The tippy top of Oz

Hello Everyone from the top of Australia,

Well, we were there a few days ago but have now started our trek south. Continuing on from my last blog, we left Laura (where the rock art was) at 8.55 am on Friday 5th June and hit the dirt at 8.57 am and, except for small sections of bitumen, we are still on the dirt. Or should I say dust. That's all it is really: dust and more dust on top of rock solid clay which, when wet, all turns into mud!! But we have been so lucky with the weather. It has rained, but it has usually been after we've set up and occasionally we have driven while it has been spitting, which is OK as it dries off almost straight away. When we bought the Mazda, we did have the paintwork protection done and I think that has really paid off. Below is a photo of our car and our current neighbors' Ford Ranger. Even they were impressed with how clean our car looked. 

After Laura we stayed at a lovely free road side stop right next to a small creek, just north of Coen. There's no water or power, but it is very popular! It's called The Bend road side camp and it's just lovely. We are hoping to stay there again on our way south, but our current neighbors stayed there a few days ago and said it was packed out. The southerners are heading north and in a few weeks time it is the Qld, NSW and Victorian school holidays for 2 weeks - all at the same time! I think we'll need to find somewhere to hide for 2 weeks!

The Bend campsite- very popular!

After 2 nights at the Bend, we headed 205 km north to a place called Schramm Creek. This is a free camp just north of the Moreton Telegraph Station, which we did call into but decided not to stay. Once we were set up at Schramm Creek and as there was no one here at the moment, we decided to take account of our alcohol. There are very tight restrictions and huge penalties on what you can carry in FNQ, whilst travelling in or around aboriginal lands. The limit is 30 beers (which is handy as XXXX Gold is package as a slab of 30) and 2 bottles of wine, and the penalty, if over, is around $42,000 and they confiscate your car! We had way more than that- for a start we bought two slabs of XXXX Gold in Cooktown thinking it would take us a few weeks to get to the top. Well, we left Cooktown 5 days ago and we will be on the Jardine River Ferry tomorrow, so the restrictions will be enforced. OMG, what will do with all our extras: a slab (30) of XXXX Gold, 6 bottles of wine/sparkling, 2 bottles of scotch, a bottle of bacardi and a bottle of gin. We had a slab of XXXX Gold, a bottle of champers and a very expensive bottle of pinot noir (to drink after we had been to the top), but we needed to hide the rest. Aahh, HIDE..... so we dug 2 huge holes and placed the slab in one and the bottles in the other, then covered them with dirt, leaves and branches.... and hoped no one would find them. "Look, there's alcohol gold in those, them free camp sites!!" The things we do...

So we left the following day, happy in the knowledge we were almost to the top and we had enough grog for awhile... and then we hit a wild pig! Yep, he came out of nowhere and hit the bottom of our bull bar, near the side of the number plate, went under the car and Anthony said he saw it scurrying off the road from the other side of the car. We stopped to take a look and nothing was broken, just the corner of the number plate was pushed in. You can see where he hit the bull bar as there is a scuff mark, but we were very lucky. Anthony said he could probably smell the beer we buried. I kept saying "we hit a pig" in the same tone as the ad "we bought a Jeep". 

Crossing the Jardine River 

Soon we were crossing the Jardine River on the ferry, which must be the most expensive ferry ride in Australia. The river is about 30 metres wide, the ferry is smaller than the Swan Reach ferry and it costs $129 return for our car and van. You literately are on the ferry for 4 minutes- total! We thought there would be a huge que, but we were the only ones waiting and the ferry had just left the other side! You can be lucky sometimes, as there were heaps of cars in the car park!

That afternoon (Monday 8th June) we arrived at Loyalty Beach Caravan Park, which is 31 km from the tip. This is a lovely caravan park, right on the beach, but you just pick where you want to set up. We headed to the back section of the park, away from the beach front as that was packed. 

