29th September - 5th October

Monday 29th

Off again pretty early this morning and went sightseeing around Cape Tribulation - Cow Bay, etc. We knew that Fred and Jude needed to get to Townsville to get Troopy fixed (problems with the gearbox), and we wanted to go and see Mossman Gorge, so we parted ways and will meet up again in Ayr in a few days time. We went on to Mossman Gorge and it was just fantastic. No charge and there are heaps of different walking tracks, bridges, lookouts, swimming, etc. We just loved it. Took a million photos and went on the big walk. We were going to go swimming but were running out of time to get to tonights campsite (Lake Tinaroo), so we moved on. I put the coordinates in the GPS, (according to the Camps 3 book), but they were wrong, so we ended up in the middle of nowhere. We finally arrived at our destinatin and it is just beautiful! This is our first night alone in a long time and we are savouring it. We put on the camp oven to cook a great stew and just kicked back and relaxed.

Tuesday 30th

When I chose the campsite we ended up staying at, I chose one at random – and got it right!! The other campsite at Lake Tinaroo (Platypus), which we could see across the lake, had a massive party going on all night which we could hear clear across the other side of the lake – so glad we didn’t camp there – I would have been quite upset I think! Started working at medical transcription again this morning and didn’t take off until about 10:30, aiming to head for Ravenshoe and Innot Hot Springs and then inland from there. We got to Ravenshoe and saw the huge wind turbines – they are ENORMOUS! We were about to head inland when we noticed that our kilometers had ticked over to the point where we were due for a service (we bought this big extended warranty thing when we bought the car and they are very strict about when it needs servicing). So, instead of heading inland and putting more Ks on it, we decided that, being so close to Ayr that we should head back and pick up the caravan and get it serviced at Ayr. We arrived at about 5:30 after a big day’s drive. Once we got there we spoke to Carole’s neighbour, Les, who let us into the unit and also told us that Fred and Jude had Troopy on a tilt tray and were heading to Townsville!! We knew they were having problems with the gearbox, but didn’t know it was that bad! We are not sure of details but I’m sure they will come back here as soon as it is fixed.

Did heaps of loads of washing and went to bed – big day!

Wednesday 1st

I got up and did some work this morning and Ross took the Disco to the mechanics for a service. I was listening to the TV while I was working and heard something about a crocodile killing someone. When I looked further into it, it was “Charley”, the croc at Endeavour River Escape that Terry told us about, and the guy was at the same place we were standing when it happened only a few days ago! Freaky!

Mostly spent the day cleaning and organising. We even gave the poor old Disco a well-deserved wash!

Thursday 2nd

What a mess! We spent most of the day trying to get things back into some semblance of order so we can take off tomorrow.

Friday 3rd

We left Ayr at about 11 am and said goodbye to our travelling companions. We had a great trip but are looking forward to striking out on our own. We didn’t want to do too big a drive today so we drove to Charters Towers for a look around. It’s a lovely little town – heaps of history and historic buildings – well worth a look around and the Information Centre is great too. The lady we spoke to there was extremely helpful and helped us make up our mind which direction we would go from here, as we hadn’t made a firm decision as yet. We did originally intend to keep going west and then eventually make our way down to Longreach, but it is just so dry around here at the moment that we didn’t think we would enjoy it all that much and thought we should come back at a different time of year when its not so dry. Every creek we cross is dry and there is nowhere to fish!!

So we camped at a little roadside stop an hour east of Charters Towers (in hindsight we should have just stayed at the Mobil service station which offered free showers too). It was a pretty good spot – really close to the road, but there was very little traffic so it didn’t worry us, and also really close to the railway line, but trains were few and far between and I never heard any until I woke up in the morning after I got to sleep. It was right on a river, but not a drop of water in it L. We met a great bunch of people there – all travelling separate but great to talk to so we swapped stories and information. One couple had a Disco exactly the same as ours and Ross enlightened him about the joys of getting a computer upgrade and new exhaust system – another one corrupted!! His caravan weighed 3.5 tonne compared to our 1.5 tonne and he was having a little trouble with towing considering the Disco’s tow capacity is 3.5 tonne.

Saturday 4th

I got up and worked this morning and Ross was busy trying to fix an oil leak caused by the guys who serviced the Disco in Ayr – not happy Jan!! He was also happily gossiping with the neighbours so we didn’t get going until about 11 am.

