10 August 2010
We packed up the campsite and were on the road by 10ish by the time we all had a swim, etc before heading off. The weather was still a bit iffy so we thought it was a good decision to move on. We took the new track out and hit Wakooka Road within the hour. We thought that would be a much better road than the road in and it was but it still had lots of challenges and was a very interesting run! We came across Wakooka Outstation which was part of Kalpowar Station when it was running. Everything was deserted and there were old windmills, burnt out trucks, old cattle yards, old sheds, etc, etc - it was all very interesting!
We got back to the Starcke River campsite where we stayed on our first night out. We enjoyed the pumpkin that we picked from here so much that we decided to pick the other one to make pumpkin pie from somewhere down the track. We had lunch there and decided to push on as the weather was still doubtful and we wanted to get past the swampy bits before too much rain came down.
We headed off again and had a slight detour to go and look at the mouth of the Starck River - looks like it would be a great place to throw the boat in (which we still haven't managed to do yet!!) but we had to keep moving to beat the weather. Lucky we did because it was raining when we went through the swampy bits and it was very slippery and slimy then with more rain on the way. We reached Isabella Falls at about 6ish and took some time to wash down the caravan which had about half a tonne of mud on it by then!! We only had time to quickly set up camp before it was dark and we were all in bed early after a long day!
11 August 2010
We were all up and went for a swim early this morning under the waterfalls at Isabella - Ross managed to find a way into the heaviest fall and we all got under for a very good massage - it was tough staying under there - the water pressure is so hard!!
We toddled off back to Cooktown and reached there by about 12ish and went to vote only to find out that lunchbreak at the courthouse is 12-2 so we had some lunch and had a wander around before we voted and then headed back to Steve's place to start repacking - again!!
We have made a decision that between here and the Old Telegraph Track there are about 2 million corrugations and we had just done a run that was equal to or even more challenging than the Old Telegraph Track so we aren't going to do it now!! We had a great trip and really enjoyed ourselves but we have decided that we really want to start thinking about heading over towards WA before too long with a stop in Darwin on the way to visit some friends.
12 August 2010
We spent most of the day sorting stuff out and the boys spent some time fixing the suspension on the trailer. Steve came to visit in his lunch hour and we told him we wanted to take him and his wife out to dinner as well as buy him a carton of beer as a thank you for letting us stay at his place while we were here. He said they were going away Friday night and would be back Saturday night and he would ask his mates whether they want to all go out fishing on Sunday instead so we are going to wait and find out what happens there.
13 August 2010
We all decided to troop into town this afternoon to try our luck at fishing from the wharf. When we arrived one guy had just caught a big barra off the wharf so we thought we would have a good day's fishing - no such luck!! I managed to hook a "wolf herring" but didn't land it - one of the locals reckoned they weren't worth catching anyway. Ross caught a small trevalli but had to throw it back because it was undersized. Nobody else caught much either so we weren't the only ones - it was a nice afternoon though and got to talk to some of the locals.
Looks like Steve is going to be a way for the whole weekend so we may as well pack up and get back on the road tomorrow.
ROSS' BIRTHDAY - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSS!!
Mum and dad popped into town to grab morning tea for Ross' birthday - dad and Ross are always going on about wanting "home made pasties" so they went to the bakery to get some but unfortunately there was only one left so Ross got that while we had to suffer with pies and sausage rolls. We put candles on his pastie and sang happy birthday to him. Mum had started making a fruitcake for him and hopefully we will get somewhere this afternoon where we can finish cooking it for him for his birthday.
We had put up a sign in the local shops and post office to sell our old fridge because we will pick up the new one when we hit Cairns and we thought lots of people in Cooktown would want that sort of thing which proved correct because we sold it this morning after having the signs up for only one day!! We then had to try to fit everything into mum and dad's little fridge - luckily we had been letting the stocks run down because we managed to fit most things in and will just have to go without cold drinks in the fridge until we get the new one.
Mum and dad had heard from the locals about a great waterfall and camping spot so we decided to check it out on our way south. Just before you reach Black Mountains you turn off on Mt Amos Road and go down there for several kms and then follow the signs to the Falls. The road was pretty rough but we arrived eventually only to find that mum and dad had broken the suspension on the trailer on the way in!! We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no way to fix it so we decided that after we had looked at the waterfall we would move on - the "campsite" wasn't much anyway. We walked down to the waterfall and it was SPECTACULAR!! It was gorgeous!! We all went swimming (even dad) the water was quite cold but it was definitely worth it and you could stand underneath the waterfall and it just took your breath away - just beautiful! Definitely worth the drive and breaking the suspension!
When we left there we found a campsite on the other side of the Black Mountains at a river crossing where they had a sign up for toilets. The campsite itself was quite nice but the drop toilets were very smelly!! We had a great little campfire and had a really good night. We managed to cook the fruitcake but burned it on the top and it wasn't quite cooked in the middle - bumma - still tasted good though!
15 August 2010
We were back on the road fairly early (for us 9:30) after a walk down to see another beautiful waterfall near where we had camped - what a life!!
The trailer is still struggling along and holding together ok and there will be nowhere we can get it welded until we hit Mareeba so we just have to keep going until then.
We reached Mount Molloy campsite at about 12 and decided to have another go at getting some of those famous Mexican Burgers - SUCCESS!! They are just huge and very yummy - we had two burgers between us - they are too big to eat on your own!
We cooked pumpkin pie from the last pumpkin tongiht and it turned out PERFECT!! I's sure it's not as good as my mother-in-law's pie but I reckon we did a pretty good job of it!! Mum made a blackberry jam tart from the leftover pastry which also turned out perfect - yay!!
We were in bed early tonight as I hadn't been feeling well all day.
16 August 2010
The boys worked on the trailer and managed to fix the suspension themselves - very clever! Ross fiddled about doing stuff to the caravan and I worked all morning.
Pretty quiet day - we packed up camp ready to leave early in the morning for Cairns.
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