Sunday 17th June - Saturday 23rd June 2012 - Umagico - Cairns

We left around 10am from Umagico and headed just out of town (after a spot of food shopping) to Mutee Head which is only 20km south! We found a camp spot right by the beach and then we went exploring!
We saw a found an old rusted radar station from WW2 amongst the trees.

The light wasn't the best but I'm sure that you get the picture!

The beach at Mutee Head

We then went exploring along some 4WD tracks towards the Jardine River. We met a couple Hannah and Ashley from Capel. We ended up sending time talking with them for over 3 hours or more and having lunch there. They were over with their dogs on a 5 week adventure across the centre and up to Cape York.

We got back to camp and set up. Whilst I had dinner on the go Ed went for a fish (how unusual) with Thomas. He noticed around the point from where we were camping that a croc had its eye on them both (probably more like Thomas). Ed got Thomas to move up the rocks further away from the water and then they both threw it in. We had a lovely evening listening to the sounds of the ocean and the birds in the bush!

Olivia with a huge seastar (aka starfish) on the beach at Mutee Heads

We took off the next day and drove south on the Developmental Road towards Lockhart River in the Iron Range National Park. On the way we stopped at Bramwell Junction for a fuel top up and a quick stretch of our legs. The ant hills on the side of the road were huge! These ones are big but I liked the magnetic ant mounds - they are grey black in colour and are tall and thin and are orientated north south. They remind me of old castle ruins.

We drove on down the Portland Road Rd and after crossing the Wenlock River we stopped and camped for the night high up on the river bank. It was a nice place to camp - especially once the mosses went for the night.

Next day as we were packing up our bad zipper on the trailer cover decided to really crap itself (just what you need when you are driving in red dirt and crossing rivers!) Ed strung it together and added it to the list of repairs that we needed to do in Cairns. We drove on to Lockhart River where there was lots of poorly cared for dogs roaming the streets and houses and cars in a poor state. As we were getting petrol Ed noticed that our anderson plug at the back of the car had been ripped off on the road or a river or a bridge somewhere. After a bit of searching we were directed to the local policeman (Matt) who gave us a plug and even fitted it for us on his day off. What a nice guy!

We left Lockhart River and headed into Chili Beach. We met some nice fellow campers where we stopped to camp for the night which was a short stroll to the beach. Unfortunately it was not the best day weatherise and we were a bit blown away. 

We enjoyed a lovely walk on the beach - we even found a Nautilus Shell! I returned to camp to get organised for dinner whilst Ed and the kids continued to explore. If it was less windy we would have stayed longer but as the forecast wasn't looking like it would improve we decided to stay just the 1 night.

Chili Beach - not looking it's best on a windy, overcast day

We left Chili Beach and drove around to Portland Beach the next morning. There is a cafe there that apparently leaves up great seafood lunches and dinners. It is a pretty bay and it was a shame we couldn't camp there instead as it was far more sheltered from the wind.

We drove on back out the the Developmental Road which took around 2 hours or more.

We had a couple of deeper river crossings and heaps of small ones along the way.

Crossing the Wenlock River. Just after this photo it got deeper!

We drove onto Coen for a late lunch and a fuel fill before hitting the road again down into Lakefield National Park. It was getting late but we managed to find a camp spot at Hanns Crossing on the riverbank. I was back in croc warning mode - it back fired on me as Olivia woke up in the middle of the night and after a toilet stop could stop talking aloud about a croc coming into the tent to get her! the sounds she was hearing were bats flying around, fish jumping in the water and cows mooing on the other sire of the river. Thomas was the only one who slept through it - the rest of us were very tired the next day! The Lakefield National Park was beautiful with loads of waterhole dotted throughout the park as well as a couple of major rivers flowing through it. The water levels we still so high that the park didn't open until 1st June. 

Breeza Waterhole, Lakefield National Park

The next day we packed up and headed into Cairns for our car service and repairs. In Lakeland, where we stopped for lunch, I managed to get online and arrange all our service stops. We drove into Cairns late Thursday arvo and managed to sort the zipper problem out easily (just needed a $5 zipper tag thank god!) and the mechanic was happy to do both the car and trailer as well. The air bags we not working properly at the rear of the car. The ARB people in Perth had not installed them correctly. ARB Cairns couldn't fit us in so they told Ed how to fix it and luckily the simple fixit job he did worked. Happy days! Needless to say Ed was busy all day with the car and trailer so I hung out at the caravan park doing school work, having a swim and playing with the kids all day.

