Cairns To Chilli Beach - Far North Qld

We left Cairns on Saturday morning after getting Steve’s  vehicle sorted. All was looking well until the clouds started to close in on the surrounding mountains. A bit of drizzle rain, put us in a slightly sombre mode, considering this was the first day of the real adventure.

We travelled North along the Bruce Highway to Port Douglas. Deb and I honeymooned here 13 years ago. It was a little coastal village back then and now has transformed into tourist town. We stopped for morning tea, with a walk along the main street, before heading off to Cape Tribulation.

We cross the Daintree River on the Ferry. This river is the first of many crossing where Crocs live in large numbers.  We commenced to climb the hills through Daintree National Park heading for Cape Trib as the clouds and drizzle rain disappeared.

We arrived at Cape Trib, with the hordes of tourist. Got the usual snaps of where the ocean meets the rain forest and kept heading towards Lion’s Den Hotel, via the Bloomfield Track.

The Bloom field track leads from Cape Trib to Cooktown.  This is strictly a 4WD track with several creek crossing and a few steep inclines and declines. We travelled across the Bloomfield River into Wujal Wujal, an Aboriginal community. The Bloomfield river crossing was washed away recently in the flood, but Cooktown Shire has replaced it with a new crossing.

We arrived at Lion Den Hotel, rumoured to be the most iconic hotel in Queensland. As you can see from the pictures it is has a character. All the walls and roof are lined with graffiti from past patrons, as well as caps, shirts and business cards. We caught up with some friends from My Swag forum, JK, Yogi, Tim, Simon and a few others. They had just completed the CREB (Cairns Regional Electricity Board) track. This track follows the main electricity lines from Cairns to Cooktown. The boys said it was very hard going pulling their campers. JK broke an engine mount, but as usual, he had a spare.  We are hoping to do the track on the way back down from the Cape.

We set up camp at the Lion’s Den Hotel Camp ground, and then headed back to the hotel for dinner and a few drinks. Well worth the effort to get to Lion’s Den Hotel. Great food, cold beer and good company with Steve, Viv & the boys.

The following morning, we headed off to Endeavour Falls Caravan Park, which is about 25 km’s North of Cook town. This was where the My Swag forum tour was staying, so it was good to catch up with a few of them around the fire.

The following day, Sunday, we headed into Cooktown, to post Deb’s friend, Wendy’s birthday card. We did the touristy thing and found Cooktown a small seaside village. A few photographs from the lighthouse lookout and we were heading back to the Caravan Park.  Little did we know that in the creek below the park lived a 3.5 metre croc. No swimming here.

On Monday, we packed up camp and headed for Lake Field National Park. We turned off the main development road and headed into the National park, along a long dusty road.

I was leading Steve & Viv. We approached a wash out in the road, as I went through the wash out, I thought I was going a little quick. Looked in the side mirror and to my horror the trailer was now hanging lower than it had been, I turned to Deb and said,”We have lost the trailer”, as I came to a stop on the side of the road and radioing Steve who was following.

I had a look at the hitch and found the hitch had somehow come off. Nothing broken except for a “D”shackle. With Steve’s help, a couple of jacks, we lifted the Camper trailer up and back onto the tow hitch. Locked everything in place, a spare “D”shackle from Steve and we were off, counting our lucky stars. From that point I took it a little easier driving through the wash outs.

We stopped at Old Laura, which was one of the first Cattle Stations in Northern Australia. It covered 50 Square miles and had to be self-sufficient due to the remoteness.  As you can see, nobody lives there anymore, it ceased working as a cattle station in 1966.

We headed for Kalpower Camp ground on the edge of the Normandy River, within the National park. On arriving, we found the camp grounds mainly set up for tent camping, rather than trailer, but after a few minutes and some negotiating with a fellow traveller, Steve, Viv and us were set up side by side.

A few beers, a walk down to the Normandy River for Croc spotting then back up for a sumptuous roast lamb and veg, cooked by Steve.

