Sunday Best

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DAY 338



I woke up suddenly at 4.00 this morning, I felt wide-awake, the air was still but the night air was cool and refreshing, outside it was silent, no birds, no insects just the sound of the occasional branch or twig breaking somewhere out in the bush. It took me a while to get back to sleep, I lay watching the moon and the stars up above, although to me they are blobs in the sky without my contact lens.

Eventually I nodded off albeit broken sleep, but at some point I hear Andy stirring and grabbing the spade, I know where he is off to!

I was up early this morning at about 06.15 am the sun was starting to come up and the Kookaburra’s were laughing through the morning. I put the kettle on and as soon as it boiled I took Caroline her morning tea, as she was just starting to stir.

We both sat in our “Humpy” having our tea, and for breakfast we had marmite on bread, technically it would have been marmite on toast, however without power we cannot toast the bread.

It was a great little bush camping spot at Sailor Creek, we will be sad to leave, but we have to move on and continue our journey south again.

We were packed up by 8.30, but Andy was having a crisis of conscience about the rubbish that has been left strewn around by other campers here at Sailor Creek, so he put some big gloves on, and armed with a big bin bag we set about picking up the rubbish left lying around, we will dump it in one of the rubbish bins that are out on the bypass road. It may not be for a while but that does not matter, we have our own rubbish to dispose of so it is no big deal.

We checked our site to make sure we had not left anything behind, Andy thought the trailer had an empty space, which is pretty unusual for us, we are usually packed to the gunnels, he felt that something was missing. Anyway with that done we set off back up the Old Telegraph Track to pick up the Bypass Road.

We had decided to drive back an extra 12 Kilometres to Fruit Bat Falls where we knew there to be a great “safe” creek with a huge pool and a set of falls we could swim in. It is listed in the Hema map as a great place to swim and as we stopped off there yesterday we knew that it was terribly inviting, especially refreshing on a hot day.

So backtracking slightly we soon found ourselves parked up and started chatting to a couple of guys who were next to us and were drying themselves off after their morning swim.

We had quite a chat with Brian and Paul, they were brothers, one from Cairns and one from the Gold Coast, they are also on their way south again after having been to “the tip”.

I asked them about this creek and what was it about this creek that makes everyone so sure that there are no crocodiles in it. The response is that it is too far inland from the sea, it is fresh water and there is not much food about (I guess that may depend on how many people are swimming at the time!), apparently the salties (Estuarine Crocodiles) prefer to be in saltwater and if anything will only sneak up into freshwater creeks if it feeds into saltwater preferring not to travel long distance up a freshwater creek and of course if there is a food source. The other benefit being that there is a waterfall here and the fact that we are above Eliot Falls is that crocs don’t climb waterfalls (I hope that is not a fable).

Satisfied with that response and satisfied that where we are going to swim it is shallow except for a pool that looks like a spa Bath and besides we can see if anything is sneaking up on us.

The other comforting fact is that a few more people were turning up to swim we felt confident that swimming would be ok. Brian asked us to give him a call when we get back into Cairns he has offered to do us a bbq, this really does once again highlight how friendly and sociable Australians can be. We promise to call, and let them get on their way; with our towels over our shoulders off we trot to the waters edge.

The wind is quite strong here this morning, Brian and Paul both said that the winds are here to stay for a week or two, it has not been too bad up until now but we can feel the strength in the winds.

Because of the high winds, getting into the water feels a little bit chilly to start with not as warm as the paddle we had yesterday, but once you are in, it is warm and feels great. We bob about for a bit, get our hair wet and try to get rid of some of our red dust appearance.

We sit in the water and concur what an experience this is, last night we were camping out in the bush on our own, within natures own glory, now a few hours later, we are bathing in a creek that is beautifully clear and cool, excellent!!.

After a while we decide that it should be time to move on, back at the truck we put our travelling clothes back on and set off south again, not really sure where our next intended destination will be, but it is south, this is the only way we can go.

We have seen two other vehicles this morning, it is so quiet on the roads, eerily quiet but we are at the end of the season when people are heading south again, as if it rained they may get cut off and not be able to return for a few months.

We have come down the Bamaga Southern Bypass Road, we didn’t travel up this particular stretch as we cut in on the Gunshot Bypass Road, however we had been told it was rough, boy they weren’t wrong, we have to slow it right down as the truck is being shaken to pieces, what has made it worse is most of the time you are diverted off the actual bypass road as they are repairing it.