Saturday was spent packing up and doing a huge shop for food and supplies before heading off inland again.

We drove up to Barron Gorge for a quick look before heading back through Cairns and up into the Atherton Tablands. We camped at Danbulla State Forest by the Tinaroo Dam. It's a very nice spot. Although the temperature was cooler at night so it is back into the winter PJ's at night!

Saturday 9th 2012 - Eliot Falls to the Tip of Australia

We left Eliot Falls and drove with Graeme and Sue further along the Telegraph Track.

Ed and I near an old telegraph pole on the Telegraph track

Luckily we had some guidance along the way from another group of 4WD people who were doing the whole track. (We later found out that one of their group wrecked a 2011 Landcruiser on the final water crossing!)
The first crossing (Canal Creek I think) was rather hairy but we made it across. Water was splashing up onto the bonnet and I was holding on tight. Ed did a great job getting across.
The track continued on with areas where the track had washed away as well as some very rocky areas.
The next crossing was Sam Creek (I think). After another walk through Ed crossed us over again successfully.
Graeme and Sue crossed first so they have some photo's of us crossing. It was fun however that was the extent of our crossings on the Telegraph Track.
We drove along further and near Mistake Creek we moved back onto the Development Track to continue on up to the Jardine River Ferry Crossing. The short 5 minute river crossing on the barge cost us $99.
We drove on through to Injinoo (where I want to take the kids for a school visit), Umagico and Bamaga. We then took the road up to the tip of  Australia - Cape York (Pajinka). Along the way we stopped at 'The Croc Tent' which is a souvenir come information shop along the side of the road. We then had a beautiful drive through rainforest to get to the tip of Australia. We have now also ticked of the northern most point! The tide was way out and we climbed over rocks to get there.

The sign says it all!

We had lunch there before driving to Somerset Beach with is east of Pajinka. We found a campsite less than 50m from the beach. (We camped there Sat 9th - Mon 11th June) It is so cruel that the water looks so good and so inviting, however there are crocs in the water so it's a no go zone!

It felt like we had landed on a tropical beach. At either end of the beach there were mangroves so Ed found an old crab pot, fixed the holes and put it out with some bait. Fingers crossed!

We went to sleep listening to the sounds of the waves on the beach. 

Sunday 10th June
Another lazy day next to a tropical beach - so hard to take!
We enjoyed a lazy day walking on the beach, fishing, playing cards, updating the blog etc.
Ed caught us a beautiful coral trout which we baked for dinner (see below) and to everyones amazement and excitement we caught a mud crab in the mended crab pot!
Ed and I enjoyed a yummy lunch of freshly caught mud crab.

Charlotte loved the blue spots on the trout!

Another day in paradise!!!!! 

Charlotte found it hard to go to sleep as she was excited - it is her birthday tomorrow!
Monday 11th June
Happy Birthday to our beautiful Charlotte Rose - 10 years old today! Thomas and Olivia had done some beautiful pictures for her and she got some cash from Nonnie & Poppi and Granny. We gave her a new tankini with matching boardies, a dress and some surfie bangles. An extra treat was $10 for turning 10!

Our beautiful 10 year old!

I just like this photo of the kids.

Ed and the kids on Somerset Beach

We packed up at leisurely pace and moved on into Seisia for a couple of nights. It was a bit on the expensive side but we were camping right next to the beach - apparently the resident croc isn't interested in campers!

We managed to find a small chocolate cake in the Seisia Supermarket for Charlotte's birthday- it's amazing what you can do with some jubes, banana lollies and fruit sticks!!!

Ed took us all down to the jetty and the kids were very good (especially Charlotte) at catching bait fish for Ed to use. Unfortunately like everyone else on the jetty (including the locals) we were not successful. Ed tried early the next morning with Charlotte and he missed a few. One person caught a Trevally which they didn't want so we enjoyed a yummy fish dinner on our second night.

Ed and the kids on the Seisia Jetty

We did some exploring of the WW2 sites around the area. Cape York was a strategic base used by Australia and the USA in the fight against Japan in WW2. Lots of soldiers and airmen were based up here. Unfortunately a few aircraft crashed killing both Australians and Americans. 

