Exciting times in Boddington- being fed like a queen for breakfast, lunch and dinner .
Main event for the weekend was the quilt show -and we were lucky to know the winner- Heather’s Mom -Robyn! Some great examples of quilt work too.
Heather also took me around the region to have a look past the mine and the local community- nice look around 🙂
Day 10
22.8 km
Cum 215 km
Camped: stayed at Heather’s in Boddington!! No camping!
I think I’m glad that I slept in the tent as it was warmer than outside. Not much sleep though with the coughing and nose blowing.
I hit the trail just after 06h30- it remained cold for a couple of hours.
The track was flat , except by the railway line.
I took a wrong turn, even though I checked on the nav app…but the location didn’t seem to update quick enough. So I ended up following the now disused Pinjarra Narrogin railway line. It was somewhat overgrown in places, but passable.
Then it sort of went up and down and in between very overgrown bush. Why it didn’t simply follow the forestry road, I don’t understand?
I got to the Etmilyn station, which is the end of a narrow gauge railway from Dwellingup. I was hoping to catch the train up actually…but luckily I didnt wait for it as it only passed me when I was some 1 hour to Dwellingup.
I had found a cidery on the way into Dwellingup, and even a big sign by the tracks. I did follow my nose to try and find it, but it felt that I was in someone’s back yard. So , not to get done for trespassing, I decided I would just get some cider at the pub!
It was only a couple of kilometers into town from here. I headed straight to the Blue Wren Cafe , which I have heard about from many on the trail. I ordered a cappuccino and chicken burger. When it came out, it would have been the biggest burger ever!!! Over 45min of eating I still didn’t finish most the chips and the roll.
I let Heather know that I was in town, as she was picking me up from Dwellingup, to stay in Boddington. Heather and I are friends from years ago in Whyalla!
I bought us some cakes from the cafe for everyone and headed to our meeting point, via the pub J
As there is a quilting competition in Boddington this weekend- a long weekend- Heather’s mom, dad and aunt also came over from Perth. We had a delicious dinner of lasagne, vegetables and even beef stroganoff!! Soooo good!! Yummy!
And to top it off… a bed for the next few nights and fully showered and scrubbed after 10 days on track!
Day 9
15 km
Cum 192.2 km
Camped: Chadoora
It was warm in the closed off Mt Wells shelter, luckily as the night was a cold one. I didn’t sleep much as my cold and cough deteriorated.
I left camp at 06h30 and made the longish descent through burned bush. The descent is not technically challenging, just downhill and mainly straight for most of the day.
Spotted some pretty orchids and flowers and was good to walk through some forest that had not been burned.
Walking with a cold isn’t much fun though, with my nose running badly and me just stuffing toilet paper into each nostril and breathing through my mouth.
Luckily today and tomorrow are flat sections, cause a hill would cause much discomfort for sure!!
I arrived at the hut at 11h30 and took out my mat and sleeping bag for an afternoon nap. Didn’t sleep too much but at least a little.
At about 14h00, Paul arrived, all the way from the previous hut and we had a little chat. I told him that I would put up my tent though, so that he doesn’t have to hear me cough and splurge the whole night. He appreciated this as he had just been sick too. He had mentioned that the next week will be rainy , which is not fun!
He was also nice enough to go out and try his Sat phone to see if I could get a ride out earlier.
I explained that if I wasn’t well, I would hitch or try and catch the train back into town. There is a little narrow gauge that runs on weekends.
Had dinner at 17h00 and went into the tent to keep warm as a cool night approached.
Day 8
16 km
Cum 177.2 km
Camped: Mt Wells
I’m so confused by this weather: hot day followed by cold as night, followed yet again by a hot day and then last night was pleasant !?! I can’t figure out if I should leave my spare pants or not?
The three others at camp were up early and gone by 06h30. They were going to have a 30km day, whereas I was just doing about half of that. I’m not keen on the 30s!
I left camp at 07h00. This whole section was very burned by a fire , and there is still a lot of black trees and stumps everywhere. It was a bit bleak.
Shortly after leaving camp there is a decent climb up to granite boulders. It wasn’t too bad, being the morning.
There is then a long stretch of flat before a fairly long climb up to Mt Wells, where the only fully enclosed hut on the Bibb is. The climb up, in the hotter part of the day did kick my arse! But was glad to have made it up by 11h30!
I took the opportunity of early arrival to dry things out in the sun for once!
There is also remnants of an old water tower, which you can climb up part way, so I checked it out for sunset.
The flies were a right royal pain in the butt!
When I was already in bed, and it was dark, Stacey walked in. She had come from Gringer Creek and was in a rush to get to Dwellingup to pick up her food drop from the post office. She didn’t take into account that it is closed on weekends- and this weekend is a long weekend too!
Day 7
19 km * extra for garage return
Cum 161.2 km
Camped: White Horse Hills
After a terribly cold night- confirmed feels like -1.3C- without much sleep it was time to head to the North Bannister Garage to pick up my food drop that a lovely trail angel dropped off for me on the weekend.
Before we left though, I noticed a small tick on my hand. We decided to try Tom’s tick freeze on it. One spray, but it didn’t fall off. So we decided to wait a bit. 1 hour later at the petrol station, still nothing. So we sprayed again. It wasn’t coming lose though, so I tweeted it out with my tweezers and got it all out!
Tom and Maddy came along to the station too, to grab snacks and a coffee. We each had a pie for breakfast! I also grabbed some chocolate and jelly snakes- my first this trip .
We were lucky enough to bump into Frank T at the station. He has done the track 15 times! So he gave us some tips and we chatted for 20min or so.
Speaking of track setters, there is a man who lives on the trail and has done the track 28 times now!!
It was a little after 09h00 that we were back at camp to head off through the track, as the highway was very busy. So we weren’t going to short cut along it.