After dinner, we headed back to the river, with the torches to look for the red eye of crocs, as we patrolled the river’s edge. We spotted one on the far side.

The following day was a lazy day, sorting out a few things with the campers and then heading across the Normandy River for lunch, with fishing rods in hand. We set up near the river, rigging the rods for the kids to try and catch a Barra. After many casts and lures lost, nothing was caught, but a lot of Archer fish were seen swimming in the shallows.

After lunch we headed back to camp and enjoyed a great BBQ and fire for dinner, drinking to the holiday

The next day we headed to Archer River, on our way to Chilli Beach along the development road. But first of all, we headed out to Musgrave Road house, from Lake Field. Here we had a hamburger and a pie for lunch. That was a nice journey driving past a number of billabongs, with Cranes, Magpie Geese and kangaroos at them. The billabongs had lilies in flower as well. We headed north along the Development Road and I   have never seen so much dust. Aircon was working overtime. We arrived at Archer River about 3pm, Wednesday, set up camp in the camp ground, a few beers to wash the dust down and head over to the Archer River for a swim. The water was beautiful. 

Heading for the Cape

Well, we have been in cairns since Monday, staying at the Coconuts Caravan Park. What a top place. The kids have been kept busy at the water park, playing mini golf, ridding the go carts and general running a muck as kids do.

Steve and Viv arrived, late Tuesday night with hugs all round. We then kept the rest of the neighours up until 1am, talking and catching up.

Steve had to get a few things done to his fourby, new CV joint, diff seal and air bags in the suspension, after crossing Australia, West to East, to make the Cape trip.

That all done, we are gearing up for a departure tomorrow, Saturday, heading up Port Douglas, Cape Tribulation, then up the Bloomfield Track towards Cooktown. We plan on camping at the famous Lions Den Hotel, just south of Cooktown, then who knows were we will be going, but stay tuned. It should be good.

A couple of shots of a honey eater getting around the camp.

Home to Cairns

Home to Cairns 21/6/2011

Day 1,2 & 3 Saturday 18^th  - Monday 20th June 2011

We left home earlier than planned. I woke up earlier than planned at 4.45am, got up had a cuppa and finished packing the truck. We woke the girls and threw them in the truck, pyjamas and all,  leaving just on 6.15am to start our adventure.

Our first stop was Macca’s for breakfast at Nudgee Beach, then back on the road heading North. We had a pit stop at Gympie and continued to push through to Gin Gin for lunch, where it was very windy, hoping this wasn’t the weather we were in for. A bunch of these birds were hanging around for a feed.

Along the way, we came across some army personal who were travelling in big Bushmaster armoured personnel carriers. The girls were fascinated with the military vehicles. They seem to be everywhere.  We later found out they were going to an exercise up north.

We were finally on the home stretch to our first night stay at Rockhampton. An hour out of Rocky, we hit a hurdle, the road was blocked, due to a police siege at a little town on the highway. The traffic was blocking up with semitrailers, bus loads of army dudes and a wide load.  After and hour or so, we were back on the road, making Rockhampton about 4.30pm. Checked into the Big 4 Discovery Holiday Caravan Park.  A quick erection of the camper trailer, which was done well for our first time. We all had dinner and a few well earnt beers, before hitting the sack about 8.00pm.

The following morning, we woke up earlier than planned, as Melissa had to go to the toilet. We climbed out of bed and packed up the camper.  We headed off, just before 7am, thinking we would get breakfast up the road. As we drove North, there was a Macdonald’s Restaurant on the opposite side of the road, I said to the girls, “we’ll push on to the next town and get breakfast”. Well, we pushed on, to find the next town, being 190km away, being Makay.  All three girls were not happy, with cries of, I’m hungry and when are we going to stop coming from the back seats as well as the front passenger seat.   We were all pretty cranky by the time we reached Makay, So breakfast and first coffee was at 10.45am. Won’t make that mistake again.

