Cape York - Sunday 4/9/11



Bramwell Junction

7am and Craig is off having a chat with fellow campers, Jim was fishing on the Wenlock (catching Craig's Barramundi - has photographic proof too) and Ev was looking for the elusive Palm Cockatoo again. Spagetti on toast for breakfast (yum), then as we started packing up, the rain came down for about 20mins.  Once it stopped we continued, filled up the water tank and we were off heading north to Branwell Junction and the start of the OTL (Overland Telegraph Line Track).

Start of the OTL

Stopped at Bramwell Junction about 11.30am for an ice cream and a chat with the couple who run it - always pays to talk to the locals, they know the area and what's been happening on the tracks.  Photo's, chatting & ice creams done, 11.45am we were off to tackle the OTL
 - first obstacle was Palm Creek & it was a cracker to start off with!

Palm Creek Entry

Palm Creek

OTL

OTL

Then onto the Ducie River, had a bit of water in it, but the boys are walking each creek first - they are looking like they all have more water in them compared to when we came up last time.  North & South Alice creeks weren't a problem.  We arrived at the Dulhunty River about 3.30pm (so about 30klms travelled in 3 3/4 hours).  Decided we'd camp the night on the Dulhunty.  The Dulhunty had a lovely little waterfall & the river has a rock bottom with potholes in the rock.  Took Boris for a swim & Craig got in the "spa hole" at the waterfall.

Dulhunty River

Dulhunty River

 There were already 2 cars camped here when we arrived & to our surprise another 4 arrived by about 5pm.  Had nibbles this afternoon after the swimming, nice fire was made to cook dinner over.  Early to bed again tonight - 9.30pm.

Dulhunty Camp

Cape York - Saturday 3/9/11

Portland Roads

Portland Roads

Porland Roads

7am – quick breakfast of cereal & coffee, we wanted to pack up and get out of the wind.  We made our way along a track to look at Cape Weymouth before leaving, but the track deteriorated so we decided we didn’t really need to go there.  Turned around and headed north to have a look at Portland Roads.  Very quaint little seaside town, with a history from the war, when soldiers were stationed there and a big jetty existed for unloading the ships.  We considered having a very early lunch at the café/restaurant there – a friend of ours stopped in there when bringing his yacht back down the coast and recommended eating there.  The menu looked great, seafood melody $26.00!  Being it was only 10.30am and we hadn’t long ago had breakfast, decided not to eat.

Wenlock River

Wenlock River

So back out to the main track heading south west to join up with the Development Road again.  2.25pm turned right onto the PDR, in a northly direction until the junction with the road to Weipa where we made a right turn to contintue north toward Moreton Telegraph Station.  3.30pm and only about 12klms to Moreton now, it's started to lightly rain.  Sky is very overcast and it doesn't look real promising.  Yep light rain increased to heavier rain for a bit.  Instead of red dust over everything, now it will be red mud!

Flood marker on Wenlock River
at Moreton

Flood marker on Wenlock River
at Moreton

Arrived at Moreton Telegraph Station just on 4pm, had a good chat to the lady who runs the place Kathy.  Lovely lady & good sense of humor.  Girls turn to choose the campsite tonight, so we picked a nice green grassed area with a fire place.  Jim was making a chicken curry for everyone tonight on the tripod over the fire.  Very yummy dinner and Boris was lucky enough to get leftovers.

Jim's curry on the fire @ Moreton

Wenlock River (bridged) @ Morten
Telegraph Station

Our Camp @ Moreton Telegraph
Station



Cape York - Friday 2/9/11

7am get up, big crossing today.  It was overcast, we don’t need rain as well.  Good old cereal & coffee this morning, then packed up the campers, shifted everything up off the floor of the car & out of the side boxes (including unbolting the HF radio box from under the passengers seat).  Craig & Jim went about preparing the cars for the crossing, squirting wire connections etc., with lanolin, water bra on, snatch strap attached to bull bar & winch cable ready in the pocket on the water bra.  They took this crossing very seriously.  They also did some track building to help get the cars down the entry & up the exit.