Tom and Maddy were patient enough to walk with me today and we exchanged travel stories- especially South America. They moved quicker in the afternoon as they realised they were running low on water.
Today consisted of two decent climbs, which were done in the heat of the day, due to our late departure.
It was pretty heavy going, though the hills were at approx 1:10 gradient, so not too bad. Much of the walk was fairly exposed to the sun though today, and not many good logs to sit in the shade on!
The view from the second peak was billowing smoke from a prescribed burn a couple of valleys away.
I arrived at camp at 15h15.
Gillian, a 71 year old lady, whom was at camp with us yesterday, was also here. She has already done her end to end, she is just doing a section to check out the wild flowers . She said she marked out an orchid on the trail for us but none of us noticed L.
Day 6
30 km
Cum 142.2 km
Camped: Gringer Creek
Left Mt Cooke camp at 06h30 and hit the uphill trail straight up. The climb up the mountain was steady and rewarding . The view from the top was great with the continued blue skies. A few times that I lost the track and bundu bashed to find it, but didn’t waste much time.
The descent was a little tougher but not bad at all. The rest of the way to Nerang camp was pretty flat and I got there by 10h45. My shoulders were already sore from the pack. I had a slightly longer break and left at 11h30.
The second session of the day was another 16km, flat but between the shoulders, feet and chaffing in the groin I was pretty over it. Many breaks later I got there at 16h30 , exhausted but happy. Also definitely going to be losing the big toe nails and I have a blister on my little toe…man oh man!
Cam and Macca rolled into camp about an hour later and set up a lovely campfire, this after a 50km day!!! Every day!!! 21 days to complete the whole Bibb!! They had just met up with Rick who got them some pizza and met them for the short walk into the hut from the highway.
Day 5
30 km
Cum 112.3 km
Camped: Mt Cooke Campsite
Tom and Maddy were out today at a quick
06h30, followed by me 15min later. I think last night was the best sleep so
far- got a few hours. This was good as I
needed the energy!
The day was to be split in 2 parts- the
first to Monadnocks Campsite. This was
just over 12km and just a few hills to climb,
otherwise flat. I got here at 11am, and met with Tom and Maddy as they
were just about getting ready to leave.
As they left, a lovely trail volunteer came
on her regular walk to check out her section of trail and also bought in a roll
of toilet paper- how nice!
I left after lunch, at about 11h30.
Part 2 of the day included hiking up and
down 2 peaks: Mt Cuthbert and Mt Vincent.
Both their summits at around 500m and both had really good views,
especially Mt Cuthbert! The ascent and descent were both fairly steep, probably
the roughest part of the track so far- but we have been spoilt, and it wasn’t
too bad. The fact that it was entirely blue skies all day also helped with the views
for miles!
About half way down the descent of the 2nd
peak is the 100km mark!! Yeah!!! 10% of the trail done! Took a commemorative
selfie.
From here it was about 6km to get to the
hut… and a pretty long lasting 6km it seemed to be.
I have struggled with a lot of chaffing in
the groin area over the last 2 days and this last stretch just bought this
home! Apparently no amount of nappy rash cream is helping or soothing and I
must watch not to get an infection. That
would be nasty but possible with no showering for over a week! Tomorrow we see
if no underwear helps… TMI – I know!!
I got into camp at 16h15 and set up my tent
as the hut was very busy, and there were several tents up too!
Day 4
18.9 km
Cum 82.4 km
Camped: Canning Hut
The night was uneventful in terms of critters visiting, though we had some passing drizzles.
I left the hut a little after 7am and was delighted to find that most of the trail was flat to Brookton Hut, 8km away.
Met up with a school group of young kids who were there overnight , many hiking for the first time. Also ended up borrowing them my tweezers as a few had ticks on them… note to self AGAIN!
Just before I left Tom and Maddy arrived for their morning tea and I caught up with them.
On one of my breaks I got a message from Bruce, the trail angel, that he dropped off my food package in North Bannister. So that is good to know!
I think the highlight of the walk today was a huge granite rock outcrop , that was a dramatic change in scenery and lead to an interesting, water logged marsh type of an area. A few new types of wild flowers popped up . It was definitely something different.
It was around this time that Tom and Maddy caught up to me , not far from Canning.
We met up there, me knowing that I will overnight here and them still debating. At the end of the of the discussion, they decided to stay the night.
We were joined a little later by Allan, who is right at the end of his walk. He was a good egg to have around as he made us a great fire! So that’s my 3rd night in a row with a fire! How nice 😉
Day 3
20.3 km
Cum 63.5 km
Camped: Mt Dale Hut
Another night of not sleeping much. Woke up to the valley filled with mist, which was pretty.
Got up at 6am and was off by 7am, but then walked around for 15min trying to find the right way out and finally spotted the marker!! How frustrating!
The day’s hiking was a bit easier than yesterday, with less up and down but still some steady climbs!
I stopped over at Beraking Hut for brunch. I had just about finished and packed up when another hiker rocked up. We started chatting and another 20min went by. Lewis is trying the squeeze the 1,000km, or as much as possible, into 3 weeks! He has done several thru hikes before, including the Te Araroa and PCT. And with his miles he could get pretty close!
The afternoon stretch was more challenging, mainly due to the backpack, so I took several 10min breaks, with it off.
After one of these breaks I bumped into a group of 4 young guys, who had committed to hiking the whole trail within our 5 min chat…easy done! 😉
Just around the corner after having met them, I realised that I had stepped on a small snake and it was trying to squirm out form under my shoe! Luckily it was small!!
Not long after, during my first break without pack I was busy stretching and saw a tick crawling up my gaiter! I squashed it one shot! In between the midgies and tick I was outta there!
It was at 3pm that I reached the hut and met Lewis again on his way to do the afternoon shift, so to say. He walks until just before it gets dark.
