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.