We headed back towards Charters Towers then down the Gregory Developmental Road towards Emerald. We stopped and filled up with fuel at the Mobil and had free showers while we were at it – nice!!

We stopped for lunch at about 2:30 pm at a roadhouse at Belyando Crossing – now there is a hole in the middle of nowhere!! Stinking hot, no loo paper in the loos, brown water for washing your hands – yeeeuk!! Moved on from there pretty quick. There is nothing much out here so we are going to push through to either Capella or Emerald – depending on what campsites we can find.

The country is looking lusher and lusher and hopefully we will be able to start finding places we can fish again soon – we have the boat and the fishing gear but no water!!

We got to Capella which looks like a very interesting little town but it is definitely not friendly towards free campers, so we pushed onto Emerald and camped under the bridge at the Botanical Gardens. It was a bit noisy and very well lit (bit hard to sleep), but not a bad spot and you get to wander around the Botanical Gardens when you get up of a morning.

Sunday 5th

We decide to try our hands at fossicking today and headed off to Sapphire and Rubyvale. It was a stinking hot day and we pulled up for a break and lunch at Sapphire and were chatting to some fellow travelers when a car pulling an old caravan drove past and the wheel fell off the caravan!! Poor bugger – middle of nowhere and the wheel falls off your caravan!! We went over to see if he needed help, but some other people had already pulled up and given him a hand.

The people we were chatting to told us to go to Wills Wash (around the back of the pub) in Rubyvale, so we toddled off to find our fortune. It was an interesting afternoon and we had a great time sifting through all the stones looking for sapphires and zircons and we did find a few, but not our fortunes – oh well!! We can say we have done it now – I don’t think I would be in a hurry to do it again, but we had fun.

We headed back to the same campsite in Emerald for the night and will go and check out Fairbairn Dam (Ross’ dad helped build it in the early 70’s), and then on to Bedford Weir near Blacktown.

22nd - 28th September

Monday 22nd

We packed up fairly early today and left Punsand Bay at about 8:30 this morning. We had to make a trip into Bamaga for supplies, and then headed up to the east coast near Albany Island. We were heading for Sommerset Beach, but of course decided to take the long, scenic route to get there. We first stopped off to have a look at Lake Wicheura, which had lovely pristine white sandy beaches, but was a little inaccessible, so we didn’t drive too far down that track. We then headed out to Chandagoo Point to take the beach route up to Sommerset Beach. The track was quite challenging and we both managed to get stuck/lost at some point along the track and the lid came off of the diesel barrel on the roof of the Disco and it got a lovely diesel bath (tad smelly). The road up to Sommerset Beach varied from beach to rock to sandy stretches up in the hills and was a great drive with some magnificent views along the way.

Once we arrived at Sommerset Beach at around lunchtime we went for a stroll to have a look at the old well site and windmill from the original homestead that was built there sometime in the late 1800s. The original well was dry, but there are freshwater springs seeping out of the ground here and there and we even managed to fill a couple of solar showers and some extra water containers with the water. We then had lunch and we went and studied the old grave sites of the Jardine and pearl diver graves, then the only energetic ones of the group (Jude and I) decided to go and check out the sandstone bluff and cave paintings at the northern end of the beach. We certainly passed our “Rock Clambering 101” certificates! Really rough going, but a lovely spot when we got there. We are spending the night here so we decided to throw a line in to see what we could catch. The main thing we seemed to catch was seaweed, but we did manage to catch an unsuspecting sand crab! The boys decided to cut up a coconut so we munched on coconut in the afternoon. This is a fabulous place and there is only one other group of campers here and they are waaaay up the other end of the campsite and we can’t even see them.

