On The Way Up The Cape

23 June- After a 6 hour drive over the Great Dividing Range (with stops at a waterfall and a café) we arrived at Lakeland where we caught up with Nanna and Pa at the campground. It was good to see Nanna and Pa again, we now had all of our grandparent travelling with us.

 

 

There wasn’t much to do at this camp ground. Hamish had a great time playing with a pup that was there until it bit his foot and made him bleed.

24 June –We continued north, up the Cape York Peninsula, stopping to see some aboriginal rock art near Laura. We saw echidna, emus, tall (friendly) spirits, fruit bats and dingoes.  There was some carving on the wall that was over 13000 years old!

From Laura the road went from bitumen to red dirt and the road has been like that pretty much ever since.  It is very dusty so you have to be careful because sometimes you can’t see anything after a car has driven past. The road is rough and bumpy. The corrugations are so bumpy that the bolt out of the back door handle got shaken out. All along the side of the road there are lots of termite mounds.  Some of the termite mounds look like evil witch castles with black or red jagged turrets but others look like elephant backsides.

 

We drove into Lakefield National Park and had lunch at the old Laura Homestead.  There was an old rusty truck lying in the yard.

That evening we stayed at Kalpowar Crossing Campground where we went fishing beside the creek.  We had to be careful because crocodiles live there.  Grumps caught a small barramundi.

 

Old Laura Homestead

 

Fishing at Kalpower Crossing

 

June 25 – After another unsuccessful fishing trip the next morning we drove through the Lakefield National Park. There were again lots of termite mounds and at one point we drove through a big open plain which was a change from the bush we had been driving through. We stopped at a junction called Musgrave Roadhouse for morning tea. It was very hot.

We drove on to Archer River Roadhouse.  Some trucks turned up with half a house each on the back of them. They were driving them up to some aboriginal settlements.

We had a lovely shady grassy campsite and a short stroll down to the river.  We jumped in off the bridge and let the current take us under the bridge.  It was great fun and so cool in the heat.

Horses next to our campsite at Archer River

Hamish jumping from the bridge



 

June 26 – The next day we drove to Weipa. It is a mining town.  They mine bauxite which is made up of silica and alumina. They remove the silica in a centrifuge and then they can export the alumina on ships from the port to Gladstone where they put it in a smelter and make aluminium from it.

Weipa is not a very big place.  We camped by the seaside but we couldn’t swim there unfortunately because of the crocodiles.  Luckily we had a pool.

The first night we went to the Bowling Club so that some of the adults could watch the State of Origin after dinner.  While we were there, the television was showing that there was a ballot to see if Julia Gillard or Kevin Rudd was to be the new leader of the Labour Party.  We had not heard news for ages so it was good timing.

 

Sunset from our campsite at Weipa

June 27 - Next morning, the kids and Grumps and Dad got up early and went fishing.  Hamish caught 3 fish.  Finally a bit of good luck for Hamish. Grumps almost caught a flathead. No-one else had any luck though.  Will went fishing again later and saw a crocodile or two in the distance.

 

The other highlight of Weipa was Woolworths.  We stocked up on fresh food and we also stocked up on chocolate coated ice-cream.  Yum!

 

June 28 – After Weipa we headed up the red, dusty road again and ended up at Moreton Telegraph Station for morning tea (we had lamingtons!). Will got locked in the toilets.  Luckily, Ninny noticed him missing and let him out.  Moreton Telegraph Station used to be an important link in the Overland Telegraph line from Laura to the Cape.  It opened in 1887.

We made it to Bramwell Station by lunchtime. It is Australia’s northern most cattle station. It covers 1350 sq km (which is pretty big) and was once left to 2 aboriginals who worked the property called Jack and Rose Kennedy (same names as JFK’s parents.  He was a famous president of the USA.)  They were not allowed to own anything then because aborigines weren’t allowed but it was held in trust for them until the rules were changed.

Hamish accidentally burnt his foot by walking in the ashes of a fire that someone else must have had the night before.

Feeding the Brahmin Calves

 (Hamish is cooling off his burnt foot)

We spent the afternoon feeding the Brahmin calves.  They liked eating the leaves from a nearby tree.  We also watched a Brolga.  We weren’t allowed to go too close because it was very vicious and aggressive and would  have pecked us if it got the chance.

 

The aggressive Brolga at Bramwell Station

(there is a helicopter in the background for mustering cattle)

That night we ate a big steak which came from a cow that had grown up on the farm. Delicious.

