Australian Land Rover Owners - View Single Post - Cape York

Grizzly_Adams · #1 (**permalink**) 3rd July 2007, 12:17 PM

I hope you enjoy the log of my journey to Cape York with my wife, her father, and 3 other friends. The journey took place in August / September 2006.

The Vehicles involved were:

1994 Land Rover Defender 300Tdi 110 Station Wagon with 2006 model Tvan in tow
2000 Land Rover Defender Td5 130
Isuzu Mu

Day 1. (August 12th).

Well this was the first day of our trip, you have no idea how long I have been looking forward to a nice challenging trip like the Cape.

The night before Corinne and I forgoed having showers in favour of having some sleep

It was rather late by the time we'd finished getting as much ready as we could, so we crashed and got up at 6am this morning to finish packing. We left home at around 7:05am but ended up turning around after just having got onto the motorway because I had forgotten my mobile (d'oh!).

From home we had a nice cruise up to Moore Park just outside of Bundaberg where we spent the night with Corinne's parents. After this Roy (Corinne's father, 71) joined us for the trip as he had never been to the Cape before and I offered him one of our spare seats.

All the way up from home and quite a way up the coast we kept overtaking the colourful cars of the Victorian RACV's 'Vic to Cairns' bash.

Day 2. (August 13th).

Today was 1770 day. We had organised to meet with our friends there, though we didn't go as far as to organise where we would meet. Corinne's mother and brother also drove up from Moore Park to make a day of it, and I had organised for us all to go on the LARC there for a 1 hour sunset cruise. During the afternoon we went for a walk down to the beach and met a mad dog - and I don't mean in a bad way. Whilst we were there this dog come running down (his family was about 3 minutes behind) and immediately started finding mouth-sized rocks and picking them up, growling, and trying to bury them - all the while his tail wagging furiously! One of my friends picked up a rock and dropped it into the water not realising how deep the water was. The dog walked straight in after it and disappeared head-down - and I mean completely disappeared! All that we could see was a little tail sticking up out of the water! He then returned to the beach with the rock in his mouth - growling all the time, and buried it. It was hilarious!

The LARC was an absolute *ball* and I thoroughly recommend going on one of the LARC tours if ever you are in 1770 (http://www.1770larctours.com.au/).

Apparently they can handle bow and side-waves up to 3 mtrs, and as the weather wasn't providing 3 mtr waves that day the captain ('Col') tried to simulate the experience as much as possible by crashing at full speed into the biggest waves he could find

Just near 1770 is a protected breeding area for Muddies. Apparently one of (if not the) last / only protected breeding area for them around, and the penalties for breaking the law are quite tough. It actually got to the stage where they could confiscate your boat / vehicle, and any vehicle used to get your boat into the water. These days people have finally got the hint.

It's also a prawn breeding area and unfortunately they are not protected. So whilst they can breed and spawn (as they breed in the Muddies breeding area) the trawlers sit at the river exit and form a complete blockade during prawn breeding season. It's lucky if any of the prawns actually manage to make it past the trawler blockade; if only they would let them through then in another couple of months they'd be a lot bigger and tastier

Day 3. (August 14th).

Today we made it just a bit further north than Emu Park. Nothing very exciting to report, the Defender is towing the Tvan well though she slows down alot on hills. The combination of auto + cruise makes towing a breeze. We stopped at Emu Park for a bit and had a look at the Singing Sails which were erected by the Council after a big competition to come up with an artistic way to give Emu Park an icon to attract tourists. The concept was that the sales would act like giant wind chimes, and the concept worked too. However shortly after they were erected the local community complained that they made too much noise so they had to fill the Sails with concrete. Ah money well spent

When we were at Emu Park though we saw some Dolphins out playing in the water, a couple of them even jumping out of the water and generally frollicking around. That frollicking was stopped abruptly when some gits in a dingy powered they're little vessel straight through the middle of the pod so they could get out to where they wanted to fish. Gits indeed.

Day 4. (August 15th).

Made it to Mackay today, but only just. We were stopped at Sarina for lunch when one of my friends noticed a crack in one of the treads of my front drivers tyre. Further investigation showed sever cracking throughout most of the tyres. To say I was disappointed was an understatement, however for the past 6 years the tyres had pretty much been sitting under the house and not getting the use I had hoped they would get. Took it to Mengs tyre and auto in Sarina (fully recommend them) and had a good ol' chat. Ended up getting a new complete set of tyres as the Michelen XZL's I was using were waaay to expensive to purchase again - last time I got them really cheap because they had come off a newly delivered 130 but the owner didn't want them. I paid something like $210 a tyre then, and the full price they want these days is $333 per tyre - ouchie!

