Cape York - Friday 9/9/11

6.30am rise this morning - almost with the sun.  Had breakfast early (scrambled eggs & toast) & Craig had Toad in the hole.  We were heading to Vrilya Point today, but first we needed to head back into Bamaga for some groceries, wine & beer.  We will meet Jim & Ev at Vrilya Point later. We were on the road at 8.30am for Bamaga, took the Old Bamaga road north (which was in better condition then most of the new road).  Got into town about 9.15am, groceries first, then bakery for pies, bread & vanilla slices!  Went into the sports ground for some shade to eat the pies, Craig filled up the main fuel tank from the secondary tank, we filled up the water tank as well.  Tavern we thought was opening at 11am, so we went to Cape York Traders shop to find Craig a pair of pluggers (he blew out the right thong and hadn't been able to find one lying around, only left ones....), he was most pleased because they had proper double pluggers with the dragons.  Had a look the shop, they have everything in there.  Then off to the auto electrician for a fuse and then back into the Tavern about 11.20am.  We then realised it wasn't open until 12pm, so drove out to Seisa to have a look at how it had changed.
Back in Bamaga at 12pm and Tavern not open..... Parked in the shade behind the local taxi & Craig asked him when he thought the Tavern would be open - Anwer:  Nothing would happen until the funeral was finished (the funeral procession past us in town about 11am).  We decided not to wait.


Jardine River Ferry - $88.00

12.20pm Headed off south to the ferry along the Old Bamaga Road again.  Arrived at the ferry at 1pm (lunchtime), had to wait for the ferryman to return.  We had some lunch while we waited, but it was only about 5mins before he came back and we were underway.


Turned off west to Vrilya Point, the track looked okay to start with......  then deteriorated to ruts and extremely bad corrugations the rest of the way.  29klms took 1 1/2 hours! 



Track to Vrilya Point

Track to Vrilya Point




Met up with Jim & Ev at Red Point about 2.30pm, Jim was out fishing still - they had arrived about 11am.  Decided to have a look at South Vrilya to camp at for the night.  We wound our way through the track & popped out looking at a beautiful blue ocean & down to our right was a gorgeous little bay.  The boys walked off to have a look for a campsite there, unfortunately someone was already there - Craig did say to the fellows "you guys would be finished here now & ready to move on wouldn't you", they just laughed at him.  They told the boys there were some flat campsites further along the beach, so we headed off in that direction.
Came across one campsite that didn't look too bad, but walked around the corner a bit further and found an even better one, right in front of a rocky outcrop.  Setup camp, then watched & giggled as Jim & Ev found the perfect spot to setup. 



South Vrilya Point camp

View from camp looking north

The boys went out on the rocky outcrop to have a fish with the sunset.  I sat down and savioured the last few glasses of wine I had, while updating our journal.  The hunters returned empty handed once again and started the fire going to cook dinner. 



Fishing at South Vrilya

Sunset at South Vrilya

We were having a Bar-B-Que for dinner with salad - we had bought a Chicken Kiev in Weipa some days ago, which is what I was going to have, but upon looking at the size of the kiev, we realised it was almost the size of half a chicken - put the rump away and we shared the chicken kiev.  While Jim was putting some timber on the fire, which had been collected from around the camp - a scorpian crawled out of the loose bark & started digging into the sand.  Jim skewered it with a pole, he was concerned about Boris getting bitten - isn't he sweet.
After dinner Jim bought some chocolate to share, but then we presented the vanilla slices we got fromt he bakery and the chocolate was soon forgotten.  Closed up camp for the night around 9.30pm - I think the heat is sucking everyones energy during the day.

Oh, on the way out to South Vrilya today we had a small creek crossing to do, entry & exit had some steps in them but nothing difficult.  Jim went first & was looking good until the car tipped back to the left and his camper smacked into a tree over hanging the track.  Craig decided not to go that way and took the other track down, same condition but no over hanging tree to smack into.  Craig had a look at the damage on their camper when we reached camp, they cleaned the crack in the gelcoat then put some silver tape over it, to protect it some the elements until they call in & Craig repairs it.