Tuesday 23rd

We slept in a bit this morning and didn’t get up until about 7:30 am, we all (except for chicken Jude) went for a swim in the ocean before leaving the campsite (it was quite brisk!). Fred made scrambled eggs from the eggs that had frozen in the fridge that had been turned down a little too much previously. Troopy decided that he didn’t want to leave and wouldn’t start on the main battery and had to be jumpstarted from the reserve battery. We decided ho head back into Bamaga and refuel before we headed down to check out the campsites on the north side of the Jardine River. We had a lovely wander about along the river and followed some pretty dodgy trackss until we got as far as we could go on a little “track” and had to turn back. We then headed across the ferry and had lunch on the south side of the ferry crossing. It was about then that I decided that I hadn’t done any fishing in the Jardine River and so threw a line in just to say I had wet my line in the Jardine. We didn’t catch anything of note and we certainly fed the fish in the area – they loved picking the bait off of our lines! Fred had a lovely hot shower while we were fishing and Jude did a load of washing, so we were all happy. Just before we crossed the ferry Troopy contacted us on the UHF to let us know that we had one of our tail lights hanging off the back of the 4x4 – another victim of the rough roads! Troopy had also broken a strut on the pop-up bit of his roof and we lost the glass coffee plunger to the rough roads, as well as several other little mishaps along the way – but nothing major – yet.

We decided to camp at Eliot Falls again that night, as we reckon it’s the best camping spot around here – it’s just glorious! We pulled in at around 3 pm, lit up the cooker; put a roast on to cook and all headed down for a swim. By the time we got back it was time to put the veggies in and the cooker did the rest!

Wednesday 24th

This morning we all went for a swim in the beautiful crystal clear water of the falls before we jumped in the cars (Jude and Lisa driving) and went and checked out Fruit Bat falls. Fruit Bat Falls are just glorious, but there is no camping there so we moved on. Just as we were getting into the 4WDs from Fruit Bat Falls to move on we discovered that the tent poles had punched through the front of the pole holder and were just about to fall out. Once again Fred’s super dooper Selleys glue came in handy and we glued it back together, along with an application of our super dooper silicone tape and it all got patched up and we were off again. Once we hit the main road the boys took over the driving. We decided we were going to head for Chilli Beach today and according to our GPS there was a shortcut across to the beach, but when we got the shortcut there was a sign that said “Batavia Downs, No Entry” so we decided to go the long way round. We had been told that Chilli Beach was just fantastic (by Jude’s brother), so we thought it was worth the drive. From the turnoff from the main road to the beach took us a couple of hours, and along the way we had another victim of the rough roads when we lost both our little and big table off of the top of the Disco. We managed to retrieve the big table, but we have no idea what happened to the little table, so we will have a look for it on the way back tomorrow.

Once we hit Chilli Beach, we had the choice of southern beaches or northern beaches, and we chose to have a look at the southern beaches. I tell you what, I have never been so disappointed with a place in my life, and the others had the same opinion. The beach was COVERED in rubbish – plastic, etc all washed up from the ocean, plus the beach was extremely disappointing as it was really flat and shallow and full of weed, etc. We were really disheartened so we went to check out the northern beaches and found them to be much better, so we decided to spend the night. We got talking with some people who we met when we first started on the Old Telegraph Road who were coming the other way and they just loved Chilli Beach and had been here for several days, so I guess it comes down to individual opinions when it comes to that sort of thing. They also told us that we should have gone to the mouth of the Jardine River, which I REALLY wanted to do while we were up there, but some literature we had said that the road was exceptionally bad and you would have to use winches, etc, so we didn’t go, but these people reckon the road was rough but fine – typical!

There are no showers here either, so if you want to get clean you have to dip in the ocean. We also got talking to the other people who were sharing our camp spot, and they had a Troopy and a Oka and they were from Switzerland and had been on the road here in australia for a couple of years and were about to head to South Africa. They told us that we could have come down the road that had the “No Entry” sign after all (would have saved us a couple of hundred of kilometers) but it was a very rough road (just what we are looking for!). Bugga missing that road – would have been fun – next time I guess! We ended up staying the night at Chilli Beach, because it was too far to go anywhere else, and it is beautiful and breezy and we are quite happy with the campsite, it’s just a shame the beach is so grotty.

