Cape York - Friday 23/9/11 to Sunday 25/9/11

Started packing up everything nice and early and transferred it back to the camper about 8.30am.  Farewelled Simo, then organised everything to fit into the camper/truck again.  On the road about 9.15am, firstly we went for a tiggy tour around Airlie Beach as I have never been there before.  Picked up some fuel & fresh water before leaving town.


Cape Palmerston Campsite

10.15am and we are heading out of Airlie toward Cape Palmerston our next destination, to meet up with Craig's brother Donny and his partner Frances and some friends of theirs Marvin & Helen.  We'll be doing a spot of beach camping with them for a couple of nights.  We arrived about 1.30pm after a slight detour to look at the township of Greenhill.  Donny met us on the track in, we turned off before the NP boundary and headed along the beach.  It's a pretty beach, lots of rounded stones on the hightide mark and definately the type of beach you only drive at low tide.



Boris



Relaxing at Cape Palmerston



The view from camp

Afternoon fishing session

Eventually found a spot and setup the camper (not alot of flat ground for us).  It's similar beach camping to Fraser Island really, beach is not as wide but similar.  It's a bit windy today, but it's supposed to drop off.  The "men" went off for a beach fish this afternoon, not a lot of success was had though.  Was a bit hard keeping the burners on the stove going tonight for dinner with the wind blowing straight in - we got there eventually.  Sat around the campfire after dinner with everyone chatting.
Saturady 24/9/11 - We were awoken this morning at 5.30am by some inconsiderate bike riders roaring up and down the beach - not happy!  Got up about 6.15am it was pointless trying to get back to sleep - Craig made coffee and got the bacon & egg rolls underway, one would think he was hungry or something.....
The "men" put Donny's tinnie in the water and went off for a fish on the reef.  Decided to use this quiet time since we have internet coverage to update the blog.  Needed to charge the computer up during this exercise and eventually I notice our batteries have gone under 12volts, so time to close it all down around 11.30am.  Time get away from you easily sometimes, I've been updating our journal for a while now and our fishermen have just come back - yes, they caught a few reef fish.


Sea Eagle at Cape Palmerston

Late this afternoon Craig was chatting to our friend Simo on the phone and had to hang up quickly, when he saw smoke billowing from the fridge compartment in the camper.  Upon investigation, it appeared the fridge power lead had rubbed through and shorted out, which started the plastic coating to melt and  hence the smoke.  The lead and plug were toasted, so Craig spent the next hour working out how to bypass it and evenutally hard wired the fridge into the power for the remainder of our trip.  Luckily the fuse didn't blow on the fridge, otherwise we would have just had the worlds best esky.  That fixed we had dinner, which had been cooking on the campfire, then chatted around the campfire for a bit before heading to bed.
Sunday 25/9/11 - It's very peaceful early in the morning here, especially at hightide and very pretty.  Spaghetti on toast for breakfast today and just sat around chatting, watching the cars going home after a weekend away camping, laughing at Boris playing on the beach & creating our own game of knocking down the tower of rocks we had built - small things, small minds - haha.
Donny caught a flathead off the beach and gave it to us for lunch.  Craig filletted it and we had it crumbed with salad - very yummy.  Again though, cooking it was very frustrating with the wind blowing straight onto the burners.
Bar-B-Que on the campfire tonight for dinner - Yum.  Early to bed tonight, as we are on the move again tomorrow morning.