I ended up getting 6 x Bridgestone Mud Dueler 671's. Actually only got 4 fitted in Sarina as that's all they had in stock - the other 2 they had at their other store in Mackay. Obviously the 4 they fitted in Sarina they fitted to the vehicle, the other 2 were fitted to the spares. They went well through-out the trip and never failed me once, so I am very happy with them. They also seem to drive very comfortably as well.

Anyways after getting the 4 tyres fitted we ran up to Mackay and pulled up at a crappy Caravan park (Andergrove Van Park) right next to a main road. We didn't bother cooking dinner at camp that night, instead going into the local Shamrock and having dinner there. That was a total balls-up, they completely forgot Corinne and my dinner and screwed up several of the others. I even complained (which is unusual for me) and ended up getting a free couple of drinks for my efforts - oh and dinner, eventually.

I noticed a small issue with my iPod Nano today in that I couldn't turn it off / put it to sleep. It was very very low on charge so I grabbed out the in-car charger and charged her up to see if that made a difference. It did, iPod Nano sleeps nicely now

Must remember that trick for the future.

Day 5. (August 16th).

Airlie Beach today. We arrived around 12:20pm and settled into a nice caravan park. I was feeling a little tired so after setting up camp I went to sleep in the camper for about 3 hours. When I got up Corinne, Roy and myself went for a drive to see the local surrounds. We ended up at Shoal Harbour and found a nice little walk to Coral Cove. Couldn't stay long as it was starting to get dark, but it was nice to be out and about actually walking through the scenery instead of driving past it

During the night we had a visit from an overly-friendly possum. We didn't feed him or even look like feeding him and he didn't show up until after we'd eaten, but he insisted on having a look around. He was so tame that he was standing on his hind legs and putting his paws up on Roy to have a look around

Unfortunately we didn't really get much more time to look around Airlie as we left early the next morning. Would really love to go back there and spend some more time looking around.

Day 6. (August 17th).

Wow that wasn't a very good nights sleep last night - I felt like I was awake all night. The caravan park was lovely and quiet, very secluded so no major road noise - unfortunately some buggar had his TV going (what felt like) all night in his caravan. For whatever reason I just couldn't get to sleep with the constant background drone of some buggars TV, I guess it's because I was expecting peace and quiet - not some buggars TV. Anyways I ended up getting up around 6am as the sun was starting to come over the trees.

We just potted around and ended up moving on around 10am, which gives you an idea of just how much pottering around we did. Our friends had decided to go and look at Shoal Harbour this morning, so whilst they did that we moved back out onto the road. It was a great drive by ourselves, we ended up having a quick stop in Ayr to stretch our legs and then continued on as far as Townsville before pulling over for lunch and waiting for our friends.

When our friends arrived they were talking of having to change our plans and stay at the "Rolling Stone caravan park" instead of Halifax. This came as quite a shock to us as we'd never heard mention of staying at "Halifax" previously and even the "Rolling Stone caravan park" was a good 100km's south of where we had originally planned on staying.

Rolling Stone caravan park turned out to be another Big4 and right on the beach, but unfortunately though we tried we didn't manage to catch anything - partly because it was so windy, partly because it was low-tide (again), but mainly I think because we just aren't that good at fishing

Day 7. (August 18th).

We left Rolling Stone caravan park relatively early (by our standards) today and headed off - todays target was Cairns, but with stop-offs at the Wallaman Falls and Paranella Park. If you ever get the chance to see Wallaman Falls they are well worth it, they truly are spectacular. I would love to see them in the wet season with more water flowing over them, they'd be magnificent.

Quite a nice drive up there too, dodging the odd King Brown and Yellow Bellied Black snake on the road (I don't like killing animals if I can avoid it), driving through Sugar Cane fields through narrow tracks (all signposted) to eventually get to the bottom of the hill leading up to the lookout and find a big sign saying "Steep ascent ahead. Not suitable for trucks, buses, and caravans."

