Cape York 3, Queensland.

Sites set up at Weipa Campground

Cars packed, ready to go, the Cape York crew hit the road again.  The trip for the day would be approximately 300 kilometres that would take us to the opposite side of the Cape to Weipa.  I think Les and I were glad to head into a larger town, 3,500 population, where we could number one, shower and really long one at that, having been ferral over the last couple of days! number two, laundry!

Our little house on the Prairie!

The drive took us about 5 hours through 4 wheel drive roads straight back up the Peninsula Development Road onto Weipa. A couple of stops on the way the scenery over the Divide splendid. Sightings of kangaroos, horses, cattle are all part of the views.  Burn offs everywhere with smoke rising, from beneath the ranges in the background.

As we approached a level crossing coming into the Weipa township Stew pulls up short of a road sign that said "STOP".......so he did but the red lights were about 100metres in front of him! Anyway we're sitting behind Stew in our car thinking he's probably just reading the sign, but he's not moving and there's another car behind us.  Daniel picks up the CB radio and says to Stew that he should probably move up a bit! at which point the car behind us overtakes us winds his window down and asks Stew if everything was allright?  I personally think 5 hours on a 4 wheel drive road can be tiring at which point the brain can stop functioning for a moment!! 

We got into Weipa found the only caravan park paid our dues for a powered tent site for a couple of nights set up camp, went to Woollies to check out the town's shopping. I picked up some postcards to send back home to our neighbours plus lots of work if you want it. 
With dinner done for the night we settled into Les and Stew's game of 'Rumikubb' a game that I
promised to get when we got back to Cairns.  Daniel and I were hooked, very much like the card game Monika taught us with a few changes but in this case you play with tiles and not cards.

Finished the evening with some red wine a little more conversation before retiring for the night!

More photos to come once we have more coverage!.........over and out!

Cape York 2, Queensland.

The river crossings begin!

Next morning up early boys organised their fishing rods heading out towards Chilli Creek River. This spot was lovely at the mouth of Chilli Beach on a sand bank.  Again we were all on the look out for crocodiles which were there amongst the mangrove banks.  In fact I am really sure that I did see a small croc just below the water level where Daniel and Stew had thrown in their lines. It wasn't until a little later that Stew had also said that he'd noticed the water in front of him seemed to be muddy with motion.

Les and I sat on the bank of the river cautiously scrutinising the banks as we read when Stew reels in a beautiful catch for the day....in fact the only catch of  the day!  Daniel's line with bait kept getting taken, broken off by the bites he was getting but no catch, alas!  Having spent almost 2 hours it was time to take a drive into Lockhard River.  About 30 kilometres away.  I had hoped to get some more water for us for another night's stay.  We arrived to the Aboriginal community found the store, but they didn't stock the water. Couldn't find the local Art Centre that's written about in the Cape York Tourist Information Booklet before heading to the Lockhard River Airport that was purposely built during the 2nd World War for the American Air Force in the Pacific Region. 

Chili Beach

Our return trip back to Chilli Beach we headed out to the other side of the Range to Portland
Roads, Cape Weymouth.  A picturesque littly community with a cafe, opening hours between 10am to 2pm.  Some lodgings available with some homes being offered as holiday accommodation.  My turn to practice 4wheel driving as the terrain wasn't that bad!  As we drove we were both practicing lyrics to our chosen songs on the guitar to add to our repetoire!  We'd managed to memorise 2 songs by this stage: House of the Rising Sun and Strawberries, Cherries.  Even if I have to say so myself I reckon we might actually be getting somewhere with this music!!

Lots of palms......and coconuts!

Our last night at Chilli beach was spent with dinner of steak for us, Les and Stew's catch of
the day!  Dishes done, wood collected on the drive back from Cape Weymouth, the fire roared
for a few hours with more of Les and Stew's music of 7000 items on their iPod! We settled for
a lot of the oldie stuff dating back to the '60's! Dusty Springfield, Dean Martin, Nat King Cole,
Bobby Darrin, Frank Sinatra, Englebert Humperdink and plenty more as we poured more red singing all the words!

Go and catch some dinner Daniel!

Cape York 1, Queensland

Hann Roadhouse stop for coffee

An early rise for both couples saw us through breakfast, packing up the tent sites before hitting the Peninsula Developmental Road for the next trek up through to Iron Range National Park where we would camp at Chilli Beach for a couple of nights depending on it's placement and what it had to offer. We weren't disappointed having stopped by the Ranger's Station to ask about permit required for the area.  Just a self-registration at the stop and payment for the nights we were to stay which in our case amounted to $11.00 per night, a whopping total of $22.00 ouch!  However it must be remembered that there were no showers here, and we were required to bring our own water for washing, cooking, drinking etc.