Just as I was settling in, Rein, whom I met at the Mt Dale parking , and who got very lost today rocked up to camp too.
This was to join a father, his 2 sons and one of their friends.
Just on 4pm Tom and Maddy arrived and we chatted a fair bit about life after graduation, as they had just graduated. I also question them on their ultralight gear as their backpacks were less than half of mine! Granted though , they can put in 50 km days!
Had a fire in the evening and the dad brought
marshmallows- so that was a winner! What was less than I winner was the giant
rat thing that we heard in the bush and wasn’t shy in coming out! All the food
is packed up…let’s hope it doesn’t visit later as I’m in the hut tonight!!!
That is open!!
Day 2
21.3 km
Cum 43.2 km
Camped: Waalegh
The kookaburras were awake before 5am this morning…and so was I. Not that I had much rest during the night! Again!
So I packed up the pretty wet tent. Wet mainly due to internal condensation with the huge temperature variance. I estimate that it was approximately 3C at a minimum, based on forecast.
It was misty when I got out the tent and pretty chilly. I had everything packed up and was off by 06h40 .
I was at Ball Creek hut by 07h15, to find a still sleeping hiker inside. I kept walking. The black Cockatoos were flying and screeching. They have very bright red and orange tail feathers- pretty spectacular! While we are on birds, also spotted many small pretty birds, some all green, others red and black and even a blue wren!! But it just flew past very quickly and didn’t sit nearby.
After a fair bit of up and down I got to Helena Hut just after 10am. So I had my standard brunch of wrap, cheese and salami. I decided not to do breakfast on this trip as I never felt like any before when hiking in NZ. Its also no messing around in the morning then. We will see how this approach goes.
I still had about 8km until the next hut and could definitely feel the back pack…my hip joints are pretty sore , as are my shoulders. So I take 5-10min breaks every hour or so as I do this next very hilly bit. Its very up and down and I’m just thinking…man! I’m so pack and hill unfit!!! Let’s hope that changes soon!
I got to Waalegh Hut just after 3pm to find a lovely mother and daughter (Claire and Ruby) and we chat throughout the afternoon and make a small fire in the evening.
I took my tent out upon my arrival but it didn’t fully dry as there wasn’t much wind and no sun. So I decided to do the night in the open sided hut. With the food bags hung up, hopefully the critters won’t get in!
PS The toilet here is so far away!! Its a mini trek to get there!
Day 1
21.9 km
Cum 21.9km
I was so excited to have my last night in a bed, that I decided I was going to enjoy it by being awake apparently, and didn’t sleep from 1am. This is definitely not ideal!
Got up at 05h30 and had my shower and a quick breakfast. Packed the rest of my stuff and waited until 7am rolled around do that I could go to the bus stop.
The bus took about an hour to get to Kalamunda and was just part of the public transport network. The bus station is just a few hundred meters from the start of the track. In the final one hundred meters it just started bucketing down with rain… Great way to start the track… pretty drenched with cold rain!
I waited it out as I wanted a photo at the northern terminus of the track- and my start point.
It took me probably 30min to cover the first kilometer as I stopped and spoke to a few people walking their dogs. They were very friendly and wished me all the best… along with some other stories.
The track was well marked until I lost the markers (wauguls as they are called here) and meandered down a gully. Useless as my GPS was at this moment… it was showing I was 3 or 4 km away. So I followed my nose and found a trail which lead to THE trail and markers.
I met up with a day group of screechy , school trip teens, but luckily they got ahead and was quiet again.
The next group was also school kids, but they were on a 2 day trip and all had pretty heavy looking packs. Met them at Golden View Lookout. I chatted to their teachers, who offered me blister plaster ,which I declined… famous last words 😉 ! Fleximol is apparently very good… swears by it . Two of the girls asked me how long I was hiking for, and a gave them the quick spiel.
Mundaring Wier or Dam is the next stop along the route. Not sure why the trail takes us down and then up a whole load of stairs , when we could have just walked along the dam wall?? I feel the weight of my pack now for sure. I estimate it weighs between 13-15kg with 3L of water and 7 days food.
I decide that it would be best to try and stop at the Perth Hills Discovery Centre, rather than push ahead to my initial planned first camp site of Ball Creek. A bit over the continuous stop and start rain downpours !
I did take one detour though… through the Mundaring Weir pub for a cider at about 14h30J I was good to go after a pint!
It was 1km until the visitors centre from there. When I came in though , spoke to the man who owns it and he said that they had a school group here, who have exclusive rights to use it.
I explained that I obviously meant no harm and was a bit tired. He agreed that I could camp around the back and use the showers!!! Yes- they have HOT water showers!!! Yeah!! I told him I would stay out of the kids way.
So all good.
A highlight today was the variety of wild flowers out. So many colours and varieties!
I enjoyed my evening at the Deckchair Cinema. Probably one of the “must dos” in Darwin. It is an independent, open air cinema. Deckchairs and normal chairs available. There is a bar as well as catering. I wasn’t aware of this bit- looked like tasty Indian food too! Many people come for dinner, a few drinks, watch the sunset and then the movie starts at 7pm.
The movie was a Brazilian movie- subtitled- but had some pretty funny bits. It is translated to Three Summers. Most movies shown are not mainstream.
Definitely have mosquito repellent and you can even bring your own pillow. The deckchairs get a bit uncomfortable after 1 hour… but it was all good overall.
Some extra photos just out and about
I went to the Qantas Air Hangar Museum…which is actually Darwin motor enthusiasts club location. They have everything in there… just loaded with cars, bikes, trucks, engines, locomotives…its all there!
