Mr and Mrs Drop Bear Take the Toyota to the Tip.

[Drop Bear]

I will be writing the report over then next few days or weeks but in the mean time here is the video. 

Sorry for all the typos. I can't spell my own name most mornings. Feel free to ask questions. I will post the itinerary at some stage. 

 

 

 

[Angry51]

Very very good DB, But where's your report.

NPDH, remember.

[ellicat]

Looks good. You'd have to have enjoyed the trip.

[Drop Bear]

50 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

Very very good DB, But where's your report.

NPDH, remember.

coming...

 

[Drop Bear]

47 minutes ago, ellicat said:

Looks good. You'd have to have enjoyed the trip.

Yep it was awesome. I had the best time. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good video, looking forward to the report! 

[kmcrosby78]

Great video Robbie

[Drop Bear]

Day 1 - Driving day. Brisbane to Conway Beach

 

This was really just a get there day. We did very limited stops and no detours. We left Brisbane at 4.am. A straight drive to Conway Beach Tourist Park.

https://www.conwaybeach.com.au/

It took about 14 1/2 hours including all the fuel stops and so much roadworks on the way. Conway Beach is a stunning spot with huge sandy beach that goes out for miles at low tide. The holiday park has very nice cabins and although we had a tent we treated ourselves after a long drive. Mrs Drop Bear and I had beers on sunset overlooking the amazing view. It was pretty cold and there was a little rain so we were very glad that we didn't need to set up camp. We made a simple dinner and had an early night. The park has a restaurant but is only open some nights so check with them before relying on this. 

[Angry51]

That's a big day for a tourist Robbie.

Bit of training you'd get a job doing Darwin express work with a couple 

of trailers hanging off your backend.

[Drop Bear]

Day 2 - Shellfish reef visit, drive to Wonga Beach Caravan Park

0437 937 991 https://douglas.qld.gov.au/camping-grounds-caravan-parks/wonga-beach-caravan-park/

We woke early and headed down to Conway Beach pre dawn for low tide. Conway Beach has fantastic remnant shellfish reefs. We could drive on the beach around the corner and park next to them. It was a bit scary as I wasn't sure if the sand would be soft but we soon found it was fine and easy driving even on the highway pressure tyres. 

We explored the reefs for about an hour and took heaps of photos and this video. They are fantastic reefs. So important and very rare today. Most of the shellfish reefs around Australia and the world have been mined for the construction industry and they make fantastic Cement. I really enjoyed seeing how the shells have layered up over many years, perhaps thousands of years. Sorry about all the Oyster Porn on this post.... 

 

We packed up and headed north through the crazy amount of roadworks stopping only a few times for fuel and food. After yesterday's marathon we really enjoyed this drive. Endless cane fields and beautiful roads, views of Hinchinbrook Island, stunning creeks that beckon me to flick some small lures for JPs or bigger ones for Jacks and Barra and superb forests. The roads around Cardwell are amongst my favourites as they go from tropical rainforests through pandanis laden coastal areas. I did a hike across Hinchinbrook Island with my son a few years ago and it is has very special memories for me. 

The GPS helped us bypass the worst of Cairns traffic, although we were held up at a very strange accident where a woman was lying in the middle of the road. She had loads of helpers and an ambulance was on its way so we thought we would only get in the way if we stopped so kept going.

Up the stunning road between Cairns and Port Douglass that snakes between the forests and the sea. Through Mossman and across the Mossman River then onto the campground at Wonga Beach just on sunset. 

We had the last free site, a slightly dodgy campsite with an annoying automatic light but it would do. We set up our tent behind the car that afforded us pretty good protection from the 25 - 30 knot SE wind. There was plenty of rain but that night but the tent was up to it and we stayed dry. 

Wonga Beach is a beautiful typical beach for up there. Long sandy beaches at low tide. Plenty of tropical trees and coconuts. They were very friendly and the facilities were great. It was nearly dark when we got there but we did get to see the beach in the last bit of light. 

[Drop Bear]

8 minutes ago, Angry51 said:

That's a big day for a tourist Robbie.

Bit of training you'd get a job doing Darwin express work with a couple 

of trailers hanging off your backend.

We did see quite a few of these. 4 was the most but I know they get longer than that.

I am not sure I could do it for a living, I am sure a few months would be interesting but I would go nuts after that. Hats off to our truckies! We need them so much. 

[ellicat]

I enjoy driving but must admit I almost yawned reading about 2 long days on the road. In fact I've decided to go for a nap. Looking forward to reading some more when I awake.

[Drop Bear]

Day 3 Drive to Lions Den Hotel via Bloomfield Track

07 4060 3911 https://lionsdenhotel.net.au/ sorry the map didn't work properly and I just stole this image

I woke up at Wonga beach before dawn. There was a lot of wind and the small waves on the beach had soothingly crashed all night. I tiptoed out of the tent so Mrs Drop Bear could have a sleep in as we had a relatively short drive today so no hurry to get going. I did a bit of beach combing and had a nice walk along the wet, windswept lonely beach. It was about half tide? perhaps a bit lower. I only had to share the beach with a few plovers. The water was only ankle deep for about 100m so I abandoned any thought of casting a line into the shallow dirty suds as I had no intention of wading out into the waters about 3 km south of the Daintree River. 
 

