Snuck in a bonus shower in the Weipa caravan park. Still waiting for my barra dinner....lots of undersized ones went back in they say. Mat and dan caught a couple of cod but no barra yet.
Day 18
The sound of wind in the casuarinas and the fine spray of dew off the casuarinas in the morning. Saw a long neck turtle on the track out of Pennefather and towed Lindsay out. Back down to 3 cars as Nic and Mats friends have gone up to Mapoon to fish and Max is stuck in Weipa.
Back to Weipa to fuel and water up then north to Bramwell Junction and the Old Telegraph Line. Lawrie kept telling me we wouldn't do anything we didn't have to do but my response when I wasn't screaming was, that there was a perfectly good alternate route. Really it was great fun! The first major obstacle was Palm Creek. It was very muddy with steep drop offs into the creek. The sidesteps were touching the sides. Found fresh mud on the back corner of the hi house later. The creek itself wasn't too deep but the other side was muddy and steep with a big step up out of it where the front left wheel lifted two foot into the air as Lawrie crawled out with the diff locks working well. I was watching and thought the hi house was going over but should have known Lawrie was in full control. Mat drove the creek crossing with his camper trailer, great effort! Had to tow Lindsay out (getting to be a habit) and he reshaped his sidestep a bit. There was a spare here that somebody had left behind but it was for a jeep. We're told it's the worst crossing but we haven't seen the others yet. Even Lawrie rated it as very hard. Unfortunately my photos don't do it justice. We are camped now by the creek...no midgies or mossies or crocs thank goodness according to the couple that are stuck here waiting for a new radiator. Their names are Dave and Leeanne and it turns out they are members of the Gold Coast 4WD club. Small world! The fresh cod was delicious!
Day 19
Continued on to Dulhunty Crossing, crossing Alice river which was knee deep water but pretty easy going (for Lawrie). We have decided to spend 2 nights at Dulhunty cos you can swim in the creek and there are small waterfalls and rock pools.
Red dragonflies, blue dragonflies, blue and black butterflies. Snorkelled in the creek....heavenly. Saw some sort of large water snake, markings like a python but smaller head. Group opinion is probably its not poisonous but I'm not so keen on swimming now. We have photos and we'll try and identify it next time we have Internet. Camp oven roast lamb tonight!
Day 20
Happy birthday Meg xxxxxxxxx. Hope you have a very special one in Italy.
Thank goodness for the iPad. We wouldn't know what day it was without it! It has been invaluable in lots of ways. The Hema 4wd app is great and the Tom Tom app finds us things like a Bunnings or camping shop in strange towns (as long as there is Internet) or just directs us. I have stored the lat and long of the good camping spots we've found and made breadcrumb trails, tracked our fuel consumption and expenses, uploaded photos and of course this blog. I've put in orders for shares to invest the proceeds of my unit. Won't know if any were successful for a few days. I'm even over being self conscious walking round the supermarkets with it for my grocery list. The smart cover may need to go in the dishwasher when we get home though :-)
Housework morning, vacuumed, dusted, wiped, didn't mind at all in this environment. Yes! I really vacuumed. The little dust buster Cara and Elle gave Lawrie is invaluable. Gets all the assorted dead bugs and flies and gunk. Even gets live flies if I play Karate Kid with it. Ah grasshopper........I may have my movies mixed up! We do get a lot of dust inside unfortunately but Lawrie thinks he can make the hi house seal a bit better before our next trip. Tried frittata in the camp oven tonight, turned out really well.
Day 21
Took the hi house for a wash in the creek. Good fun, although now we have a tide mark where I can reach to. It was red from dust and we couldn't see out of the windows. One window was jammed with dust.
Drove to Gunshot, despite its reputation it wasn't too bad. Lawrie needed what turned out to be a 2 inch winch cos he didn't want to chew up the track for other people. Shouldn't have bothered because lots of people came though after and really chewed it up and still had to winch. The afternoons entertainment was critiquing 4wd styles:-) Our entry was on the medium track. Mat got talked into doing the steepest entry (after a couple of beers) by Nicole, without the camper trailer. It was narrow and muddy. He did a great job! Lawrie is resisting efforts by the rest of the crew to do it too. I'm proud of him! He's done it before as has Mat but in the Hilux. We're not doing anything we don't have to and he really doesn't have anything to prove:-). Lawrie and Mat had to winch another guy out. He was driving a Rodeo and got well and truly stuck. No wheels on the ground at all. Took ages and a double line pull but was great entertainment. They were all pretty pleased with themselves when the mud finally gave it up!
Day 22
Heading for Nolan's Brook this morning.
Fruit Bat Falls along the way was beautiful. Snorkelled around the pool and to the falls. A Few deep water crossings, no pictures of us in the creek crossings as we were the leaders and depth and line checkers. Some creeks you can't walk cos of crocs. Nolans Brook water was over Lawrie's waist but we drove it with no problems and then hooked straps on Mattie who got nearly there before they were needed. Then hooked the strap to Lindsay who got dragged across with wheels pointing the wrong way. We didn't get water in any cars unlike the young couple who were drying out on the far side after having to be winched out. Camped at Nolans Brook.
Day 23
Quick look at the jardine river so we could say we had done all the OTL and then on the Jardine ferry to Bamaga for bread and pies for lunch and Seisa for paid camping = showers, laundry and shopping and catch up with Lawrie's 4wd mate Bennie.
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