During one of my meanderings I stumbled upon a resin art gallery and spoke to the lady there, who runs workshops. I have been interested in learning how to do resin art since I saw several great examples in galleries around Hawaii. Now I had time…so asked Maureen when her next workshop is. She said, whenever you want it, I don’t need minimal numbers. So, I had a great time making my resin art on canvas. You have to work fast as the resin sets quickly in Darwin’s heat. I think I got the beach look that I was going for? Maybe I will be a beach bum and sell my resin art at markets?
I also stopped by the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory , which has art works, natural and history artefacts with a large hall of ships and canoes of these parts , many used to try and immigrate illegally to Australia.
So, Darwin has been home for the last 2 weeks . One week in the suburb of Parap in an Airbnb and another in the city centre. I have visited Darwin before- 6 years ago- as part of my Whyalla-Darwin-Whyalla road trip covering 9,000km. I revisited a few places and went to some new ones.
Weather was a steady 32-34C and humidity of about 60%. Always sunny, bar for one major downpour at midnight one night.
The botanical gardens are pretty varied , I most enjoyed the boab and baobab section, making me miss northern South Africa. To my surprise several of the trees were also in flower, which I had not seen before. Lots of pretty flowering things around and an iced coffee to cool down after!
Mindil Beach was on the agenda on Thursday to visit the night markets and traditionally watch the sunset, along with a whole load of other people. The sunset didn’t disappoint though.
Next stop was Casuarina Beach… on a Friday when I was sure it wouldn’t be too busy. It was low tide and thus the beach was wide …and long. Not very many people around. Nice!
Parap markets are on around the corner from where I’m staying, every Saturday. By the numbers of people; I can tell they are popular!
You will quickly be able o ell that i stopped blog writing here as i went into “organising my life” mode to see how I could get over to Western Australia. After much phoning and internet searches the plan is as follows: Fly Cairns to Darwin (NT). Northern Territory will accept me as long as i have not been to any hotspots -and I had not. Then I can fly to Perth (Western Australia) from a very low risk state (NT) and be allowed to enter and not have to quarantine. Plan made, ticket refunded, new ticket purchased.
We did a day of exploring around Cairns – which was good and also met up with Waldo (Lara’s brother) and his family for dinner. By fluke, the three unvaccinated young ones also managed to get our Pfizer shots as a clinic was running out of people to stab and so we got in :).
The highlight was probably Barron Falls and the great canopy walk that is there (free). We also did a short stop in Kuranda Village as well- where I really liked the metalwork as pr the photos.
000 km
Today was pretty much just focused on driving and to get us as close as we can get to Cairns to get the Hilux battery checked out the next day which is unfortunately a Saturday and shops would close quickly.
We went through Laura and stopped at Palmer River. Good facilities here -including a bar -so we did have a drink.
000 Km
I had an early start up at 04h40 after a noisy- from wind and waves- night. I decided when coming in yesterday that I would walk out today. It is 28km and its unlikely that I will make it the whole way out before the rest catch up with me. I packed up, threw a few things in the back of the ute, packed the bag, water and hung on to my tent as the wind tried to steal it while I tried to pack it away.
I left camp at 05h15 and headed off into the night with my moderate strength head lamp. It would still be dark for another hour at least.
I head up the small hill and noted that it was really pretty warm, despite the wind.
My first ‘attack ‘of the night was a tawny frogmouth that was sitting in the road and not moving until I was very close and it was scared off, but then directed itself back at me and only just avoided me when a clapped my hands loudly.
This happened a few times with other frogmouths too…until I tried to take a photo of one as it was getting lighter and it flew away quickly!
I had bats diving for me as my headlamp attracted insects…not fun!
The scariest bit of the night was when my light reflected back from four sets of eyes in the road. I stopped dead in my tracks and thought what my options are… if these were wallabies then not to worry…but what if they were wild pigs…bigger worry for sure, especially if they decide to charge. I took out my metal water bottle and knocked it with the metal lid to make a noise in the hope of scaring whatever creatures these were. After a few minutes there were fewer and fewer eyes . I set off again hoping that they wouldn’t come back !! All clear!
The walking after sunrise was much less eventful. I did about 17km in 3.5 hours before Johan picked me up. Good walk though.
It was not far to Bramwell Junction Roadhouse from here , though the corrugations are shocking! We stopped by for 2 coffees each- only place on the peninsula that uses beans- and some toasted sandwiches.
Off again for the short ride to Bramwell Station, where we are booked in for dinner – yeah!!!
We got in real early so had time to do hand washing, cleaning shoes and good early shower and I also washed my tent.
The most exciting part of the day was awaiting us: dinner and live music! It was great fun- the music was all the classics and in essence became karaoke for everyone. Dinner was very good- all beef to my delight- steaks, cottage pie, veggies and salads and potato bake as well as dessert.
92 km
After packing up camp we left at 08h30.
The road to Eliot Falls isn’t great, but neither is the Bamaga Road. It is very corrugated and we are fairly over it now! Parts of the cars keep loosening…but it’s the same with other cars…which caused us to do some side of the road shopping… 🙂 picked up a whole awning, a barely used water cooler and a single Max trax..unfortunately the other one didn’t seem to fall off around there.
We heard a new rattle, stopped and realised that our awning had lost some bolts and was coming lose, so strapped that up. We didnt want to particularly swap the picked up awning for our own!
Hitting the 28km road to Captain Billy’s was a pleasure in comparison. Very few corrugations and the landscape rapidly changed to rainforest.
There are two great lookouts on the track- one over the forest and one over the ocean and Captain Billy’s Landing itself.
The campsite is small and has no trees. Luckily there is a shelter with two tables and benches as well as a toilet.
There is another sign under the standard croc warning sign, stating that a croc had recently been spotted here. Mmmmm…Great! ?!?
106 km
As we headed done South, we will be going through some places that we have been before as there is, in essence, one way in and out.