After I got back and did a bit of drone downloading in the common room/shed, we packed up the wet tent and enthusiastically got back on the road ready for what we hoped would be a special day.

The quick ferry ride over to the Daintree River is always too short. We wished we were able to get out and have a bit of a look at this wide brown and croc infested river but apparently safety is importanterer than being a rubber neck. We could see a bit through the windows and past the other cars. The dense forest pushes the closest trees to the river out over the water. While they do their best to get a bit of sun and not fall in, many fail and create great snags that must be homes to Barra and Jack. One day I will come back in March and fish these snags.

The rainy climb up to the lookout with many switchbacks and dense rainforest made us glad that we had decided to do the trip. This is truly a special place. A lone black pig did its best to get run over but with thousands of KMs to go, I didn't want to risk a broken car for a quick pork dinner so we missed it. The lookout was avoided this time as the clouds were low and we were driving through fog so didn't expect we would be able to see much. 

We picked our way through Cape Trib' with all the other tourists. We were lucky enough to see a quite tame cassowary feeding on the side of the road. It was eating some type of red fruit, lifting it up and tossing it a little before catching it and swallowing whole. 

A nice drive through the shallow crystal clear waters of Emmagen Creek let us look up and down stream. There is some dodgy footage of this on the video in the first post.

I have swam in and sat on the southern side of Emmagen Creek a few times now, wondering what green grass there was on the other side. It was really exciting to cross this and break new ground. This really was the start of our cape trip and we were very excited to get onto the Bloomfield Track. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloomfield_Track#:~:text=The Bloomfield Track%2C which is,Bloomfield Track 

The track is in pretty good shape. While I don't suggest you do it in a Kia we did see one Kia with what looked like 2 lost international tourists. It had already lost its number plate suggesting that they had hit one of the water crossings faster than they might. There were knee to thigh deep water crossings waiting both south and north of them... I hope they made it out ok. I am sure we would have heard if they were eaten... wouldn't we?

The very steep hills are mostly sealed with concrete to avoid erosion and silt up the reef. We read about the controversy when protesters tried to stop the track going through last century. 

Up and over large hills with dense rainforest and the occasional view out to sea. Crossing creeks we wove our way through to Bloomfield stopping at Cowie Beach

then through Wujal Wujal and saw a massive croc in the Bloomfield River sitting behind the pro fishing boats. He silently sunk from view (man that is eerie) before we could get a photo so I suppose due to POIDH he wasn't ever there... But I don't suggest you have a swim to check...

The sealed road was in great condition and we got to the famous and very busy Lions Den Hotel at about 2pm. We paid our $30 camp fee at the bar and found a spot right up the back that we thought was well out of the way of everyone else. After setting up the tent, we watched all the caravans and campers pile in. One after another after another, filling up the whole site all the way to where we were. We ended up with a large red dust laden caravan, that had the doors and windows duct taped shut, parked less than 1m from our tent. It wasn't a problem. They were very nice and gave us some great info on the roads to come.

Loads of guided touring bike and quad bike groups came in and set up swags or used the cabins. Most were covered top to tail in deep light brown mud. There was a lot of good kit at this site. Glistening or muddy 4WDs, huge off road caravans and fancy camper trailers, Land cruisers towing flash quad bikes, the whole gambit. I think we were the only ones there that hadn't spent thousands at ARB or the 4WD Super Centre to get ready for the trip. Our nearly stock standard 4 door 2011 Hilux tray back ute looked very pedestrian amongst the lift kits, winches, roof top tents and massive tyres. (Is it on purpose that the 4 (as in 4WD) key is also the $ key?)

It was very telling that half of the vehicles were relatively clean or perhaps had a bit mud on them while the other half of the vehicles were proudly caked, top to toe, in red dust, **** calling for all to see that they had done the cape and were on their way south. I was strangely jealous that we were in the clean car group. I don't know what that is but I guess I am still a grubby kid at heart hankering back to kindergarten and the rare treat days when we could bring in a spare set of cloths and spend the afternoon in the muddy wallow that the teachers filled with water. 

We did a short walk along the sandy edge of the creek just down from the main camping area. Fast moving, lightly tannin stained waters spilled over the boulders and flowed into deeper pools. I am sure in summer these pools would have made welcome swimming holes but it was still quite cold and although assured these were lizard free, we were still a bit spooked after seeing the huge crock in the Bloomfield River.  

Back at camp, we enjoyed drinking a cold beer and watching trees change and the forest darken, listening to the rainforest birds as it turned into early evening. Mrs B got a few nice photos of a sunbird that you can see in the video. The dense forest didn't let us see the sunset directly but the light was magically drifting into night. We got rare glimpses of stars between the thick heavy clouds.

