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Published: October 12th 2008
We set off on our Cape York adventure on 26 August, leaving our caravan at Mt Carbine for the duration of the trip. Our first stop was at Laura to see the 13,000 year old Quinkan aboriginal rock paintings at Split Rock. Very interesting, but almost overshadowed by Blu’s close shave with a snake - he almost trod on one walking down from Split Rock!
Our first night was spent at Mary Valley Station, we pulled up there mid afternoon to be greeted by Lawrence, a young Parisian traveller who was working at the station. We asked him where the campground was - it wasn’t obvious as there was no one else camping there! Mary Valley was a great place to start out tenting, as there was a fully stocked kitchen we could share with the 2 farm workers, John and Lawrence. At night we shone our torch into the waterhole and picked up the eyes of the two freshwater crocs that lived in there. We camped at Merluna Cattle Station the second night, which was nice - green grass and a swimming pool! We were quite surprised that in our first 2 days, we had covered 600km. Although the
roads were gravel, they were dry and in really good condition, much better than the Oodnadatta. It does depend on when the graders have been through and most likely they had just worked on it to prepare for the arrival of the wet season.
Passed through Coen en route, stopping to buy a stamp for a postcard there - at Musgrave they only had 50c stamps so we would have to get 3 - stop at Coen, they’ll have the right stamp they said - yeah right - we ended up with 2x 50c and 1x 20c stamps, after a lengthy wait and much deliberating from the counter staff. Not sure how it got back to NZ as the right amount is $1.30, but it did!
Day 3 and we arrived into Weipa late morning - Weipa is the largest town on the peninsula, and sits on the Gulf of Carpentaria. It is the service centre for the largest bauxite mine in Australia. (Actually the peninsula has only a handful of small settlements, and the only other services for locals and tourists are a number of roadhouses along the way selling basic supplies, fuel and takeaways). If you
are in Weipa you are either a mine worker, a fisherman or on your way up to Cape York in a 4WD! The camp had a very nice swimming pool which was also a good place to find out info from others about the road north to the Cape. Caught up with the 2CDs while there (their nickname is their car number plate and also their initials) - we enjoyed their company on several occasions during this part of our trip. Spent the next day relaxing in Weipa and called out to Red Beach at low tide to see if we could spot any crocodiles - saw 3 basking in the sun on the mud flats, including a BIG Daddy Croc - rather exciting and with a good stretch of water between us!
Day 5 and we set off early to tackle the most adventurous part of the trip - the Overland Telegraph Track (OTL). This narrow and rough 4WD track starts at Bramwell Junction and finishes just short of the Jardine River - about 100ks - and many creek/river crossings. The track is single car width most of the way and is so narrow in parts that you
have to pull in your wing mirrors. Luckily we did not meet many people coming the other way as most people travel south to north on the OTL and return on the bypass roads. The track follows the old overland telegraph line which was once the only means of communication on the cape and was the only land route too until Telecom replaced the old telegraph network and built the bypass road to service the line. The first crossing at Palm Creek was a steep descent into the water but Blu managed it just fine and grew more confident as we went on. We set up our tent at Dulhunty River in the afternoon - our first real bush camp with no facilities except for the river which was a good place to freshen up (and no crocs!). Luckily all the creeks along the track are croc free except the Jardine River, but the sea is not - definitely no swimming in there!
The next day we carried on up the OTL - it was great fun tackling the water crossings in the 4WD although a bit challenging at times, especially for the driver! But the water level was
relatively low as we were at the end of the “dry” season, and the highest was about knee deep - we walked through each crossing to check it out before driving it. The main hazards were tricky entry and exit points and the rock holes and washouts in the creek beds. The most famous crossing is called “The Gunshot” - it has a relatively steep entry but according to the old hands it’s a “shadow of its former self” - it used to be a near vertical plunge but there is now an alternative which is pretty tame by comparison. Stopped at Fruit Bat Falls for a swim to cool off at lunchtime - lovely - you can swim across the crystal clear waterhole to the base of the falls and get a great massage standing underneath.
Stayed the night at Elliot Falls campground, which was nice as it had toilets and individual sites and 2 great swimming holes, The Saucepan and Twin Falls. Unfortunately there were a bunch of hoons who kept us up till after 1am with their partying and loud music. The next day we did a few more creek crossings, then took the bypass road
out of the OTL, missing the last few crossings as we knew that Nolans, the last one, was up to bonnet height and we didn’t want to take the car for a swim! OK if you have a snorkel on your 4WD but we don’t.
Next up was the Jardine River, which is crossed by car ferry - must be the dearest trip in the world - $88 return for a 90 second barge crossing! A captive market as this river is too deep to ford at any time of the year. From here it is an easy drive up to Bamaga and Seisia, two of the small settlements at the top of the peninsula. Bamaga was settled by Torres Strait Islanders who were relocated from Saibai Island in the late 1940s, after rain, the wet season and king tides combined to make the island unsustainable for the future.
We spent a couple of nights at Punsand Bay, a small resort and campground right on the beach - a very nice setting and reminded us of Rarotonga. I felt a bit uneasy sleeping in the tent though, as we heard that crocodiles have been known to come up
into the campground occasionally! Maybe that’s why a lot of people sleep on the back of their flat deck Toyotas! Drove up to the “tip” from here and did the customary photo shot in front of the sign that says you are standing at the northern tip of Australia - quite exciting for Blu especially! As our friend CD said, you have to scramble across half of Australia to get to the tip -it must be at least a 600m climb over rocks to reach the actual tip. Was blowing a gale when we got there too - we look pretty windswept in the photos!
Somerset is east of the tip, at the end of a corrugated 4WD track - the Queensland Government tried to set up the Governor’s residence here in the 19th century but this failed miserably due to the isolation and the difficulty in getting there via sea or land. Today there is nothing there apart from a few remnants of the old Jardine homestead, family graves and also buried there are some Japanese pearl divers who perished out there.
We moved down to the campground at Seisia for 2 nights - like Bamaga, Seisia
Palm Creek crossing
into our first crossing on the OTLis mainly a Torres Strait Islander settlement, whereas other towns in this area are Aboriginal settlements. It is a fascinating part of Australia - very isolated from the rest of the country and more like an island in some ways. As road trains are not able to drive to the tip, all supplies come up by barge from Cairns! We had no phone coverage at all while we were away and we didn’t see any internet cafes (or lattes) either! However we did have a very nice Barramundi dinner at the one and only cafe at Seisia -we asked if it was fresh fish but strangely the barra is caught locally, but then goes to Cairns for processing and finally ends up back at the Cape on our plate!
We were definitely a minority ethnic group up there. The locals are very friendly and in particular the TI kids love to call out greetings and wave as they drive past. We were also impressed with the local community in the north and did not see any problems with alcohol while we were there. Many areas up north have alcohol bans or controls in place and there are big fines
for carrying alcohol into these areas.
To be continued....
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Travels with Kate and Blu
Kate and Brian Lang
FNQ
Marge! Thanks so much for your feedback on the blogs and so glad that we have inspired you to do the Cape! It is just so different that I think you would enjoy it very much, especially if Don likes 4WDing!