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Kalpower to Cooktown
This part of the trip is always a long day but a great drive. It begins with a crossing if the Normanby River where I am amazed to see people standing knee deep in the water despite crocodile warning signs.
One feature of this road is a very heavy duty log bridge. A less likable feature is the bulldust created by the
Cook Shire Council’s efforts to improve the road. I wish they would leave it ealone.
We lunched at Wakooka before tackling the more interesting parts of the track which included a difficult climb out of
Sandy creek. We had to deflate tytes to climb out. Due to the repaired tie rod, we towed the Mazda up this bank.
Continuing over a range of different track surfaces we finally made it to good gravel road and to the Lions Den Hotel
Coen to Kalpower
This morning we towed Andrew’s Nissan in to Coen, and then returned for Wendy’s cruiser. Tests showed Wendy’s starter motor had failed. Thanks to Toyota’s ridiculous positioning of the starter, Wendy’s car had to be trucked south.
The rest of us headed south under our own steam, stopping at Musgrave for lunch.
From Musgrave we headed to Lakefield National Park, pausing at the billabong at Breeza outstation. Our challenge to raise funds for RFDS was to guess the number of mango trees at Breeza.
Kalpower crossing was our campsite for the night.
Moreton Telegraph Station to Coen
Today should have been an easy run but two of the cars had starter motor problems and proved difficult to start.
We paused at the Archer River for lunch and took some time to get both cars going. To add to our problems, the older Nissan was running rougher and blowing smoke.
Not too far down the road the Nissan threw a rod destroying the engine. We quickly set about towing it in to our planned camp site at Coen.
The camp on the river us a beautiful spot but we filled it to capacity.
Brendan from 4WD Action thought he had the camp to himself but graciously accepted our presence.
Cockatoo Creek to Moreton via Captain Billy Landing
This morning we left our lovely camp and continued southwards on the telegraph track to the Gunshot creek bypass. We met lots of traffic immediately after crossing Cockatoo creek.
The bypass track winds through some beautiful heathlands, quite a change of scenery compared to Cockatoo creek.
We made our way to the turnoff to Capt. Billy landing where we met a lunatic safari bus driver- where they get their licenses, I have no idea.
Along the track there is a spectacular lookout on top of the range, overlooking the heathlands, forest and brilliant white sand dunes. We stopped their for morning tea and enjoyed the view despite the overcast conditions.
We made it to Capt. Billy for lunch, and found the windblown campsite unoccupied.
We did meet some camper vans on the way out, so they would have had a pretty windy camp.
We made camp on the lovely green lawns at Moreton Telegraph station. The rustic shower facilities despite their appearance were enjoyed by all.
Tip to Cockatoo Creek
This morning we began our trip southwards from the top of Cape York. Our first stop along the way was at an old World war 2 plane wreck. Our next stop was at another WWII wreck of a DC3.
From the wreck site we travelled a rough track back to the Bamaga road and them onwards to the Jardine Ferry. Once across the river, we stopped and boiled the Billy for morning tea.
Due to the wind and our schedule we elected not to camp at the exposed site at Capt Billy landing. Instead we continued down the road to the southern section of the telegraph track and on to Cockatoo creek.
Cockatoo Creek camp now has toilets and a shelter. Despite the crocodile warning signs, the rope swing over the shallow waterhole is still popular.
Since we were in camp early, we cooked up the two painted vests we got in Bamaga.
Loyalty Beach
This morning the Disco started and drove on to the ferry no problems. We asked Ted and Juanita to drive in front of us all the way to Bamaga just in case they had further problems. We had not gone more than five kilometers when they stopped quickly saying they heard a loud woosh of air. We quickly determined that an intercooler hose had blown off, and soon had them underway again.
The next few days were spent exploring the cape, Thursday Island, and other places. Some people went fishing, and we all traveled as a group to the tip for a photo and celebratory drink.
We arrived at Loyalty beach to an wonderful ovation from all of the rest of the crew who were obviously pleased to see the Disco going again.
Sam Creek to the Jardine
Nolan’s Brook turned out to be the biggest challenge of the trip, as it usually is. This year due to increased traffic it was more difficult than ever.
Ted’s Disco decided to misbehave, with all sorts of electrical issues which we could see was going to take us some so we sent the rest of the group on to the Jardine with just enough time to catch the last ferry. We did as much as we could to solve the electrical issues with the Disco, then towed it to the Jardine camp ground where it decided finally to operate properly.
We camped at the Jardine with Ted and Juanita while the rest of the crew camped at Loyalty Beach.
Dalhunty River to Sam Creek
We enjoyed our time at the Dalhunty immensely. Yesterday Ted welded the tie rod adjuster for Craig’s Mazda at Bramwell Junction, so Craig had continued with us on the OTL witout any delay. We arranged via VKS737 to have a new tie rod adjuster ordered by Cape York Spares and Repairs with the hope that it would be at Bamaga when we arrived. I checked in via HF radio this morning to see how things were going, but there was no news.
We progressed along the OTL without incident, but the excitement was growing as we approached the notorious Gunshot Creek.
On arrival at Gunshot, we found the western entry to be the best choice, but once again the idiot brigade had been there with their logs. Once again with just a few shovels, we improved the entry point sufficiently to allow our vehicles access without risk of damage. A couple still required a small tow through the boggiest section, but we all managed to get through quite safely.
Sam creek proved to be our next challenge when Chris’ Disco II, sans centre diff lock got the front diff stuck on a rock in Sam Creek. Sam Creek is usually not a problem but the Landrover engineers who decided to leave the diff lock selector off the Disco II clearly had never been to Cape York.
After extracting the Disco we camped at Sam Creek.
If I see another 4WDer put a log in mud I’ll hit him with the Log
We got away from the camp , crossed the Picturesque Archer River and soon we were travelling at a good pace on the PDR. We stopped for morning tea at Moreton Telegraph Station under the mango trees on the banks of the Wenlock River. We had been scheduled to stop the previous night at Moreton but were behind schedule. By lunch time we were at Bramwell Junction, ready to tackle the Overland Telegraph Line.
The first challenge on the OTL is Palm Creek, a rough and steep, descent into mud then water. As usual the idiot brigade had cut sections of logs and dropped them into the mud holes to provide high spots for the wheels thus improving clearance. After more than 30 years of off-road driving, I can tell you that such foolishness creates more hazards than it avoids and destroys vehicles. In fact, the next idiot I see putting logs in a mud hole, I’ll belt him over the head with the log- that’s a promise.
We removed every log we could see and in just a few minutes with six people manning shovels, we made the track passable yet still challenging for our group. So please people use crowbars and shovels to move earth, don’ t use logs. In order to drive home the point further, our second car “found” a log on the ascent and broke a tie-rod adjuster, thus rendering the steering useless. So please no more logs in mud holes.
The next creek crossing of significance was Ducie Ck which was a meter deep. We all managed to cross it without any incidents and after a few hours of great 4wding we found ourselves at our camp on the Dalhunty river.
The Dalhunty has esturine crocodiles, but safe swimming can be enjoyed above the falls I’m the shallows.
A Slight Change of Plans
We were running behind schedule due to stopping to assist at a fatal road accident, and due to slower than expected progress on the Laura Coach road. In order to attempt to be on time at our scheduled stop, we elected to change the itinerary, skipping Lakefield NP on the way North, instead doing it on the way south.
That meant today would be a long but easy run up to Archer River , where we had a beautiful campsite.
The morning was spent viewing spectacular aboriginal rock art.
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