At dinner, we shared a table with a family from Hobart that were there for a motorbike trip. That day the dad and his daughter had done the CREB track https://douglas.qld.gov.au/road-conditions/creb-track/. They enjoyed telling us about how the worst water crossing was chest deep and they had flooded their bikes. They told how the mud was so slippery that it spat them out a few times, luckily without injury, spinning them on their bums on the wet slippery brown clay. They proudly told us that they had finished the track and had chatted to many other riders that were not able to do it as it was too wet and slippery. It was really nice to see and hear the family talking about their passion like this. They weren't overtly bragging, they were reminiscing and sharing with us something they loved. Playfully encouraging each other to do other adventures and looking forward to doing the CREB again in the morning. 

Lions Den do very good looking Pizzas and we watched our table buddies tuck into a few, but for us, dinner was a very well cooked (rare) T'bone with some cheap and nasty red wine with an ok green salad.

This night, like most on the trip, the bed was warm, comfy, and very welcome. 

 

[Angry51]

44 minutes ago, ellicat said:

I enjoy driving but must admit I almost yawned reading about 2 long days on the road. In fact I've decided to go for a nap. Looking forward to reading some more when I awake.

Yeah, Done 40 years behind the wheel but get sleepy thinking about it now.

I had a nap between day1 and 2.

[Hweebe]

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

It took about 14 1/2 hours including all the fuel stops and so much roadworks on the way.

That's a solid days driving I'm probably only comfortable driving half that in a day. Did you take it in turns with Mrs Drop bear? Good plan with the cabin as last thing after a long drive is trying to setup camp in the dark.

 

2 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

We explored the reefs for about an hour and took heaps of photos and this video. They are fantastic reefs. So important and very rare today. Most of the shellfish reefs around Australia and the world have been mined for the construction industry and they make fantastic Cement. I really enjoyed seeing how the shells have layered up over many years, perhaps thousands of years. Sorry about all the Oyster Porn on this post....

You do like your oysters  

What did you say to Mrs Drop bear to make her get of the car and for you reverse the hell away  

 

Awesome that you were able to snap a cassowary in the wild on the side of the road like that too! Really lucky, we stayed in the daintree area for a few days last year but none spotted in the wild.

 

[Angry51]

18 minutes ago, Hweebe said:

Awesome that you were able to snap a cassowary in the wild on the side of the road like that too! Really lucky, we stayed in the daintree area for a few days last year but none spotted in the wild.

 

Mobs of them around Tully/ Mission Beach area.

[Drop Bear]

Day 4 Drive to Wild Wishes Boutique Glamping

19km north of the Archer River Roadhouse wildwishesglamping@gmail.com

https://www.wildwishes.com.au/

With only about a 5 hour drive on mostly sealed roads, day 4 began with a relaxed and easy start. Also we wanted to top up fuel at Lakeland and it doesn't open to 8am. I got up at first light and had a cuppa listening to the rainforest birds waking up and got the occasional glimpse of feathers as they flittered through the dark silhouetted canopy. The site is pretty quiet in the mornings. I think the good food and very cold drinks at the Lions Den Hotel had seen for a few sore heads making for some late starts.

We packed up the again wet tent and headed off on the road west to Lakeland then north on the Peninsula Development Road (PDR). This is a very good quality road and we made very good time, soon finding ourselves refueled and outside Daintree Fresh. This is a farm partly owned by Mrs DB's brother that grows fruit about 15 mins out of Lakeland. They are currently growing seedless watermelon, 2 types of bananas (Ducasse aka sugar and Ladyfinger), small pumpkins (Orange Glow) and export quality honey dew melon that are exported to Japan at crazy prices. We dropped in for a quick stop to say hi to Sean and Deb who are also part owners and run the huge and impressive farm. They gave us some fantastic fruit, having to refuse to take too much. We promised to see them in a week or so and they told us we had to bring them some fish... the pressure was on! Well really it gave me a great excuse to take some fish at our planned stop at Weipa on the way back. Fingers crossed. 

Back on the PDR we passed Split Rock where there are cave paintings and hoped that we would have time on the way back to explore this but as it was our first day on the PDR I wanted to really see how long it would take us to get the 450kms to our accommodation. We stopped at Laura to get a bag of Ice and use the loo. The tiny general store in this small remote town was full of people as a bus load of bird watchers had just pulled up. It felt like a parody, they all had massive binoculars or extremely long lenses on their cameras. I don't think there was much chance of them seeing any birds in the tiny shop. They were asking if they had any fresh fruit or salad... The closest I could see to that was a can of beans. Someone said covid and I walked out... but not before we got some ice. We didn't take a fridge with us and had to rely on buying ice for the eski most days, after all you couldn't expect Mrs DB to drink warm beer! The roads turned more dirt with occasional sealed sections. They were good quality though with not much corrugation, that was yet to come. We were struck by how long and straight the sections were and put up the drone to try and show this (ref first video).