We refuelled the body and the truck, heading north to Townsville. We stopped at a little town called Ayr for lunch, the girls kept calling it lake Ayr (not quite). Our next stop was Bowen, which turned out  to be quite disappointing. There was nothing in the town and we kept on our way.

We arrived at my mates house in Townsville. I hadn’t seen Aaron and his family for around 8 years, but it was straight back into being mates. It was good to catch up with them, sharing a few beers and talking about old times and current going’s on, before hitting the sack late.

The following day, we said out good byes for now and we headed towards Cairns. By the morning we had news that our travelling partners (Steve and Viv) were having some mechanical problems and would not be able to make Cairns today. A couple of chats on his sat phone and we realised they would have to stay in Bourke Town overnight, before joining us in Cairns on Tuesday.

On this leg of the journey, we were travelling through parts of Far North Queensland that had been ravaged by floods and Cyclone Yasi. We had coffee at a small sea side town, Cardwell. This is the town where the footage was shot of the multi-million dollar boats being piled up on top of each other at the Marina.

Things are slowly getting back to normal, but there are a few roofs with tarps still on and builders working frantically.  The landscape looks like it had been through a bushfire, with all the small tree limbs and leaves having been stripped from the tree and the new foliage starting to gown back.  This was evident from Cardwell to Tully, about 70km, with the devastation overwhelming.

We finally came through it and arrived at Cairns, pulling into the Big 4 Coconuts Beach Resort, feeling a sense of achievement, having travelled 1900km, so far. We were sad our friends were not arriving until Tuesday.  We set up camp and the girls went straight to the water park.  The place was voted best Big 4 Caravan Park in Australia and I can see why. Everything is clean, there are activities for the kids, water park, swimming pool, jumping pillows, mini gold, movie theatre, tennis courts, giant chess and free pancakes on Thursday.

We are looking forward to a few good night sleeps, exploring Cairns and getting ready to set off on Friday for the “start” of our Cape York adventure.

The Adventure Begins

Three years ago, (2008) we were sitting on Fraser Island with some good friends of ours, Steve, Viv, Dan & Cam, after spending close to three weeks on the island. We were deciding what our next big adventure would be. And so started the planning for our Cape York Adventure.

We came home and started planning, but fate, jobs and 4000 kilometres intervened.  Steve was made redundant from his job, but decided to take it all in his stride, travelling with his family across Australia for 6 months to Broome where they have taken up residence. http://www.steveandviv.blogspot.com/

I was promoted at worked and moved to Northern NSW. That was a hectic 2009, considering we were planning on doing Cape York in 2010.  That was not going to happen, with so much happening in both our families lives.

So the trip was postponed 12 months and here we are.

I have commenced 2 months long service leave, Deb started 6 weeks leave today.  Steve, Viv and the boys leave Broome tomorrow morning, with our family leaving on Saturday. Meeting place, Cairns next Monday 21^st June 2011.  It's been nearly two & half years, since we have seen our friends.

Our itinerary is not set on concrete and going to be very flexible, due to the North having a late wet season and some of the National Parks & tracks closed. Stayed tuned for the regular updates along the way, together with some fabulous photographs.

The poor old GU Patrol has had a little makeover. It now has a big set of BFG Mud terrain tyres, together with a 2 inch lift on the suspension. We weren’t going to do the suspension until we had a slight incident on a 4WD trip near Warwick a few months ago. So in went the lift. The truck drives really nicely. 

We have had our Life Style Extenda Camper Trailer, now for 18 months. We love it. This trip will be the best ever test for it. It has all the mod cons, including queen sized inner spring mattress, 12 volt power, with two 100AH batteries. I have made up a number of LED lights for both inside and out. Tent goes up, hit the switch and the lights turn on. It also has 85 litre water tank with electric pump. Gas cook top, independant suspension and electric brakes, BFG AT tyres. Cant wait to get it dirty.