We made it to the top of Australia! The trip from Cairns to the Tip has taken two weeks and we’ve had lots of fun adventures along the way. I have been keeping a few notes along the way to make sure that I didn’t forget our adventures. And so I am going to be lazy and just type up my daily recollections. I should note that this blog is doubling as a travel diary for us, as well as interesting (I hope) reading and photo viewing for everyone else.
19th Aug: Left Cairns today, after a false start – we left the dive booties on the washing line at the caravan park and so had to double back. Luckily we were only 30 km out of town. Our destination was Daintree Village with a quick stopover to hunt for Cassowaries at Mossman Gorge (no luck – only saw some droppings). Troopy got two more big things today – the (very) big Marlin in Cairns and the (not quite so) big Barramundi in Daintree. Check the big things page for photos.
20th Aug: Spent the day in the Daintree rainforest, doing a few short’ish walks between Daintree Village and Cape Tribulation. There were heaps of other tourists around – about 50-50 split between German backpackers at the northern limit of their rental campervan range and Aussies in very dirty cars returning from the Cape. Troopy is looking forward to resembling the latter soon.
21st Aug: The Cape adventure began for real today. Left the bitumen and travelled the Bloomfield Track from Cape Trip to Cooktown. No worries for Troopy, but there were some very steep parts where low range was required to control her momentum down the hills. Saw our first crocs in the Boomfield River (from a safe distance). We also stopped for lunch and a beer (Luke’s first XXXX) at the iconic Lion’s Den. We’re not quite sure what all the fuss is about. Just a nice’ish outdoor pub.
22nd Aug: Spent last night in Cooktown at a caravan park whose caretaker told me that I only believed in climate change because I am of “that generation” (not sure which one he was referring to) and had been brainwashed. He also thought that the World Bank could confiscate our World Heritage Sites if we defaulted on our foreign debts, so it was an interesting conversation to say the least. Cooktown was disappointing, as it resembled a bit of a ghost town. Clearly the extension of the bitumen to the town hasn’t resulted in the tourist boom they were hoping for. Great coffee at the botanic gardens, though. Arrived in Lakefield National Park at a lovely camping spot at 12 Mile Crossing – check the photos, but I’m not sure they do the site justice.
23rd Aug: Relaxing day at camp. Did some good bird watching. A dead fish washed up in the river within view of the camp and a family of Whistling Kites and another of Sea Eagles have been devouring it all day.
24th Aug: Moved on to northern Lakefield NP. Drove through the Nifold Plain, which is a treeless, grassy plain dotted with large termite mounds. Amazing landscape.
25th Aug: Left Lakefield NP and drove to Coen, our first “real” town of the Cape. I can sum it up with the following observations – people are few and petrol is getting expensive. Camped at a lovely spot in the dry riverbed just out of town.
26th Aug: Moved on to our next national park – Mungan Kandju. This one is a bit more off the beaten track, with a long’ish drive in to the first campsite. We camped at Pandanus Lagoon, a wetland with lots of birds (and mozzies).
27th Aug: Very hot, humid and mozzie filled day. A little bit over the Cape today, but thank goodness for the solar shower. So far we have gotten the following radio channels: Radio PNG, Radio NZ and less frequently, Radio National (???).
28th Aug: Our spirits have been restored today with a stop at Archer River Roadhouse. We have just chilled out in their grassy camping area after much needed showers and two loads of washing. Had a small world moment when our neighbours turned out to be a family, whose Dad Luke worked with years ago at SA DEH – made plans to drop in when we’re in SA. Troopy also make friends with a cow (see photos).
29th Aug: Headed into Iron Range NP today. This is a really interesting part of Oz, since it’s actually more like PNG than anywhere in Australia. Iron Range is home to a whole stack of species that occur only there and in PNG, including Luke’s and my old favourite from PNG days, the Eclectus Parrot. We camped at Chilli Beach and both the climate (hot, humid and threatening to rain) and the sounds and smells reminded us both of the PNG islands. We witnessed an amazing spectacle this evening. Just on dusk, flocks of starlings started flying in to a very small island just 100 m off the beach. They just kept on coming and joining the ever growing flock, which swept and soared about the island, just like a strangely coordinated dance. We estimated there were over 10,000 birds when the flock was at its biggest. Luke tried for some photos, which give the idea, but again, don’t do the spectacle justice.
30th Aug: Did a small day trip in Iron Range NP and went into the rainforest to go birding. Our efforts were rewarded with some excellent birds including the Trumpet Manucode, Magnificent Riflebird (female), Frill-necked Monarch and our old friend the Eclectus Parrot. All up we added 15 new species to our total bird list. Luke is still looking for the Palm Cockatoo, though. I should note that Chilli Beach itself was a bit gross – it smelt pretty sickly from rotting seaweed swept in off the nearby reefs and there was lots of rubbish washed up (I suspect washed in from the big floating plastic mass that circles the Pacific Ocean – check out the photos, which provide good incentive for all of us to think carefully about what we buy and how we dispose of it. Ok, I’ll get off my high horse now J).
31st Aug: A long day in the car today to cover some miles to get us closer to the Tip. Left Iron Range NP and made it as far as Bramwell Junction. This is where travellers make the choice between the hard core 4WD Old Telegraph Line or the Bypass Roads, which are less hard core, but very corrugated. We hedged our bets and headed up the OTL to check out the first creek crossing. We decided that it was a bit much for us and were worried that Troopy’s bull bar would bottom out on the very steep drop i.e. we chickened out. Spent the night at the creek and will head to the Tip on the Bypass Roads tomorrow.
1st Sept: We reached the Top today, which coincidentally marks the anniversary of 5 months on the road. We ended up doing a little bit of the northern section of the OTL to access Fruit Bat Falls, where we had a really, really nice swim. To get back to the Bypass Rd we carried on along the OTL, doing 3 creek crossings that submerged Troopy up to the bull bar (which the height of my backside, for those that don’t know Troopy). After this we headed straight for the top. Troopy got us within 500 m and we then trudged up the spine of the very northern end of the Great Diving Range and took the obligatory photos at the Tip (see below). Nice view over the Torres Strait from the top and we also spotted a couple of turtles in the channel.
2nd Sept: Up until today, we have been totally without incident on our around Oz adventures. But that all changed today when, within 10 minutes, Troopy got hit by a car and then totally bogged in sand! We were travelling along a very soft sandy track and pulled over to let another car by. They were gunning it through the sand, obviously trying not to get stuck, and unfortunately (for them) misjudged how fat their car was and clipped Troopy’s back bumper bar. Luckily (for us) there was no damage to Troopy, but they got a ding in their front fender. We carried on along the track, but had lost our momentum in pulling over and got totally stuck in the sand. After letting the tyres down, digging the wheels out and pushing Troopy (both of us had a go, with Luke being more successful) we managed to free ourselves and escaped! Interestingly, we were on the way to see the grave of Frank Jardine who was known by the locals as “debil, debil Jardine” because of his terrible treatment of the local Aborigines and Islanders. Debil debil is said to haunt the area, so after the bingle and bogging we didn’t want to take any more risks and were hastily out of there without any more discussion about what a bastard Jardine sounded like!!
Tomorrow we are starting the return journey south, retracing some steps and also taking some new tracks. We’re expecting to be in the Atherton Tablelands in about a week, so I’ll try for another update then. In the meantime, some photos are on flikr.
Click here for photos
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