 

Back on the road we stopped at Hann River Roadhouse for the first of what was to be a recurring theme of really dodgy powdered milk coffees. They had a very friendly emu and goanna

 

We chatted briefly to Buggy Boy and Buggy Girl (not their real names)  . They had a super flash LandCruiser towing an equally flash quadbike/buggy thingo complete with massive suspension, red blue and white flashing lights, role cages, winch, GoPro mounts, spotties, the real deal. They carried a flash SLR camera with wind socked mike on top. Buggy Boy was covered in tats and looked like he had had 2 haircuts since breakfast and Buggy Girl looked like she had just gotten out of a salon and was dressed in a little white dress (LWD?). They seemed like nice  people and I wouldn't normally mention them but we bumped into them a few times on the road and we suspect they were bloggers, filming their trip. We passed Musgrave Roadhouse without needing to stop and then went over a nice small hilly section that actually had a corner! From here onward the creeks and rivers did something different... they no longer flowed from Left to right, they flowed west to the gulf.

The next town was Coen where we topped up the fuel. Coen is a small town and the general store has all the basics and were very friendly. There is a small but well patronised pub that was very inviting but with quite a few miles to go we resisted the urge.

We passed a great looking free camp just north of Coen on the sandy banks of the Coen River. Many caravans and other campers were utilising it and again we promised to check it out properly on the way back if we had time.

 

Back on the long straight roads to Archer River Roadhouse where there is a great and strange windy road in the middle of nowhere and at some stage an excavator has piled up large rocks. We wondered if the wiggly road was a fun project for the same person that had a propensity to make boulder cairns? Dunno.

 

19km north of Archer River Roadhouse we missed the turnoff to that night's stop and had to do a u turn and come back. Wild Wishes Boutique Glamping does have a small sign but we missed it the first time past. We entered the lonely gate that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. Nothing apart from the small sign. It was spooky but exciting. Down the track about half a km it opened up to a large lily littered lake with languishing lizards and teeming with birdlife. Small fish filled the lake and I wondered if there were stocked Barra or Grunters or something so I rigged a topwater plastic. A few dozen casts saw no interest so I packed it away. 

 

The small glamping tent was on a platform over the lake and was our accommodation for the night. The open air showers and toilet was novel and nice. The weather was warmer now and we enjoyed the hot outdoor shower with water pumped straight from the lake.

The evening was spent on the easy chairs on the deck enjoyed a few cold ones, watching and listening to the prolific birds preparing for the night. Mrs DB got some great pics, you can see these and some fun drone footage of this place in the video. The map books came out and preparations for a bit of adventure driving were put in place for the next day.

We ate some lime ants, had a simple dinner and enjoyed a very comfortable bed in a very special and extremely remote spot. 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Hweebe said:

Did you take it in turns with Mrs Drop bear?

She drove for about 2 hours out of Proserpine but I did the rest. I enjoy driving and have never fallen asleep or even come close. I am good at stopping when needed. Mrs DB was navigator.

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Hweebe said:

What did you say to Mrs Drop bear to make her get of the car and for you reverse the hell away  

haha she she saw a bird.  Its a great hobby for her and I am secretly saving up for a new camera lens for her. shhh... 

[Drop Bear]

1 hour ago, Hweebe said:

Awesome that you were able to snap a cassowary in the wild on the side of the road like that too!

Yep they are great and we were very happy to see this one. We did see one last trip down near Cow Bay in the Daintree as well but it will take me a long time to get sick of them. 

[Drop Bear]

Day 5 Drive to Bramwell Tourist Station

Camping $30 no booking required 07 4060 3300 https://www.bramwellstationcapeyork.com.au/junction-roadhouse/

https://www.bramwellstationcapeyork.com.au/

Now we were up here we wanted to explore. We had a very easy drive planned for Day 5 so had a leisurely breakfast and walked around the lake. The lime ants were everywhere as well as quail, doves, and so many water birds. Looking back across the lake at the lilies was very relaxing. There are not may photos in this report sorry. You will have to make do with the video in the first post.

I was disappointed that the car was so clean still. Oh well today would fix that for sure.

We headed north and stopped at the Chilli Beach turn off aka Portland Rd. I had been warned against going into Chilli beach without a lift kit and snorkel and it was a long way out of the way.

We had 2 map books. Camps 11 that I don't really rate as a map but has some good free camp options and Make Trax "Across the top" that has good information in it but doesn't have all the roads. So we were feeling we were running a bit blind and didn't want to push the car too far. We decided to head down Portland Rd as far as the Wenlock River Crossing that is described as "Eroded river banks will require low range". We would have a look and if it looked tricky turn back. If we could get through there were 2 tracks that we hoped we could loop back to the main road on. One was the Frenchman and the other was unnamed so I am calling it AFO Track.

The road was very good and recently graded. We got to the Wenlock expecting to have to turn around or at least walk it and make sure we could get out. We were surprised that it had been made into a shallow causeway not even "frog deep" (KNEEE DEEEEP) and we crossed without incident and on to have a look at the Pascoe River crossing that Make Trax said is "Usually cut up and may be deep". This was probably where we would need to turn around... but no. It also was a causeway and we glided across it. This crossing is in the video, it is the one where the car cruses across the causeway.

So lets keep going!