Thursday 25th

Well, we certainly had an interesting night! We all went to bed early after admiring the beautiful clear sky and the stars. Ross and I decided to sleep in the tent, as we have done a few times in the past, mainly because it’s a bit easier to set up than sleeping in the back of the Disco. We have found the whole setup a little frustrating and we are definitely going to change our setup when we get back to Brisbane, but we have to work with what we have for now. Anyway, after going to bed the wind picked up and it got Really windy. We hadn’t bothered to put the fly over the tent because it was such a lovely night. Once the wind came up it started blowing the tent around quite a bit until we got the doors worked out so it wouldn’t blow the tent down. We then settled down for a quiet night and a good night’s sleep, which was interrupted at about 4 am when it decided to start raining!! Because we didn’t have the fly on, the rain came straight through the roof of the tent and we were saturated within minutes. We had no idea how long it would keep raining, so we decided it was a good idea to go and get the fly and at least drape it over the tent to try and stop the flow of water. We jumped out of bed and got the fly and put it over the tent, and after about 5 minutes it stopped raining, but we thought we had better leave the fly on just in case it started raining again, which was good in theory, but with the strong wind and no outlet for it, it almost blew us away again!! So, we took the fly off hoping that it wouldn’t rain again and made it through to morning with no other mishaps. We then spent half the morning trying to dry stuff out and the rest of the morning was spent talking to our new friends in the Oka, and their friends in the Troopy conversion. We got some great ideas from them, and by the time we got underway we had fonder thoughts for Chili Beach than when we first got there.

We then headed south and were planning to camp on the river just north of Coen, and we called into the campsite to check it out, and it looked pretty good, but there was a definite lack of water in the river so we made a group decision to head back to Charlie’s as Coen is definitely a place that you would not stay in overnight if you had the option. (Though mum did send us a message saying that they had stayed behind the “Sexchange Pub” before with no problem). The Disco managed to lose almost all of the screws that held the front headlight in and we got to it just in time before it completely fell out – another victim of the rough roads!! We managed to get some more screws from the mechanic shop in Coen and he didn’t even charge us for it. We stocked up on fuel and grog at Coen and headed out to Charlie’s and arrived at about 3 pm. We were once again the first ones here so we got some washing done (no black water this time), and then some other campers pulled up in a couple of camper trailers. We had a lovely leisurely afternoon and had a chance to relax and enjoy ourselves (as well as do a few running repairs) before it got dark.


Friday 26th

Off again early this morning and we are planning to get to Kalpower camp in Lakefield National Park and staying there for a couple of days – it will be nice to just sit and relax for awhile as we haven’t spent more than one night anywhere yet. We drove past vast plains of nothing but anthills. We stopped in to have a look at Sweetwater Lagoon on the way which was just lovely.

When we got into camp, Ross and I went for a quick dip in the rockpools (have to be careful of crocs), then chatted to some other campers who had boats with them and had been very successful in catching barra – we were hooked – had to have a go ourselves, so got the casting net out, caught some bait and off we went. Ross was down in the rock pools catching bait when a croc surfaced a couple of meters away from me – I freaked out, but he was only about 6 feet long but I was pretty scared anyway! We didn’t catch any barra but decided to move on tomorrow as we got mucked around a bit with the self-registration. We will find somewhere else to stay tomorrow night.

Had a chat with some more neighbours who were also Swiss – must be a popular destination for them. We have decided to head for Cooktown and take it from there tomorrow.

Saturday 27th

We were all up early and got packed up and going by about 8am. We drove Battlecamp Road into Cooktown, which was pretty rough, and we even saw an abandoned camper trailer with a broken axle on the side of the road at one stage. We came across Isabella Falls, which were nice, but not as nice as Eliot Falls. We made it to Cooktown and did a bit of a shop and had some lunch, then went up to the lookout and the lighthouse which was just fantastic. We then drove to Finch Bay for a bit of a look-see and Jude and myself walked to the Botanical Gardens from there while the boys drove and met us there. We asked at the Botanical Gardens where to stay and they told us to go to Endeavour River Escape, which was about 15 minutes out of town. They have this rule in Cooktown that you are not allowed to camp within 15 ks of the town otherwise the caravan parks have a dummy spit. It is a fantastic spot right in a rainforest and on the river and Terry, the owner of the property took us for a walk and told us about the history of the place and about "Charley" the huge croc who lives nearby and you can hear him barking like a dog at night. We might head up to coloured sands tomorrow and might even stay here another night – top place! It is a working cattle and Clydesdale station.