A wreck of a DC3 that crashed killing all on board.

The next day we moved to Umagico Campground (Alau Beach) which was a nicer place (grassy sights and shady trees next to a sheltered bay). The added bonus was that kids under 12 were free!

We stayed there from Wednesday 13th - Sunday 17th June just fishing, walking on the beach, doing school work and relaxing some more. Nice life! Ed made friends with our neighbours at the campsite (Chris and Pam) and he ended up going out on their boat for a few days of fishing. Thanks Chris.

Whilst many got away, this yummy 4kg coral trout was caught. It was a yummy dinner that night! And it was nice to have some other smaller fish to freeze for dinner another day.

The sunsets on the beach were beautiful. We enjoyed watching them every night. The colours were amazing. I was as usual on hyper croc alert in the evening and at high tide especially when we did this. 

We had planned to try and get over to Thursday Island for the day however a just the ferry tickets were going to be $400 for us all so we decided that we would just look at it from afar!

We enjoyed stopping for a while and chilling out in the sun in Cape York.

Friday 8th June 2012 - Archer River - Eliot Falls

We left Archer River after a relaxed start to the day and drove onto Fruit Bat Falls. What a lovely oasis! We enjoyed a swim there before having lunch followed by another refreshing swim after lunch. It was a nice place to float around and forget about everything whilst under the falls!

The kids and I at Fruit Bat Falls

Fruit Bat Falls

After a second swim we drove onto Eliot falls. We had to take part of the telegraph track to get there. Our first real water crossing came upon us and Ed took a bit of time to work out his line. Another couple (Graeme & Sue) came along and we crossed together which was reassuring. It was quite deep at one point. Ed got us across and we headed into Eliot and Twin Falls to camp for the night.

Eliot Falls

Twin Falls

Both the falls were beautiful and we enjoyed another swim before dinner at Twin Falls.
After dinner Ed cooked us a damper which we enjoyed for breakie the next day.

Thursday 7th June 2012 - Split Rock - Archer River Roadhouse

We got up early and had a quick breakie before taking off to explore the Aboriginal Art at Split Rock. The sunrise over the rocky hills was beautiful.

Split Rock

There were three sites with Aboriginal paintings within an easy walking distance from the car park.

The sites were Split Rock, Flying Fox and the Tall Spirits. Each site had different paintings which were quite easily identifiable. It was a lovely start to the morning.

The Echidna at the Split Rock Art Site

Pictures of women at the Flying Fox Art Site

A tall spirit at the Tall Spirit Art Site

We then took off northwards. We stopped at Hann River Roadhouse and had a chat to 2 Victorian families heading back southwards. They told us a few of the fuel prices so we decided to top up the tanks at Hann River at only $1.75/l! There was a friendly emu there who enjoyed our apple cores almost before we were ready to give them to him!

We continued on and made our way to Coen which is commonly referred to as the 'Capital of the Cape.' We bought some food there and topped up the fuel tanks again. 

There is a hotel in town called, 'The Exchange,' which for a long time now has been known as the 'Sexchange Hotel.' It is so iconic that they changed their sign out the front and everyone calls it, 'The Sexchange.'

We drove just out of town to a place called, 'The Bend,' where we stopped under some shady trees by the river for lunch. Whilst we were there Thomas and Charlotte spotted a small python in the river. 

After lunch we drove on and camped at Archer River Roadhouse. They had this big open grassed area where we camped for the night. We got there before the rush. There was around 30 cars camped for the night! Most were heading south. A few cars had mechanical issues which were serious however there was a mechanic also camping there who helped out. Thank god it wasn't us in trouble!

There was a river flowing down from the camp area and across the road. We went for a dip which was refreshing after a long day in the car. The water was only knee deep and we were assured that no crocs were present. I as usual was not totally convinced but as we were not the only ones in the water I felt sort of safe!

The Archer River

The kids played with some other children before dinner and then we had a relaxing night planning the next step in our adventure. I also enjoyed a hot shower whilst it was available!

