Cooloola National Park

We had a long weekend on the Gold Coast because of the Gold Coast Show so we decided to head up to the Cooloola National Park so that Joe and Evelin could try out their new car (a Suzuki Grand Vitara). The weather was very warm and the beach and campsites pretty crowded but we had a very pleasant weekend. For some pictures see my picassa web album. My favorite photo is of a sunrise on the Sunday morning which was very spectacular.

Glasshouse Mountains Forestry Pajero Forum Trip

On Sunday a group of us met up at the Glasshouse Mts Lookout for a bit of a drive around the forestry tracks.

There was 5 cars at the start Mark (Snapcatcher) in a LWB Paj, Scott (Pajenaro) also in a LWB Paj, Ian (Quadcam) and I (jcd) in SWB Pajs and Simon in a Patrol.

It didn't take long for Scott to get stuck in some fairly innocuous looking mud, it turns out both Mark and Simon had been stuck in the same place on previous outings.

It was quite pleasant driving through the tracks although there seemed to be quite a few trail bikes around.

We got to Tower Hill and had a bit of lunch and watched a few lunatics trying to destroy their Landcruiser by going way too fast up the hill.

Unfortunately, Simon's Patrol had suffered some radiator damage so he wasn't able to continue and had to limp back to the Lookout where his car had a ride to the service station on the back of a tow truck.
We continued having a play on some of the easier tracks around Tower Hill with the SWB's seeming to handle things the best, which they probably should have as they were the only ones with traction control.

Here's a short movie of my Paj climbing probably the hardest hill we tried for the day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5qv2RIrPk4
Then it was off for another pleasant drive through the forest.

Before heading back to the lookout for a quick chat before heading home.



Once again thanks very much to Mark for leading us around the tracks and not getting us lost. Larger versions of these photos are on my picassa web page :- http://picasaweb.google.com/jc.dyason/GlasshouseMtsAug2009#

Bye Jeff.

Animation showing the Cape York Trip

I've just uploaded a movie which shows our Cape York Roadtrip to YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPScTKtce44

Bye Jeff.

Cape York 2009 Trip Report - Part 5

Day 20 - 29/07/09

We left Bathurst Heads about 8 am and headed back to civilisation. We stopped at Kalpowar Crossing for morning tea and watched another lot trail bikers having fun riding through the water at the crossing. They were part of an organised tour as all their bikes were the same, including the colour and we ran into them later in the day at the Lions Den where they also stayed the night.

We drove onto Lakelands where we had some lunch and enjoyed the feeling of driving on bitumen for awhile. Then it was onto the Lions Den Hotel where we set camp for the night, although not in the great spot we had camped previously, some bloody tourists had taken it.

After a quick camp set up, it was off for a very relaxing swim in the creek to get rid of the dust of the last couple of days. It was then up to the Pub for a few drinks, followed by dinner. Richard and Ross shared a Pizza (the Special) with all the extras while I went for the Chicken Parma. I had an early night in bed but Richard and Ross got a second wind and continued on for an hour or two.

Day 21 – 30/07/07

We left the Lions Den Hotel just after 8 am and a scenic but uneventful drive back down the Bloomfield track. We had morning tea at Cape Tribulation and then caught the ferry back across the Daintree river

and went for a drive up to Daintree Village. This was a lovely place and we had some lunch, a nice Crocodile burger – I figure eat them before they eat me.

We drove onto Mareeba and stopped for coffee at Coffee World – nothing particularly special, even the coffee wasn't that wonderful. Then it was onto Milla Milla Falls where we took a few photos of a very attractive waterfall.

It was unfortunately a bit cool for a swim. We then drove onto Cowley Beach (just south of Innisfail) where we set up camp for the evening. After dinner we were hoping to catch some of the cricket on the TV but it was the third ashes test so it was all rained out.

Day 22 – 31/07/09

I left Cowley Beach and Richard and Ross at 7 am the next morning to put in a big day of driving on the way home. I fuelled up at Townsville and then had a bit of lunch at Mackay. The roads were pretty busy until after Sarina (apparently there was a rodeo in town) and then it was a nice easy drive to Yaamba (just north of Rockhampton) where I camped the evening at the road side picnic spot with a dozen or so caravans and motorhomes. It was pretty noisy for awhile as the resident Rosellas in the trees were having a screech, when they quieted down the road noise became more noticeable. Even that quieted down after awhile and was way better than risking the square dancers of Rocky on a Friday evening. It got bloody cold overnight with the thermometer on the Paj saying it was 6 deg in the morning.

