Day 22 - Lakefield to Archer River Roadhouse

Today was pack up day with us continuing our journey north.  The pack up went well considering we had settled quite nicely into our home at Lakefield.  Dennis rocked up mid pack up and offered to take us fishing if we were interested.  We politely declined but given his recent form it would have been a good opportunity to learn from a skilled pro!  His tip for when we stop off at the Wenlock; "go down to the river at night and look for the little eyes it's the barramundi pushing up theoriser at night, the big eyes are the ones to avoid!  There is a big croc that lives up there and he patrols the river each night, you'll hear him at night chasing the barramundi!"

We decided to move on a day early to give the boys a chance to swim in the a Archer River, as well as a change of scenery.  Phoned up the national parks office via the 1300 number and it turns out that once a booking has commenced they can't adjust any part of it, so we lost a day's booking.  What was more frustrating is that site looks like its taken on the website when we know it's not.  Not wanting to blame a computer system but something more flexible would be greatly appreciated.

And so we were off, making our way to Musgrave roadhouse.  The road out of the park brought in more contrasts of forested trees through to the treeless Nifold plain where all you can see is anthills, grass and blue sky.

I haven't really talked about the roads as yet as we haven't really encountered anything out of the ordinary.  Yes there are the few corrugated bits that shutter around but overall the roads are well maintained, in some cases watered every day to keep the dust down.  This doesn't mean that there wasn't any dust, frequently the trailer would disappear behind the car as you hit a bull dust pothole or section.

After leaving the park and making a right hand turn on the Penisula Developemnt Road that all changed!  For the next 5 hours we were shook to the core, corrigations at their best.  Everything you have heard about rattling a car to bits, we can see how it could happen.  Charlie did really well through, no issues (touch wood).

Having said that we arrived in Coen just after lunch.  It's the last place for cheaper fuel at $1.88 and  also has a small shop to purchase key supplies.  We were a bit taken back by the atmosphere, very depressed with alcohol being a major part of daily lives.  Very sad really.

Filling tanks and jerry cans we hit the shop and $138 later for five shopping bags the car was loaded, water was topped up and then off to Archer we went.

We rocked into Archer Roadhouse and took a look at the free camp across the river.  Right on the river, which was warm clear and croc free!  Perfect.  That was until the locals took up residence for a bit of a celebration drink by the river.  The language used and concern about later that evening turned us off the free camp and we retuned up the road to the roadhouse.

A quick setup, warm showers and we settled in for a quiet evening.

Day 21 - Lakefield National Park ( the Bog Blog )

Well the day it began with the customary sunrise, clear skies and around 15 or so degrees.  A quick walk too the crossing to check on road closure progress is met with a silent flyby of fish eagle doing his morning patrols.  Perfect.

Given that the road was open, the crews came through around midnight to take the sign away, today Chris and Stu were going to make their way over the crossing and up towards Bathurst Bay.  Even though we had been across the crossing to collect fire wood the night before, we had to make sure that the road was open as your insurance is void if something goes wrong and you are on a closed road!  We weren't sure if we would make it all the way, as we wanted to be back mid afternoon to prepare some damper for the evening.  The boys and Katie were playing at home, catching up journal and postcard writing (expect a few shortly making their way south).  Not bad considering we bought the first lot in Roma!

After a few checks at the ranger station re camps further down the schedule, the older boys were off.  The first bit of the road before the Bathurst Bay turn off was pretty good, we thought it would be easy.  It was after that, that it became a bit more tricky and justified the advice received that the 45km road takes about 1 hour and 50 minutes.  There were numerous washouts along the way that required tracks around.

Travelling along, it was clear that people that ignored the road closed sign, as they had setup camp quite nicely. Looked like they had been there for at least a couple of days if not more.

The advice we had from oncoming traffic was "if you stick to the right you should get through", well we took that advice and it made through a few obstacles.  It was when the first big bog came up that we tried the third "right" track.  Turns out we should have gone on the fifth track to the right, we didn't even look that far.

So we go about 20 metres into the bog and then came to a slow but sticky stop.  Turns out that we would have been stuck regardless of the tyres, engine or anything, this stuff was like glue!  Stu hopped out, ready to winch only to go more than ankle deep in the dark, sticky mud!  Nearly lost his thong on more than one occasion getting to the other side of the bog to find a tree to winch from.  On one occasion it claimed the thong and he had to go into retrieval mode, elbow deep to rescue it!

The bog after we had got through 

More bogged pictures coming.