Well after coming all this way I wasn't about to stop here, or to unhitch my TVan and leave it at the bottom of the hill either. So we all went up. Admittedly I crawled up at approximately 30km/h => 40km/h but there was nothing too steep or too sharp as to make it dangerous. What was really funny though was when we got to the top they had a special fully-signed carpark just for buses and caravans!

Coming down we crawled in low-2nd, the auto holding speed superbly. I stopped once to try and get a photo of a Yellow Bellied Black Snake on the road but he slithered off before I could get a shot off - same again for a King Brown at the bottom of the hill. For the safety conscious out there I must stress that I never got out of the car to try and take one of those photo's, I'm not that silly

Once at the bottom we headed north again via Innisfail to Paranella Park - a castle and lush gardens that a Spanish cane cutter built in the 1800's sometime. When we got there we found that the entry fee had risen from the $7.00 per person we were expecting to $26.00 per person, however now entry included a free campsite for the night as well. Great! Except we had no plans of staying there that evening, we wanted to reach Cairns.

After some minor discussion we decided to come back and have a look at Paranella Park another day, so we continued on through the still very visible effects of Cyclone Larry (there were still lots of houses missing roofs etc.) and headed towards our destination for the night at Cairns.

For once a call ahead was made to ensure sufficient space at a caravan park which was lucky as by the time we got there it was pretty much full. We had the biggest space available but even so we could only just squeeze in. The caravan park was called "Cool Waters" and advertised itself as just 7km's away from the Cairns CBD, though we're not sure if that was 7km's as the crow flies rather than as the road goes...

This morning - just before we dropped Roy off at his friends place - Corinne, Roy and myself booked ourselves in for a day trip out to Green Island for tomorrow. The others weren't interested in coming and I wasn't going to waste the opportunity for Roy and Corinne to see at least some of the reef. After dropping Roy off at his friends for the evening we stopped at a local supermarket for a stock-up on goods. We were considering going to the Cairns night markets but decided stocking up on food more important.

When we got back to camp we found our friends had gone to the night markets and had left cryptic instructions not to cook underneath the tarp they had erected. We weren't 100% sure what they meant so to be on the safe side we used the caravan park camp kitchen to cook our dinner. Had a good ol' chat with some other people there (people in caravan parks are so friendly

) then when we were sitting at our campsite relaxing over a few Bourbons one of our neighbours came over to visit. His name as Ken and he was from Victoria, apparently him and his mates take 3 months off a year to go travelling in / with their caravan - sheesh how lucky can you be! What sort of job do you have to have to get 3 months off a year?

Ken went back to his campsite shortly after our friends got back and after having a shower we all went to bed ourselves.

Day 8. (August 19th).

Today Corinne, Roy and myself went out to Green Island, so named after Lieutenant Cook's Astronomer (Captain Cook was only a Lieutenant when he discovered Australia, though he was the head officer of the ship. He wasn't made a Captain until after he returned to England). Roy was dropped off by his friend around 8am and we were picked up by the bus at 8:15am, however it was soon after that we realised that Roy didn't bring a hat and had forgotten his sunglasses, whilst Corinne had picked up her sunglass case but her sunnies weren't in it. Buggar. So when we got to the harbour I went to pick up the boarding passes whilst Corinne and her father went shopping for suitable sunglasses and hats.

The boat over to Green Island was a lovely big boat however inside on the lower deck was horrible and stuffy, it was also making a lot of Asians quite seasick as it wasn't the smoothest of days to be out on the water - quite windy to say the least. In the boat managements favour though they were giving out ginger tablets which are natural anti-seasickness tablets. By law they aren't allowed to "give" away seasick tablets as they are prescription medicine, however on a Whale Watching tour I took later they got around that law by allowing you to purchase seasick tablets for $1 each. Tricky...

At the Island Roy went for a walk whilst Corinne and I went for a swim in the "Advanced" area of snorkelling. As the tide was out (again) there was only a couple of feet of water but still plenty of fish and things to see

In fact for a bit there I was chasing after a stingray - at the time I was trying to get Corinne's attention so she could see it too but it dashed off whilst I wasn't looking and disappeared into the .. uh .. shallows.

After lunch on the boat we all went on a glass-bottomed boat to have a look at some fishies (lots of fishies!) and some huge sucker fish that had attached themselves to the bottom of the glass-bottomed boat. Apparently sucker-fish don't change host unless their previous host dies, that's why you can end up with meters long sucker-fish attached to Whale Sharks. We wondered what happened to the original hosts. Probably Sharks, and possibly killed by twits like Vic Hislop.

