We had a bit of rain overnight so it was wet pack up for Ernie. In addition to needing fuel in town, the need for a laundromat due to an overnight accident by the kids meant a bit longer in town was needed. We filled the time getting fuel, water, gas, tape for our locks (will explain later), stamps and a few toiletries. All in all we left Cooktown around 11:30, but fully loaded!
The first river crossing came up as the Ireen creek, it was a mixture of dirt and tar, mainly tar on the uphill and corner stages. Charlie and Ernie cruised through some of the deeper crossings with no issues, the deepest was Normandy around 450mm.
(Insert picture of Normandy river crossing)
Once we crossed the Normandy, it felt like we were heading into real red dirt. This is where the tape over the locks comes into play. It was a tip we picked up in Cairns from a group coming back for the tip. They had the fine dust clog up their locks to the point they had to chop them off. No amount of lubricant would let them open!
And so we headed into Lakefield National Park (Rinyirru) making our way towards Kalpowar. We stopped into the Six Mile waterhole on the way to show the boys why the park is called Lakefield. A somewhat isolated, even in queensland terms, opening up to a wonderful billabong with bird life in hoards. The first sighting of pair of Brolga's for Chris. Apart from seeing a few cattle on the way in no other people were around. We are quickly discovering that this place is amazing and very large. You can quickly disappear from civilisation.
We rocked into Kalpowar around 4:30pm to find a lovely big campsite overlooking the Normandy river. The crossing here is a little bigger this time compared to our crossing earlier in the day. There is a road sign saying it's closed, but it doesn't appear to be stopping anyone going across! It's scheduled to open up during our stay here - so no rush for us to explore the other side just yet.
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