As we got bogged, a kind fellow came driving through in the correct right hand track and asked if we were all good.  By that stage we had the recovery gear out and were in the midst of recovery, so we waved him on.  If only he had come moments earlier to show us the right way. Doh!

For the next hour we pulled and reset the recovery gear, skull dragging Charlie free of the mud.  He was down to the axle at the rear and not far from it in the front.  The winch did a great job at getting us out of trouble, it was good practice for the recoveries that we may have to do ahead in the trip up the telegraph track.  By the time we finished the wheels resembled mud balls, little of the rim was visible ... 

Somewhat exhausted but glad to have the car free we continued to journey towards Bathurst Bay, making sure we looked at EVERY track option before proceeding.  The funny thing was meeting people up the track as we went, it must of have shocked them a bit with two white fellas getting out of a vehicle with black hands and feet, mud all but on the roof of the vehicle and when they asked what the track was like, our standard reply is "a bit boggy in places, keep to the right and you should be fine!"  Several of them turned back after seeing us!

We didn't quite make it to the Bay but got to Bathurst Bay Outstation, a remote tin shed used by cattleman in the district for grazing cattle through the area.  Really remote and somewhat looking disused!  Blink and you would have missed it.

One thing that is amazing about this part of the country is the variety of vegetation.  In a short stretch of road you can go from open gun tree savanna, through to think wooded areas and lush rainforest snuck in there for good measure.  It is constantly changing depending on the landscape, soil types or location.

This sequence of photos is for a 200 metre stretch of road ...

We had our first log bridge on this trip as well, nothing to serious but worth the picture!

We returned home around 3ish, using the crossing as a car wash, doing a few crossings to get photo opportunities of Charlie going across.  He came out a lot cleaner than he started!

We got back to camp and had a lovely BBQ dinner; sausages, steak and fire roasted capsicum and potato in foil (with a side of greens!) yum!.  Just as we finished, we had a neighbour, Dennis, drop by with some freshly caught battered Barramundi fillets caught that arvo.  Absolutely delicious!

As a final treat for the day, Chris cooked up some scones in the camp oven and we had them warm with a little butter with a cup of tea by the fire,  what a way to end the day!

Day 20 - Lakefield National Park (Kalpowar)

Today was one of relaxation and a lunchtime excursion. The campsite we have is fairly spacious so we have spread out, given that we'll be here for 4 sleeps.  Katie was right into sorting out laundry, boys had their time cut out to keep up with making washing lines! Stu was catching up with the neighbours finding out the goss and good contacts for further on.

The boys entertained themselves with totem tennis, connect 4 in the morning.  There was always the crossing of the Normandy (seen below) to entertain.  The road is closed at the moment, hopefully opening tomorrow, but there is a stream of trucks going back and forth.

Kalpowar crossing of the Normandy, it's the road to Bathurst Bay and Cape Melville.

We took  a pre lunch excursion to see what we could see out and about.  We stopped at Hann Crossing of the North Kennedy river for a peaceful spot in camp site 9 right on the river.  The boys of course were always a little to close to the edge for comfort, but after Chris got his sketch pad out they settled down.

There were also a few fish about as we discovered.  Someone obviously caught the big one and left it for display.  That is a road side reflector if you wanted a sense of scale, a bloody big fish.  There was also a tree full of smaller ones as well.  

Returning to camp, Stu and Chris braved the crossing to go and collect firewood.   Across the river isn't national park so you can collect fallen branches.  So we will have a nice fire for the next few nights anyway.

Note the tan is coming along!

Day 19 - Cooktown to Kalpowa (Lakefield National Park)

Headline : Introduction to the dust of the top end!

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.

Day 17 - Noah's head to Archer Point

Well the morning was dry but the wind was still blowing.  Chris was up first to take pictures of the sunrise.  The beach is just like the photos, a wide flat beach meeting rainforest.  Although it was overcast and blowing something fierce it was still very beautiful.  Looking back at the mountains behind that towered over the beach, the weather looked a lot more foreboding. This was the direction we were looking to go.

After breaky we thought that we would take a short drive up to Cape Tribulation itself where there would be more information about track conditions, weather predictions etc.  Something that would help us make a more informed decision about weather to do the track or not.  As we arrived the heavens opened, a sure sign.  We spoke to a guy with a lovely South African accent about the conditions.  Well he sure sold it as an adventure, talking about steep steep hills, trucks that are fixing the road leaving deep ruts and to top it off showing us how to go down the hills when the new road is like driving on ice given the rain.  He said he would give it a go, but it would be a full on adventure!  Both Chris and I thought otherwise, I think this guy was the local adrenalin junkie! Katie didn't like what he was saying whilst still sitting the car just by his hand movements.