After the glass-bottomed boat tour Corinne and I went for a leisurely walk around the Island and would you believe that just as we were walking back along the Jetty a gust of wind took Corinne's hat off her head (our Engel hat!) and blew it into the deep blue - may it rest in peace.

Also would you believe that whilst I was sitting on the boat I saw an Asian tour guide come in with one of his group. The tourist (not the tour guide) had a hand full of thorns from something he picked up whilst he was snorkelling. Yup you guessed it, he was straight off to hospital (I believe by Helicopter) to get those thorns removed. The guy on the boat was speaking quite harshly to the tour guide as it seems a regular occurance. You just can't pick up Australia fauna or flora without knowing what it is, we have some lovely deadly species that can kill you by accident.

The boat trip back was lovely and refreshing though this time I sat outside. As we were leaving the Jetty at Green Island we saw a man, woman, and child coming up towards the boat at a nice leisurely pace. We were already getting ready to make way and they were just meandering up. The horn signalling people to board had long since blown so they had plenty of warning we were leaving. Anyway the gang plank went up and we made way, the look on their faces was priceless as they reached the end of the dock and noticed that A) the boat had left and

it wasn't turning around for them. Some people really think the world rotates around them.

Back at the campsite I rebooked the campsite for the 1st / 2nd of September even with protests from the others about whether we'd make it back in time, however in spite of all their protests I was sure we would so I also booked the Kuranda tours for the 2nd of September.

Day 9. (August 20th).

Last night we had some troubles with the Fluro's we bought from SuperCheap so this morning Corinne, Roy and myself nipped down to BCF and picked up some rechargable lanterns which ended up costing us a small fortune. However light at night is important so I'm sure they are worth the investment. This morning when we got up we found that the fridge wasn't working(!), further investigation showed only 3 volts in the battery. I swear that I looked at the battery before I went to bed last night and it was 11.5 volts! So as I see it we have several possibilities*:
1. Connecting to power at powered-sites does not charge the battery
2. Items running of accessory plugs do not switch to power when connected (ie. only things connected to the 240v sockets run off power when connected)

The fun over the next few days was trying to charge the Rechargable lanterns as they specify somewhere between 16 and 24 hours of charge before first use (depending on the lantern). Considering we weren't driving that far (both lanterns had a 12v and 240v chargers) and not all the sites we were staying at had power, it still made for a few days before we could use them - by which time the battery had charged on the campertrailer again and we didn't have any more problems!

From Cairns we headed up to Cape Tribulation which is (unfortunately) bitumen all the way so every man and his dog is there these days :-( In it's favour we did see a Casowary, though you have to be wary of these birds as they can be somewhat temperamental. Instead of staying at Cape Tribulation with the millions of other tourists we just had lunch then headed off on the coastal road towards Cooktown, at least most of this was gravel which scared off a large portion of tourists. Having said that there was still the odd sedan going past, so it's more than possible to drive it using a non-4wd vehicle.

We arrived at Cooktown around 5:30pm and then our friends thought they'd try calling for accomodation from some people they knew who lived in the area. To say I was surprised was an understatement, you'd think we'd have called earlier so as not to surprise them. Anyway they weren't home so we had to find a caravan park and fast. Unfortunately as we were in such a hurry (as the sun was setting) we took the first one we found which, whilst ok, was no-where near the quality of the Big4 caravan parks and there was a Big4 just on the outskirts of town that we could have used instead. Oh well...

* It was later found that both these statements are correct, and that a seperate "battery charger" system is needed in order to charge the battery when connected at powered sites. It was never adequately explained why the battery lost power however I believe it is because the fridge was working moderately hard and the campsite was in the shade so the solar panel didn't help that much

.

Day 10. (August 21st).

Last night I had an absolutely pitiful sleep. Apart from my usual back pain (nothing to do with the camper-trailer, just me) there was a palm frond brushing up against the side of the camper all night and a light shining in my face all night! I really must get curtains for this camper..