Wednesday 6th June 2012 - Mareeba to Split Rock

Ed got the car in to have the new rear window fitted. I spent the morning doing school work with the kids. We all walked into town (the caravan was 3km away from where the car was being fixed). The kids and I got out of the sun into a McCafe to play and have lunch whilst Ed picked up the car.
When we got back to the caravan park he covered a thick piece of foam with a tarp and covered our rear window as extra protection and bought some rubber to extend the mud flaps on the rear tyres.
We drove as far as we could before making camp at Split Rock.
We were glad to be heading north again.

We had a beautiful sunset with the full moon shining brightly overnight.

Tuesday 5th June 2012 - Cooktown to Laura (sort of)

Charlotte took these photo's of a green tree frog last night. It was on the wall near the kitchen where we were having dinner last night.

High tide was in the morning around 7am so Ed and Charlotte went down to have a go. Charlotte caught some live bait for Ed to use. He had loads of big bites but like most people on the jetty not much luck. One of the guys caught a Barracuda and as he was bringing it in a large groper ate it and the line! Apparently he is one of 5 Gropers who hang out at the jetty.
We left around 10am in glorious sunshine and headed down the 4WD track towards Laura and then we were going to see how far we got before we made camp.
They were doing work on the road, however the track which Ed referred to as a 'goat track,' when he last travelled it, was a wide well graded road. We had a lovely drive crossing rivers with me being glad to spot crocs from the comfort of our car!
We made our way to the Old Laura Homestead which had displays of the history of the settlement in the area. We had lunch there and met yet another family (this time from Canberra) who had sold up and were travelling for a year and looking for a new place to move to.
After lunch we made our way back out to the main Peninsula Development Rd heading north towards Musgrave or Coen. unfortunately we heard a bang and then noticed dust in the car. Yes we had shattered our rear window. Luckily we were near a homestead so we had coverage. A council worker from Cooktown stopped and advised us that it would be better to return south to Mareeba. So after sorting it out with our insurer at 4pm we turned southwards and drove to Mareeba which is in the vicinity of Cairns. What a bummer!
The only nice thing about the afternoon was the beautiful ranges as the sunset on our drive towards Mareeba.

There goes 250km. Ed was tired when we finally got into town.
We managed to book the car into be fixed for 8am tomorrow.
It was a KFC dinner and bed. It was a long day in the car for us all.

Monday 4th June Noah Beach - Cooktown via 4WD track

We packed up and got on the road around 9am. The beach looked beautiful as we were leaving. We continued along the road up towards Cape Tribulation where we stopped to see the beach and take a walk out to the viewing platform (a short rainforest walk) to see the whole beach.

Enjoying Cape Tribulation

Another beach just down the road from Cape Tribulation.

We had a lovely drive around around to Cooktown. It was far more hilly than I realised with some of the hills being very steep ascents and descents. The brakes were given a workout! We also had several river crossings which were fun. We eventually descended down and crossed a causeway to the little town of Wajal Wajal. We went out to the Bloomfield Falls (Wajal Wajal) and there was a tonne of water flowing down. It must be amazing to see in the wet season.

We went into a local gallery for Aboriginal artists. There was some lovely paintings there and some beautiful jewellery, especially the necklaces and earrings made out of bush seeds and nuts. We were also lucky to meet one of the artists, Maurice, whose work was beautiful. I was especially fond of his painting of crocodiles. He also showed us a photo taken by a German Tourist of the falls. You can clearly see a face of a man in the waterfall (looks like an Elder). He also showed us a photo of the local croc - he is huge!

We enjoyed our lunch there and while I was looking in the gallery Ed took the down to the causeway to look for the croc. As I was walking down to see them this Aboriginal woman asked me, "what dat man taking kids down there? There a big croc down there." We had a little chat and a laugh!

We continued along the road into Cooktown. Along the way we saw several crocs on the river banks in the sun. They looked big!

We stopped no far out of town at Black Mountain. Its this hill built up with heaps of black rocks. There are several animals that are endemic to the area including a snake and a skink. It is also a dreamtime story about how the mountain was formed. A long time ago two boys loved the same girl. It was decided that whoever could build the biggest pile of rocks would win the girl. As she watched them work they didn't notice a cyclone approaching. The boys fell and died into the rocks and the girl drowned. I like these stories to explain special places.

