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.