The down side to our decision was that in order to head north to Cooktown, it meant doing a 300 kilometre detour back to Mossman via the ferry and then via the Mulligan Highway up the coast. Not the most pleasing decision to make however there were some upsides!

On our way to back to ferry we stumbled across a cassowary walking across the road.  A rare site indeed and very special.  It is recommended even if you do sight one not stay around long as familiarity with humans and their cars is the number 1 killer at this stage.  A quick stop, some photos (which are coming) and then we were off again.

The drive took us through some amazing country, from the slopes behind Mount Molloy crossing the start of great dividing range into the less wet, more open savanna eucalypt forest that are quintisensual of the queenland outback.  The mountains in this area are simply amazing, and being back from the coast a bit the wind dropped and the rain disappeared.

(Insert pictures from bob's lookout and banana landscape)

The boys were really good in the car on the way up.  Griffy enjoying the new found excitement of a car seat free spot in the middle.  We stopped at Palmers River roadhouse for lunch.  There were clear signs from the trees in the river, being over 10 metes tall and bent over, that the river carried a bit of water in the wet season!  It would be quite a sight!

Heading up towards Cooktown, we also had stops at the little Annan river falls and Black Mountain. The falls were quite spectacular but if you blinked as you crossed the river you would miss them.  Not because they are small but you have to walk across the river bridge and then down the river bed to see them as it isn't sign posted! The same could not be said for Black Mountain.  A massive series of mountains consisting on granite boulders stacked on top of each other.  The lichen on them gives them a black colour.  An erey feeling about them, "picnic at hanging rock" style!

Pictures of palmer river roadhouse, little Annan falls and Black Mountain coming soon.

Finally we got to the turn off for Archer Point, a real dirt road with water crossing and everything.  When we got there it lived up to its reputation of being a little exposed, unless you can shelter away in a nook. The place also left a lot to be desired for cleanliness, how some people thinking leaving tin cans, garbage bags and even nappies is ok just blows me away.  It took some time but finally we settled on a spot that was little sheltered. The best thing was that we didn't need to disconnect and we could have a fire close to camp.  The boys were very excited, as it was the first night of cooking marshmelows and it really did feel like camping with a fire going.  Give that there is only a few other campers  and the place looks a bit rough, We thought it wouldn't be the best place to leave the camper unattended during our exploration of Cooktown tomorrow.  So only one night planned here.

We are falling asleep listening to the tent bellowing and flapping in the wind.  Hopefully a peaceful night sleep with no repeat experience with "visitors" to the pantry.  Locked up properly tonight, even with a pin through the latch.  If we get visitors tonight and they get in,  they will have to be smarter this time!

Night night ....

Day 18 - Cooktown and surrounds

We woke up and still the wind was blowing, a little more to the east which meant the high pressure system was moving through, but blowing nonetheless.  Chris, Stu and Andi went for an early morning walk on the beach.  Not much happening but they did pick up tracks of a pig or something like that from the night before.  We did get a visitor overnight, guessing said pig, but just surrounding the camp, and it wasn't too interested in anything we offered.  

Today we headed into Cooktown to check out the Captian Cook Museum and a place to camp for a couple nights.  We departed Archer Point at around 9 ish and were in Cooktown by 9:30 as it's only a short distance up the road.  It was a pretty little town, nestled on the banks of the Endeavour river.  As per usual the information centre was a must, this one based at the botanical gardens.  Had a display of north queenland animals as well as a host of information of the history of the area.  By the time we left there it was lunch time! The boys were in that "I'm hungry, where's a playground" sort of mood so off we went to the centre of town for a lunch break.

Chris and Stu had the pleasure of a museum visit without kids, the place was amazing, full of information about the building, the area's history for both white and aboriginal sides as well as displays for the palmer goldfields era as well as of course the captain cook and endeavour displays.  Before we knew it was three o clock and we had to make a move.  Katie had braved the local IGA with two boys who were their usual crazy selves.  She resorted to going back to the park after a bit.  Food wise it's a bit tricky trying to work out where we will be able to pick up supplies.  So we now have a nice full car of goodies to last us quite a few days.

We ended up staying just outside of town in a private caravan park which is aside business for one of the local farmers, called Endeavour River Escape.  Great big sites with lots of space between campsites, mossies were not too bad if you had bushmans. However if you missed a spot applying it, they were on to you like a shark. A bit steep price wise for an unpowered site but it's quite, peaceful, allows fires and headed us in the right direction.  