Today our stop is Eliot Falls- so that we can soak the last few days worth of dirt off. We enjoyed our stop over a few days ago and returned.
Had a great long soak in the water and tan, then a bit of a break and another soak.
Woke up early (well, normal time for me) the next day and went out to take photos of all the falls without people. Was rewarded with our best sunrise of the trip! We also went back to Fruitbat Falls as Johan’s drone had issues with the SIM card and our footage from there was gone.
0 km
Today was just for absolute relaxation, no driving, no dirt roads, no corrugations!!
Johan went fishing in the morning. I woke up to my great sea view.
We noted that there were quiet a few turtle tracks from the night- one turtle actually laid her eggs a stone throws away from Christo’s tent!
I walked along the beach down to Jardine River Mouth. It was 2 hours return to camp. Luckily during low ride, so you can walk on the firmer sand and not be eater by crocs as the sea goes out quiet far. The river is not particularly mighty at the moment, though the mouth is very wide. During low tide you can basically walk across it…but I didn’t want to meet my fate as a crocs lunch …so didn’t bother.
After lunch we all sort of had a lie down as it was hot and even though the water was very tempting, we didn’t swim.
We were lucky to see a couple of dolphins in the bay and Johan spotted a shark too.
Dinner was a leg of lamb , cooked in the Weber with potatoes and coleslaw as a side. Living it up !!
During the night , when I got up to go and pee and did walk the beach to see if any turtles were up, but there were none.
75 km
The day started with a cooked breakfast as we were not in a hurry to go anywhere today.
We plan to free camp or camp in national parks without any facilities for the next few days, so we make sure to fill up with fuel and water. Only diesel available at Seisia at $1.80. Good price considering how far north we are.
First on the itinerary was a series of plane wrecks around the airport. They are quiet well preserved as they are aluminium. There are also hundreds of 200l fuel barrels from WWll strewn around the sites. Unfortunately there no really info boards at these wrecks, so we couldn’t get further info. Another thing we noticed is how badly these sites are marked- most with homemade signs and one with a piece of rag tied to the tree. A shame when you consider that travellers are interested in seeing these pieces of history.
After finding the three wrecks we headed to Umagico as they apparently have a great coffee shop. This is off our route but we figured it will be worth it. We didn’t see it as we drove through the little town and stopped by the supermarket to find out where it is and if it is open today. Unfortunately the lady in the supermarket said that the coffee shop had closed down and no longer operates. Sad news unfortunately.
We then had a 30min drive to Muttee Heads- our intended free camp for a couple of nights. There are only maybe 4 sites there. We stayed here while Christo checked for a nicer one down the way. He found a good spot in Turtle Bay, so we followed him there and set up camp. There is only space for a small group here and that is all. Its quiet, and pleasant and I have a view overlooking the sea from my tent.
We had a very late BBQ dinner , accompanied by champagne as Matt had seen on Facebook that it was my birthday- I hadn’t told anyone.
The roads are taking their toll on some equipment- fridge plug broke and needed soldering, the kitchen tap switch needed fixing and the car battery is not keeping charge well. All need fixes.
141 km
The day had finally arrived that we were going to get to the northern most tip of mainland Australia- Cape York!!! Our aim for the whole tripJ
What a great day to arrive here too- my birthday- yay!!!!
We got there at around 07h45, at low tide and walked around the peninsula on the beach around the mangroves. When I got to the tip there was no one else there…and we were very lucky to have it all to ourselves!!! We took photos and made our way back to the car via the rocky hill route that is the only way in and out during higher tides. The views from the top of this hill are also great- especially overlooking the bay. One can see how quickly the tide comes in too and the tumultuous currents in between the mainland and the islands nearby.
We checked the odometer when returning back to the car to see how many kilometers we did to get here…4,282km!!! One way as there is a whole return trip to be done still!! Well at least to Cairns for me, not all the way to Brisbane.
As the road to the tip is pretty bad- especially the first 5km of dirt- we decided to see everything we could today- and this was possible with our early start.
We headed to Somerset. This is a beach that also has many graves of the Jardine family and a few pearl divers. It is actually heritage listed.
The tide is too high to go around the rocky bend and check out the caves and rock art.
From here we continued on the Five Beaches 4WD loop, though the weather was turning- windy and rainy. We admired most of the views from inside the car. It’s a rough basalt coastline with intermittent golden beaches before the loop is closed through the rain forest and hits the main road.
After our little adventure we stopped by The Croc Tent- a souvenir shop. Then headed to Punsand Bay for lunch at the restaurant and bar by the Caravan Park. We were hoping for woodfired pizza, but that was only 5-7pm. Had a couple of G&Ts to celebrate, great calamari and lemon cheesecake to share with Lara. Completely stuffed hereafter!!!
Back in camp we reviewed our plans and checked where we needed to make bookings while we had mobile reception.
As there is still no Optus signal – not since Cooktown I think- I hotspot off Christo and check messages as well as try and rearrange my trip to Western Australia to commence my Bibbulmun Track hike.
Currently, and subject to swift changes, I cannot enter WA as I have been in Queensland- a medium risk state- despite not being in any hotspots or near very many humans at all for the last 4 weeks.
New plan- I should be able to enter the Northern Territory – not need to quarantine- spend time travelling for 2 weeks- then fly to Perth without needing to quarantine there, as NT is consider very low risk.
Watch this space as this plan has had many variations!!! Bloody pain!!
Never mind that fact that I will be out bush in WA for 98% of my hike, only resupplying in small towns.
90 Km
Considering we had the Weber out from the night before we decided to make pancakes for breakfast, nicely overlooking the creek.
The ‘highway’ that the guys constructed worked, well at least half of it, the other log portion wasn’t driven on at all.
The crossing went off without a hitch and the road to Nolans Brook was not too bad in comparison to the previous day on the northern portion of the OTT.