The Peninsula Development Road

Chilli Beach was in fact a bit smelly, it actually smelled of fish but once you got over it you became used to it.  Camp sites pitched for the night the fellas decided a spot of fishing was on the menu. From beach's edge Daniel and Stew threw in their lines.  Stew decided to try his luck at a couple of other spots while Daniel perservered in his chosen spot.  Les and I brought our chairs down to the sand, sitting in the sun reading, as I had brought a book, and Les with crossword, because she forgot to bring her reading!  It has to be pointed out that the area was warned that it was a known habitat for crocodiles, so all four of us kept looking out for a wandering croc at all times!

The Great Dividing Range

The only living beasts that came inches to within our tents were the bush turkeys who just strolled around checking out what we left edible for them around the campsite.  Luckily for me that at this point I'd returned to lock up the solar panel to the car having noticed that Daniel had left the night's meat defrosting on the table which the bush turkeys would have gladly helped themselves to . Les came up with this idea that everyone had to contribute to this trek by writing a bush poem or some kind of rap. Les had already started on her rap but hers was to be about the entire trip so we only got to hear her first verse.  Apparently she said by the end of the trip we were all meant to be singing it! so watch out Youtube!  I, of course, decided to also make a contribution so I took up the challenge and completed a piece for the day! This is my piece:

'As we travel the dusty roads of Cape York,
 We think our dinner tonight will be Cajun Pork.
 With tyres pounding the roads,
 Both cars carrying heavy loads.
 Vans left behind safely in stow,
 Up through the Great Divide we go!
 Red dust that trails behind,
 Leaves our vision for ditches blind.
 The clanging of our gear in the back,
 Makes us worry to avoid a stack!
 With tents pitched for our stop for the night,
 A beer, the pork and guitar music,
 I think will make it alright!'

And this was created by me! Ha ha!! I also have to add that for this trip I'd decided to take the video camera so that we could have a 'moving memory' of the trip in addition to the photos and blog, what a job and half!

Archer River Roadhouse pitched for the night

The Cape York crew planning the next route

Another Crew member checks the itinerary

Stew and Les's tent in the morning wih a map of Australia!

Cairns, Far North Tropical Queensland.

Paying for carparking in Cairns

We arrived in Cairns to catch up with Les and Stew at our nominated caravan park.  It was here that we were to plan our road trip (without our vans) up through the Cape York Peninsula. 
The last time we saw each other on the road was 5 months ago but we managed to keep in touch by mobile, or emails so we had a great couple of nights catching up on all our road travels and awesome adventures.  We had more than our few shares of red and white wines as we exchanged our stories whilst preparing for the next leg of our shared journey.

By the lagoon in central Cairns

The best of the story so far had to be Stew's trip to Bunnings in Cairns.  We're all doing our
last bits of shopping for the trip.  Stew heads into Bunnings for some timber to add to his car.
On his return he sees smoke coming from the back of his Ute.  Taking a corner the battery in the back fell over and moved across to the butane gas bottles.  Whilst he was buying his timber a rag catches fire with flames pouring out of the back Stew tells an Bunnings employee to get a
fire extinguisher.  Luckily for Stew he put the flames out by himself but we were all laughing
madly because it could easily have exploded, his new car, the timber yard at Bunnings, 100 people out of a job and Stew going nowhere near Cape York!  Somebody up there really must love him!   

Marysia....just take one more step back!!!!!

The plan was to spend about 3 weeks on this journey, arriving at the tip, Cape York, before  heading back down to collect the vans where we'd left them at Mt Carbine (with free storage!).
It was a nice place and we strolled down to the local pub for a pre-dinner drink before heading back to base for dinner with our planned roll out the next morning.

Vans unhooked, placed in storage, bikes attached to vans, hitches taken off the cars, side boards taken off our vehicle.  Cars packed to the max with camping gear, tents, stockpile of food.  You'd think we were going to 'Never Never' land with the amount of stuff that was piled into the cars!

Final inspections done on vehicles we were ready to roll out for the first leg of the journey.

Another shot of the lagoon

Our first stop for a 'wee' break was at the Hann Road house where we stretched our legs having
a strong coffee before getting back on the road.  That afternoon we arrived at the first night's
stop at Musgrave Road house.  A great stop where many more adventurous souls were heading up the same way or returning from the done trip. Tents pitched for the night, dinner and music supplied we hit the sack for tomorrow's journey onto Iron Range National Park to stay at Chilli Beach.







