A Blog from Rob!

Thought it was about time to put a blokes perspective on our trip, especially because we are getting to the good stuff now:
- remoteness
- crocs
- 4WDing
- boating
- fishing
- crabbing
- wild animal spotting
- bull riding
- cooking over a hot plate on a campfire
- gorgeous rivers and landscapes
- trying to keep the 4x4 and camper in a straight linedoing 80-90km over bone jarring corrugations
- HOT weather.

The main thing we have learnt since leaving Cairns is to believe only about 10% of what people tell you as their experience levels are always different to yours one way or another. We are all having fun spotting wild animals, spotting of insects is not always as fun as they all seem to be on steroids here. Green tree ants are my least favourite after I got too close to a nest and ended up with about 20 bites inside my t-shirt, all the while trying to watch out for crocs as I launched the dinghy. At least the sting doesnt last long! The water was dark brown with logs floating past, every 3rd one looked like a croc.

I have found my favourite spot so far, spot x. 70km from Weipa it took over three hours of driving. Pretty slow really when the first 20km was done at about 80-100km on a dirt road. It was this track that finally put some vegetation scratches in our faithful Patrol and also brought about the first use of our exhaust jack. 50m before our campsite after some disagreement between the navigator and the driver we got bogged in some talcum powder soft sand up to the running boards. We lifted the Patrol with the jack and dug the sand out from in front of the wheels and running gear. Then we put sticks under our wheels and finally managed to get unstuck. We then dropped the trailer off at the campsite and went back to pull a landcruiser out of the same spot (he had a campertrailer on as well).

It was all worth it, the place was stunning with a degree of ruggedness thrown in. Big crocs, sharks and big tides will do this to a place. There was only one tide a day. A local camper told us how to fish the tides for black bream and also taught me the proper way to throw a cast net. After just one lesson I could catch mullet and herrings for bait.

I fished the drop-off in the river early one morning with a 24kg set, wire trace and a 300mm bream on a big hook. 15 in into it the clicker screamed. I put the reel in gear and struck. The rell still screamed with the drag wound up for a 150m run then I dropped the fish. There are some big bull sharks there.

I also fished the reef 500m from the river mouth and had a big old turtle breach right next to the dinghy. It gave me a little bit of a fright.

Our camper was in a great spot to see gt's, queenfish and barra finning the surface in the hunt for bait fish. The water temp sat between 24-26c. The outside temp around 30c.
This place had its drawbacks, no power water or toilets but who cares when on a good day you can catch mudcrabs, barra, gt's, queenfish and mangrove jacks in the river and then go to the reef for totally different fish including sweet lip,coral trout big sharks and the odd game fish cruising past. We were only there 4 nights and had a blast. I could have stayed for 4 weeks no troubles.

The only other drawback we had was high winds that have plagued us through the whole of the Cape York trip. IN fact later at Seisa (near the tip) it was too windy to get the boat off the beach.
For the 4WDers - we did the Telegraph Track (bar Nolans Creek), it had some great camping and swiming holes. The track itself was not hard but still good fun. We camped a night at Captain Billy's Landing on the East Coast, it was like Wellington South Coast in a screaming southerly. 1 tonne of camper trailer felt like it was going to take off. Not much sleep that night.

Cape York was great fun, now once the camper trailer's fixed its on to the Gulf of Carpentaria and the Savannah Way now.


Mudcrab hunting in a likely spot but no luck - wasnt keen to go into the mangroves with all the crocs around!

Ruben shows Ash the bream he caught. We ate it and five others for dinner.

Paradise! Lagoon in front, sea to left and river to right.
Ok so we didn't see this one, its a photo of a photo. This was taken by someone on Cape York, its a croc crossing the road and yes that is a full grown pig in its mouth.

We all went for a ride upriver in the boat, and saw so many crocs it wasn't funny (really!) They all headed for the water as we came closer, and we could see their shadows just sitting under the water waiting for us to leave.

This croc is the king of the river - 18ft long.
This little croc (about 4ft we guessed) instead of hiding from us when we came up in the boat jumped in the water and let us come about 2mtres away - he bared his teeth though. The little fella had attitude, he did the same on the way back!

Three different options at Gunshot Creek, we took the one on the left.

An 80 degree incline, did they do it?