9.30am it was time to cross – Craig first with Jim guiding him.  Then they’ll put our water bra onto Jim’s car and get his snatch & winch cable organised and Craig will guide him across.  Talk about anxious (me that is) & Craig was concerned, yet excited.  All went well with both descents, river crossing good – no water in the cab, just in drivers side box for us, but Jim had water in his doors & all side boxes.  Parked both cars at the bottom of the exit, the boys did some more track building.  Craig up first, gave it some berries up the hill, jumped up over the step – wheels in the air, things crashing & banging (I hope my eggs in the camper would survive), he made it up. (sorry the crossing is in 3 videos, I couldn't upload the complete one for some reason, maybe to big).

 Now for Jim, he didn’t quite give it the same amout of berries as Craig and got hung up on the step, had to winch himself out (they had already setup the tree protector and extension strap before starting, just in case).  No damage to our truck or camper (eggs survived!), Jim bashed his driver’s side box, bent the driver’s side tie down on the camper & scrapped the fuel tank.

That little effort to cross the Pascoe River this morning has taken about 1 ½ hours to get both cars across.

10klms to reach the junction with the main road to Chili Beach & Portland Roads.  Left turn at the junction, heading east now, we had 23klms to the Chili Beach turnoff, then 5klms to our camp spot.  Arrived about 2.30pm, filled in our camping permits at the self registration, then found a nice spot for the night out of the gale force winds.  Craig & Jim went over the cars and checked everything, fixed a couple of things and spent a fair bit of time discussing car things.  I fell over a bollard and scrapped my shin – that hurt a lot.  Got the fire going, Craig was making his lamb shanks for everyone for dinner tonight.  While they were cooking we all took the opportunity to have a shower.

Didn’t sleep well, shin was hurting & wind changed direction, so the tent was flapping around.

Cape York - Thursday 1/9/11

7am – The sun rises later up here and it’s throwing us out, you think it’s about 5.30am, but it’s actually about 6.30am.

Decision was made last night that we will tackle the Frenchmans Track today and stay out at Chili Beach with Jim & Evelyne.  Firstly a bit of grocery shopping to stock up the pantry, fill up the water tank and then by more wine.  I know there’s a reason for the alcohol restrictions up here and I appreciate that, but it’s very painful only being able to carry 2 litres of wine and they don’t have Sav Blanc in the cask wine.

We arranged to meet Jim & Ev on the way out of town after we each did our bits.  11.00am we were heading out of Weipa to take the track through Batavia Downs Station, which heads north east to the main road (the track cuts off a fair few klms and is in excellent condition compared to the Weipa road).  At the junction with the main road we turn left to head north to the Frenchmans Track (the marker for the track is a termite mound with a pole through it) and we missed it of course.

Track conditions didn’t start out too bad, but didn’t stay that way.  You could call the track challenging for sure – washouts, corrugations, dirt, rocks, sand, creek crossings.  We were flat out being able to do 20klms/hr along the track. 

First big river to cross was the Wenlock – no problems, wide, sandy/rocky bottom and shallow.  We stopped for lunch in the river bed about 2.30pm and let Boris have a run around and swim. 

We only had to cover say 43klms to reach the mighty Pascoe River, but we didn’t arrive there until 6pm.  There was only one place to pull up on the western side of the Pascoe before you start descending into the river, so that’s where we parked.  Craig & Jim got out to have a look at the entry – OMG, it was severely washed out with big step downs, the river depth was about 700mm & flowing, then the exit track wasn’t very pretty either, with a big step up about ½ way up.

The boys decided it was better to camp in our squeezey little campsite, due to fading daylight – crossing in the dark is just silly.  Just a quick and easy dinner, everybody was tired and went to bed early. 

Cape York - Tuesday 30/8/11 & Wednesday 31/8/11

Craig & Jim went off for an early morning fish - Boris & I got to sleep in.  Just a quick breakfast this morning of cereal & coffee, we were packing up and heading back into Weipa for 2 nights.
We started out of Stone Crossing about 10.50am, took some action shots along the track.  The first place we got out to take some photo's of the cars coming through, Ev came across a couple of dingo pups in the middle of the track.  She was a bit concerned, so I told her to stand up tall and they shouldn't bother us and they wouldn't hang around with the cars coming through anyway.  I realised we had interrupted their breakfast, I saw a freshly killed wallaby in the middle of the track.