To say I wasn't in a good mood this morning would be an understatement, however we were still better off than our friends who found that their swag had a flaw in the design such that when conditions were just right (eg. last night) then it allows water in. One of them had water dripping on his head all night and the other had water dripping on her feet - whilst that sounds an interesting position trust me when I say it was all very innocent

Anyways we headed off relatively early and I was expecting to make it to / through Lakefield National Park. We drove alot of corrugated roads and did touch Lakefield National Park, however after we stopped off at the Old Laura Homestead (don't forget to check out the remains of the Blitz just beside the track on the way in) we went via Laura instead of the New Laura Homestead which would have taken us deep into Lakefield National Park.

At Laura there was an old steam engine that is sitting in the position it was left the-gods-only-know how long ago. This was during the days of the Gold rush and when the train line came all the way up to Laura. The steam engine was sent up to Laura at great expense only for the owners to find that when it arrived it had a broken front axle. As they didn't have the time, skills, material, or inclination to fix it they left it at the side of the tracks where it was rolled off the train... and that's where it is still sitting today.

Heading via Laura was interesting but a bit of a disappointment as I didn't want to miss Lakefield National Park and had been quite looking forward to going through it, so now I have relagated it to the return journey. Our friends who - to be honest - are leading the trip have chosen the easiest route straight up through the Peninsula Development Road. Whilst the road isn't bitumen it is still drivable in a normal sedan and I was expecting more of an adventure on such a journey.

We are now at the Hann Roadhouse, nothing flash but quite a comfortable stop-over for the evening. I did overhear our friends talking about going up the bypass instead of at least trying the Old Telegraph Line - which didn't impress us much as we came up here to "rough" it as such and was expecting more adventure. At least we had a campfire tonight

Day 11. (August 22nd).

Well another exciting and eventful day drifts by and we're now at Archer River Roadhouse. This morning after talking with another bloke who was returning from the Cape it would appear that our plans have changed again - now we're not going to go out to the Lockhart river, which means we won't be spending a few days here at the Archer River Roadhouse. Not to worry as I was not that fussed on going out to the Lockhart River anyway.

It's starting to get tense with my friends though, on the drive up here over those blasted corrugations (boy you get sick of those real quick) it appeared as if we weren't even in a group with the other cars. If we were in the lead we ended up miles in the lead with the other cars chatting merrily behind us and the same would happen if we were at the end - we would end up miles behind with the other cars chatting merrily in front of us. Our attempts to join in the conversation were mostly ignored.

A couple of times on the trip though a Road Train would pass us the other way. In these instances we just had to come to a complete stop on the side of the road because nobody could see a thing through the dust that the Road Trains kicked up - it was incredibly thick. Often it was hard to see the end of your bonnet! No way was I driving in that...

The bizarre thing here is that it's only $7.00 per person to camp, yet people still go and camp in the mostly dry sandy river bed mainly because (we believe) it's free. It's a bit dangerous though as is attested by the remnants of a late model Nissan Patrol that got caught in some floods a while back. All it takes is a storm upstream a way and a flash flood can rip through here and fill up the river before you can blink. Having said that though the water is lovely and cool and clear, and the sand is beautiful white soft sand.

On the other side of the campground there is some 50 odd dome tents erected here, we believe it is for the BMW motorcycle club that's doing their run up to the cape. Will be impressive seeing them come in - though I've been told they won't be back tonight.

One really annoying thing is that the blasted Autumn wind has followed us all the way up the coast and is with us still

Day 12. (August 23rd).

Oh deary me today was both a good day and a bad day - we achieved a lot but the price was high. Last night was lovely with some late night visitors to the campsite. At about 2am some curious Wallabies and Possums visited and poked and prodded the strange looking canvas thingy that had invaded their field. Then at dawn the morning chorus was more of a morning cacophony! The noise was incredible! So many different birds calling all at once! Wow!

The morning didn't start out too well with our friends finishing their packing first and trundling up to the fuel bowsers and filling up without a word. We weren't even sure where they'd gone - we thought they had just left! Shows how much trust we had in this relationship now doesn't it? We found them a few minutes later after we finished packing and headed up to the bowsers ourselves by which time they had already finished fuelling their vehicles and were waiting impatiently for us.

As I said it was all a little off-putting but we soldiered on. Today’s destination was Canal Creek just past Elliott Falls via the Old Telegraph Line (OTL). We stopped briefly at Bramwell Junction for a quick break and our friend in his Isuzu Mu took the opportunity to re-attach (with cable-ties) a headlamp which had rattled out on the corrugations.

