jcdmusing: Cape York 2009 Trip Report

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.