Foreshore with hundreds of people at the lagoon

Tine for an icecream!

Kuranda .....a must see the markets in this rainforest!

At Mt. Carbine getting the van ready for stowage

A baby Azure Kingfisher

Another baby Kingfisher

A game of darts at the local pub at Mt Carbine

A celebratory drink to tomorrow's take-off!

Gas off?.....gas off!

The York Crew!

Ready for the Cape York challenge!



Mission Beach, Far North Tropical QLD.

Mango Icecream at 10 in the morning!

Heading back onto the A1 north up to Bowen, through Ayr up onto Townsville was the day's destination. The weather was good, clear, bright sunny day not too hot so I had the perfect opportunity of driving the destination all the way up to Townsville as Daniel concentrated on the laptop trying to arrange the purchase of solar panels for the car before we headed to Cape York.  He had decided that the solar panels would be a necessity for the car fridge during the three weeks that we would be travelling this far North without the van in tow.

The scenery again was awesome.  The Great Dividing Range just rose in front of us, keeping us company all the way into Townsville.  The sugarcane plantations either side of the Bruce Hwy signified this areas important reliance on this commercial crop. We'd stopped at a road side for a stretch, toilet break and a strong coffee before hitting the next section of road to take us into Townsville. With some small supplies purchased to keep us going for the next couple of days until we reached Cairns. I didn't want to overstock the fridge as on reaching Cairns it would have to be emptied, cleaned ready to be put into storage so there was no point! Planning is paramount for the next big trip.  Shopping done, so time to hit the highway to find a stop for the night.

Daniel with head in the Camps 5 decided that the night's stop would be Saunders Beach.  About three in the afternoon, so normally you would expect that a lot of caravaners would have already pulled over for the night's stop so the concern was would there be any room enough for us.  We headed to Saunders Beach arriving around 3.30 to find that the place was 'chockers'.  No where to park but having arrived I said that we should at least get out to have a look at the beach.  We ventured up to the beach returning to the car deciding that since there was no real room we should probably head off to the next stop at Bluewater Creek.

I loved Cardwell......Hinchinbrook Island just behind me!

As we're climbing into the car we look behind us and a familiar face comes out from behind.  Well blow us over but it was Gerry and Gwen, whom we first met in NSW before catching up again in Darwin! Well we just laughed, how uncanny that was to meet at this stopover for the night!  We had a great 'happy hour' catching up with we're we'd each been since we last met and where we were all heading for.

Next day time for another good-bye to meet again somewhere on another highway in another state.  The road good, with roadworks in the Tully area making way for new highways to be travelled in our future trips.  Again with the Camps 5 in hand the nights stopover would be at Mission Beach.  Both Tully and Mission Beach had been hit by Cyclone Yassi in March earlier this year.  The damage was pretty obvious in the landscape.  Trees had been lopped, some houses suffering all sorts of damage.  Arriving at the caravan park for the night we topped up on power, water before heading for a long walk along the foreshore of Mission Beach.  Dunk Island could be seen from the mainland.  There had been a lot of foreshore destruction of the palms with some of the beach taken back.   Earlier in the day we'd stopped for a short break at Cardwell where we'd collected most of our information for the far North Tropical QLD including Cape York.  Making phone contact with Stew and Les we let them know that we would be catching up with them tomorrow in Cairns.  We were now both getting excited.  After our huge walk we both sat down to muse through the information, which was huge! and before I knew it I was making lists for this, that and everything else! Looking forward to cathcing up with Stew and Les to get our supplies organised!

Coffee anyone!

The biggest
thing on thebeach!

Mission Beach foreshore





 Crab Art!

"I've got a .............

.....lovely bunch of coconuts!...."







Conway, Airlie Beach, QLD.

Since the weather had picked up after the Whitsundays cruise we decided that we wanted to stay on for another week at Airlie Beach.  This area has a lot to offer the tourist.  The beauty of the azure blue sea waters surrounding the islands, ports, the magic of the mountain ranges covered in layers of mist lit in sunlight, sugar cane as far as the eye can see.  The sundrenched palms, ferns, native trees amongst a vivid backdrop of brilliant greens. 

