The trip back south

We had to call into Bramwell Station on the way back to collect our boat and then headed to Chilli Beach. Many people tell us how great Chilli Beach is, and it was lovely, but really, it’s a long way to go to see a nice beach.

We did enjoy speaking to the ranger here as he informed us that the new booking service was troublesome for people this year. This we knew as we have had no end of drama with the service. He then went on to say that when they call up and book for people, the government is charged over $30 from the booking agency. The thing is, for Tim and I it only costs around $12.50 a night. Don’t get us started on fleet bookings. Our government truly is useless.

After Chilli Beach we decided to have another couple of nights at the Hanh River and this time stay at a better camp. We saw so many crocs. It was crazy.

We then headed back to Cooktown, but not before the spring on the boat trailer snapping for the third time. Not to worry, by this stage, the ‘Pit Crew’ had it sorted and we were able to change the spring in 20mins! That includes the time needed to make the new spring! Go on, say it. WE ROCK!

When we got to Cooktown, we caught up with our mate Martin, the guy sailing solo around the world. Sadly while at the pub, we took a few calls. You see, while on our adventure, we were out of service, and due to limited batteries, we only turned the sat phone on sporadically. Unfortunately, for us, the calls we received that afternoon were all bad news. A close family friend had passed away only a few days before and then tragic news for Tim and I, that our little girl passed away. It was a quiet night and we decided to head back to her the next day.

So now your are all caught up. We are back in Innisfail and hope to head off in January. It will be different without Snow, and we couldn’t leave her behind so in a way, she will complete the trip with us.

 

The Treehouse

Hey guys, almost caught up! I’ll send through the last update tomorrow!

On the trip to the cape, everywhere we went there were whispers of a treehouse. It seemed to be an exciting and romantic adventure to find the tree house. For me, it felt like I could be like Huckleberry Finn in the adventure of a life time.

Some people stop and said it was something that shouldn’t be sought out and yet there were others that would mark the way.

So, before heading back south, the four of us decided to have an adventure of our own and seek out this elusive tree house. Sadly for the Ranger, it did get a little stuck while looking for it – yet every cloud has a silver lining.

You wouldn’t believe it, but we ran into the Girls and they were on their way to see the treehouse – turns out they had insider information and someone marked the track for them. So we followed them. Pretty remarkable really. Something like this, at the tip, in the middle of nowhere. Does anyone know the history of this tree house? We thought it may have something to do with the Pajinka Lodge but aren’t really sure and can’t seem to find out much online about the treehouse.

It boggles the mind as to why someone would design something like this in the middle of nowhere,  but it made for an excellent adventure!

The Tele Track Part 2

I’ve been so slack, but I will try and have the site up to date this week! 🙂

The last post, we left off gaining some travelling mates. Well the friendship was going well with the Water Babies, so we decided to just hang out until we went our separate ways. So we started back on the tele track and had an absolute ball! I’ll let the videos do the talking there.

I’m not use to recording on the video camera, so I hope it doesn’t shake too much.

This is video is of Fruit Bat Falls – how great that we had the place to ourselves!

This is of our final creek crossing at Nolan’s Brook. I’m so happy we went when it was dry but I’m not sure Tim shared my enthusiasm!

 

The Tele-Track Part1

This is a post that most of Tim’s mates have been waiting for. The tele-track. Sorry, still getting around to all the updates! 🙂

For our mates overseas, the tele-track is actually called ‘The Old Telegraph Track’ and is the most famous 4×4 track in Australia. A track that anyone who loves to four-wheel drive and has a 4×4, dreams of doing one day. So this was his moment and what did he think… not much. Don’t get us wrong, the crossings were amazing and so was the drive itself, but we found the Starky track to be more difficult and required more 4 wheel drive capability, plus it caused more damage to our vehicle and gear than the tele. For those planning on doing the track next year, check out this website for details on the Tele-track – www.cape-york-australia.com as it has some great info.

Now, this doesn’t mean we didn’t have any fun. We did! Like I said, the creek crossings were amazing and the places we went to, simply stunning. You know, you don’t need a 4×4 to access this area as there are many tours that operate up here and do the tele track too! So there’s no excuse for you Aussie’s not to explore your own back yard.

We were so excited to start the tele-track. We went through Palm Creek, Ducie Creek and Alice Creek and were wondering if we left it too late to travel as the creeks were all dry. Thankfully the Dulhunty had some water so our hopes were restored. The Bertie and Cholmondey went off without a hitch.