No, not really but it was pretty impressive to watch. Straight down then crunch, they did manage to plough it forwards a bit though. Three vehicles from this group tried, the only one to get through was a Nissan Patrol. Go the Patrol!

Log bridge crossing at Cypress Creek, did this one twice. Doesn't look much but its a 4m drop under there and the logs arent fixed in place.

Cape York Part I

Lakefield National Park - Cape York

From Cooktown we headed north into Lakefield National Park and stopped for three nights at Kalpower Crossing. It was a gorgeous spot to bush camp at and we saw plenty of wildlife there.



We took the boat up the river (looking for crocs) and saw just how high the waters can get in the wet season, check out the height of that log. No wonder the roads in Cape York are impassable in the wet! If you're there during the wet season the only way out is to fly or boat.


An Agile Wallaby at Kalpower - he was huge for a wallaby and pretty friendly too although we didn't get too close to him.


Wallaby checks out Ruben, we think he was hoping for food.


We saw our first snake at Kalpower (apart from dead ones on the road), found at the campsite next to ours. Eight people looking at it had eight different views on what kind of snake it was - sorry still don't know! I went back and zipped the tent up tight.


The Plains in Northern Lakefield, apparently the largest savannah land left in the world.



As we were crossing Saltwater Creek (above) in the 4WD Rob thought he saw a croc so I took a pic - I couldnt see it until I zoomed the photo right in on computer and tah dah, that little rock in the water turned into a little freshwater croc....






Road signs were pretty different up this way (actually mostly non-existent, we had to set our tripmeter and follow the trek notes in our 'adventurers guidebook'). Surprising we didnt get lost once. From Lakefield we travelled to the Archer River Roadhouse and stayed a night there before heading onto Weipa (biggest town in Cape due to Bauxite Mine).

Walking alongside the river at Archer, vehicles tend to get off the road by dusk so its safe to walk along the road.

Will load rest of Cape York adventure shortly, plus finally a post from Rob on the trip to the tip.

Daintree to Cooktown

The Daintree

We headed north to check out the Daintree, beautiful drive up to here and even better when you get over the river (on the barge). Stayed at Lync Haven in middle of Daintree - had a few kangaroos and wallabies fenced in which the kids enjoyed watching being fed. Did some nice walks in the Daintree, and checked out a few beaches. Imagine golden sands, turquoise waters and rain forests ending right on the beach. Have been getting a bit blase about beaches as we've seen a lot and they're all gorgeous but these were stunning.

We'd been told about some black rocks on a beach that bounced when you threw them (used to be a tourist pull, but people were taking the rocks so the tour operators don't go there or tell about them anymore). We found them and they were very cool, the black stones would just richochet from one rock to the next for up to 10 bounces - but we found you had to watch where you threw them as some were like a boomerang!

From there we headed up the Bloomfield Track which is one of two ways to Cooktown, mostly dirt with a few creek crossings. The boys (Rob included) loved the river crossing.

Horses remind us who's boss on the Bloomfield Track

30km from Cooktown, is a must stop destination 'The Lions Den'. It was only midday, but we couldn't buck tradition so stopped in for a coldie.

Definitely a male hand in the decor

Cooktown

We stayed at an awesome little camping spot Endeavour River Escape - a working cattle and clydesdale farm. Had a huge bush area to ourselves, with fires (firewood provided - too easy) every night.

Unfortunately for me, a lot of wildlife here and I seemed to meet all of it. Discovered a marsupial bush mouse in the food containers, a huge brown spider in the washing, a giant centipede under the tent canvas and a baby scorpion on the tent mesh! Dad spotted a frog and a cricket (I know what I'd rather see). Didn't see any crocs on the river but they were there, a big croc called Charlie resided three bends upriver. We put crab pots in the river and got heaps of crabs out but all too small.

Endeavour River (named by Captain Cook), looked very amazon like and a crocs mecca

Burn-off just out of Cooktown, the birds hang out on the road waiting for prey

Clydesdales at the campground. Ruben's patting 'Digger'

Finch Bay, Cooktown. We weren't planning on letting them swim but there's not many spots you can be sure there's no crocs, like a wading creek.

Cooktown Lighthouse

Tomorrow off to Lakefield National Park.

