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Published: October 9th 2006
When last I wrote we were in Cooktown and left there onThursday 14th Sept and headed back to Cairns and the beautiful and green Crystal Cascades Caravan Park. As I mentioned in the last blog we had booked on a tour to take us up to Cape York and we left the van and car at Crystal Cascades for the duration. Were picked up at 7.20 am Sunday 17th Sept and joined another 15 people for the journey. Could go on and on about the people, some great, some painful but that is the joy of going on a tour. Age range would have been mid 70’s down to 30’s so a pretty good mixture. Bus was an Isuzu four wheel drive that you will see in the pictures and the tour guide was Gary who basically was a pain in the posterior. Had a real attitude problem and treated us all like school kids, he actually owned the company but should have given up hosting the tours himself years ago. Getting staff once again is a problem so he has to drive one of his five tour buses himself and his wife runs the business from home. Anyway, I digress
Cape Tribulation Ferry
At the start of the big adventure.from the great things about the tour. First day saw us heading back to Cooktown but this time passing Cape Tribulation, some of the beautiful Daintreee rainforest, along the Bloomfield track through Wujal Wujal, Ayton, Rossville and the Lions Den Hotel at Helenvale, before arriving at Cooktown for the first night staying in a Backpackers hostel. This confirmed for John that he is actually married to a 5 star lady and shouldn’t dream of taking me to one of these places except in real emergencies.
Spent the next morning around Cooktown and then headed out to Laura which is where the train line from Cooktown ended. The line was intended to carry people and goods out to the Palmer River goldfields. Unfortunately the gold ran out just as the line reached Laura so it was never extended beyond there but it did continue to run until the 1960’s when it was closed and removed lock, stock and barrel. You can see very little evidence of the train line but the actual homestead and some of the outbuildings have been preserved and it was a great insight to how life on a cattle station was. We headed from there along
The Bloomfield Track
The first river crossing. the back road to our overnight stop at Musgrave Roadhouse. The road was very corrugated but quite comfortable in the air conditioned and well-sprung coach. Musgrave Roadhouse, a former telegraph station now operates mainly as fuel and rest stop for travellers and was the first night we spent in our pre erected tents. Actually slept really well and the decision to hire stretchers and not just sleep on the ground was judged a brilliant one, (mine of course). Next day headed through Coen to the Archer River Roadhouse for lunch. All these places owe their origins to gold rushes and then the telegraph line going through and one can only imagine the difficulties and the desperation of people to come this far and battle the environment and of course some fairly hostile aboriginals. The isolated Archer River is a beautiful place and very busy during the tourist season. There are a lot of people treading this path north in all sorts of vehicles. Lots of motor bikes with support vehicles, only the odd off road caravan and mainly camper trailers and 4WD’s - Toyotas of course. Should have shares in that company!! Our overnight stop was Weipa where we caught
Laura
The old homestead. up with Wayne and Jill again. They have a mate there called Peter Morgan, yes another one, who has worked there for a few years and was proving to be a great host taking them to a lot of out of the way places and some great fishing spots. They stayed in Weipa all told about 3 weeks and really enjoyed it. Towed their Avan up as well with not too much trouble, only one broken door and a couple of mugs I believe. More from them later as they were also heading up to the Tip.
Did the mine tour here in Weipa. Bauxite is the simplest thing to mine that we have seen so far. They use scrapers and diggers to remove about 1 metre of topsoil and then the next 2.5 metres is bauxite. After that a by product is used to make emery boards and sandpaper and is more lucrative than the bauxite, but obviously not as much to be had. After the bauxite is exhausted the ground is returned to its original state and revegetated. This is done with the help of the local indigenous people who gather the seeds and then replant. The
Archer River Bridge
It was like Pitt St here. wet season ensures the plantings thrive and you can’t tell that anything has been disturbed after a couple of years. Once again Weipa is a mining town on the Comalco mining lease and has all the facilities we have come to expect in these places. People are earning great money and seem to have a good family life. Pregnant women are flown out to Cairns to give birth and everyone has an airfare to Brisbane at least once a year. Fishing seems to be the major sport but once again no swimming in the surrounding waters because of ‘snappy handbags’ and stingers.
If you don’t already have a map out you should have a look at how far away we are at this point. Wiepa is 653 k’s from Cooktown on very rough roads that are impassable during most of the wet season. Cooktown is another 248 k’s to Cairns (and that is the short way) which is then another 1,700 odd k’s to Brisbane. One of the recurring themes of our trip is how big this country is and how far away we are from home we have been for months now. Modern communications mean that we can
Weipa campsite
Luckily, no cane toads here! talk to any of you easily on a regular basis but the enormity of what our pioneers achieved is, dare I say it? Awesome….
