We are down to the last two days of the trip – home tomorrow. Unfortunately today, we blew a head gasket in the Landcruiser and will have to nurse her for the 1000km to home. We are blowing plenty of smoke (although it was hard to get a picture of it). We stocked up on engine…
In Longreach we visited the Qantas Founders Museum, it was getting late so we were able to organise a pass to come back the next day without paying the entry fee again. We also booked for their tour of a couple of planes. That night we had dinner at the restaurant at the caravan park.…
In Winton we visited the Waltzing Matilda Centre and Lark Quarry Dinosaur Trackways, then back to camp with time still for a swim. Tomorrow we move onto Longreach.
A little delay getting away this morning, the Nissan wouldn’t start! Those of you that have travelled with us before will know that the Nissan has a reputation of NEVER breaking down. When we did the Simpson Desert trip 5 years ago the Nissan got through it virtually unscathed, just a steak knife blade through…
We left Karumba first thing and arrived at Lawn Hill Gorge mid afternoon. This was a fantastic spot to visit especially with kids. We stayed at Adel’s Grove in a shaded grove along side a creek; went for a swim in the creek after we set up camp. There is a deep swimming hole and…
Jules birthday today. Michael and Graham went on a fishing charter this morning at 7 for 5 hours. It was pretty windy today and as I would find out later, it was pretty rough out on the boat too resulting in more berley than normal over the side (Graham being one of then contributors!). Jules,…
Michael woke to a flat tyre on his Patrol this morning (a screw in the tyre) so his first job after packing up was to find a tyre repairer in the small town of Georgetown. We could of plugged the hole ourselves but figured a professional would be much quicker – we were wrong. Eric,…
Started the morning with pancakes which was a bit of a disaster as they kept sticking to the frypan so if anyone has any tips on how to fry on a stainless pan I would love to hear them! A week ago, I had no trouble cooking pancakes in it but today was a different…
Another very hot day! We were packed up and gone from Palmer River Roadhouse by 8.50am, an easy day ahead for us. Drove to Mareeba where we purchased supplies and refuelled then headed for Chillagoe. Stopped at Dimbulah for lunch at the ‘Funky Mango’. Didn’t expect much but the food turned out to be delicious…
We aimed today to get packed up and on our way early. We did have some unplanned motivation in the form of smoke closing in on us which worried me a lot and Graham not so much. Graham fixed the front locker air line as we were sure to need it again and we still…
John & Lorna met us at our campsite at Chilli Beach then we all drove up to Portland Roads where we had a lovely lunch on a verandah overlooking the water and we think we saw a crocodile in the water (probably wasn’t). We then headed back to Archer River Roadhouse for the night and…
[wowslider id=”12″]We left Weipa via Batavia Downs to the Peninsular Development Road, north for 2km then turned onto the Frenchmans track which disappointingly provided no challenges. The next time we come to the Cape it will have to be a lot earlier in the season so the tracks will provide some challenges. John & Lorna…
Only one challenge left on the Old Telegraph Track today before we head to Weipa – Palm Creek. We were expecting to have to winch this one as we had checked it out from the south side on our way to the tip plus everyone said we’d never make it. Michael drove up without a…
Kind of glad to be leaving Vrilya Point this morning, really looking forward to the air conditioning in the car. It is so hot here and you can’t swim in the water! We have to go back over the log bridge at crystal creek. When we got to the bridge there was a mini excavator…
We left Punsand Bay today parting ways for a couple of days with John & Lorna. Our extra travellers, Geoff and Erika left us yesterday so it was now just Michael & Jules and Graham, Jacob and I for a few days. We will meet up with John in Lorna in Weipa. First we went…
The ferry for Thursday Island leaves from Seisia so we had to be very organised this morning. It was about an hours ferry ride to the Island. We had decided to explore on our own so on arrival we started walking, lucky Jacob was in a stroller. It was hot, very hot and the things…
We are staying at Punsand Bay for a couple of nights. Today we will explore the tip, Somerset Ruins, Fly Point, the DC3 Ruins and pick up a few supplies in Bamaga. First stop was the Tip, the northern most point of Australia. It was quite a walk over small rocky hills to get to…
After refueling at Bramwell Junction we headed north on Bamaga Road, a wide gravel road with areas of corrugation that weren’t as bad as we had expected, apart from a few screws falling out of the dash we were all good. We stopped at Fruit Bat Falls which was a fantastic spot for a swim,…
An easy and uneventful day today. We headed to Bramwell Station with our new recruits via the PDR (Peninsular Development Road). Bramwell Station has three areas of business, a cattle station, the tourist industry – camping, bar and restaurant and a little roadhouse down the road called Bramwell Junction, and they look after the roads…
First stop this morning was Black Mountain on the way to Cooktown. At Cooktown we had a look around, fueled up and picked up a few fishing supplies. Lorna also got a toy crocodile for Jacob but he seems a bit scared of it! Traveled along Battlecamp Road stopping for a look at Isabella Falls…
We left Cairns to head north via the Captain Cook Highway past Port Douglas, through Mossman and stopped at Newell Beach for lunch where Jacob got to see the ocean for the first time. After lunch we crossed the Daintree River via ferry onto Cape Tribulation Road and then the Bloomfield Road stopping at Lions…