On Sunday we headed out with Keith and Janet to the Airlie Beach Sunday markets, Dingo Beach famous for its Dingo Burger. But seeing that it was a little early for lunch we headed for Bowen to Flagstaff Hill to take in the tremendous hill top 360 degree views of the top of the Whitsunday coast.  We made our way to the hill top cafe but that was temporarily closed due to power failure so no mango smoothie that day! We also fired Keith as our tour guide.... he never got his license and we didn't get our Dingo Burger!....but ya gotta luv 'im!

All in a days travels we headed back to the caravan park to join up for 'happy hour' and to
meet any newcomers. 

Time!  It is good for the 'blessed'!

Proserpine Sugar Mill...backdrop sensational!

As usual we had a ball, a laugh around the camp pit fire, sharing homemade damper by one of the locals. A real treat!  But the best has to be left till last.  I spent the afternoon tidying up in the van when Daniel approached with some voices accompanying him.  As I went to see who he was with I was absolutely gobsmacked to see that it was friends that we knew on the street where we lived almost 30 years ago! A big hello to Joe and Halina.  It's almost as if time stood still.  The last time we saw each other was about 13 years ago at a mutual friends' 50th birthday (should say hi to Vera and Miron!!!).  All I can say is that time has definitely been kind to them.  It was lovely to catch up with them. We were invited to share dinner with them on fish that they had caught during their stay at Korumba in the top end of QLD.  We promised that on our return to Melbourne in January we would catch up again together with Vera, Miron, Joe and Halina for a barby!  Can't wait! Time to pack up and leave this fantastic place, head North to catch up with Stew and Les to do the 'Big One' now......Cape York! Thanks Airlie Beach for treasured memories.

Airlie Beach, Queensland.

We made our way to Proserpine where we stayed at the town caravan park waiting to catch up with friends who were flying up from Melbourne to do the self Cattamaran Cruise.  Airlie beach was beautiful town.  Just the view of the city was magical.  We still enjoyed pretty good weather.
There is a little man made lagoon behind the city centre which was spectacular put to good us
by swimmers to enjoy.

We caught up with our friends who arrived by water craft after landing at Hamilton Island.  We
all spent the first night on the cattamaran.  I think we all spent a lot of time reading the manuals
provided on board.  There was so much information to take in and I actually thought that the
skipper wasn't as confident as he'd been in Melbourne.  Anyway our briefing was the next
morning which was supposed to be four hours but went for around 5 hours.  We left Abel Marina
to sail the Whitsundays around 1.30 in the afternoon with our first island hopping destination
to be Hayman Island.  Weather was around 21 degrees water was a little cooler than we had expected.

The Cattamaran had a dinghy attached which we could use to take us ashore.  Hayman Island Resort was actually closed to the public as it was being refurbished. But those of us who wanted to go for a walk ashore did so.  That night we were moored to a buoy.  We all slept pretty well on the vessel that night however the buoy woke a few of us up and we got a fright because we thought we'd drifted from the bouy and hit shore! 

Everyone was pretty much happy with the tour.  Weather wasn't as great as expected but we did manage to go for a dip at least once.  Each morning most were responsible to look after their
own breakfast.  Daniel had planned the meals for lunch and dinner.  By the end of the trip I think
we pretty much ran out of everything.  The sea air gave everyone good appetites.
Snorkelling was enjoyed by a few who had wet suits and were brave enough to snorkel in the cool waters.  We stopped at Whitehaven beach was was beautiful white sand, a National Park, so you couldn't fish.

Most of the time we taught the others to play cards which we all did for a few hours each day and often ran well into the night.  I brought some magazines and books for reading.  The skipper gave us some harrowing moments as he decided to head South East along the open ocean.  But with the waves reachin up to four metres in height decided to head back the other way so that we were pretty much shielded from strong winds.

We managed to fish in some areas and I caught a small coral trout which had to be put back.  But the boys did a great job fishing and pulled in some good catch for a night's dinner.  We sailed by Hamilton Island but didn't get to see the resort.  But on the final night of the journey
we made it to South Molle Island Resort, where we moored for the night.  We were able to use
the shower facilities which was fantastic as we were running out of fresh water on the vessel. 
The Resort was more for backpackers and 18 years and over pretty much.  The palms were beautiful the resort probably a little dated but still it was good.  We decided on having dinner there at the cafe before heading back to the cattamaran for the last night's sleep.

We arrived at Abel Marina the next day, passing through Daydream ISland.  Weather was a little rainy as we headed to shore to disembark.  The rain stopped luckily and we were all ready to head back home. We said our goodbyes as Daniel took the others to Proserpine Airport to catch their return flights.

It was a very good trip but I would loved to have done it when it was much warmer. Maybe next time!