Then came the Gunshot. Oh my, what a crossing. I can’t believe that people still do it and I wish we traveled during the busy time to see this happen, but we didn’t, and we had to cross. I was glad we didn’t have the patrol as if we were in the patrol, I fear Tim would most likely give it a go, but in the Ranger, no way! So we took the easy route, it was still tough to watch Tim do it, but glad that there was an easier option.

The beauty of travelling in the off season, is that if you want to stop and have lunch in the creek, you can. Which is exactly what we did at gunshot!

Not long after lunch we ran into a lovely couple at Fruit Bat Falls that became our travelling companions for the next 10 days. The Water Babies (Ammie and Nath) are a young couple from Perth doing what we are doing, but in reverse.

We heard the falls are very busy, but we had the place to ourselves! Even better, we could swim! There are only a few places in the cape where they say you can swim and you didn’t have to tell us twice. It was so refreshing. We could have stayed there the night, but the West’s(our Weipa mates) suggested we camp near Twin Falls, at a place called Canal Creek.

So after our dip, we decided to camp the night with our new mates and headed to Canal Creek. It was then that we came across our first difficult crossing. Not that it was hard, but for the first time, the water wasn’t clear and the boys had to walk it. The first thing I thought of was crocs, and thankfully Ammie had similar concerns. But not the boys. In they went, waist deep in muddy water. Thankfully Nath had been speaking to a few other travelers who told him the best way to progress as there were several entry points and some were very deep (as in over the bonnet) so the boys walked the suggested path and worked out when and where to turn and got through no drama.

We got to our camp site and were again relieved to be the only one’s there and we had our very own, private plunge pools. Life is grand. Needless to stay, we decided to stay an extra night!

As we didn’t have to pack up the following morning, we decided to walk to Twin Falls and for some crazy reason, we opted to follow the creek rather than walk the road.

At different stages we were walking by the creek, then in the creek and soon we ended up going bush. At this stage, us girls were getting a little concerned. I left the EPERB back at camp, with the sat phone and we were walking in the bush in only thongs… what the hell were we thinking?!?!? Thankfully Tim knew where he was the entire time and managed to get us through, and boy was it worth it. The walk itself was beautiful (except when we walked through warm mud), and twin falls was divine and yep, we had it all to ourselves!

We didn’t realise at the time, but we stayed out most of the day and after such a big day, it was great to soak in our plunge pool in the late afternoon and finished off with a camp over Japanese Curry! Yep, its a tough life alright, but someone has to do it!

Weipa and the Pennefather River

We finally saw our first croc!!!

As you know, we were heading to Weipa to catch up with some old friends of Tim. We spent a few days just hanging out. It was great to call in and see the West’s, catch-up and spend some time with their family.

Weipa really is an interesting mining town. Having said that, we decided to head to the Pennefather River while we were on the west coast and boy oh boy was it fun! Once again we were blessed to meet many lovely people, visit a great place in our country and do some fishing!

The fishing here was amazing but the 12 hour tide took some getting use too. Sadly, because of this tide, we missed out on getting quality mud crabs as our pots got eaten out. 🙁 Thankfully, the fishing made up for it. Although we took the boat, we still managed to get some great fish off the banks.

It is an amazing place for wildlife spotting. We saw a dingo and her 4 pups, a crazy amount of birds, an array of fish and a croc or two. The amount of fish we saw was amazing and we caught some great fish too! Nothing beats eating fresh fish, grilled on the BBQ with a squeeze of fresh lime or lemon. One night we even had a green fish curry. Yummo!

The fish was so prevalent, that of a night-time, from our tent, you could hear the barra chomping. Why didn’t we get out and fish on those nights? Simple, when the barra were around, so was a lovely 3.5 metre croc. He/she could have as much fish as it wants!

We spent three nights at the Pennefather and headed back to Weipa. We only wanted to stop in quickly this time as we needed to get on with the trip. We did have some electrical issues that Tim was able to sort out with the help of Redarc support. What a support team they have!

So late afternoon we drove through to Bramwell Station and get this, we had the entire place to ourselves! The benefit of traveling at the end of the season when it’s hot, is that you get pick of the place!

Bramwell station was amazing, had great staff and here we me two lovely ladies from Melbourne, who are also on a trip around Oz! The girls (as we fondly referred to them as) had booked accommodation for the night at the station, so we had the entire camp ground to ourselves. I think this was heaven on earth for Tim. Seriously, he was walking around on cloud nine the entire time. I was worried I may have to remind him that we were not alone and as such to keep his clothes on, but, he behaved himself.