From here we headed east to Batavia Downs cattle station, then north on the telegraph road to Moreton Telegraph station where Nat Parks have maintained a great example of what the original telegraph stations were like and on to Bramwell Junction for our next overnight stay. This was formerly a cattle station but now concentrates on tourism and runs only about 1,000 head of cattle. They have rooms here but don’t expect the Hilton. We chose our tents and started to get set up when Kerry next door discovered a lovely family of cane toads under her ground sheet. I just can’t come at these ugly creatures so had a bit of a hissy fit as the boys used the toads as golf balls hitting them anywhere and at anyone they thought might react. Bingo! You want a reaction, just hit one of those little buggers at me and see what happens - once again I was very glad we were sleeping above ground on stretchers.
Next morning we gladly headed off north
The Bridge at Wenlock River
The white notice on the tree in the left of the picture shows the height of a previous flood. on our way to Siesia our last campsite before the Tip. This was a fun day - rough roads and one particularly great creek crossing at Cockatoo Creek. Arrived in time to pull another tour operator in a land cruiser and towing a trailer up and out of the bank of the creek. Then spent some time watching various other vehicles negotiating the crossing and finally walking across ourselves and photographing our vehicle cruising through. The funniest thing we saw there was an aboriginal bloke in another land cruiser absolutely gunning his vehicle and making it up the bank amidst great cheers and lots of noise and flying dirt. In the back were his three kids, no seatbelts, being thrown around and laughing themselves silly. As locals this is all in a day out and a great way to provide some excitement for the kids!!! From there headed to Fruit Bat falls where we stopped for lunch and swimming. Just beautiful and a great massage from the falls as well. As in a lot of places we’ve been to, the water is crystal clear, sweet and drinkable. From here it was on to the Jardine River which we crossed by
Cockatoo Creek crossing
We arrived in time to pull this guy up the bank. Just after this the aboriginal bloke and his kids screamed through here having a ball! ferry and from here on we are in serious alcohol restricted areas. No full strength beer or spirits and only 2 litre casks of wine with limited hours of sale. We needed a few alcohol free days!!! It was only a short run from here to Seisia which was our camp site for the last 2 nights of the trip. Seisia is on the western side of Cape York and the campground is right on the water. Instructions from the front office were that if you were found swimming in the sea you would be asked to leave the camp ground immediately so they take the croc threat very seriously here. Once again Kerry and Greg chose the tent with the cane toads so moved house immediately to a less populated abode. Lucky the toads liked them so much, I would have spat the dummy big time if I’d come across them in my tent. We ate out at the kiosk first night and spent the next day touring the area and finally making it to the very top of Australia. You can see by the photo that it was a bit windy but still warm and the water was
Jardine River ferry
Strict alcohol restrictions once you cross the Jardine. beautiful and clear. Spent about half an hour here drinking apple cider supplied by Gary - no champagne because of the alcohol restrictions and insurance implications and then set off for Somerset on the north eastern side of the Cape. A settlement here was advocated as early as 1848 because of its position beside Torres Strait, a very busy sailing route even in those times. John Jardine was placed in charge of the original settlement and it was his son Frank who went on to run cattle properties as well as pearling luggers from here until he died in 1919. Somerset is now deserted; the homestead gone and the graveyard no longer tended as it once was. There is still a huge amount of ill feeling from the local people and they were glad to see the last of Frank who they called ‘debil-debil Jardine’ because of his ruthlessness. The stories of the Cape make great reading, we were totally unaware of the history until we got here. Got back to the camp ground to find Wayne and Jill had made it safely and were celebrating with fellow travellers - drinking mid strength beer of course. We left the mainland
Somerset Beach
The Jardine homestead overlooked this beach. next morning by ferry for Thursday Island. What a great place and so much history again. Spent the morning touring the island and checking out the great museum and lunch in the ‘Top Pub’ before another ferry trip to Horn Island and our flight back to Cairns.
Have had no end of trouble adding the photos due mainly, I think, to the slow internet at some of these far north Qld places we have been staying. We are now in Townsville so will try to add the photos now and publish this blog on the web and then do a new blog Cairns to Townsville.
A further note concerns some of the comments from Wayne and Jill on their trip to Cape York in their Pajero, and I quote "Although the track wasn't too bad for corrugations it sure made up for it with creek crossings, sand and washouts. One part took us 50 minutes to travel 15 k's." And "The scenery was fantastic and well worth the effort of getting there." On the return journey from Weipa to Cairns - "550 k's of shit road! It was surprising to see how much the road had deteriorated in
Somerset Beach lunch
John being a good little helper. just three weeks." On arrival in Lakeland, "On opening a cupboard door in the van we discovered all but one large dinner plate in a million pieces!"
We are almost envious of them having done it on their own but really don't think we were experienced enough to enjoy the trip. Anyway, love to all and let's know what you are all up to.
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John and Sylvia
John Wallace & Sylvia Bowman Wallace
Envy!!!!
Glad you guys are still having a good time. Life back in the "real" world is not half so much fun. If you are down Budgewoi way, look us up. My email address is on your subscriber list. Just give us a few days warning so we can fix up the guest room.