The following day we drove to the tip. We left our site at 10.10 am and drove the 31 km, arriving at the car park at the tip at 11.15 am. The road is basically one lane for about 20 km with tropical vegetation on either side, so you go around corners expecting to meet someone coming the other way. We sort of fell in behind 2 other 4WD's who were travelling together so the front car would CB the second car when a car was coming and we would hear them and would know to expect a car too! We ended up walking to the tip with these people and we took photos of each other, and I was very thankful to them for their CB messages. 

Following the car on the one lane section to the tip

Anthony leaves the car park

Once you get to the car park, there is still about a 1.5 km walk to the tip over boulders and rocks. You climb over one section thinking this will be the tip, to only find another lot of boulders! But the one thing that kept taking my breath away was the colour of the water- it was turquoise blue and just so inviting!! Reaching the top was great and we walked back a slightly different way so we would end up on the beach. It was a lovely day.

The next day we did a full day tour of Thursday and Horn Island. Both tours were very interesting as there is a lot of history on both islands about WWII. The people taking the tours were very passionate and informative which made the tour worthwhile. I think we had the better tour guide on Horn Island- she was a wealth of information! On the ferry ride back from Horn Island to Thursday Island, we had 2 Customs officials sitting near us and also 4 cops with a girl, whom I would allege, was under arrest. Well, after 20 questions to the Customs girls, it was 20 questions for the police!! Both were really nice about it, and quite funny, and I think the other passengers (and the arrestee) appreciated it!! 

After a 4th day at Loyalty Beach (a rest day- yay!), we headed south, back to Schramm Creek- and the buried grog. It was all there- still buried- not a branch out of place. We had to dig it out with our hands because if we used the spade we might break something, and we weren't gonna loose it now!! The bottles were covered with damp soil as it had rained while we were away, and the slab box was a bit soft, but we were able to carry it all back to the van and wash it with the outdoor shower hose. What a relief!

Yesterday we drove from Schramm Creek to Weipa, where we are still. The roads around here are very similar to the ones going north- some sections are just brilliant- you can go 80 km/hr no probs- and other sections are full of corrugations, look and feel like they have never been graded and are just awful! So we have found out, it's all to do with which council the road goes through. Some a bigger on grading than others, and you can tell. But as Anthony says, it just makes the driving more interesting. He's enjoying it a lot, so that's a good thing!!

Well, that's it for now. We'll be back in touch with a few more stories in a week or so's time! xxx

Quinkan Aboriginal Artworks

Hello Everyone,

Well, have we had the best time over the past week. On leaving Mareeba we headed North to a place called Palmer River. This is where the Queensland gold rush started in the late 1800's, but now it is just a roadhouse. As it is about 160km north of Mareeba, we decided this would be a good place to stay for a couple of days.

While we were setting up, 2 ladies were getting into their car and mentioned that "you need to try the hamburgers- they're enormous!". OK, we thought- that's our 'lunner' (lunch and dinner) meal for today (as the kitchen is open all day, with it being a roadhouse).

But before we had 'lunner', I cranked out 4 loads of washing as the weather was lovely (not being on the coast any more, the weather had dried out and there was no rain or humidity) and Anthony set up the both satellite dishes as we needed internet and TV. Well, that always gets people to come over and take a look and one person to do that was our next door neighbor, Rick. Rick is living in a huge bus at the moment as he is trying to organize gold mining licences, but has not been able to get his satellite to work since Christmas. Along comes Anthony and in about 10 minutes he has Foxtel and TV coverage. As a thank you, he gave us 2 bottles of wine (a chardonnay and a pinot noir). When he gave them to me he did say "enjoy, but pack them well as they're worth a few dollars". I googled the label, Banjo's Run, and we are talking about a pretty expensive thank you!! We thought the price shown (about $300) was for a dozen, but it is actually each!!! On chatting to Rick later over a beer (!), we found out he is a very experienced business man and it was a pleasure to meet him. Lovely person number 1.