The Frenchman's track is reported to have a very deep water crossing at Wenlock River. Make Trax said "This crossing of the Wenlock River may be extremely difficult" so we didn't want to do that but the AFO track crossed the Pascoe, Wenlock and Rocky Creek and we were (I was) keen to see if they were doable. 

We saw an un-named track on the left that we thought might be the AFO Track but as we were not sure we kept going and wanted to check the odometer from this to the Frenchman's Track. We pulled up at the second track that was exactly the right distance from the AFO track. It was un-marked but 2 lifted 4WDs exited and we had a chat. They confirmed it was Frenchman's and advised us to not do it as the crossing was too deep without a snorkel. So back to AFO track. 

It well graded for most of the way in until we got to the extremely abandoned and remote Pascoe River HS (no idea what HS means soz). A very faded piece of corrugated iron with an arrow and "Crossing" spray painted on it told us to turn right. The road was now a rough bush track. It wasn't far until we came to the Pascoe River. It was fast flowing and looked shallow. I walked across it and it was quite level so we decided to give it a go. There was a steep rutted track on the other side that looked a bit hairy but what the hell. We dropped the tyre pressure to 22psi. Another car turned up to watch. They had a large camper and didn't want to attempt the crossing so had a fish while we set up the drone. Mrs DB filmed me crossing. It is in the video, the lowish drone shot of the back of the ute. I made it easily across but couldn't get up the bank on the other side... no winch/no further. 

So that was it for the days adventure. We pulled out the tyre pump and put them back to 40 psi. Headed back to PDR, turned right and headed north. The PDR continues on to Weipa and soon we hit the intersection and turned right on the Telegraph Rd. The road got worse from now on. The culverts were often washed out but all easily passable in first gear. The corrugated roads were still ok but getting worse and pretty extreme at times. I was traveling at 80 - 100kph depending on conditions. This helped a lot with the bumps and we always had plenty of time to slow down for bumpy corners or wash outs. 

We stopped for a dodgy coffee at Moreton Telegraph Station. It has a great large camping area with food and water etc. No phone or wifi but would make a nice quiet campsite. 

We took the right turn to Bramwell Station and followed in 3 caravans over the corrugated road for the 9km or so to the station. This is a very impressive set up. Large bar and tables and we booked in for dinner. They have live music every night and we picked our usual spot as far from everyone as we could get. It is a huge paddock and even though dozens of vans, campers and others filed in all afternoon there was plenty of space. They don't have cloths washing facilities so we did a dodgy bucket wash and hung out the cloths on the barbwire fence and a few ropes. We thought we saw a glimpse of a Palm Cockatoo down by the creek... not sure but...

The afternoon was spent in the chairs with a few cold ones staring out to the bush as the sun went down. Perfect.

That night we headed up to the bar with over 100 other people for happy hour and dinner. We got a talk from Ken who runs the station. He gave us a very interesting history lesson and lots of great info about this large cattle station. The QLD gov now own it and are removing all the cattle from it to make it a wildlife park/refuge. Info here https://arr.news/2021/08/18/queensland-government-buys-bramwell-station/

Dinner was a buffet, a very generous meal with loads of options, the overcooked rump steak was still yummy as well as the shepherd's pie, sausages, heaps of veggies and salads and lots more. 

They had a guy singing and playing the keyboard who was very talented and popular. He payed live music while we ate. Somehow I got roped into singing "Give me a home amongst the gum trees" out the front as part of the fun. I got a bar runner for my troubles but gave it to a kid we were sitting with who was very excited about it all.

I caught up with a mate Burn that I had no idea worked there. He is the Brother In-Law of Ken who runs the place. They, like many, are struggling to get enough people to work there, now that the backpackers cant get in with covid restrictions. They are all hoping this will change very soon. 

We snuck away to our warm comfy tent and heard a band strike up playing 80s and 90s rock. They were very talented so we missed out on that. oh well next time. 

Bramwell is a cracking place to stop and I would highly recommend it... That is if it is still there now the QLD gov' has it. 

As I went to bed I lamented that the car was still too clean... But tomorrow was the Old Telegraph Track and we hoped to see Gun Shot. 

 

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 6 Drive to Elliot Falls Camping via Southern Old Telegraph Track and Fuit Bat Falls

Permits through https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/jardine-river/camping/eliot-falls

A bit of a late start from Bramwell St'n and headed north. Today was Old Telegraph Track Day.

We were in our old 2011 4 door Hilux and it was pretty stock. There is no way you would put that down Palm Creek and Gunshot without getting damaged but we were really keen to have a look at the crazies doing it. 

Lots of Cruisers and Patrol type cars with lift kits, snorkels, big tyres and winches gave us some entertainment and they tried to break their cars. One of them broke the bulbar and it nearly came off as they were winching out. I wouldn't recommend it unless you were keen to do some fixing along the way. Amazing to see. There is lots of footage of others doing it on the video on the first post. 

 

Buggy Boy and Girl were there. Ready to have a crack but Buggy Boy was worried that because the engine was in the back of the vehicle he would roll. We didn't wait to see if they were gonna do it as there was a lot of kms between us and our bed. 