Black Mountain

We continued on along the road into Cooktown. James Cook came here on the 17th June 1770 to repair his ship, 'The Endeavour.' Joseph Banks was also on the ship and with another man collected many specimens of native flora and Fauna. There is a hill overlooking Cooktown called Grassy Hill that housed the Lighthouse. It is decommissioned now and the local community have turned it into a tourist spot. It has amazing views of the surrounding area and all the rivers flowing in and around town. On the walk back to the car Charlotte found a large witchery grub and Ed found a large green grasshopper.

The Memorial to James Cooks landing up on Grassy Hill

The view up on Grassy Hill

We visited the jetty at Cooktown the sight of Ed's  - his first Barra! It was high tide at 9pm so Ed went down there after dinner to have a go. I stayed back at the caravan park with the kids who were asleep.

I had a quiet night catching up on the blog!

Saturday 2nd June - Monday 4th June 2012 - Daintree National Park

Sunday 3rd June - Happy Mabo Day!
We got up early and went down to the beach to explore. Ed had his fishing rod of course so we made our way down to a creek and played while he fished. He caught a nice flathead within the first 5 minutes! I of course was on hyper croc alert. Ed reckons I am a bit anal about crocs but I don't care!

Noah Beach

Ed fishing at Noah Creek

Ed went out in a canoe fishing with Sam (from Tassie) a couple of times with no luck. Whilst Ed was fishing I took the kids to the Insect Museum. A local entimologist has these amazing displays of butterflies and bugs as well as some huge live spiders and stick insects. The kids enjoyed it. He had made a mask out of butterfly wings and bugs for Carnivale. It was amazing! Look very closely at the photo.

Next stop was some ice-cream from the Daintree Icecream Factory. Yummy!

We then went down to Cow Bay. It was another beach in the Daintree National Park. It was beautiful. We met a local family who were getting their boat out for the first time as the weather had been very average!

Cow Bay

We did some school work in the afternoon before heading back down to the beach for more fun in the sun whist Ed was fishing. It has felt so good to be warm again!

We had a lovely 2 days in the sun there (despite those pesky sand flies)

  

Thursday 31st May 2012 - Saturday 2nd June - Cairns - Daintree National Park

We drove on into Cairns where we spent the afternoon doing some jobs and getting wet. We discovered a water leak under our bed so we had a little bit of work to do cleaning that up. Unfortunately the weather isn't helping to dry things out!

As it is so wet we will be saving some of our exploring time in and  around Cairns for when we come back through as it is too wet to enjoy it at the moment.

We got 4 new tyres for the car (and we said goodbye to just under $1600!) and did a food stock up and I got a hair cut (a good feeling after 4 months!)

We did go down to the pier however they were preparing for the Cairns Ironman Triathalon so it was a bit  blocked off in preparation for the event on Sunday 3rd June (which is also Mabo Day).

We managed to explore the Crystal Cascades which were lovely until there was a thunder storm and we got soaked. We were wringing the water out of our clothes!

The girls at the cascades just before we got soaked!

A beautiful Orb Weaver Spider at the Cascades.

We had wanted to stay another day to see more of Cairns however the ironman event on Sunday was going to block off the hwy between Cairns and Port Douglas for the day so we decided it was better to leave on Saturday. It took us a while to pack up but we got on the road around 10am. We had to make a few stops along the way before driving out of Cairns close to lunchtime!

We drove on through to Port Douglas where we got wet again. It is a shame that the coastal drive was not as pretty as usual due to the rain and the murky colour of the water. We drove on through to Mossman and out to the ferry to take us across to the Daintree National Park.

We drove on through the rainforest (hoping to see a Cassowary and /or a Ulysses Butterfly) towards the Noah Beach Campground. We were relieved that the rain was starting to go away by this stage.

Along the way we stopped at the Jindalba Boardwalk. 

It was a pretty walk through the rainforest. We saw these oval shaped purple fruits about the size of an avocado. Charlotte found them and was keen to find out what they were. Turns out that they are Cassowary Plums - but we still did not see a Cassowary!

We skipped the Daintree Discovery Centre as it was expensive and was no different from the walk we had just done.

We made our way towards the Noah Beach campground. It was situated a short walk from the beach which was beautiful. We meet another family from Tassie doing the same trip as us who were also heading up to the Cape. It was good to start feeling warm again and for the tent to dry out properly!