Cape York trip writeup

[Steve F]

Here's a report I put on a US Expedition forum that I'm a member of, ignore some of the descriptions I had to put in for our US friends and any mistakes I made :hopelessness:



So for the last month I've been travelling in a group of Jeeps (renging from 4 to 8 as some dropped out early due to time constraints) from Sydney to the most North tip of Australia, know as 'The Tip' or 'The Cape' (Cape York Peninsula)

Anyway, I got back home today and have uploaded some pics, I wont go into heaps of details but if anyone is interested just ask questions. The total trip was around 9000km from door to door. The first 2500km was on sealed roads and then there was around 4000km of dirt and another 2500km of sealed road to finish it off :)

Along for the adventure was my wife and 2 year old daughter, she was great in the Jeep and put up with some of the lond days we had initially to do the roead stuff before the shorter dirt/corrugation filled days.

Anyway. some pics.

Our first camp site was Rockhampton, we stayed with relatives the two nights before this. Rockhampton is a city but a country city so it has camping right in the heart of it.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape York/IMG_0863.jpg

My daughter soon got the hang of the roof top tent

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape York/IMG_0918.jpg

Just north of Cairns we crossed the Daintree River on the ferry and it was dirt from now on

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape York/IMG_0988.jpg

We'd seen these signs for the last 1000km or so but we took more notice of them now.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape York/IMG_1178.jpg

Our first stop was Bloomfield falls along the Bloomfield track

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape York/IMG_1012.jpg

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[Steve F]

From the Bloomfield track we headed on to the Lions Den hotel, a bit on an iconic pub and a great spot to camp for the night.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1123.jpg

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1139.jpg

From here it was on to Cooktown and then working our way up to the tip.

Old Laura station and the Blitz they bought new

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1209.jpg

The termite mounds got bigger and the roads worse

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1235.jpg

One of the Roadhouses (Musgrave) that's the airstrip coming in to it, its pretty much in the middle of nowwhere

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1272.jpg

The jeep was enjoying it, the other two vehicles were with us as well

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1306.jpg

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[Steve F]

We avoided the bypass roads and went the hard way on the Old Telegraph track

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1392.jpg

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1400.jpg

We did stop at some nice Croc free swimming holest though

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1428.jpg

Gunshot creek is also an icon of the trip, look it up on youtube :) I'm waiting on some video of my XJ doing it.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1414.jpg

Plenty of spares or bits damaged on the run through

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1405.jpg

Another drop into a smaller creek with my wife driving

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1378.jpg

And Palm creek, all these are on the tele track

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1314.jpg

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[Steve F]

So... After we reached the top of the tele track we crossed the Jardine River on the Ferry and entered what is basically all 'traditional owners' land. The cost of the ferry also covers the permit to enter some of the Aboriginal areas, it's not expensive but it means you need to be especially careful with the amount of alcohol you carry as most of the area has limitations or is totally dry. Luckily for us mid strength beer can be carried in reasonable amounts as long as it is out of sight and not consumed in public except in some areas like camping gounds etc.

From the Jardine we made our way in to Seisa, the most northern mainland town. Not huge but has fuel (it was $2.35 a lt compared to $1.36 a lt when we left home) and had a great caravan park. It also has a large shipping dock as everything comes into Seisa via ship, it's just to far and inaccessible by road. The freighter also takes the 4WDs that didn;t make it back to Cairns, there were 56 taken back so far that had drowned in water crossings etc, lots of 100 Series Toyotas and Prados all looking great with all the gear but flooded interiors and/or holes in the block. Not a nice way to end your trip, expensive too as recoveries start at around $1800 and if you get it running and need spares expect to stay a few days as supplies come from Cairns twice a week tides permitting.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1701.jpg

One of the guys paid quite a bit of money for a cabin, we split the cost and grabbed a couple of beds for a night (tented for the other 3 nights), it had aircon :) We made the most of it as this was our base camp for 4 nights while we made the final run to the tip

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1450.jpg

It was a great spot, shame there were crocs cruising the beach and filling up on the bait schools. Such a tease as it was hot and the water looked great.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1714.jpg

From here we drove to the tip :)

The view as we walked out the headland

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1524.jpg

And the most Northern piece of the mainland. It's worked out at high tide and the pole is the exact spot.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1554.jpg

Driving on the most northern beach

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1570.jpg

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[Steve F]

While we were here we hopped on the ferry that goes out to TI (Thursday Island), an hour later we were still on Australian soil but just that bit further North of the mainland. TI is a mix of European Australia and Torres Strait Islanders. A lot of the signs were in Pidgin English especially around the hospital etc. TI used to be an Army base and there were plenty of wartime and pre war relics around.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1648.jpg

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1658.jpg

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1661.jpg

We then jumped on a smaller ferry and went off to Horn Island, still more WWII relics as it did see some action. Most of it is still there and it is still a base to this day.

A gun bunker

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1685.jpg

The current base, it's on the same spot and if you look around there are still war time fuel dumps with rusty barrels and empty beer bottles marked with 1942.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1677.jpg

There are also plane wrecks on the island, the pic below is one we saw on the mainland, a DC3 that crashed during WWII.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1448.jpg

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[Steve F]

From 'The Tip' we zigzagged our way back down, one of the highlights was pulling into a cattle station (Bramwell Station) and finding a full outdoor bar etc. Luckily they weren't on a muster as the roadhouse close by was not allowing camping as they had run out of water and had no electricity (issues with the generators)

We had a great time drinking the night away :)

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1982.jpg

We also went to Weipa, basically a mining town, did some fishing only to be told the spot we were fishing was where a guy got taken by a croc a few weeks earlier, luckily he survived as it had him by the legs and he threw his dog in with one hand to distract it. He was still in hospital but planned to go back to Weipa to see his dog and apologies for chucking it in the creek!! We didn't see a Croc here and didn't have much luck with the fishing although one of our group caught a nice Barra and we caught a Mud crab (too small to keep though)

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_1990.jpg

From Weipa we made our way to Undara National Park to see the lava tubes, the whole area was Volcanic around 11000 years ago and there are some great Lava tubes.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_2195.jpg

And some great sunsets

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc200/steveff/Cape%20York/IMG_2273.jpg

Then we did the run home, just 2400km from here in 2 1/2 days. It was a great trip and as I'm writing this I'm back at my desk at work deciding what part of the country to do next :)

Cheers
Steve

[glend]

Thanks for that write up Steve. I love the Palm Creek shot and I have pinched it for my album!

Cheers
Glen

[Dave]

Yep thanks Steve - don't think we ever did work out who was going to do the trip report, do you think Xandro will be happy with this one?

It has been a real strain getting used to Sydney again... Just 4 weeks ago we were heading North! So when is the next one?

Thanks again,
Dave

[Nekked]

Great work...! awesome trip guys...

[JPLyn]

Wow! hard to come back to the real world after a trip like that!

[Steve F]

Wow! hard to come back to the real world after a trip like that!

Was it ever, today was the first day I wore long pants, shoes (other than thongs) and socks for a month. Felt really weird. I could pack up again tomorrow and head off, so could Bec despite the heat and bugs ;) and Emily asked me on Saturday where we were camping today, she was quite upset we were staying at home.

Cheers
Steve