Day 23 – 01/08/09

I left Yaamba before 7 am and refuelled in Rockhampton and then had some Brekky. I stopped in at Childers for a coffee and a walk around. Drivining was easy until around Mayborough when the traffic picked up (mainly going North) and I got stuck behind some slow stuff. Just south of Tiaro I saw Chopper's P7 Patrol, so I gave him a quick call on the radio and managed to get him. He had noticed the very, very dirty Pajero heading south and after a few minutes chat on the radio we continued in the opposite direction.

I managed to pass the slow stuff after awhile and then had the best run through the Gympie to Cooroy stretch and then it was two lanes each way and highway cruising. I dropped into Mum and Dad's place at Caloundra and had the best hot shower I could remember for a few weeks. Then it was a nice comfy bed for the night.

Day 24 – 02/08/09

I slept in and had a very leisurely morning before heading off to the Gold Coast and home, just after lunch. The trip took just over 2 hours and I fuelled up just around the corner from home. I unloaded the very dirty car

and put everything into the garage. After I finished unloading I needed a shower as I had picked up quite a bit of dust and dirt from the car and the camping gear. Then it was a very good sleep in my own bed for the first time in 3 weeks.

The End.

Cape York 2009 Trip Report - Part 4

Day 16 – 25/07/09

Left CBL about 8 am and the track out to the main road didn't seem nearly as bad as it was the previous afternoon when we came in. Stopped at Bramwell Junction for morning tea. We left Bramwell Junction and turned off the main road after about 65 kms onto Frenchmans Track to get to Chilli Beach. The was pretty similar to the OTT with a couple of creek crossings but no real worries until we got to the Pascoe River. Just before the river we caught up to a group of three cars who were just out for a look and not going across the river, this slowed us down enough that a tag along tour of 8 vehicles coming the other way managed to get to the crossing before us.

This appeared to be their first major creek crossing as they had human sacrifices to the crocodile gods marking the fairly evident crossing route. Their lead ute crossed and then found he had a busted rear shocky. We had to park behind the 3 other cars so that the tour group could pass us. The actual crossing was pretty easy and not all that deep but the exit (our entrance) onto the west side of the river was pretty steep, rutted and eaten out. They ended up getting all their cars across but in the process had blocked us in and then they started to fix the lead ute while we were still blocked in. After asking for them to allow us to pass they rearranged their parking arrangement and we were able to slip through. Because of the parking hassles we had got out of our normal creek crossing order of Richard followed by me in the Pajero and Brett following and ended up with Brett followed by Richard and the Pajero coming along at the tail. Brett and Richard navigated the rough entrance to the creek pretty well and then I followed very slowly, we had a bit of an audience at this time. I think at this stage I put a dent in the bottom of my auxiliary tank while I has trying to manoeuvre around the tag along cars but I made it down to the river with no real problems with some expert guidance from Ross and then quickly put the water bra on to to be sure and headed off across the river with Ross standing on the back bumper and holding onto the roof rack. We stopped a bit further on for a quick bite of lunch. Somewhere before the river crossing the fuel economy readout on the Pajero showed I had used a fair bit of fuel (there was some sandy patches although I didn't think it was that tough at the time) , so I tested that the pump was working for the auxiliary tank and all was fine.

Once over the Pascoe River it wasn't far to the main road into Chilli Beach and we found it was pretty easy going. At chilli Beach the wind from CBL seemed to have followed us, but after looking around the camp site we were able to find a spot where we were all pretty well protected from the wind and set up camp. Brett went for the Bull bar supported cover for his swag and is going to look into getting something made up properly instead of just jamming the shade cloth under the bonnet as its closed.

We then went walking on Chilli Beach and took a few photos and chilled out for the rest of the day.

Day 17 – 26/07/09

We left Chilli Beach just after 8 am and headed back to the Development Road and continued onto the Archer River Roadhouse for morning tea. Then onto Coen where we fuelled up and got a few supplies before headin out to the Musgrave River Roadhouse where we turned off for Lakefield National Park. The road in was pretty good and we stopped along the way to have a look at the termite mounds on the Nifold Plain.

We also stopped at Red Lilly and White Lilly Lagoons but they were pretty dry and there was only a few white lillies on display.

We continued onto Kalpowar Crossing where we were lucky to get one of the last camp sites. After setting up camp we had a bit of a walk around the crossing itself

and a bit later on saw our first crocodile of the trip, a freshwater crocodile sunning himself on the rocks.

That meant the only option for getting clean was the cold showers in the amenities block and they were pretty cold and cramped and dark (I needed my head lamp just to have a shower).

Day 18 – 27/07/09

We left Kalpowar about 8:30 am and asked someone at the Ranger hut about Cape Melville and he said it was all OK. On the way out we saw a Green Python at the side of the road

and stopped for photos, Ross became a snake charmer and held the Python for some closer photos. We drove across Kalpowar crossing and headed towards Cape Melville National Park, however when we got to the turn off the road was closed. Very Pissed Off. So we continued onto to Bathurst Head to find somewhere to camp for the night. The road in wasn't too hard but there were quite a few detours into the bush to doge some very muddy looking spots.

