. It sure must take a lot of nerve! Neither bradley nor I were game enough to give it a try! I don't think there'd be a detergent in the world strong enough to wash my jocks clean after I wrestled with a wild boar! I'd crap my dacks!

After our two nights in Aurukun we packed up and headed north for a look at Weipa (23/06/2004). Not really much to report from there though, we both agreed it was a bit of a hole. We had lunch and took off via the Batavia Downs track back to the Telegraph Road which heads north up the Cape. We saw some really big termite mounds along the track so we stopped and took a picture.


Back at the Telegraph Road we drove north up to Moreton Telegraph Station where we pulled in for the night. Pretty nice place to camp, although the showers were generally cold - which is not a huge problem in the tropics. We camped for the night under a mango tree, but they're not in season so there were no tasty treats to gorge on. Instead we had to settle for mushroom risotto with a drizzle of truffle oil on top. And for Tracy and Matt's information, truffle oil is awesome!.

Next day (24/06/2004) just for a change, we got up, packed up and headed off north. About 40km up the track was the track junction where the southern bypass road (the fancier road) takes off to the right and the Telegraph Road (the intrepid 4wd track) continues north. We of course took the death-defying Telegraph Road north, along with about 10 million other tourists!