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| Weipa Sunset |
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| Weipa Van Park |
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| Weipa |
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Tuesday 3 July 2012 – Archer River Roadhouse
We left lovely Weipa and set off to explore the eastern side of Cape York.
Firstly, to Lockhart River, another typical aboriginal community (with
bars on everything and trashed everything).
You just want to have a look and keep going… It amazes me how many dogs live in these places, they’re seen
sleeping on every corner.
The road in was so terrible it was very slow going - (who cares, we have all the time in the
world now!!! Ha ha). It took us 1 ¾ hrs
to do 120 kms.
Then we went on to the renowned Chili Beach. I have to say that I was not very
impressed. The palm trees and pandanus
palms all looked like they had some sort of disease. Mind you it was blowing a howling S’easter and it was bleak and
overcast – so would have looked much nicer on a better day I’m sure – still, I
was pretty disappointed.
Next we visited Portland Roads, which was lovely but
because the weather was so bleak we drove back to Archer River Roadhouse and
stayed the night there.
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| Chili Beach |
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| Portland Roads |
Wednesday 4 July 2012 – Musgrave
Roadhouse
This f…. mattress is so uncomfortable – I’m over it – I’m
lacking sleep and it was bloody freezing last night to boot!!! Not happy!!! When we woke though, we found we were surrounded by cows and
horses… how country! – this brightened things up!!! – the mattress forgotten
for the moment…. We had to move our stove away from one horse so he wouldn’t
burn his nose - he was so inquisitive he stuck his muzzle right into the billy.
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| Archer River |
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| Archer River Roadhouse |
Headed east again, this time to have a look at Port
Stewart, which is a little fishing village set amongst the mangroves. Very crocy looking!! Looks like the community consists of
weekenders who come up for the weekends to fish – no township as such.
We arrived at Musgrave by lunchtime and had our pick of
the spots. It was empty then, but by
the end of the day it was chockers.
State of Origin nite – so we joined the crowd at the
roadhouse bar . I’m not really a footy
fan, so during the first half I wandered back to our camp to listen to music,
while Roy saw the game through at the bar.
Go the Blues!!! Oops – Qld won
by 1…… next time..
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| Dust Dust Dust!!! |
Thursday 5 July 2012 – Cape
Melville NP
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| Our CROC barrier |
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| Cape Melville |
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| Cape Melville |
Wow!!!! The road
into Cape Melville would have to be the worst road we’ve been on so far. Good on you National Parks….. The 120km trek to Cape Melville consists of
70km on aboriginal land, which was passable, but when you reached to border
into National Park the road turned to mush….
It took us 2 ½ hours to travel the remaining 50km. Very Very Slow going!!!!
We finally got there to find that there was only about
4-5 other camps in the whole place, so we opted to set up nearish to
them. The croc thing is always at the
back of your mind – mine anyway.
(scaredy cats, yes we are!!)….
It was quite breezy when we first set up camp – but as the night
progressed so did the breeze, until I’m sure it actually turned into a mini
cyclone. I don’t think I’m exaggerating
when I say the wind would have got up to around 172km/h (it seemed like it
anyway!!). Needless to say we didn’t get
very much sleep. I was very impressed
with our brave little tent for standing up to it (a 30 sec OzTent), a great little tent. By 5am (and both of us wide awake) we had had enough and decided
to pack up, in the pitch black and head back along that terrible road again.
On the way - we did try our luck for barra at that secret
spot, but it was the wrong time of day and we were eager to head for home. Our
van (Bed) beckons!!. We just stayed
long enough to boil the billy and have a couple of casts. Home is calling – only a few hours away…….
So the last little bit of our CAPE journey was down the fast lane…..
Bed Sweet Bed !!!!!
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| Lakefield NP |
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| Our secret BARRA spot |
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| Lakefield NP |
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| Lakefield NP |
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| Kalpower Crossing |
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| Lakefield NP |
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| Marrett River |
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| Lakefield NP |
Friday – Sunday 6 –8 July 2012 –
Lakeland – Tinaroo Dam
We didn’t really have a plan from here – so opted for
Tinaroo Dam on the tablelands. We
stayed 2 nights at the caravan park there and it rained the whole time. It’s raining all along the coast apparently,
so we’re not the only ones copping it.
We spent the day on Saturday at Kuranda – doing the
markets, gorge etc and in the afternoon, we went for a drive around the
circumference of Tinaroo Dam.
We found some great camp spots along the circuit of the
dam but the signs say that you have to pre-book etc (NP) and there are bollards
everywhere. One sign said that it’s not
suitable for caravans. There are a
couple of sites on the waterfront though, that don’t have bollards and they
have fire rings!!!! We will have to investigate this further, because we would
much rather have camped there, then in a caravan park….. If possible, we may
stay there when we go back up to the tableland.
Someone said that if you want
to get a job with National Parks, a pre-request is that you have to know how to
put in bollards. Ha ha
There’s still much to see – but we’re going to go down to
Cairns for a few days and then come back up to finish looking around the
tableland and hopefully incorporate the Mareeba Rodeo next weekend…. We’ll see.
The weather for the past few days has been dismal and is
supposed to continue until next Thursday….
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| Barron Falls |
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| Camping along Tinaroo Dam |
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| Curtain Fig - Yungaburra |
Monday and Wednesday 9-11 July
2012 – Lake Placid Van Park, Cairns
What a great park – they even move your van into place
for you with their own tractor… Saves a lot of drama!! We’re always limited with caravan parks
because of Jeddy – but this one is great!!!
Pitty about the weather.
Drizzle.
I can’t wait to have a look around here – I used to live
here 33 years ago and am keen to see it again and the changes that have taken
place.
All the area around Kamerunga Road used to be canefields
and are now houses, shopping centres and highways… what a disappointment but
that’s progress isn’t it – I should have known that it wouldn’t have been the
same. I did get glimpses of the past
though – and there are some canefield left yet. (for how long is the question –
very sad!).
Roy was talking to a fellow vanner here at Lake Placid
and he said that he stayed at that camp spot we saw on the waterfront at
Tinaroo Dam. He said he stayed for a
couple of days in his van. So we are
going to find out more about that and maybe stay there down the track – time permitting
that is!!
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| Beautiful Cairns Canefields |
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| Lake Placid Van Park |
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| Jed's creature comfort |
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| Cairns Esplanade |
Thursday 12 July 2012
We checked into a free camp at Memorial Park just south
of Mareeba and will stay here for a couple of days …. Believe it or not – the weather is fine and sunny – just as they
predicted – My God!!!
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To be
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