When we got to the Camping area we set up in the shade of a tree.

There was a nearby camp of fishermen who had their generator running, but we figured they would be polite and turn it off in the evening – No such luck. A group of trail bikers turned up just before dark and proceeded to noisily set-up camp, however after a few drinks and dinner they seemed to fade out only to leave that bloody generator.

We had a bit of a fish but unfortunately they weren't biting. This was Brett's last night as he had to start heading back to Brisbane and work the following morning.

We started a camp fire with the last of the wood I had bought from home and chatted for awhile hoping the generator would go off, before we went to bed.

Day 19 – 28/07/09

Brett headed off first thing in the morning but we were going to stay on for another day and explore the area. I went for a very long walk (9.5 kms return) around the headlands and beaches to Bathurst Head proper and there was some beautiful scenery on the way.

The walk was great although very tiring, along the way I saw some dolphins grazing on a school of bait fish, there was also something pretty fast feeding on the bait fish as occasionally there would be an explosion of bait fish into the air as something hit them going pretty quickly.

I think I walked around to what the GPS termed as officially Bathurst Head, there were another few groups of people, fishermen by the look of it, camped here.

The walk back to camp seemed to take about twice as long as the walk out, so I had a late lunch and a bit of a rest for the arvo. Apparently, when the bikers packed up they had trouble folding up a tent that was the same as mine, so they came over to get some hints from me but I had gone for a walk, so Richard gave them a hand.

Richard and Ross tried the fishing caper again but didn't catch anything. While going for a walk looking for a place to relocate my tent away from the noisy generator one of our neighbours offered us some rock oysters they had collected earlier in the day. As I'm not an oyster person, Richard and Ross benefited greatly and enjoyed a very tasty entree.

I moved my tent further back, up the track hoping to get away from the generator, however one of the other sets of campers had another generator going, thankfully they turned it off at midnight.

Eastern most point of mainland Australia.

As I had recently visited the Northernmost point of the Australian mainland on my trip to the Cape, the least I could do is drive down to Byron Bay, which is only about 40 minutes from my place and visit the Easternmost point of the Australian mainland.

While I was there I took a few obligatory photos of the Byron Bay Lighthouse :-

There were some Whales not too far away from the lighthouse and they put on a short show, although I didn't manage to catch them leaping about in my photos.

Also, there were some thrill seeking Hang Gliders nearby who were having great fun soaring about in the wind.

Couple of movies from the Cape Trip

I have just added a few movies from the trip, nothing even approaching amateur level. I had to learn how to use the new version iMovie, and it wasn't pretty as I feel more at home with individual files rather than projects and events. The first is just a sweep of Fruit Bat Falls

The second is Richard crossing Cockatoo Creek (I think - all the creek crossings seemed to blend into each other).

And the third is Brett crossing the same creek and barely even getting his side steps wet.

Bye Jeff.

Cape York 2009 Trip Report - Part 3

Day 11 – 20/07/09

We had a day off travelling and spent a very restful day walking, swimming and taking photos around Twin Falls and Elliot Falls. This is a beautiful spot and certainly was great to recover from several days of driving. I saw two snakes here one in the water upstream from The Saucepan (this was a great swimming spot)

and one having lunch just beside the track to Twin Falls.

As it got dark I had a play with longer exposures for the photos of the waterfalls so they look a bit more arty.

We had a restful evening and sat around the campfire for awhile, using some of the 2 bags of firewood I had bought from home. It started to rain later on so we all had an early night in bed.

Day 12 – 21/07/09

We packed up and left the camp by 8am and headed north on the OTT. The first three creeks were a bit harder than those on the southern section of the OTT, mainly the entrances and exits.

The log bridge at Cypress creek was a bit scary when you walk across it as it doesn't seem to be enough to take a car, but with a bit of direction we all crossed without any problems.

The next two creeks, including Bridge creek were a bit deeper so we used the water bras on the cars, just to be safe and there were no problems.

Then we were back on the Bamaga Road and crossed the Jardine river on the Ferry ($88). We saw a few of the Endeavour Rally cars go past along the way and they kicked up quite a bit of dust. We drove into Bamaga via some of the back roads and came out near the airport and then had some lunch. We ended up setting up camp at Loyalty beach which turned out to be a very nice place with a good view up and down the coast.

It was pretty humid and we all worked up a decent sweat while setting up camp, but we were able to cool down with a nice shower afterwards.

Drinks at the beach-side bar followed and we watched the sun set over the sea.

