Australia All Over

Up to cape York
With Bess being back in Perth helping with her two new grandies my best mate Richard came over from NZ to tick another place off the bucket list.
Cape York!!
I pick Richard up at cairns airport on the 7 July and we went straight to the shops to get our supplies. All topped up with food and fuel we headed out north to the cape. We decided to go to the cape first and then with what time we had left would spend at different places on the way back. Night one was spent in a small clearing a couple of 100 ks north at Mt Carbine. A beautiful quiet spot with a lot of catching up done around the fire that night!! Pushed on the next day to Coen, some 400ks further on, and stayed by a beautiful clean flowing river there. Another early start ( well our early 9am ) and pushed on to a gravel pit at a place called Mapoon. From there we crossed the Jardine river on a barge and into a town called Bamaga and onto the cape. We walked out to the sign on the cape and took the obligatory photos !!! After spending a bit of time walking around there we choofed off to the eastern side to a place called Somerset. Stayed two nights here on a very exposed part of the coast but great spot for fishing. Richard caught a queenie, which we filleted and ate, and used to carcass for bait to temp a shark 🦈 which worked to well. It was huge I reckon about 5m Richard was more conservative at a metre and a half I think his glasses were foggy!! but lots of fun. We then headed back down to Bramwell roadhouses and to a place on the old telegraph track where they cross the Palm river.
We had a look at the crossing that arvo and thought it was impossible. We stayed the night to watch the antics the next day and we weren’t disappointed. They are mad, they not only went through what we thought impossible but some were towing boats and camper trailers to boot. No one got through under their own steam they either were winched or snatch strapped out. Not surprising as it was a 3 to 4 metre vertical drop in and the same to climb out. A great days entertainment watching from our deck chairs with a beer in hand!!🍺🍺
We left there the next day and went out to Weipa and on up to a beach called Penny Father. What a magnificent place. Spent 2 days/3 nights here enjoying the fishing , weather and a camp fire 🔥 every night. From there we headed towards Cooktown. Made it only as far as just north of Musgrave at Kirby’s camp. Oh by the way the reason our ks are quite low at times is that the roads are so corrugated and the dips can be savage our average speed can be as low as 30k an hour!! Going up wasn’t as bad but on the way back the roads were terrible!!! From Kirby’s south to Musgrave then we turned east into Rinyirru national park which is a back road in to Cooktown. The park roads were excellent,the different country we saw and the old settlements now abandoned, were all fascinating. Went in to Cooktown , beautiful quaint little town, and on to a camp on the Annan river. From here we went down the coast road called the Bloomfield track, and a hairy track it was with ascents and descents between 22 and 31 percent. Truck did it no worries!!
This took us to the Daintree rain forest at cape Tribulation a stunningly beautiful place with bugger all to do. Richard found a trip up one of the local rivers to see some croc’s. They were there all right in all their glory and a few gory stories to go with it. Next we headed back to cairns for our last night, sadly, but we had a great last night reminiscing our trip, and a beauty it was!! Thanks mate 👍👍😎😎Les mer