After Palm Creek we drove back to the the normal Telegraph track then north to the ranger station and took the dirt roads through the heathlands past endless grevilleas and countless lorikeets and honey eaters. The sand was a beautiful orange here.

 

 

We went left at the junction and then followed the old telly track to Gunshot. Gunshot is next level and no one had done it that day.

 

They were all taking the chicken run that is mental in its own right. Gunshot is a vertical drop into mud... Give it a go by all means but please be prepared. 

After watching a huge 4WD truck go down the chicken run

 

we headed back along the track to the junction at the ranger station and headed left. This takes you back to the Old Telly Track north of Gunshot. We followed this and crossed Cockatoo Creek (on the video).

 

Buggy Boy and Girl passed us along this section. The pristinely polished Quad was now covered in mud. I assume they did Palm and Gunshot or at least the chicken run. This took us back all the way to the normal Telly Track where we turned left and continued North.

Not far north is the turn off to Fruit Bat Falls (in the video). It is a wide waterfall that falls about 2m to a deep clear pool. An absolute must see. I recommend you don't get there till about 4pm as it is a very popular place. Buggy Boy and Girl were there when we arrived but left pretty much straight away and the last 2 blokes left soon after so we were lucky to have it to ourselves. We had a fantastic swim. No showers at Eliot falls so it was great to wash off the road grime (sorry fishes). 

 

A short bumpy and rutted but not too challenging drive along the Northern section of the Old Telly Track takes you over a causeway crossing and to the amazing campsite at Eliot Falls. This was the best campsite of the trip. Large, clean secluded private sites with fireplaces (we didn't have a fire). Toilet and good non potable water is available. We saw a purple necked turkey that we later learned is normal for up this way. He was very handsome. 

We had a very comfortable night sleep with the rushing sounds of waterfalls in the background, beckoning us to check them out the next day.

[Drop Bear]

Day 7 Drive to Punsand Camping at Cape York Camping

07 4069 1722 https://www.capeyorkcamping.com.au/ Bookings Essential!!! Very busy campsite.

After a leasurly breakfast we walked down to Twin Falls and Elliot Falls. Way too many people here for us so with a quick look we headed off on our leisurely drive to Punsand Bay. 

The roads are rutted and washed out but we had no time pressures so we enjoyed the drive. Across the Jardine on the very short ferry ride and back on the road. The roads north of the Jardine are excellent and well graded. 

We cruised through Bamaga and had a quick beer at the pub,

before flicking around a few soft plastics at the Seisia Jetty. I had a few follows from some Trevally with no hook ups. On pretty light line it was probably a good thing as I saw a person catch a small golden coloured trevally (not a Golden Trevally) and a massive bull shark chased it in. He was very lucky to get it onto the jetty. It was great to see this massive bull shark. He was huge. 

 

We cruised into Punsand Bay and were disappointed when our beachfront campsite turned out to be one up the back. It was still nice but we had been spoiled from Elliot Falls. Good toilets and showers here with laundry.

Punsand Bay has a cracking Bar and make very high level wood fired pizzas (just watch the flies). We enjoyed sunset beers overlooking the last of the day and made out the cape where we would be going to in the morning. 

[Drop Bear]

Day 8 Day Trip to the tip - second night at Punsand

In hindsight we were very clever to leave Punsand at about 7am to head to the Tip. The drive in is stunning. Rainforest and deep red soils.

 

As we got close 5 4WDs were leaving and we arrived at an empty car park. 

 

We walked over the hill and saw the famous sign letting us know we were at the most Northerly point in Australia. 

A few drone shots later it was time for a fish. I threw everything at them. Showers of mullet, jumping long toms, fish everywhere but nothing took the lures. I had a small follow from a small cod but it didn't hook up.

Lots of people were here now. I think we fished for about 2 hours? Time to head off. We drove out to Somerset Beach along a beautiful Road and saw the waters east of the Cape.

 

We followed some sand tracks out onto the beach and headed south following little beaches isolated by small low lying headlands... full of oysters (sorry for the oyster porn... not sorry :))

We ate 3 types here, Black Lip, Milkies and another I hadn't seen before. The Milkies were easily the most delicious. The Black lips had lest flavour and were tougher to chew and the little cupped ones were nothing to write home about. 

We followed a deeper forested track to the larger headland. It was crazy volcanic rock/lava. I had scrounged a few crabs and flicked some baits. These lasted seconds before I was busted off on the sharp rocks. So we are day 8 and fishless.......

We headed back to Punsand and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon before having a Mackerel Pizza that was delicious. The only problem was that the flies wanted it more than we did and I had to eat one handed while constantly wafting off the flies... hard to eat and drink one handed haha. 

Beers over a stunning sunset was a great way to end a extremely memorable day. 

[Drop Bear]

Day 9 Day Trip to TI staying at Bamaga 

Cape York Peninsula Lodge Tel: +61 7 4069 3050 reception@cypl.com.au

https://www.cypl.com.au/

Rooms $360ish per night. 