Day 13 – 22/07/09

I had a lazy morning and did some washing, so it would dry while we were out driving. We left Loyalty Beach camp about 9 and took some back roads heading north and got to the tip of Cape York by about 10 am. On the way we saw a Hyundai Excel that was stopped and examining the last creek crossing, which wasn't all that deep but it was very uneven and would have provided some clearance problems for the Excel. It ended up making it through as we saw it later in the car park.

We took the walk through the boardwalk, leftover from a failed resort, being careful not to step on the rotten sections. Then it was up and over the hills to the tip for the obligatory photos before coming back around the mangroves to the west of the Cape.

Back at the car park we had a bit of morning tea before heading off for a drive to the Somerset ruins.

After this we went for a drive to Fly Point through some fairly overgrown tracks (I'm sure all the little marks will polish out. I hope). If ever there was a place suited to alternative energy generation then this would be it.

Heaps of nice bright sunshine, lots of bloody wind and the currents running between the mainland and Albany Island were shifting a massive amount of water. As always there was a pile of plastic/rubber thongs in this remote spot that must have been washed up by the tide.

We then went beach and headland hopping on a nice 4wd drive to Nanthau Beach, once again very windy and the track was a bit rough in places but the Pajero handled it all pretty well, but slower than the Cruisers. Then it was back to the main road and a nice 4wd track out to Punsand Bay for a look at the camping facilities there. They had a pool and it looked pretty nice, but someone we ran into later said the rest of the facilities weren't all that crash hot. We had a late lunch here, probably cleaning them out of Mrs. Mac's Pies. On the way back to Loyalty Beach we stopped in at the Croc Tent and there was some truly tacky souvenirs available, but I think we all resisted the urge to purchase anything. Back at camp I retrieved my well and truly dry washing before we headed out for a drive to Bamaga airport to check out some old plane wrecks.

The wrecks closest to Bamaga ended up being the one in the best condition and I think there were some shown on Richard's map that had disappeared altogether. We stopped in at Seisa for supplies on the way back, as their supermarket was much better stocked than the Bamaga one. We all headed off to the Lodge for afternoon drinks and on the way found a Tawny Frog mouthed Owl in a tree.

Richard, Ross and Brett stayed on at the Lodge for a meal of Baked Mackerel, while I went back to camp for a nice home cooked steak. Once again the sunset over the sea was magnificent.

Day 14 – 23/07/09

We had booked a Fishing trip and visit to a Pearl farm for the day so we met the boat at the Seisa wharf at 8:30 am.

It looked like starting well as the tour guide (Glen ?) expertly caught some livies using a cast net from the highest point of the wharf. As the tide was getting close to its lowest point we had to go the long way around the islands. We had a few lures out the back of the boat and one supposedly had a hit on the way but no fish. We got into the lee of one of the islands and drifted through some deep spots fishing with livies but guess what - no fish. As it was getting close to lunch time we headed onto Roku Island where there was a small family owned and run Pearl farm and we had a quick tour of the island, found some photogenic spots and had some lunch.

Then it was off to try our luck at fishing again as the wind was getting stronger and once again no fish. With the wind getting up we got a little wet on the way home but apart from not catching any fish it had been a pretty good day out on the water. That afternoon we spent resting and getting ready to hit the road again tomorrow.

Day 15 - 24/07/09

Bugger – While packing my OzTent in the morning I snapped one of the sliding/folding joints as a gust of wind hit the tent.

I'll have to use my little travel tent from now on. From Bamaga we headed back down the road to Injinoo and then onto the Jardine river ferry – after a lap or two Injinoo due to the lack of sign posts. On the drive back to the ferry we were going to go and have a look at the old Jardine river crossing, but they had done some severe road work and before we realised it we were at the ferry. The GPS's showed us driving through bush.

From here it was back down the Bamaga road until it met the OTT where we made a small detour in to see Fruit Bat Falls as it was sunnier then when we passed it on the way north.

We also had a nice refreshing swim and a bit of morning tea before heading off again to the south to find the road to Captain Billy Landing (CBL). The section of the Bamaga road between Fruit Bat Falls and the turnoff to CBL was probably the roughest we had encountered and then road to CBL was even worse.

We arrived at the camp site about 1:30 pm and found it was bloody windy and as there was only one other Camper trailer there we took over the shelter shed to set up camp and use it as a wind break. Richard and I set up camp in the lee of the shed and then used our cars as secondary wind breaks while Brett and Ross set up camp in the shelter shed with Brett setting his swag up on one of tables.

After camp was set up we went for a leisurely stroll along the beach and around the headland to the south, the scenery was quite pleasant and varied from rock pools, to bat caves and beaches.

Once again there was a snake of some sort in one of the caves but I couldn't get too close to get a decent photo.

The wind didn't really die down at all in the evening but we built a small fire in the fire pit provided and had a pleasant evening around it.