lucylouise

Friday 29th July - Cooktown to Cairns via the Bloomfield Track After a night’s rest in Cooktown all our warning lights have recovered their equilibrium, though sadly the air conditioning is still not working. Never mind, only one day back to Cairns and it’s on a nice shady track where we won’t be able to go too fast! The first part of the “track”, to Helensvale, is actually a good tarmac road, so we arrived at our first stop, the Lion’s Den Hotel, about 9:15am. We thought that would be too early to be able to go in and have a drink, but it must be an “early opener”, ‘cos it was open and already serving customers! So in we went and had a lemon squash each. The road after Helensvale is almost immediately gravel, ... read more

Wednesday 27th July – Coming Back South Musgrave Roadhouse last night was the opposite of Moreton Telegraph Station – very busy. Maybe Moreton will get them all tonight. We have had some new and interesting territory to cover today, and it has been quite eventful in the car department. It was new road (to us) immediately upon leaving Musgrave Roadhouse, which is at a junction. We were talking to a couple last night about our roof tent - they were very interested in it as they'd just spent a night in Lakefield National Park, where they'd seen 7 snakes near their campsite. We were headed for Lakefield NP, but luckily not to spend a night there. I think a snake could probably get into a roof tent if it wanted to! ... read more

Monday 25th July – Coming Back South Having made our trip to the Tip yesterday, our small Group has now become 3 duos, each following a different itinerary for various reasons. So we are now just Nigel and I in the 505, and Phil and Paul in the 404. We didn’t need to rush off from Seisia too early as we were only travelling 270kms, so we did a small stock-up at the Seisia supermarket, and hit the road about 10:15. An uneventful trip saw us setting up camp at Moreton Telegraph Station once more. When we stayed here on the way north, the campground was very busy, although not crowded. This time (could it be because it’s early in the week?) there is hardly anyone here – nice, ‘cos we don’t have to wait for ... read more

Sunday 24th July Cape York - To The Tip! Not your usual suburban Sunday trip to The Tip to offload some household cast-offs, but to the Tip of Australia, Cape York. First stop on the road was the Croc Tent, a facility with an interesting history, run by an enterprising family. They have lots of info about the Cape which they’re happy to share – also some off-beat souvenirs to buy if you want! The Croc Tent is only 17kms from The Tip, but it took us almost an hour to get there as the road beyond this point is quite rough. Also we stopped for lots of photos! Having reached the beach, we had to wade a bit and clamber over rocks to get to the Tip – there were many people there who you’d ... read more

Saturday 23rd July Thursday Island Today has been a marvellous day, unfortunately not long enough. I think 2 or 3 days on Thursday Island (known as TI) would really give you a full taste of it. The little bit we had was lovely! Started early from the wharf which is fortunately right next to the campsite, so no transport/tent packing issues. About an hour on the boat and there we all were. We began with a necessarily quick bus tour of the island, starting with Green Hill fort. It was built in 1893, as the colonial authorities feared a Russian invasion(!) and de-commissioned in the 1920s. The old fort has wonderful 360 degree views of TI and Torres Strait, and a fascinating historical museum. I wish I’d had more time to spend there, but alas no, ... read more