Cape York 2 - Drive to the Top

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After a great night with Bruce in Coen we began our drive to the top. Coen is a little town just about in the middle of the Cape which services nearby cattle stations and travelers. It is sometimes called the capital of the Cape which is a tribute to how little civilization there is up here because there isn’t much in Coen. We crossed the Archer and Wenlock rivers on our first day without any problems, traveling through open savannah country on a pretty good road (the main road up the Cape to Weipa was in great condition, more like a dirt highway and freshly graded) where we could sometimes open the Hilux up to its lightning fast top speed of 100km/hr! Our plan for the day was to make a start on the Old Telegraph Line (OTL) track which is a full on 4wd track that follows the old telegraph line from Bramwell Station to the Jardine River which dominates the country at the tip.

At Bramwell Roadhouse we reluctantly paid $1.91 for some fuel and were dissuaded by the attendant from taking the OTL track as no-one had been through for a week and the rivers were still up. It was about 4:30 and we were wondering what to do instead as the campsite at Bramwell Roadhouse was a fairly depressing affair. The attendant suggested we might make Twin Falls, a set of waterfalls about halfway to the Jardine River so we thought we would have a go a that. We set off on the 100km drive, the first 40km were great but after that we left the Cook Shire and the road deteriorated to a sandy, corrugated and poorly maintained track where we could do no more than 40km/h and it quickly became obvious that we had no hope of making the falls before dark. (We found out when passing back through Bramwell that old mate who we listened to had actually never been more than 15km from the roadhouse and his sage advice was actually a collection of crap from people passing through - so much for local knowledge!).

With dark approaching we desperately needed a place to camp, we took a side road that led down to the coast and after driving through some beautiful rainforest we found a lookout perched in a ridge in heathy country that would do for the night. After a fairly sad meal we hit the sack only for the wind to blow so hard that we thought the tent was about to part company with the car and making us fell like Dorothy and Todo. Eventually in the wind and the rain we put the tent down and spent a fairly unpleasant night sleeping in the front seat of the car - so ended a memorable but ordinary day.

The next day we made it too the top and camped at Punsand Bay, a private camping reserve not far from the tip itself for a couple of days rest and relaxation.

The car was sorely in need of a service after those 30cm high corrugations up the cape so we limped to Seisia, one of three Islander communities at the top of Cape York, and camped at a beautiful caravan park overlooking the Torres Strait while the car was being rejuvenated.

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Photos

Weipa Rd
This was the last of the good road as we turned off to the top shortly after this was taken

Lookout Camp
This is the wet and miserable spot we slept in the car when the wind threatened to blow our tent away

Comments

[Kat]

sooooo envious
Hey kids Am sitting here in my little Canberra chair (in the freezing cold - but at least it's peeing with rain!) so very envious...travelling vicariously really has its limitations!