Sunday 28th

What is it about us not putting up our fly and getting wet during the night??!! Same thing again - we put up our tent minus the fly because it was a beautiful night and half way through the night it started pouring rain!! So, out again, running aroud like mad people to get the fly on (no wind this time so it was ok to leave it on), but we were pretty wet by morning, as with the fly not on properly, the rain still came in. We went and had a chat to Terry the next morning to find out what time checkout was and he wasn't really bothered, he's really a great guy and told us some other places to go and visit when we reach WA. We dried everything out and got underway at about 11 am. We decided to head down the Bloomfield Track and stopped at the Lions Den for a looksee - pretty interesting place. We also had a look at the Black Mountains - freaky!! The Bloomfield Track was not nearly as interesting as the Old Telegraph Road, but it was a lovely trip through the mountains with a couple of wrong turns along the way (thanks to bad signage at roadworks). We decided to stay at a lovely little park at Cape Tribulation named Lync-Haven (they even let you have dogs) that had 20 acres of rainforest to explore. We all got dresssed up for the first time in weeks and had dinner at their restaurant, which was just lovely. We also saw a Hercules Moth at the restaurant - HUGE!! Biggest moth I have ever seen. We made sure we put the fly up this time so we wouldn't be caught out and guess what? Didn't rain.

15 - 21 September

Monday 15th

Fred and Jude took off to pick up Troopy from Hughendon at 4am and arrived back here at around 3pm.

We spent the day packing the 4WD - man it's hard to condense everything down and try and decide what to take and what to leave!! We finally got the worst of it packed anyway so we should be right to head off in the morning!!

Tuesday 16th

We got away at about 9am and spent a big day travelling. It was great to finally be on the road. The difference in the countryside between Ayr upwards and the countryside between Bowen and Ayr is remarkable. It has been so lush and green since we left Ayr, whereas before that it was very dry and arid and desert-like. We pushed through to Townsville and stopped at Bear and Christiane's place in Machans Beach - what a lovely spot. We camped overnight in their driveway after having a BBQ tea with them. We went for a walk down to the beach at sunset as it is only a couple of blocks away from their house. Their house is a converted fishing shack that is just fantastic - loved it!

Wednesday 17

We spent a lovely day today. We went up to Kuranda to see the markets in the morning. The drive up is lovely, through rainforest, lovely lookouts. Christiane has a lovely little clothing/bric a brac shop so we went and had a look at it and Jude brought some stuff. There was a great museum and heaps of other great shops there too. After that we moved along up the road and had lunch at the café at Mt Molloy – it’s a little mexican café and they serve the hugest, bestest hamburgers in the world (maybe a little exaggeration).

We ended spending the night at Lakeland Caravan park which is a great little spot considering the desert we seem to be in the middle of. The landscape keeps changing so rapidly around here its incredible.

Thursday 18th

We spent a lovely night at the caravan park at Lakelands, played cards, chatted to some neighbours, and took off at about 9.30. Only a few k’s out of town the roads turned to dirt, then bitumen, then dirt, then bitumen … and so on. I have no idea why there were so many little patches of bitumen in among all the dirt roads, but we decided after several of these that they were there purely to annoy us – you just got used to the fact that you were back on bitumen and 500m later its dirt again!! VERY dusty. At some stages we couldn’t see a thing if a few vehicles were coming the other way. Also a lot of corrugations which made the ride very bumpy, but all in all it was a pretty good trip – well until Fred and Jude broke another windscreen passing a truck! We reckon it broke because Jude took photos of sacred aboriginal art when she shouldn’t have and they were cursed!! We stopped to go for a bit of a stroll (uphill in very hot weather) to look at Quinkan aboriginal art at Split Rock north of Lakelands.

The guy at the Lakelands caravan park told us we had to camp at Charlie’s 4 U 2 C camp spot just shy of Coen. We pulled in at about 3pm and we found a very interesting camp site in the middle of nowhere. Charlie, as it turns out is a very eccentric Maltese guy who has a very interesting house and old mine site come camping spot (but not an official campsite). He used to mine gold here years ago, but it has all been filled in now and he just lives out here by himself and has little “projects”. (see website for photos) His house has beer bottle walls and it’s extremely interesting to look at – great little campsite too and all you have to do is leave a voluntary donation for the use of it. It even has hot showers and a laundry. One word of warning though, if you do decide to camp there and do some washing – keep an eye on the water colour! We were happily filling the tub and happened to look down and the water had gone black! For some reason that we couldn’t quite fathom, the water kept going from clear to black so we had to keep a good eye on it – not good for whites! There is also a free campsite next to the river just on the other side of Coen.