Kurrimine Beach and Cairns

Rain
First day at Kurrimine Beach (next beach up from Mission Beach, 100km or so below Cairns) was pretty good weather and we took the boat out about 200m offshore, there was a coral reef that Rob dived over to and had a look around. During low tide you can walk to the reef, but if you don't time it well, you get into trouble when trying to come back. He pulled up a huge painted crayfish but lost it trying to lift it into the boat. Bummed! Rob went off to Cairns to pick Dad up off a late night flight, and they arrived back the next afternoon. Unfortunately the rain followed shortly after. And stayed with us for many days to follow...

We tried to do the touristy things around Kurrimine and Mission Beaches and inland at Tully, but it was pretty wet. All the sugar cane factory tours were cancelled as the factory shuts down when its wet (unbelievably as Tully holds the record for the most rainfall in Australia!) Spent around 5 days at Kurrimine before packing up - our first pack up in the rain. Miserable.

Dads tent, he'll be travelling with us to the tip of Cape York.

So off to Cairns for a week in luxury (a Motel). Four walls and a ceiling sounded great in theory, but we missed the camper trailer after the first day. We met Sally (Rob's sister from Sydney) in Cairns, and Rob's parents too. It was good to catch up after two months away. Spent the week with family doing touristy things:

Spent a day at Palm Cove, gorgeous resorty beach north of Cairns. Watched fire dancers from the circus performing at the esplanade. A waterfall tour south of Cairns - 4 or 5 waterfalls in one day, very muddy, still raining on and off.

Milla Milla Falls

Did the obligatory GBR reef trip - bit of a rough day and a number of people throwing up on way out, none of our party luckily, although Ruben went a bit pale and clammy at one stage. The trip we chose had a glass bottom boat, semi-submersible, touch tank, kids pool and easy snorkelling zone which we did all of. Snorkelling was awesome, once I relaxed enough to manage breathing. Rob of course entertained the specialised snorkelling tour groups by following them around (they got taken to all the best spots) and swimming around below them to see the huge fish and turtles.

Went to a coffee factory (good, but not with kids) and spent a short afternoon at Port Douglas at the markets and on the beach. Beautiful area. Oh, Mossman Gorge was good too. I spent a day shopping while the boys went to the zoo. They loved it (as did I) Saw hippos and rhinos for the first time - and Ruben got to pat the Rhino, Ash still not big on getting close to animals. They also got talking to a zoo keeper who took them into a 'keepers only' area out the back of the lions enclosure to see the cubs. The cubs were 18 months old and were huge apparently, and separately from the humans only by some wire mesh - dodgy but very exciting I'm sure. A really friendly small zoo, that obviously loves their animals.

free entertainment and face painting at the esplanade Ruben, of course, was a pirate 'Capn Rubensword'

Sally went back to Sydney after a long weekend with us, and Joy and David headed back to Wellington after a week in 'the tropical north' - unfortunately for all of us it rained most of the time, but at least it wasn't cold eh! Cairns was an interesting town -very resorty and touristy on the one side, but also a lot of crime and violence on display too. Everything seemed ridiculously expensive.

Coconut Resort

After family left we needed to get organised for the next leg of the trip - servicing the patrol etc so we moved to the Cairns Coconut Resort Caravan Park. This campground has 5 stars and is supposed to be the best in Aussie, depending on who you talk to of course. We weren't disappointed. From the fake croc at the entrance, and the fishpond with fish AND turtles in it, to the entrance waterfall with bronze dolphins. Onto the play area - outside movie screen, lifesized chess game, spider climbing frame, 'garden pool' with toddler pool, next to large playground with track around it for bikes and scooters (with bridges, jumps etc). And if you need more two jumping pillows (like big bouncy castles with no sides), one was HUGE. Then round the corner a gorgeous pool with hot and cold spas, toddler end with whale slide, water stools against a leaning bar. They also had different activities every day - the trip on 'big red' fire engine was a real hit with the boys.

Jumping pillow at Coconut Resort

Ruben with a new buddy, Charlotte at the whale slide

The vehicle needed extra work (repacking the front wheel bearings - they did a 'cape york' service on it, so touch wood we'll be all good up the Cape) so we ended up staying about 5 nights at the resort (no complaints from me or the kids). Next, onwards to the Daintree...