Finally we end up at a fork in the road where the track will take you North East to Captain Billy’s Landing about 30k’s away, we have a quick debate about if it is worthwhile doing this stretch, but we are here now, so lets get on with it and get there then we can have some lunch.

Again this track is terrible 30k’s and it takes us just over an hour, through bush, rain forest and open plain, we reach a look out at about third of the way in and stop to take some pictures, we are high up and looking over the huge area of bush land, we would hate to be lost in there, how on earth would you find your way out, and how did these early surveyors make there way through it all without roads?

This is how Captain Billy’s landing got it name: in 1880 a Government Geologist explorer called Robert Logan Jack was led to this place by an Aboriginal who called himself Captain Billy, and from 1879 to 1881 Jack led 2 expeditions to explore the Cape.

The track finally takes us down to the beach where a largish area is set aside for camping, we see a couple of vehicles are down there, we take heed of the notice boards about Crocs and find a place to pitch the trailer. Away from the edge of the beach!

It is beautiful looking out east over the South Pacific Ocean and the Great Barrier Reef, the only down side is the very strong wind, but we will only be here for a night so it will be manageable.

We get everything set up and eventually get some lunch it was about 2.00pm, we go and have a careful look at the beach and the ocean and get to see the “Landing” which unfortunately is all breaking up.

Sunday afternoon is a time to relax and read, we both have books on the go and got stuck in to them.

A little blond girl appears and started chatting to us and then wanders off after finding out all about us, later on her mum, Emma, appears and we start chatting, her family are from Perth, they have been going anti clockwise around Australia and have been going 11 months. We start talking about Tasmania and Andy tells her a story about a women we met at River and Rocks camp site in Freycinet.

Its too much of a long story but is turned out that “This woman” who tried to befriend us in Tasmania was a bit odd, she was one of those people who didn’t seem to have any friends and needed to “Collect” them instead of being able to foster a good relation ship, she basically shot her mouth off on what she had, bla bla, the Custom built caravan, bla bla,

Andy and I had a sort of run in with her and her family but flicked her off when we foiled her ruse, this had also happened to the Emma and her family and had in fact been warned about her by someone they met before getting to River and Rocks,

Now here we are at Captain Billy’s landing and the most bizarre thing is they were at River and Rocks in Tasmania the exact same dates as we were (we both checked our diaries) and they only camped about 50 yards away from us, how spooky is that? We have said before how many coincidences we have found on this trip and they still keep coming.

The afternoon drawn on and soon it is time for our evening meal, Andy cooks up a Pasta dish with chorizo, onions and chillies.

We go and sit with the Paterson family as they have a fire going we all sit around and chat, the two girls, Jessica and Amy by now have been overcome by tiredness so gradually cease to join in the conversation, Andy chats to Aaron and Nathan (Nathan is currently travelling with them) while I chat to Emma. The other amazing thing that we find out is that when we went to “the tip” on Tuesday we also saw them and waved at each other, they had broken down and Steve who we were camped near in Seisia helped them get their Landcruiser started, of course this is not so much of a coincidence as Cape York is somewhat a small place at “the tip”. Amazing to think that we nearly met them twice but never did and then on another remote location actually get chatting.

we have had a pleasant day in this beautiful surrounding overlooking the ocean, tonight will be interesting as the sea breeze is blowing what is now a gale.

So until tomorrow should we not be blown away.

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Photos

The Bush Dunny
I dare not look in side

Comments

[Emma Patterson]

Captain Billy's Landing
Hi there! I finally have found some time to sit on the computer and look at your blog. I like what you have written, I had a bit of a laugh! How are you guys going now and where are you? We are currently at Karumba, probably move on tomorrow, slowly heading west now across the top. Wonder if we'll ever meet again! All the best with your travels. Emma x

[kangaroojack]

Breathe
Hi Emma and the Patterson family! Great to hear from you, we are probably going to be in Townsville by tomorrow night, we stayed in Cairns a while longer than anticipated and are slowly heading South! I finished reading that book you gave me today, it was a good read after all, and it is still a bit damp would you believe! I dont think it will dry out properly up here. It was great meeting you guys and you never know we may head out West again. Safe travels. Andy and Caroline x