At Bramwell Junction we were advised that the Old Telegraph Line was in about as good a condition as they'd ever seen it, and in fact were recommending people went up the OTL instead of taking the bypass as the corrugations on the bypass made it too rough! Bizarre but I didn't mind as from this point on I was heading up the OTL come rain, hail, or shine.

Whilst waiting for our friend to finish his impromptu repairs on his Isuzu Mu our other friend suggested we move along and they would catch up with us at the first creek crossing. So we moved along and came to the first creek crossing - passing about 5 vehicles on the OTL whilst heading there. At the first creek crossing I finally aired down my tyres which allowed our friends time to catch up. They ended up taking the creek crossing first and I followed by only after walking it to ensure I knew where I was going. On the other side of the creek crossing they suggested once again that we go first, so we did.

Unfortunately at the second creek crossing things started to get a little ugly. This crossing had a dogleg to the right in the middle and this time I didn't walk it (I should have) because I was still a little wary of crocodiles and murky water. As some other vehicles had just come through maybe 5 minutes earlier the water was still murky in spots so I was cautious - maybe too much so. This time we went first and I took the Defender through easily. Just before the exit (if you want to be picky it would be about 1 meter before the exit) there was a hole which I bypassed by going to the right. We still dipped the left-hand side of the Defender into the hole but she just took it in her stride and chugged on through. Once we reached the top of the exit I called through on the UHF that it was ok just beware of the hole just before the exit and stick to the right. Well I got out of the Defender and turned around in time to see our friend in the Isuzu Mu driving straight into the middle of the hole. He managed to get out and drove to the top of the exit ok but by the top his vehicle was spitting a coughing some smoke and definitely not idling well. At no stage during that entire saga did I see him steer towards the right at all. Feeling more than a little sick at the thought that I'd just caused this bloke to kill his car I went over to him to see how bad the damage was when our other friends came over the UHF and asked if we said the hole was at the entry or exit. I called back on the UHF it was the exit and then watched them drive straight through the middle of the hole anyway!

I couldn't believe my eyes, at this stage I was standing on the exit ramp pointing and shouting where to go but they didn't hear. They got through ok but were in shock I think as the hole was quite deep and whilst they at least had a snorkel they apparently hadn't fully water-proofed their battery bay to their liking (they have a TD5 and they were terrified the ECU would get wet). We were then accused of not having a hand-held UHF which was never a requirement though having a UHF was and that we didn't make it clear which right I was referring too (which means was it the right when I was standing facing towards them, or the right when they were driving through).

Meanwhile back at the Isuzu Mu it looked like some water had been sucked into the engine through the air intake - it was only then that I noticed that this blasted vehicle didn't have a snorkel! I couldn't believe it, that's a basic piece of equipment when going up the Cape! However it looks as though the vehicle has survived though I dread to think what long-term damage it's received from the small amount of water it swallowed, so after a somewhat sarcastic bow to us inviting us to move along we did - I feeling particularly rotten as I took all of that as my own fault.

We stopped briefly again at the next creek crossing - it was particularly easy and shallow. There were some other vehicles waiting there so I showed them the way over ( by example

) and then our friends arrived. They were going to stop on the near side of the creek and have lunch so we took the opportunity to have lunch ourselves on the far side of the creek. After lunch we made several calls that we'd finished and would move on to the next creek crossing and meet them there but we received no response, however that was hardly unusual at this stage so we moved on - BIG MISTAKE. I think this was the straw that broke the camels back with regards to our friendship.

At the next crossing we caught back up with the people we had met at the last crossing, however this crossing was considerably trickier than the last with fast flowing moderately deep water ( at least up to our knees in places) with a rocky bottom. We had to be quite picky with regards to our line, otherwise you would end up in holes or worse you could rip your sidewall out on some of the jagged rocky edges. With the help of the other people who were already at the creek crossing ( and some others who had arrived since ) we once again demonstrated how easy it was and walked the Defender and Tvan across. We radioed back on the UHF that our friend in his Isuzu Mu should be fine as it wasn't deep enough to go over the bonnet again as long as he chose the right line he'd be right. We then headed back to help direct the other vehicles through the crossing. For the records I believe this was Cockatoo Creek crossing.

After a few of the other vehicles had crossed our friends arrived but if we weren't ignored completely then the most we could raise was a grunt of acknowledgement. Even though a good six other vehicles did the crossing whilst they were there they insisted on ignoring their line and investigated all the other possibilities - all without paying us a single iota of attention. Oh well no use hanging around where we aren't wanted so we moved on.

