CAPE YORK PENINSULA

21^st May, 2013

We’ve spent the last ten days relaxing and drying out from the soaking we received at Innisfail.  We have also been trying to make our mind up about whether to attempt the drive up Cape York Peninsula to the very northern most part of mainland Australia.  It is approx. 950 kilometres from where we are camped and 750 of those kilometres are untarred.  4WD is recommended as road conditions can vary from ‘This isn’t too bad’ to ‘OMG – get us out of here!’  Most people (if they do not have an off road camper trailer) leave their caravan stored at one of the parks in this area and just take their 4WD vehicle and tent it or stay in dongas at the roadhouses or stations along the way.  As luck would have it, friends of our nephew Wayne (Trevor and Jacqui) have just returned from a trip to Lockhart River which is an aboriginal community about two thirds the way up Cape York.  Their son is employed there and they have made the trip in their 4WD and off road caravan – very similar to our set up.  They check into the caravan park we are in and provide us with some good information about the condition of the road as far as the turnoff to Lockhart River.  It appears that the road is in reasonable condition (as of two days ago) with road crews working at different spots.  We make the decision to ‘give it a go’ and the following morning we are on the road headed for the Cape.  At lunchtime we stop at James Earl Lookout and get a glimpse of the road ahead as it disappears into the distance.

Looking north from James Earl Lookout

That night we free camp at a rest area (slightly overgrown) at Morehead River and are joined by two caravanners heading south.  They have been visiting relatives at Weipa and report that the road is pretty good to the turnoff.  We join them for a pot luck barbecue dinner and fireside chat before turning in for the night.  On the road north the next day we occasionally pass vehicles heading south.  We usually slow down to crawl mode to let them through.  Apart from blind corners and crests the oncoming vehicle can usually be detected by the billowing cloud of dust accompanying them.  Stopping completely and pulling as far to the left of the carriageway as we can when a road train comes through is a really good idea.

Road Train coming through

Apart from all the stones/rocks that they launch at you it is impossible to see if there is any other vehicle behind them in the dust cloud.

Can't see any cars coming  ...  Can't see the road either!

We reach the Weipa turnoff and within a few kilometres the road has dwindled to one lane.

Everyone drives down the centre as it is pretty soft on the shoulders

The track itself is quite good and apart from slowing down for all the dips we make good time.  Since leaving the bitumen yesterday we have trundled through numerous dips.  Some are nice and smooth, some have a concrete or bitumen base, some have gravel and some have water running through them.  Dips are nasty things.  They lure you in with the promise of an easy crossing and then WHAM!  Suddenly you are faced with the ‘potholes from hell’.   Our advice … SLOW DOWN … and come out the other side in one piece.  Apart from the occasional vehicle and roadhouse every few hundred kilometres there are no signs of civilisation.  The cattle stations that occupy Cape York have huge land holdings and the farm houses and outbuildings are sometimes many kilometres away from the road.  We pull up at the entrance to Bramwell Station

Entrance to Bramwell Station

and decide to camp the night.  The station is about six kilometres off the road so we definitely will not hear any road noise.  Mind you anyone travelling that road at night needs their head read!  We will however hear lots of farm noise.  The camp area is next to some cattle pens where a herd of calves has been separated from their mothers.

Our camp spot at Bramwell Station

There’s lots of mooing going on and we are wondering whether road noise might be preferable.  As darkness came, the mooing died down, and all was peaceful in the camp.  Ahhh – the sounds of the night   …   an occasional bird call   …   an occasional moo   …   the rumble of the generator***    Farm life!   Just magic!

In the morning we are up at the crack of dawn.  Well we are on a farm and there are chores to be done!  It is probably our earliest start for ages but there doesn’t appear to be many vehicles on the road. 

Looks like we will have the road to ourselves for a while ...

The track is surprisingly good and near Fruit Bat Falls we finally run into the road crew that has been working on this section of road.  We now realise what a wonderful job they have been doing because as soon as we pass them the road deteriorates.  The carriageway is wide but there are corrugations from one side to the other making it virtually impossible to do anything but crawl up and down the ridges.  Wok finally resorts to driving in the gutter beside the road to try and get a smooth track.  For the next forty kilometres we travel at snail pace until finally we arrive at the Jardine River.  Once we cross the river we will be in the Northern Peninsula Area and not far from our goal.  We do however have to pay the ferryman and you can forget about not paying him until you get to the other side.  If you don’t pay you don’t go   …   as simple as that.  We had been warned about how expensive the ferry was so we didn’t bat an eyelid when the ferryman asked for $145 to take us across.  If we hadn’t had the caravan it would have been $100.  Mercifully our return journey is included in the price.  This would have to be the most expensive ferry crossing we have ever encountered   …   working on money per distance travelled.   As you can see from the following photo the river isn’t all that wide.  We estimated that if there were two ferries you could put them end to end and drive across them from one side of the river to the other. 

Crossing the Jardine River

For the adventurous 4WD enthusiasts there is a river crossing about twenty kilometres east of the ferry.  This crossing is part of the Old Telegraph Track and many four wheel drivers test themselves out along this track.  Many four wheel drivers also get stuck in the river crossings along the track and need assistance to get going again.  Trevor and Jacqui can attest to the problems of crossing rivers on the Cape.  On their way out from Lockhart River they got bogged in the Pascoe River (which they had successfully crossed on the way in) and finally managed to get out when a helpful truckie turned up.  Jacqui said it was quite frightening with the water lapping up the door over the sill and Trevor up to his waist in water trying to get some rocks under the wheels.  And don’t forget – we are in croc country and salties just love hanging around river crossings waiting for a snack.  Well we were now on the northern side of the river and there were only forty kilometres left to go.  We would like to say that they were the best forty kilometres we had travelled but unfortunately they were not.  We did manage to travel at a speed slightly above snail pace but corrugations, washouts and potholes slowed our progress considerably.  It was with a sigh of great relief that we finally reached the start of the bitumen near the aboriginal community of Injinoo and not long after that we were driving through Bamaga which is the main town of the area and a further eight kilometres on we arrived at Seisia overlooking Torres Strait.  Seisia wharf is a hive of activity with barges arriving from Cairns and outlying islands and ferries arriving and departing to Thursday Island.  We check into Seisia Holiday Park not far from the wharf

Wharf at Seisia

and get a nice spot backing onto the beach.

Our site at Seisia - complete with 'don't even think about going for a swim' croc sign

We liked the signs on the amenity block.  It doesn’t take a genius to work out which sign is for the men and which is for the ladies.

 

It was time for happy hour and the campers opposite us had an unexpected guest.

Hmmm  ...  wonder what beverage is on offer here?

Over the next few days we discovered this wasn’t a rare occurrence.  There were a number of horses that roamed the whole area (not just the caravan park) and we always saw them munching away on the grass verges beside the road when we went for drives.  That evening we watched the sun go down over the water of Torres Strait  …   a great way to end the day!