Day 9 was a very relaxing day. We packed up camp and crused into Seisia to meet the boat. Everything is casual and they just asked our names and ticked them off a list. No invoice required. 

The trip to TI is an easy run in the big boat. It was nice to see. We both agreed that if we were dropped here blindfolded that we would have no idea where we were. Could be the Whitsundays or anywhere north of Bundy really. 

TI jetty had loads of oysters on it and looked very fishy. Sadly we had not brought the rods. The tour was quick as it is a small place mostly covered in houses. We visited some big cannons on the hill that are very similar to the ones at fort Lytton. Then we visited the cemetery. This was really interesting to me as the stories of the many Japanese pearl divers that lost their lives trying to get rich was tragically sad. The older I get the more I realise that European settlement of Australia was not that long ago and it could easily have been me that headed up that way to find my fortune. 

We had a delicious Coral Trout burger and Mackerel fish and chips at the Top Pub, the most northerly pub in Australia. Very nicely done. 

Then we went to the art gallery and bought a few trinkets and a T-shirt. After all the carbs at lunch we were tired and lay under a palm tree near the harbour for a very relaxing afternoon nanna nap. 

Back on the boat and back to Seisia and to the Lodge at Bamaga. It was overpriced and simple with everything cheaply built and a bit dodgy. No wifi really... it just didn't work. Dinner was nice and we got to wash all our cloths in a big machine and dryer so all stocked up and ready for our return trip. 

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 10 Drive from Bamaga to Captain Billy Landing

Camping must be pre booked at https://parks.des.qld.gov.au/parks/jardine-river/camping/captain-billy-landing

After a quick breakfast, we packed up and were excited to be heading south again to a place we had never visited before. We decided to see a plane wreck on the way and stopped off at the Bristol Beaufort bomber crash site just south of Bamaga. My Grandfather had worked at Higgin's Airport during the second world war. It was known back then as Jacky Jacky. He wasn't enlisted but worked for the air force as an engineer. He said the airstrip had been strafed many times and the trees were all bare from this. All the barrels that were left behind were still there and we wondered if he had had to handle them. Its an easy drive in and we found it quite interesting. 

 We then headed on a nice easy drive south along the dusty roads. Lots of corrugation and dust. Same old same old really. The road has parts that are hard packed and like driving on bitumen and bits that are sandy and rutted out.

Back across the Jardine on the ferry. Its pretty deep here and there would be no way we would have made it across with out a ride. 

We found the turn off to Captain Billy's after a fair bit of map fondling and took the beautiful track out to the beach. It winds through rain forest and other vegetation. There is a great little lookout on the way and we got some drone footage here that is in the first video. Back along the track and soon spotted the blue water. It is a stunning outlook down into the open flat area that sits just above the beach. We camped up the Northern end thinking we would be away from everyone but the place quickly filled up but the neighbours were friendly and quiet. At low tide I walked around the headland and saw the bats that live in the caves. Mrs DB was a bit worried that the tide was coming in so missed out. I did catch a few crabs on the way for bait. On dusk I cast them out but didn't have any luck. I was really surprised as it looked very fishy. oh well. 

Though this site is exposed and normally very windy it is a great easy campsite and highly recommended. 

 

 

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 11 Captain Billy's to Weipa

Weipa Camping Ground Lot 172, Kerr Point Road

07 4069 7871https://www.facebook.com/weipacampground/

A short and simple drive (in comparison) from Captain Billy's landing to Weipa. We took the shortcut that saved us ages and the road was great. A few nasty washouts but otherwise in very good condition. Lots of creek crossings, plenty of cattle to avoid and dust to wade throught. We landed at the caravan park a bit early so had lunch at Albies. Good quality pub food with a nice view. After lunch we had a walk down at the beach and found some oysters! propper oyster reefs that non of the academics I have been talking too know about. They were pretty extensive. 

We headed to the campgrounds and had a prime location at the front overlooking the beach. 

Tomorrow is a boating day so we touched base and went and said hello. I bought 4 soft vibes and some bait and we planned to meet at 6am the next day. 

Spectacular sunset drinks while sitting at the camp made for a relaxing day. 

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 12 Day Trip - Fishing

5m - Booked. has ice and fuel $450 

We dry hired a boat from Tackleworld at Weipa. Its a nice Cairns Custom Craft 5.5m tiller. Well set up.

They give you a good briefing and heaps of marks are on the sounder. We headed out and tried a few drops around the beacons and trolled the channel for no love so headed out to a reef mark. 

We were trolling a deep diving lure with wire trace and a vibe on mono. The vibe got hit and Mrs DB pulled in a nice little school mackerel. 

We caught 3 more this way. 

I hooked a stack of reef fish but the tax man was vigilant and I only got one small tusky to the boat. 

The I saw a school of tuna swimming fast towards me. I grabbed the rod with the vibe and cast into the school. I was instantly on. So cool seeing the fish turn, shoulder out a few buddies and smash the lure. It was on a light rod and took ages to get in. Somehow the sharks didn't smash it and with the worst gaff shot in the history of gaff shots I pulled in the tuna with the gaff just holding onto a piece of skin... Some fish just wanna be caught I guess. 