Well, we have certainly gotten into the Cape area now, the countryside changes constantly and people are few and far between, and we are absolutely loving it. We got the camp oven out for the first time tonight so we are really camping now, though we did still have hot showers and laundry J. We had our first really good look at the stars tonight, as it’s the first time we have been far enough away from civilization that there were no other lights around – I tell you what, it’s worth the trip just to see the stars! Magnificent!! I had forgotten how great the night sky could look.

The weather is just fantastic. It does get rather hot during the day – around the mid 30s, but there are virtually no insects and the nights are lovely and cool. We haven’t had to use insect repellant yet and we can sleep with all the doors open and get a lovely cool breeze in the car – it’s just glorious – wouldn’t be dead for quids!

We met a lovely young couple when we stopped for lunch today and they told us to go camping at Pennefather Creek just north of Weipa because the fishing was fantastic and it was a paradise on earth, so we are going to aim to camp there tomorrow night.

Friday 19th

We took off pretty early this morning and hit Weipa by about 11:30 and we went shopping and then went looking for somewhere to get Troopy’s windscreen fixed. There was a panelbeater in town that apparently did windscreens but they were shut for lunch, so we went and had lunch on the beach which was just fantastic – there was no sand but there were tiny round red rocks, which we think may have been bauxite, they were great to walk on – massaged the feet, they looked a bit like red rice bubbles! We went back to the panelbeaters but they were still closed so we gave it up for a bad job and headed off to Pennefather Creek for a look.

The drive to Pennefather Creek was the roughest we have encountered so far, there was a whole heap of really rough dirt roads, followed by a run along a magnificent beach where Troopy nearly came to grief in a particularly bad stretch of sand. It was about that time we decided to stop and deflate the tyres a little before we kept going. We eventually reached this beautiful looking lagoon, which was our destination and thought we were in paradise. However, we stopped and talked to the Ranger and he told us: You can’t swim here because of the crocs. It's aboriginal tirbal land. There are absolutely no amenities. The fishing wasn’t so great at the moment. It was going to cost us about $50.00 + each just to spend the night. Hmm…we went for a drive to see what we could see, and decided, yes, it was a lovely spot, but not worth $50.00 + each, so we turned around (about 4:30 pm) and went back to Weipa (arrived at sundown) and spent the night in the caravan park there for $24.00 each that had toilets, laundry, swimming pool, and was right on the beach – we reckon we got a bargain!

Well, we were looking to do some serious 4WDing and we certainly found that today. We had a great day but were really worn out by the time we settled down for the night. It was certainly a great experience.

Saturday 20th

We took off from Weipa at about 8:15 am this morning, went back down the way we came into Weipa and then cut across a 4WD track (Batavia Downs) to meet back up with the main road heading up to the cape and when we hit the crossroads where the Old Telegraph Road leaves the main road, and of course we took the Old Telegraph Road for a bit of a challenge! We were only about 10 minutes down the track when we came to the first creek crossing and it was a doozey (well for us inexperienced 4WDers anyway). In the end it looked worse than it was and none of us had any problem getting through, but we did manage to pick up some extra friends who came through at the same time, so we ended up going in a convoy with the 4 4WDs. One of the 4WDs was a Landcruiser with Vic and Jan and believe it or not, Ross knows Vic because he used to work near him when he worked in Brisbane about 15 or 20 years ago. The others were in a Nissan Navara and they are Darby and Jamie (his 5 year old son). They have come from NT and have been on the road for 2 weeks and have another 3 weeks to go. We had a fantastic day with heaps of challenges as far as 4WDing goes. Heaps of creek crossings and ruts and corrugations, etc, etc.

An hour or so into the Old Telegraph Road Troopy decided that he didn’t want to carry Fred’s luggage on his roof any more, so he dumped it off in the middle of the road without letting Fred and Jude know, so they were blissfully unaware driving down the road until we stopped for lunch and looked up and noticed it was gone – Fred’s underwear was scattered all over the Old Telegraph Road! Luckily Vic and Jan were behind them and decided to stop and rescue it for them and wandered into the luchspot with a decidedly scraggly looking box with Fred’s clothes in it.

We ended up staying overnight at Eliot and Twin falls camping area, which is a fantastic spot with beautiful swimming holes and waterfalls – just glorious. We apparently are only 98.5 kilometers from the tip, so we will have another swim in the morning and then head off to make the tip tomorrow sometime.

