7am, quick breakfast & packed everything up. Craig & Jim had taken a look at the crossing for their line, nothing difficult about Dulhunty they are just being cautious. Crossed about 9.15am, continuing on to Bertie Creek. Stopped to check out the campspot the couple at Bramwell Junction suggested to camp at, it was a lovely spot - Bertie Creek ran along 2 sides of the campspot - next time we'll camp there. The one saddening thing we keep noticing about these lovely bush camp spots, is that people leave their dirty toilet paper lying around or caught up in bushes - very ugly. Why they can't burn the paper in the hole they've dug, then fill it in is beyond us. While I'm having a whinge, rubbish left around the campsites is another annoying thing, take it with you - we take ours & other peoples we find lying around, otherwise we will all be stopped from camping in these beautiful places because of some lazy & careless people.
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| OTL |
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| OTL - Jim's Car |
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| OTL |
Time to cross Bertie Creek, you need to stay hard right along the bank then crossover to miss the potholes, had a bit of water in it but nothing too high. Again this creek had a flat rock base with reasonable sized potholes in it.
Next creek was Cholmondeley Creek - easy pezzy.
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| OTL |
Then onto the infamous Gunsheet Creek (we crossed it last time we came up with no problems, but Evelyne was a little anxious about it from heresay and was pushing to take the bypass, but the boys wanted to have a "look" - haha.
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Gunshot Entries (one on the left
we used last time) |
While we were looking at the choice of entries, two other vehicles arrived - my how things change! Can't use the entry we used last time at all, the one to the right of that was not inviting (looking for the top) or the next one around from that. Craig & Jim decided the "chicken track" was good enough for them. One of the other cars also took the chicken track, but their second car decided 4th entry - lets say it didn't go to plan for them, they were stuck in the mud bullbar first. For us, no problems.
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| They're stuck at Gunshot |
Waited to see what the other people were going to do, first vehicle came down to attempt to winch them through. We moved on, as there were enough cars & people there to help if necessary.
Stopped at the grave site of a linesman (person who once maintained the Overland Telegraph Line), who was found dead in his swag. Sad story - When he was overdue at the next station, the station owner & workers started out to find him, they found his camp and it appeared he had died in his sleep from a heart attack - what a solitaire life it would have been maintaining the line.
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| Linesmans Grave |
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| Cockatoo Creek |
Onwards to Cockatoo Creek, boys walked it first - about thigh height for water. They guided each other down the entry and across the river, needs to miss the huge potholes in the rock bottom river bed again. Two other cars arrived as the boys were checking the route across, they did offer to help guide them, but the people declined their help.
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| Crossing Cockatoo Creek |
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| Crossing Cockatoo Creek |
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| Jim crossing Cockatoo Creek |
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| Sheldon Lagoon |
Moving along northward still, stopped at Sheldon Lagoon, very pretty, very crocodile looking water too!
Over Sailor Creek which is bridged and onto Fruit Bat Falls for lunch. I waited with Boris while the other went to look at the falls (it's a NP & it was too hot to leave Boris in the car with the doors shut). There was a snake next to the broadwalk, which wasn't phased by all the human activity, just kept eating the insects.
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| Fruit Bat Falls |
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| Pitcher Plant |
Up the Northern Bypass Road toward Bamaga, arriving at the Jardine Ferry about 4pm. Stopped off to have a look at the wreck of a WWII DC3 aircraft on the way.
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| Plaque at DC3 Wreck |
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| DC3 Aircraft Wreck |
Headed straight to the Bamaga Tavern for supplied - everyone was out. The boys were hoping to get a beer on tap, but no such luck, just beer in a can. We then headed off to try out the Umagico Campgrounds - it has only started operating again about 3 months ago under new management. Very pleasant & clean campground, with a beautiful outlook over the ocean. We found the onsite manager (Tony) and paid ($20 per couple/per nite unpowered or $25 per couple for powered). Nice bloke Tony and he looked familar......
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| Umagico Campground |
We arrived about 5.30pm and it didn't take long for the boys to toddle off to try their hand at fishing, unfortunately just after sundown though - no luck though.
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| Umagico Camp |
Since we arrived so late and some of us went off to fish, we had a late dinner but pretty much went to bed straight after.
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