We hit Nolans Brook with four options to enter and one to exit. They varied from vertical- no go, to shallow entry but deep long water, to steep entry with slightly shorter deep water- we took the most right option. We had a whole flock of people run to the banks with chairs in hand to watch us cross. They camped here that night.
Christo went in and made it out pretty quickly. Though he said his tyres locked a bit. He asked Johan if he should prepare his recovery gear. “Not required” was the answer he received. Those words were the most regretted of the trip, probably.
Johan lined himself up on top and started driving down the steep bank when the trailer pushed him down into the water – the tyres didn’t even turn.
Without tyre traction he didn’t have enough momentum to pull they vehicle and trailer through the softer sand and so he got stuck. The car wouldn’t move forward. All the guys that were watching jumped into the water to first help and try pull the car out, then it was quickly decided that it may be more successful to push it back , reverse the car and try again to gain some momentum . This worked better and loosened the vehicle from the sand. Then it could be driven out of the depths. However the water had started to flow into the vehicle…about 10cm or so worth…so it drained quickly when the doors were opened. The sand mats were pulled out, all the electronic gear that was on the back seat and behind the passenger seat was attempted to be saved and the carpets were squeegeed using our arms.
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Once the bulk of the water was out we needed to head back on the road to get to Seisia. It took us some going around in circles and amongst the campers but we finally found our way back out on the track.
We thanked all those we saw again, who helped push us out and were dripping wet.
The rest of the road- only some 16km until Bamaga Road. Was fairly uneventful bar for the discussions of what we should have and could have done differently.
1. Deflated the tyres further
2. Had all recovery gear ready and attached to both vehicles with Christo at the ready should any issue arise. We had this preparation done at the Pascoe River crossing but not at all here.
3. Complacency was key
Bamaga Road is very wide but pretty corrugated so the speed is higher than on the OTT but not very fast. We were happy to have reached it though as this signalled the end of the OTT for us , we were not planning to do the last few kilometres and turn back around.
We were headed for the Jardine River Ferry Crossing… I would estimate it to be no wider than 70m, at a return trip cost of $100 per vehicle plus an extra $30 for the trailer.
No diesel at the river crossing- only unleaded, which is a bit strange. We filled up at Injinoo at $1.90 , drove through Bamaga all on sealed bitumen roads and into Seisia. We were concerned about several reviews we read about the safety in caravan parks near villages as many people were broken into while they slept at night. We thus decided to only stay 2 nights. Luckily we didn’t have issues but it was generally worried sleeping and waking cycles for most.
We unpacked everything out of the cars, strip chairs and carpets and seat covers and lay everything out where we could, in order for things to dry. However the weather didn’t help us with several passing showers and us having to clear things off the groundsheets just to put it back several minutes later. Same deal with the washing… what a bummer!
Matt made us some Pad Thai for dinner while we started to pack things back into the car as it was getting dark.
57 km
Most people had a good sleep with the quiet night and hearing the river.
We inflated tyres to a higher psi then headed out at 08h00. The Creek crossing went well for both vehicles until the exit. It was a sharp 90 degree bend in very soft sea sand. Christo made it when he gave it proper gas but Johan couldn’t speed up enough to take the corner with the trailer. After trying a couple of times. We put on the deflators … half the psi we pumped to 15min ago…hahaha… but Johan got out after putting gas, in a couple of attempts.
After getting out we need to pump the tyres up again…all takes time. 45min later we were done …the first obstacle of the day only!!
There was excitement when we spotted some toilets but they had no stairs and was filthy inside when Christo got up there. This was disappointing.
Our next stop was a great place to relax- Fruitbat Falls. These are short waterfalls and swimming is allowed on the upper and lower levels. The water is pleasant and we swim and wash off the ever present dust and mozzie spray!
We spent a fair bit of time here then headed to Eliot Falls. The road to get here is a bit rougher and we assume less tour groups make it out there.
These falls are a multiples series of falls and gorges that interconnect them. Lara, Johan and Christo were brave and jumped into the depths of the gorge then floated down River. I was somewhat concerned that I was going to lose my bikini top…we wouldn’t want that!!
We have lunch at Eliot falls and only leave again just after 13h00. Little did we know what would lie ahead of us for the afternoon!
The track was relentless from the time we left the falls… our top speed would have been 40kmph and that would have been for less than 3min. The road was constantly rutted, narrow, corrugated and deeply eroded. Articulation was tested constantly, as were our nerves. Each crossing of creeks and fords was technical, need to be walked and planned for well as waters were often waist deep.
Going from South to North they are Sam; Mistake; Cannibal and Cypress Creeks. Cypress Creek is a whole other level – with the crossing over the Creek being a very bush engineered, rickety log bridge… or “bridge” as it is referred to on maps…it cannot quiet be called a bridge as much as an aid. The driver cannot see the logs and where their tyres line up and must thus trust the instructor entirely and make minute movements with the steering wheel. When this section is done then there is still a steep section out that is also holey from all the tyre spinning that has occurred there.
The camping around here didn’t look great and already had a few people set up, so we decided to keep going north to Nolans crossing or Bridge Creek as it is called.
However with a very rocky road we only made it 6km in 1.5 hours and decided to camp out at a Creek approximately 5km south of Nolans. It was 16h15 by then.
Johan decided that we would need to build a road out of the Creek for the next morning and thus him and Christo set off on a bush highway construction project with axes, showers, saws and machetes! Lara and I didn’t really see the need considering all the rough and difficult crossings we had done until now…just an excuse to keep busy we reckon!