Sunday 21st

Well, this is the day we have been waiting for, but we couldn’t leave Eliot Falls without one more swim in the glorious water. We got underway at about 9:30 am and had a great creek crossing first thing leaving Eliot Falls. We stuck to the Old Telegraph Road for most of the way and crossed the Jardine River on the ferry ($88.00 per car – including camping permits). We stopped at the Croc Tent on the way to Punsands Bay where they gave us free maps and great info about the local area including where to camp, fish, etc. We then moved onto Punsands Bay down a pretty rough 4WD track and our Disco ended up airborne over a particularly big dip in the road, but we stayed intact and made it to our destination where we stopped for a lovely Barra and chips lunch and caught up again with Darby and Jamie. We all moved on together to the cape down another rough track and got the beach just shy of the tip where we drove our cars out onto the beach (low tide) and took photos showing the spot that’s the furthest you can drive your car, then we headed up the rocks to the tip (about 15 minutes walk) and finally made it to the very tip of Australia!! It was REALLY windy and the weather came over a bit nasty, but it was just fantastic to finally get there. We got lots of photos and added our rocks to the piles of other rocks that other people have been piling up there as a memento of getting to the tip.

After that we decided to head back to Punsands Camp Area to camp for the night, and I finally had a chance to throw a line in! There is a great beach there and I ended up catching a couple of toad fish and nothing else, but it was lovely just sitting on the beach and relaxing. Fred cooked a great curry for tea and Darby and Jamie joined us. We are again sitting in paradise and having happy hour and having a great time.

8th - 14th September - Finally under way!

Monday 8th

Ross had to wait for the gaskets to turn up, which they did at around 11 am. He got most of the work done, but the last gasket that needed to go on wasn't right, so we have to wait for another one to turn up in the morning ...

We also had a call from Fred today and it seems like he has broken down - not sure what is wrong yet.

Tuesday 9th

OK, the part turned up - woohoo! If Ross can get the car going we will be away by this afternoon - finally!

Later that day .. Ross called to say that he has it all together but it won't go - looks like we are going nowhere today

Later ... Late afternoon they finally got it going - apparently there was something wrong with the injectors - all fixed now - we will be off in the morning after Ross has taken it for a test-drive and taken it back to the mechanics to put coolant in the water - hopefully we will be away by lunchtime.

Update from Fred - he has blown his gearbox and it won't be fixed until next week sometime, bad luck for him but good for us because now we have a chance to catch up with him! Man, I hope this isn't an indication of what's to come - hopefully all of our mechanical problems are out of the way and we will have a smooth trip from now on. Fred has a daughter in Ayr, and he and Jude are going to catch a bus there and meet us there - they will go back for their vehicle once it is fixed. We can take our time now and enjoy ourselves and meet them in Ayr, which is where we will be leaving the caravan for the trip up to the Cape.

Wednesday 10th

We didn’t get away from Lee and Gary’s until 1pm by the time Ross took the 4WD to the mechanics and we finished packing up. We got to a little side of the highway stop that Gary told us about a few km’s south of Gympie. It was a pretty good spot, but too close to the highway – it was hard to get to sleep with the traffic. (Rate 5/10. GPS: 26.23212S 152.69696E)

I went to do my medical terminology work, but the internet kept dropping out – very frustrating. We will go into Bundaberg in the morning and talk to the Telstra people to see if we can get it sorted out – can’t put up with that all the time!

Thursday 11th

We spent a fair bit of time in Bundaberg trying to sort out the internet problem and we seem to have that sorted out now, so I should be able to do my work tonight with no problem.

We are really struggling to adjust to living out of a caravan – we really didn’t realise it would be this hard. Everything is so cramped and you have to pull everything out just to get to one thing and we are both taking time to adjust.

We stayed at a great camp spot at Calliope overnight (Rate 7/10 GPS: 23.95978S 151.15047E). It is about 7km north of Calliope and it is a huge site right away from the highway and truck noises. It’s a really big camp and there were probably about 30 other campers staying there overnight. There were no showers and the river was really low, and there was a sign warning of crocs, so we couldn’t go swimming – not that it’s warm enough yet to go swimming. Someone had cut up a big tree for firewood, but it was still really green and the wood wouldn’t burn, so I think if we went there again we would take our own firewood.