We drove back in and headed up a few creeks looking for jack or barra. I got smashed by something toothy that looked like a queen fish and took our last vibe. There were jacks smashing baitfish on rocky ledges but they were not interested in the plastics or the micro jigs. 

up another creek we saw some huge crocs then headed home.

The park has a great fileting bench and bins for the frames so we were able to look after the fillets well. Sashimi yellowfin tuna was tough and not nice for some reason. oh well. so we ate one of the schoolies and had beautiful drinks watching the sunset. 

[Drop Bear]

Day 13 Weipa to Lakeland 

https://www.turalba.com.au/home 07 448602666 

Dust... and more dust. A long and mostly uneventful drive this day. The car had done well and it was nice to get off the dirt. 

 

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 14 Drive to Emerald

 

[Drop Bear]

Day 15 Drive to Brisbane

[Drop Bear]

Sorry for all the spam posts. I wanted to keep them all closer to to top and will edit them as I go. 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Nice reports @Drop Bear. Looking forward to reading the rest. Sounds like a great trip.

[benno573]

Awesome mate… 

[The Mad Hughesy]

great looking trip mate, its always been on my bucket list. maybe when the kids are older and will get some enjoyment out of it
no snorkel on the car? curious as to your thoughts on how the ute went and if youd make any mods for next time?

[Drop Bear]

17 minutes ago, christophagus said:

great looking trip mate, its always been on my bucket list. maybe when the kids are older and will get some enjoyment out of it
no snorkel on the car? curious as to your thoughts on how the ute went and if youd make any mods for next time?

Thanks, yes we had a great trip. Back about 15 years ago we took our kids around Aust for 3 months when they were 9 and 11. It was a great thing to do and I would encourage every family to do something like this. 

As for the car... Its really up to what you want to do. This was our first trip up that way. We wanted to see the place and have an adventure. Our setup was pretty much as basic as you can get with just a standard Hilux and a tent with eskis. We did pretty much everything that most 4wds could do and we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see. I don't regret not spending money on the car. If I went again... I don't know

If you are in a Patrol or Cruiser with a lift kit, big tyres, snorkel and winch you can do every bit of the tracks including CREB and Frenchman's as well as the water crossings at Gunshot and Dulcie River. We were not able to do these. As I type this, I haven't written it yet but we did get to Gunshot and watched people do Dulcie River so saw it all really but didn't do the drop ins. I don't feel that we missed out.

Where do you start and where do you finish? If we had a snorkel we could have done Frenchman's but we still crossed the same rivers just not at the parts as deep as Frenchman's. Even with a snorkel we couldn't do Dulcie and Gunshot. If we had a lift kit We would have been able to continue along the track that I have been calling AFO track, but we saw both ends of it. 

So... If I go again I would either do it with the Hilux as is or go all in and do the cruiser with lift kit, snorkel, winch and big tyres. 

[The Mad Hughesy]

17 minutes ago, Drop Bear said:

Thanks, yes we had a great trip. Back about 15 years ago we took our kids around Aust for 3 months when they were 9 and 11. It was a great thing to do and I would encourage every family to do something like this. 

As for the car... Its really up to what you want to do. This was our first trip up that way. We wanted to see the place and have an adventure. Our setup was pretty much as basic as you can get with just a standard Hilux and a tent with eskis. We did pretty much everything that most 4wds could do and we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see. I don't regret not spending money on the car. If I went again... I don't know

If you are in a Patrol or Cruiser with a lift kit, big tyres, snorkel and winch you can do every bit of the tracks including CREB and Frenchman's as well as the water crossings at Gunshot and Dulcie River. We were not able to do these. As I type this, I haven't written it yet but we did get to Gunshot and watched people do Dulcie River so saw it all really but didn't do the drop ins. I don't feel that we missed out.

Where do you start and where do you finish? If we had a snorkel we could have done Frenchman's but we still crossed the same rivers just not at the parts as deep as Frenchman's. Even with a snorkel we couldn't do Dulcie and Gunshot. If we had a lift kit We would have been able to continue along the track that I have been calling AFO track, but we saw both ends of it. 

So... If I go again I would either do it with the Hilux as is or go all in and do the cruiser with lift kit, snorkel, winch and big tyres. 

ive heard that you can basically get a 2wd car up there now. good to know a standard spec 4wd can have a great trip up, thanks

[Drop Bear]

5 hours ago, christophagus said:

ive heard that you can basically get a 2wd car up there now. good to know a standard spec 4wd can have a great trip up, thanks

Yep you could take a 2wd. Unless it was well built, I think it would rattle itself apart though. I saw 2 Porches doing it. Just had big tyres otherwise stock. I still have lots of days to fill in  lots of corrugations to come.  

[ellicat]

Just noticed you had been adding edits to this thread without anyone knowing. haha

Give the thread a 'bump' when you add to it via edits so we can all see the updated bits.

It's a great read, Robbie. I was visualising myself doing it as I read through. Did you have to do much walking to see a lot of the sights ?

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Good reports @Drop Bear