74 km
As the kitchen was packed up the night before and we were headed to the roadhouse for breakfast, packing up didn’t take long this morning. We headed to the Bramwell Roadhouse to refuel one final time before the Old Telegraph Track and have some breakfast- which ranged between pies and toasted sandwiches between us. The roadhouse actually had a coffee machine that used ground coffee and thus actually made a pretty good cup. Most other places to date had really bad instant coffee for $4.5 a cup. This makes Lara so happy she has two cups … we tease her that she has a hangover from the night before. I originally didn’t want coffee…but I did get one with the second round.
The OTT starts right here at the roadhouse and many people refuel- diesel was $2.05 per liter. We saw many cars head out while we had breakfast.
Firstly however, we had to remove the towbar from Christo’s car as it was super stuck. There was a lot of hammering and spraying of WD40 but nothing budged. Option B was to strap a tree, attach to towbar and Christo drives forward to separate towbar and vehicle. This worked ! Success! He could then fit his recovery point to the back.
We were off to start the track at 08h45 after taking a group selfie by the sign.
The road is well travelled- clearly- and winds amongst various types of vegetation- but the huge anthill are ever present. Soon enough we noticed the old steel telegraph poles, but nearly all were bent , possible to recover porcelain as souvenirs by early tourists…but we don’t really know.
The first obstacle to cross is Palm Cove. There are 3 entry points- of varying steepness and depths- vertical 3m drop , 2m drop or ever so slightly more of a decline. Christo took the second option while we took the third. All the entry points lead into the river bed. The last option has the deepest water but the steadies decline for the trailer. Once in the creek all vehicles were needing to make their way down stream to the exit. There were a lot of people in the queue parked up as the next obstacle is the exit and needs reversing and realigning to get out. We have a young group of united nations ahead of us and they all park up their vehicles after exiting to record Johan on his way out with the trailer- he is now the entertainment :). It takes a few takes to back the trailer up for realignment but Johan is ready. I stayed in the car to see how this feels on the inside so to speak. I held on for dear life and am sure had my eyes closed for part of the trip… but the trailer didn’t tip and we made it out after a lot of bumping around…much to the delight of the United Nations youngsters and all else watching.
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We carried on to our next challenge –
Ducie Creek, South and North Alice Creek Creeks and Dulhunty River were all fairly non eventful.
Bertie Creek is shallow, fairly fast flowing with a firm rock base which is badly potholed. Lara drove us through it while Johan took some drone footage. We had lunch along this creek- where I got sprayed by mandarin splatter; when Lara completely missed the bushes ahead; and her rotten mandarin bounced on the back windscreen and splattered all over me!!! Great aim Lara – NOT!!!
Next was the most infamous of all Creek crossings – GUNSHOT CREEK!! For those not familiar with this Creek crossing, it is over 4m high , vertical cliff that you drive over, drop into the mud bath at the bottom and most often, need to be winched out of. This is the perfect way to ruin your car if I do say so myself !!!
There are multiple depths of gunshot Creeks. We took the chicken run though…not that it was easy by any means. The water is deep and there is a sharp turn and reverse to make the exit ramp which is rutted and steep- but Johan gets out.
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We met up with Jack and Henry who got there early and pitched their chairs to watch…but there were no takers of the actual Gunshot Creek while they were there.
We are here pretty late in the afternoon but decide to forge on to Cockatoo Creek and camp there. It still takes us a while to get to our camp. Luckily we found a nice spot and had it to ourselves for the night. Once we set up camp we headed off to the Creek to sort out a path for driving the next day and to wash off the dust. The water was a bit chilly , but good to get a little cleaner.
We watched a Sahara do the crossing and thought we would take a similar line the next morning.
We met up with Jack and Henry again as they were looking for their mates- the rest of the United Nations . We tried to get hold of them on the radio but no luck.
We spent the evening by the fire after eating prawn and chicken curry.
173 km
We set off for the track fairly early and stopped by the water tank to max fill but it took forever! We hit the track at approximately 08h45. The track is narrow and follows the higher hills overlooking heathland, its like beach sand and is corrugated.
We did the track from west to east.
Eroded gullies and angle driving with very careful maneuvering of ute and trailer were the order of the morning.
It took us over an hour to get the 11km off the so called main road and to the Pascoe River. The plan was that if we decided that the Pascoe was too difficult, that we would turn around and take Portland Road South and the back North. That was a crap plan as there was absolutely no space to turn around. It was one hell of a jagged, steep, slippery clay slope down and a boulder ridden , steep section out. Ooops!!!! We were going through whether we wanted to or not!
There were four cars in front of us that were preparing for the crossing. The drivers had walked the river, waist deep, checked where the boulders sat in the river and reeled out their winches in prep for recovery.
It was daunting just watching them! The photos don’t do the adrenalin and stress levels any justice !!
The cars struggled through but all made it, the out track is also hairy with all the large boulders.
Christo was first of us in line. Johan guided him by radio. He was told to go slow and in 1st gear low range. This is what he did…but it was too slow and water came into the car.
Johan took the Hilux, trailer and Matt through. He got everything through at a faster pace than Christo and didn’t get any water in trailer or ute. He paused at the base of the exit , out of the deep water and picked the line out. It went pretty well and the steady speed got the ute and trailer out on the first go. Impressive work!
There were cars waiting to do the crossing from the other side. All of us took about 1 hour of waiting for others, watching them and doing the crossing ourselves.
The track had many more kilometers of slow going , very corrugated and washed out ruts.
The next mini adventure was a couple of vertical descents. They are carved into white clay and the clear water creek running through it, makes the water appear a light turquoise blue hue. The 2m or so drop is not one we particularly wanted to go through, so we opted for the chicken run- should be a simpler bypass. There was another obstacle at the end of the chicken run- a large diameter cement pipe that had its top soil and rock covering eroded.