29 June - We drove to Fruit Bat Falls for morning tea and because it was so nice ended up staying for lunch. After we left the main road, the track was narrow, rough and bumpy and we had to keep driving into the bush to let cars pass.

The falls were awesome. They looked amazingly beautiful and we jumped off the waterfall. This was great fun. Grumps lost his watch jumping off the water fall and when diving down to look for it found a bullet shell. But no watch. Above the falls was all flat rock which the river flowed over and was normally only ankle deep. In some spots there were little pools, some of them were over Dad’s head. A few of these were linked together to make the super-sonic water fall ride, Will’s name for the ride downstream.

 

Fruit Bat Falls

In the afternoon we drove to Eliot Falls. To get there we had to drive through a deep creek. The water came over the car bonnet and half way up the door. Nana and Pa and Ninny and Grumps need to put water bras on to make sure water didn’t get into the engine. We have a snorkel on ours and don’t need a bra. Bella says that this is really because their cars are girls and ours is a boy.

 

We had a look at Eliot Falls. Eliot Creek flowed over flat rock and was quite shallow. The falls were a big Vee shape where all the water flowed over to make a wonderful waterfall.

 

We also looked at the Twin Falls. There were a few waterfalls in a row. They were lovely to look at but not great for swimming as they were too shallow and small.

We spend the afternoon swimming at the Saucepan. There was a small slot waterfall, which was the saucepan handle. From the top it looked like boiling water with bubbles coming up everywhere. You couldn’t really see the water. We discovered that it was very deep (about 3m) and jumped off the water fall into it. Under the water there was a sandy bottom with rock walls all around you. There were no bubbles. It was very peaceful and Will said it made him feel free. When you came back up you got washed down the slot and you had to watch the rocks to make sure you didn’t get grazed because they were like sandpaper. (They were sandstone rocks). Eventually you got washed into a the pool that was 6m deep.

 

30 June – We spent the whole day at Eliot Falls. This day was adrenaline pumping. We started by jumping in the slot at the saucepan in the morning. Then we went for a short swim at Twin Falls, which is on Canal Creek. The water was a bit cloudy from the sand and there were lots of people so we went down stream to Eliot Creek and jumped off a 3m cliff and swam up to the falls. The water falls were about 3m high. We found a spot that we could jump into. This was daring and scary but lots of fun. Will nearly drowned when he tried to swim upstream into the water fall. He swam upstream underwater and when he popped up the surface was bubbling and it was hard to take a breath. Luckily he is a good underwater swimmer and headed under and back down stream to still waters. Later on Will missed the exit and got washed down the rapids. Luckily he doesn’t panic and managed to dodge the rocks in the rapids.

 

Bella jumping off Eliot Falls

In the evening we had a great campfire and cooked potatoes in foil and marshmallows in the coals.

1 July - We got up and packed up camp nice and early before going for another swim in Eliot Creek. We got to jump off the water fall another 3 times.

Today we drove along part of the Old Telegraph Track. The track allowed the telegraph poles and wire to be built and maintained. The telegraph line allowed Morse Code signals to be sent to people on the Cape. This has now been replaced by microwave transmitter (not microwave ovens).

 

Driving on the Old Telegraph Track

This is not the main road and is pretty rough. The road is slow, bumpy and corrugated. We had to drive across two creeks (Canal and Sam). This was pretty exciting and there was nice swimming holes at both of the creeks.

 

Walking the creek

 

 

Driving across Sam Creek

 



To get across the Jardine Rive we had to catch a ferry. The river was deep but not very wide. The ferry ride was less than five minutes.

 

The Jardine River Ferry Crossing

We stopped in Bamaga to buy some groceries. Bamaga was very dirty with rubbish everywhere. We then went to Seisia which is on the coast and had lunch overlooking the beach. We saw portable houses which are going to be used for an aboriginal housing project and we also two boys trying to spear fish. There was a big ship being unloaded of cargo. There were cars, excavators and lots of shipping containers, as well as people.

On the way to Punsand Bay we stopped at the Croc Tent. There was a baby pig out the front called Hambo. He was small cute, spotty and cuddly. Bella wanted to bring him home. The tent also had crocodile heads, kangaroo paw backscratchers, kangaroo scrotum key rings and cane toad purses.

Punsand Bay is a campground on the beach near the very tip of Australia. We will travel to the very next top in the next day or two.