THE burger - $12.00

We stayed at Palmer River Roadhouse for 2 days and we did have the hamburger and it was de-lic-ious!! We also needed to do some repairs on our bed!! When I lifted our bed up to get a clean set of sheets out of the storage area, the whole bed moved. The bed frame hadn't been screwed into the wooden base where the studs were, so Anthony needed to fix it up. We had the mattress and the frame out of the van on the table and I was telling people we were sleeping outside tonight! It was all fixed in about 15 minutes though and I was able to remake the bed again. Not that happy with JB Caravans again though.

On Saturday 30th May we left Palmer River and headed to Cooktown. Now Anthony and I really liked Cooktown. It is a small tropical country town but it is beautifully kept. The streets are wide and the amenities basic, but it is a lovely place. There's 2 pubs, 3 bottle-o's, a pizza place, 3 caravan parks, a hospital and a brilliant IGA. We walked to wharf area on the second day and picked up a fresh 1 kg bag of tiger prawns for $25 and had them for 'lunner' that afternoon. We also visited Captain Cook's house which was very well restored (Cook ran aground here and stayed for 7 months fixing the 'Endeavour'). The house itself was a nunnery back in it's day, but it now has information, artifacts  and stories about the Nuns, Captain Cook and the local aboriginal people.

Captain Cook's Museum and the 'Endeavour's' anchor

We stayed in Cooktown for 3 days and on the third day, we got new neighbors at the caravan park. First, Joe and Karen arrived and they live on the Sunshine Coast. Next to them was Bill and Catherine from West Beach. Both couples were lovely and we had beer o'clock together in the camp kitchen area that night. It was fantastic. Lovely people number 2.

And guess who found the last 2 bottles of Jansz in Cooktown - 

and it was cheaper than Cairns!!

On Tuesday 2nd June we headed 31 km's south of Cooktown to Lions Den. Now, a lot of people had told us about this place and we were so lucky to get a spot when we rocked up. As it was only 31 km from Cooktown, we arrived at about 9.30 am, and we got the last spot in the park. Everyone else has pre-booked or were staying there already so we were very lucky. The pub here does all day pizza's so of course we had one for 'lunner'. They're so big we only needed to order one and it was fantastic. I'm so glad I bought heaps of groceries at Coles in Cairns 'cause we certainly aren't eating at home a lot! We don't even eat out this much when we're at home!!

Welcome to the Lions Den Hotel (and pizzeria!)

Yesterday we left Lion's Den (we only stayed 1 night) and drove to Laura- a whole 120 km away!! We dropped into the Quinkan Cultural and Arts Centre on our way here and the man suggested staying at the campgrounds behind the pub in Laura. He also told us about the tours they do and we booked in to do a morning tour of some rock art for this morning. Late yesterday afternoon we met Wayne and Margie who were parked next to us and were preparing their car for a 'quick' trip to the top (up and back in 4 weeks). They were leaving their camper at the pub and needed to put everything for the trip in the back of their vehicle. Such a great couple. We had drinks with them at the pub before we had dinner - lamb shanks were on the menu so I couldn't say no! Yet another meal out though!
Lovely couple number 3.

Today we went on the rock art tour and it was spectacular. The rock art was done by the Quinkan people and they are probably some of the best and most well preserved aboriginal rock artworks in Australia. The tour took us onto private property on a dusty scrub track that no one would know about except the owners and the guides. The art work was very well preserved and is situated in recessed rock that has protected it from the sun and rain. We went on the tour with a lady from France so it was just the 3 of us and Steve, the guide, let us stay as long as we needed to get photos and ask questions (of which I had tons!) Lovely man number 4. 

Quinkan aboriginal rock art

And just this afternoon, while I have been doing this blog, a couple from Renmark have pulled up next to us (at the back of the pub). Kevin and Ruth are just fantastic- ex truckie and ex quarantine worker (road side quarantine station near Renmark). We just keep meeting these lovely people. (I truly think this is karma from us meeting that awful lady at Mareeba). Lovely couple number 5.

That's all for the moment folks. Tomorrow we will be heading further north so I'll be in touch soon!!