Friday 12th

Had a big day of driving today. We stopped only for lunch as we wanted to get to close to Ayr as possible. We couldn’t find any free campsites to stay at, even after stopping and asking at Mackay Information Centre. We rang ahead to a caravan park and they offered us an unpowered site for $10.00 overnight, so we decided to stop there. The caravan park was called Kuttabul Hotel and Caravan Park, and as we got close we drove past this really scary looking caravan a we guessed that was it – so we kept driving – it looked almost like a wrecking yard!! A little bit up the highway was a servo so we stopped and asked where to stay and they directed us to a caravan park called Jolimont Caravan Park, (Rate 8/10 GPS: 21.0026S 148.5227E) which was much nicer, so we stayed there for the night. They charged $18.00 for unpowered sites and $20.00 for powered sites, so we took the powered one. We found out later that there was another caravan park just up the road that is right on the river that looks nice that charge only $12.00 for unpowered sites! Damn! Never mind, the one we stayed at was lovely.

The weather is getting hotter and hotter and we are having trouble acclimatizing – guess by the time we hit the Cape we will be used to it! None of the rivers have much water in them – waiting for the wet season coming up I guess. Can’t wait to throw a line in and see if we can catch any fish! We have been travelling to fast to do any of that stuff so far – hopefully the pace will relax a little now that we are have caught up to Fred and Jude.

Saturday 13th

We only had a couple of hours of travelling to do today, so we took our time and had a few stops. Once we got to Carole's place (Fred & Jude's daughter), we had to try and park the caravan somewhere - that was an interesting job - there was this tiny narrow driveway to get it down, followed by a very small space for manouvering, then we had to back it into a shed - but we managed - Ross is a great caravan backer!!

It is very dry up here and we drove over heaps of bridges and the creeks/rivers had literally NO water in them - we had never seen that before - guess they will fill up pretty quick when the wet season arrives.

Tomorrow we are gong site-seeing, Monday Fred and Jude are going to pick up "Troopy" (the name for their troop carrier motorhome, while Ross and I pack up our 4WD and we are leaving Tuesday morning, so we won't have time to go fishing unfortunately - I'm sure we will get time somewhere along the line!

Sunday 14th
We decided to have a fairly leisurely day today and do some sight-seeing around Ayr, as well as doing a little packing of the 4WD. We all took off in Carole's little old Ford Festiva and went down to a little beach near here - Alva Beach, which was lovely, then we went out to Home Hill to see a few sites and guess what??!! We blew up the Festiva as well! That's the third car we have broken in the last couple of months between us, but we reckon that will be the end of it because bad luck comes in threes right? ...

1st - 7th September

Monday 1st

Ross took the Disco in to the mechanics today to see what they think before we leave on our trip- guess what??!! They reckon there is still something wrong with it!! AAGGHH!

Still not 100% sure, so they have disconnected the oil cooler to see if that is the problem. Ross will take it back tomorrow for them to look at and decide whether to take the head off.

Tuesday 2nd

Well, it wasn't the oil cooler, so the head came off! Damn - more delays! They have sent it away for testing.

Got a phone call from Fred and Jude today. They have left already and we will have to catch up with them somewhere along the line, but they have had a delay themselves with a broken windscreen and they have to wait a few days for it to turn up!

Wednesday 3rd

Got a call from the mechanics today and the head is kaput. We need to get a new one, but a brand newie is $5000.00, so we shopped around and found a good second had one for $1600.00 - much better. Ross will pick it up in the morning and put it back on and hopefully all will go smoothly and we will be away by Friday. I am not getting my hopes up at this stage, because nothing has gone to plan so far!

We also borrowed a projector from a friend of Dale's (my brother), and put a piccie of Australia on the side of our van so we can keep a record of where we have been - looks great - takes up the whole side of the van!! We also had our web address put on the back of the van as well as our UHF channel (40).

Thursday 4th

Ross decided to send the new second had head off to be tested before he puts it back on the car - hate to go through all this again.....

Friday 5th

The head came back and has checked out fine, but the gaskets haven't turned up because the courier company went on strike! It's a conspiracy! Looks like we are here till next week now.

Sunday 7th

Father's day. We had a whole bunch of family around for a BBQ lunch - we had a great day. I think there were about 18 of us all told.