It only took 1 1/2hrs to get back out to the main road to Weipa - track wasn't any less rough though. 

Arrived at Weipa Caravan Park about 1.30pm and booked into a shady powered site this time, still over looking Mission River.  Jim and Ev setup camp next door to us, which created a nice little courtyard between the 2 campers.  Craig's concerned our camper floor doesn't come down to full extension, thinks the linear ram may need adjustment (he didn't have time to adjust it before we left).
Jim rang around a few fishing charter people to try and book a charter for tomorrow, but no luck.  So the boys went to plan B and hired one the caravan parks tinnies for tomorrow instead.
Craig had a chat to the fellow we met the other day and got the tide times and somes tips on where to go fishing - I think.
The boys got their fishing gear ready after dinner and Jim decided we all needed some chocolate to help them get organised.  Again it was a late night, turning in about 11pm.

 Wednesday 31/8/11 - Boys are up early, Jim & Ev have already been to the bakery to get bread for their lunches today, which Jim was already making - Craig felt
a bit useless because Jim had everything organised, so took himself off to get the safety talk they had to have before they could take the boat.

Jim unloaded their camper, so Ev had a home for the day and 8.20am off they went to hook up the tinnie and go catch some fish....

Now my day today is not exciting - a few loads of washing to do, then off to the shopping centre to get some mangoes & mushrooms to go with our fresh fish we are eating tonight (hopeful aren't I). Ev & Boris came for a walk to the shops with me, they waited in the little park outside and unfortunely both of them got covered in tree ants (poor Boris had them all of his nose - Ev had to help him get them off). She then decided it would be safer to wait at the front of the shops - wrong, 3 stray dogs came around taking an interested in Boris, poor Ev was so nervous. A young man chased the dogs away. Boris & I walked back to the caravan park (he was very keen to get back to the camper) and Ev took a 1/2 hour walk to the local Op Shop, it was too hot to make Boris walk that far. I also wanted to catch up on journal writing & download photos from the camera. As I said nothing exciting in my day, today.

Boys finally got back about 6pm and wait for it - they caught fish for dinner!!! Black Bream, Spotted Grunter, Cod & Catfish (but they threw the catfish back).

So we had fresh fish & wild rice salad for dinner - yum.

We had a maximum today of 36.3 degrees.

Cape York - Monday 29/8/11

Up with the sunrise this morning 6.30am.  Craig & Jim went off fishing first thing, something about the fish should be biting this early in the morning.....  On their return, empty handed we had scrambled eggs on toast for breakfast and decided to stay another night.  The call for smoko/lunch today was a damper, so Evelyne & I decided we'd make a bacon, cheese & onion damper.  Evelyne was gamer then me and went down for a swim in the rapids, while Jim kept watch for crocs, then the boys were off fishing again and we girls created our damper, using the beer recipe.  We had a small sun shower, which slowed down our damper making, but by the time our great hunters returned it was ready to go into the camp oven and onto the coals.
While waiting for the damper to cook, the boys went off for a swim in the rapids and then off for another fish (why I don't know, they never bring any back for dinner!)  There doesn't seem to be a lot of fish being caught, but there seems to be a lot of stories about the ones that got away.......

Upon checking the damper it was finally ready and smelled delicious!  We all hoed in just putting butter on it and it was delicious.  Very proud of my first ever damper.

Craig and I took Boris for a walk to the river and to give him a freshwater bath.  Very pretty spot. 
Boris was very excited.

Jim's job was to get the fire going again for the Roast Beef we're having for dinner tonight (well everyone except me - chicken kiev for me).  Fire going, the 2 hunters decided to go for another fish & put the yabby traps in.  They were supposed to be back by 6pm, but it's now dark and 6.30pm - Ev & I decided we'd better get the potato bake, roast beef & veges on the fire.  Upon the empty handed hunters return, we were of course informed we hadn't done it right......  By the time everything had cooked and got eaten, it was a late night 11pm.  With full bellies we all turned in for the night.
Oh, we spied the whole Irwin clan this morning, coming across the river with their entourage in 3 cars.  It would appear they were leaving for home, as only one car returned late in the afternoon with a staff member in it.

Craig did manage to catch a couple of prawns & a baby fish of some kind in his yabby trap.