(Insert picture of campsite)

Have to make a fuel stop back in town before we head up, it's only $1.73 here now.  The further north you go, the more expensive.  Heard that it's $2.40 or so at the tip! Yikes.  So off we go to fill Charilie and the jerry cans ....

Day 16 - Cairns to Noah's Head

Today was time to move on from Cairns and continue our journey up the coast.  Our target was to get to Noah's Head which is a campsite just south of Cape Tribulation.  However before we left Cairns we had a few extra jobs to tick off.

The pack up went reasonably well considering we had been setup for three days, annex, walls etc.  it amazing how you settle into places.  First order of the day was the first load of equipment drop off to a storage unit. Yes believe it or not we brought too much stuff!  In our defence as well, not that we need to, we have been watching all the cars going south and the red dust "Cape cars" stick out like a sore thumb.  The thought of putting our bikes through that and expecting them to work afterwards was asking a bit too much, and we were also looking to offload Griffin's car seat given the full car, so those were the initial drivers.  

However, as we discovered we could quite easily put a few additional things in there as well.  Packed our 1.5x1.5 little storage unit quite well.  Cairns is the perfect place to leave it as we'll be coming through here on the way back south.  

Second order of the day was to sort out cold meats and food for the coming days, and courtesy of a quick moving Katie that was ticked off easily.  Last stop was a long handled shovel that had to modified in the Bunnings car park to fit the front box.  All ticked and at 11:30 we departed Cairns heading for lunch in Port Douglas.

Port Douglas was certainly a swish looking place, with fancy names for all the resorts.  It's hilarious that the port's cemetery is directly opposite the entry to one of the swankiest ones, The Mirage!  Not sure how they planned that.  Another one had the cane train running right through it!  The beach was also not that great, the wind picked up and was blowing quite strong.  People were swimming but they must have been tourists.  We commented that it was time for jumpers although it was still 24 degrees out of the wind!  We must be aclimatising. After a quick play for the boys in the local park it was off again to head to our destination.

It was very lush with cane farms the dominate crop, they seem to be harvesting at the moment, so lots of activity from trucks to harvesters and cane trains.  We are slowly putting together the pieces of the process.  To get to the Daintree you need to cross the car ferry, a 40 second or so journey across.  A total of $17.50 one way.  It's a first for all of us, no dramas though. 

Once across we make our way along a lush windy road towards Noah's Head.  A few times we got out and took scenic shots.  Sorry on chris's camera.  However we couldn't pass up going into the Daintree Rainforest Discovery Centre. It had a whole bunch of information, an aerial tree top walk and a canopy tower.  We all learnt lots, but much of the detailed tree and animal information shared will be digested through the booklet received. It was just nice to stop and enjoy the rainforest.  They had a self guided tour with handsets available but we found them to take away from the experience, there are a lot people walking round with what looks like a mobile phone and not actually looking at the place!  Each to their own.

We finally got to camp about 5ish, a nice spot under the trees and out of the in shore wind!  First we had to ask the people that had setup camp in our spot (without booking) to move along, which they kindly did.  To make best use of the area we had to disconnected and shuffle Ernie.  This is where the extra muscle power came in handy! A quick dash onto the expansive beach only 10 metres away for a look see before starting to cook dinner, sausage hotpot.

The crowded beach

Shrimps we think make these. By the end of low tide the beach is covered in them. 

Sausage hotpot

We crashed around 9:30pm. Stu falling asleep in his usual style, the others (Chris and Katie) taking a little longer.  It wasn't for long as around midnight we heard noises from outside that implied we had visitors.  Chris was first up and discovered although we had closed most of the camper up, the kitchen was just pushed in 2/3 of the way, our visitors were enjoying our pantry contents.  We think they were marsupials but think of them as big mice.  It took some effort to get them out, needing all three of us adults, a broom handle and lifting the bed end up to get rid of them.  Given what we found that they had eaten, we are not surprised they were a little slow moving.  The list of casualties, bread and apples and a near new bottle of red cordial that was under the camper thank goodness. The little buggers must have been on a sugar high!!!

Our cordial bottle with multiple naw holes

We also noticed that the rain showers had become a little heavier, not good signs for we wanted to do the Bloomfield 4wd drive track tomorrow on our way to Cooktown, as rain is a sure sign that it will be treacherous to do with a camper.

See how we go ....