Getting the ute and trailer to this point was easy, but the turn could have been taken a little wider. Ultimately what happened was the combination of trees, the sharp turn and the eroded pipe caused the trailer to become stuck on the tree and multiple recovery efforts began. First a log under the tyre of the trailer, but the trailer only moved a bit up it before sliding off and hitting the side on the tree as well as slipping a bit more off the trail. Next was to use the hilift jack to lift the trailer up and place large rocks in between the tyre and rut. When we started to do this the car handbrake no longer held everything and slowly the vehicles started to move back. So I jumped in to keep the foot brake on. This held things steady. With a few rocks in place Johan steered the vehicle far forward into the bush, missing a tree by millimetres but the trailer could be pulled out, just with a scratch.
We hit the Wenlock River mid afternoon. This is the second and last big obstacle on the track, not to say that the rest of it is easy. Hahahaha
Going down into and through the river was a normal descent, but coming out was steep and clayey. Especially the last 2 vertical meters. Johan engaged his lockers and went for it. All he saw was sky for a few seconds while putting foot to make it across the last couple of meters. The trailer moved side to side quickly but didn’t tip over…phew!!!… and he was over the top!!
I must mention that Christo remained in front to scout out the trail, pick the best route and then did the obstacles first so that he could winch Johan out when or if required.
He could through them all first time too … so the little Landcruiser can get it done too…hahahahaha!
The latter 12km or so of the track were a bit wetter and there were some mud holes to go through, but not bad!
All up the track took us 6 hours and we were so happy to hit a bit of bitumen again as we exited!!!
Well, the bitumen didn’t last too long…it never does up here… and we hit the red corrugated 60km or so worth of road to Brawell Station Tourist Park where we planned to spend the night. This is a working cattle farm that has a good side hustle as a campground. Warm showers and flushing toilets awaited…and those two things are always very welcome after a few days of bush camping! There was also a large bar area where dinner was served, but was unfortunately booked out. We set up tent, defrosted some boerwors, then headed to the bar for a few drinks, well actually just Lara and I had a few…the others just one. I headed off to shower. Live music started at 7pm and continued to 9pm, creating a great atmosphere with classics that many sung along to.
The campground is large with many people stopping over both before and after their adventures to The Tip- or Cape York as it is officially known.
14 km
Today we chilled at Chilli Beach… though the guys woke up a little early and went fishing off the beach.
I was there for sunrise… not too beautiful but on the walk back stopped by the guys. I wasn’t there for 5min when Johan pulled in his first Trevally. Then Matt held onto Christo’s rod while he was having rusks and coffee for breakfast and got a bite and reeled in another Travelly! She was very excited and kept saying… I caught a fish and Christo didn’t 🙂 With his manhood no longer intact, Christo tried for a while longer and didn’t get any more bites, while Johan reeled in a 3rd and final Trevally. These were filleted at camp and we had lemon, garlic, parsley butter sauce on our grilled fish before we even saw 11am.
It was low tide , so we grabbed the vehicles and drive down the beach to Chilli Creek. The people we bought fish from said that it’s good Barramundi fishing there. On our drive there we noticed how much plastic was strewn along the beach. So Lara and I decided that we would walk down the beach and collect plastic rubbish, while getting a tan.
The others wet their rods but didn’t catch anything. We did see our Atherton friends that I had asked the previous day if they did the Frenchmans Track recently. I did walk through the whole campground asking the people there, but no luck. The lady caught a small Barracuda while we were there. Must say, while it may have been small, it had some nasty teeth on it!
Upon returning to camp we drove to the dump to get rid of our rubbish, Christo got 3 coconuts down from the palm trees and Matt said she would make a coconut dessert. It took a great deal of effort to machete our way into them. Matt saved the coconut water for refrigeration and was hoping to scoop out the coconut- it should be soft. However it seems these Aussie coconuts are not like the Thai ones and are hard as hell. Matt proceeded to slow cook the coconut, seemed to use hours worth of gas and it still didn’t soften. We dumped it in the bush and not even the bush turkeys ate it… and they eat everything!!! Hahahahaha.
After all this excitement…or not…the guys started to get their cars ready for the Frenchmans Track, more specifically, the Pascoe River crossing. It was reportedly 1.1m deep.
62 km
Done with our holding pattern we were on our way to Chilli Beach. Luckily the night was not as wet and windy as the last one…which is a relief. As we are on the way early and know Chilli isn’t far we decide to head into Portlands Roads first. It is a very, very small, pleasant village. It has a little café and we look forward to some coffee and food or something sweet. The view is nice from the elevated location. We order some ice coffee…. Probably the most watery and least tasteful coffee that we have ever had!!! Despite it not being 11am yet we also order some fish and chips and fishermen’s platters to share. That food was good.
There were two large spiders spotted by us… neither of which had 8 legs…both were missing one???
After a couple of hours here we headed to the beach, got to our camping spot and set up.
After my tent was up and the kitchen done, I headed off for a long walk on the beach, keeping away from the water’s edge as there are crocs here, as there are all over Cape York Peninsula.
After a dinner of leftover bolognaise pasta, Johan and I went to the beach to watch the swarms of swallows move from the mainland onto Restoration Island.
76 km
Today was in essence a day off. Just went to Lockhart River to refuel, quick grocery shop and get signal to make some further bookings. No Internet signal to be found, but phone signal worked OK.
We were hoping to see the Art Centre, but it was Saturday and was closed. We called the number provided to see if we can get it opened – as per info we had- but got an answer bank and no call back.
We stopped by Quintel Beach. It has some impressive granite boulders in the sea. However bad rain chased us away. The foreshore was also very littered , actually in general the settlement is pretty dirty.
In getting back to camp was stopped by a lookout to call Christo’s friend to make a booking for us on normal internet in Brisbane as we couldn’t get through to Qld Parks.
The rest of the day was relaxing, playing Bananagrams, eating and right at the end of the afternoon Lara started to teach me to knit. Progress is slow …and there are some challenges …hahahaha… but its coming along !