Cape Trip 2021: Part One. Cairns to the Tip

 

Day 1, Monday June 21, 2021.

We left Cairns around 8.30am, in the school traffic. Trekked up the mountain under the Kuranda Sky Rail, which was a lovely scenic drive. The steep and windy road is offset by the spectacular view and how wide the road was. We keep winding up and up, far above sea level. Everyone's ears have coped fine, which is a relief.

We stopped at "Bob's Lookout" to peer down the mountain and see how far we had come. A great view across to Mt Carbine. Lots of graffiti on the rocks. We had a giggle at the one that said "I love Zac".

Another hour or so down the road we stopped at Lakeland 'Gateway to Cape York' for a toilet stop and to read some of the tourist information.  Also, a good photo opportunity. Levi enjoyed climbing in the tinny and pretending to catch the big fish on his line.

As we are driving, I am constantly caught by surprise by the water on the sides of the road. It mostly looks like grass but quite often turns out to be reeds and water lilies. Pretty.

On we drove to Split Rock, an Aboriginal art site near Laura. The 300m walk to the art was almost straight up! Once at the top, we could just see the road snaking through the trees below us. The boys relished the opportunity to stretch their legs. 

Back in the car, discussion began over how long we could keep driving before we needed fuel and to stop for the night. We debated pushing on to Coen but decided to stop for fuel at Hann River Road House. They come out and fill your vehicle for you! Lots of funny signs in the road house. The door says Push. And Pull. And Wrong door. It's locked. The right (correct) door has no sign on it.

After Hann, we got our first taste of corrugations. Tim's shoes vibrated across the floor. Levi complained that he was vibrating too.

We have set up at Artemis Station for the night. Highly recommend. Best camp shower I've ever had. We are the only ones here tonight. Apparently yesterday it was full of travelers. The advantage of being here on a weekday. It's a big grassy space with fire pits and picnic tables, toilets and a donkey boiler for hot showers. The boys got to help feed the animals this afternoon. They have ducks and chickens, pigs and goats. Levi gave the lady a pretty rock he found, and she gave us 6 eggs, which we fried up with our dinner. Looking forward to an early night after a few big days and late nights. Not planning on setting an alarm either. Ahhh, holidays.

Day 2, Tuesday 22 June, 2021

We packed up camp and hit the road at 8.30. We are having to travel more slowly today, due to road conditions.  Lots of corrugations and pot holes. The plan is to drive 365km today. Google maps estimates this will take 5 hours. The car GPS says 10 hours. Hopefully it will be somewhere in the middle.

We are seeing more campers southbound than northbound at the moment. A few headed the same direction as us. We are listening to an audio book (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), but only on the bitumen sections. There are convenient "bitumen 5km ahead" signs to let us know when we might get to hear the next chapter.  This is tough on the boys, as we are nearing the end of the story and it’s getting exciting. We stopped in Coen, to check straps and wash my hands after peeling 6 oranges. The box is getting low now. 

The rest of the road was not too bad, we finished our audiobook on a decent stretch of bitumen. We pulled up at Bramwell Junction around 2.30pm and had an afternoon of resting and catching up with fellow travelers. The younger boys made friends with some other children and played hide and seek in the park. Early to bed again after a dinner of lemon chicken and a chapter or two of Royal Rangers - The Missing Prince. 

Day 3, Wednesday 23rd June, 2021

We slept in this morning.  It was quite warm overnight so we had a couple of windows open. It had been overcast most of Tuesday and the cloud cover kept the temperature pretty stable around 27. The clouds persisted, along with a breeze, so it was still reasonably dark when we woke up at 7am. No dew either, which was nice. Our first dry pack up.

Set up at Eliot Falls

We hit the road at about 8.30 and took the Southern Bypass/Bamaga Road to Eliot Falls. We arrived around 11, and were set up in time for lunch. After food and a rest, boys playing on phones/tablets, Tim and I reading our books, we put on our swimmers and went to check out the falls. We started at 'The Saucepan' which is the closest to our camp-site. This was quite deep and the current was a bit fast for Levi. It was fun to hop in near the Falls and float downstream, but hard work to swim back up. We didn't stay here too long. We walked along the board walk to Eliot Falls. This was deeper again and looked to be flowing pretty quick too. There were a few other groups here, jumping off the rocks into the creek. We decided to check out Twin Falls instead of venturing down into Eliot. This turned out to be an excellent choice. Twin Falls has a sandy bottom instead of the rocks that Eliot and Saucepan have, and was about chest deep for Tim and I. This was much better for Levi, as he could manage quite nicely. The big kids climbed up the first falls, and the second ones and sat at the top. While swimming, we met an older couple who have been on the road travelling Australia for 3 years. She is a nurse and midwife, and picks up short contracts as they travel. They were very encouraging and it was great to swap some stories and dream.

The Saucepan

Swimming on the spot.

Twin Falls

We spent a couple of hours here until everyone was tired and hungry. We headed back to camp for some afternoon tea and warm clothes. A family pulled in this afternoon towing a camper from WA that I have wanted to check out as a possible upgrade for us. It has proper built-in bunk beds. They were kind enough to let us watch them set it up and gave us a tour, and we chatted about some of the places we have travelled. 

The sky has been uncooperative today, and there have been several light showers of rain. Just enough to be annoying but not enough to close all the windows. We are in bed now with all the windows open listening to the Falls, and the dripping on the roof. The kids are complaining that it's hot, but I think it's lovely. Tomorrow, we head to Fruitbat Falls and then wander northward. Not sure where we will end up. 

Day 4, Thursday 24th June, 2021

We packed up our camp at Eliot and pulled out at 9am. It would have been earlier, but I was super clever and left the car keys at the head of the bed when we folded up the camper.😒We drove the 8km back from Eliot to Fruitbat Falls and put our wet swimmers on and went to check out the Falls. The water was colder than I would have liked, but beautiful and clear. The little ones struggled a bit with the current and depth, but the big boys were in their element. After an hour or so, we fished them out and hopped back in the car. 

We drove the hour north along the PDR to the Jardine river crossing and sat in the car to have lunch while waiting in the line.

We got across the ferry right after lunch, and drove into Umagico and set up at Alau Beach camp ground. Happily, we had signal here and were able to check tide times. We discovered that low tide was 5.20pm, and the following day would be super early in the morning and after dark. So, we unhooked the trailer and hopped in the car again and drove the hour or so to the tip carpark. We had our runners on, being pre-warned about the need to scramble over the rocks. We took the track over the rocks to the sign which marks the Northernmost point of the mainland of Australia. The tip has the only 4g signal for kms, so we took the opportunity to download a new audiobook from the library, read the boys report cards and sort out some important emails. Then after the obligatory photos with the sign, we headed back across the exposed sand to the car.

Step one of our adventure complete!