The next crossroads was the turning to Gunshot Creek or its bypass. Well the bloke back at Bramwell Junction had said that it was only about 10km's to the crossing and it was some of the prettiest terrain on the track. As was normal at all creek crossing we'd come across there was a big turn-around area just before the crossing so if you didn't think you could make it you could always go back to the bypass. Well I was buggared if I was gonna miss the opportunity to at least look at going down Gunshot Creek so we ignored the bypass and continued on towards the crossing.

On the way to the crossing we briefly caught our friends chatting on the UHF, I assumed they had taken the bypass. When we got to the crossing there was already a group of vehicles taking it, well the 3rd entrance anyway. At this stage there were 3 entrances - the first and the one you see on all the postcards etc. was nothing short of suicidal, the second wasn't much better. It was not as steep but very very deeply rutted with a sudden drop at the end. The third was the one that everyone was taking, it was still very very steep and at least the length of the Defender but had some logs and debris put in the ruts to help give some traction. Considerably better than the first entryway as it was nothing but mud and you would have a very quick slide straight to the bottom on that one.

After watching a new Nissan Patrol do it but slipping a bit and banging his side-mirror shut I decided to do it. My wife got out and almost had a heart-attack when she saw what I was going to do but I gave her a job to do to help keep her mind of it - the official photographer. My father-in-law I didn't want to see what we were doing so I recommended to him that he stayed in the Defender

We lined ourselves up and headed on down. After watching the others I swung in the side-mirrors and I turned on the rear diff-lock in order to try and make the ride as smooth & comfortable as possible, locked her into 1st and just kept my foot lightly on the brakes - this had the effect of engaging the brakes in the Tvan and I used this to help lower us gently down the slope. As you can see in the picture the Defender is completely on the slope yet the Tvan is still sitting on the top. We got to the bottom with a round of applause from the spectators, all of them probably thinking who is this mad-man who takes a camper-trailer down the Gunshot

My wife admitted that her hands were shaking watching us come down the slope, she was more terrified then we were

The only thing I would do different if I did it again was not to bother swinging in the side-mirrors - because of this I had no idea really what the Tvan was doing behind me!

Once we got out of the way of the other vehicles we stopped so my wife could have a smoke to smooth her nerves and I could get out and see if I had damaged anything. A brief inspection showed no immediate damage though the Tvan jockey wheel was absolutely caked in mud.

After my wife had finished her smoke we moved along and actually ran across our friends coming in the other way - obviously they had taken the bypass and decided to completely miss out on even the opportunity to do the Gunshot. Such a shame really as it wasn't that difficult, even if more than a little nerve-wracking.

From there we pushed on the Fruitbat falls - absolutely spectacular! They were my favourite falls by a long shot. It was getting late though and the sun was setting so after spending a small amount at the falls we pushed on. We now had a new set of friends - a nice Polish couple who we had helped earlier at some other creek crossings were now keeping up with us and we were having a good old chat when we stopped at the crossing and falls

After Fruitbat falls we moved on and had a quick look at the Elliott Falls campsite - my gods that was busy. Quite a few tour buses and almost every normal campsite had someone in it, not to mention it looked like hard sandy ground. So we moved on to Canal Creek where we saw our friends pulling up at the other end of the campground. This time we didn't camp with them, we pulled up where we could find space as it really was getting dark and we needed to setup camp. Corinne went to say hello but she was pretty much ignored which was nothing more than water off a ducks back.

When we went to setup camp that night we discovered several things:

1. There was no water in the Tvan. I was now afraid I may have ruptured the Tvan's water tank, but it could also have just been that we didn't fill it up properly last time or because of the extreme angles of the Gunshot that the water just flowed out of the tank. The answer that experience showed? We didn't fill it up properly.
2. I couldn't get the jockey-wheel down. After some small investigation I found that when I went down the Gunshot the jockey-wheel should have been facing the opposite way that it was, as now I had managed to bend the pin that held the jockey-wheel up. Buggar.
3. The back door of the Defender could now open all the way with the Tvan attached. I was initially scared that I had stretched something I shouldn't have when going down the Gunshot but experience showed that it was nothing more than the angle I had parked on (normally with the Tvan in tow I cannot open the back door fully).

All in all a long and eventful day - physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Day 13. (August 24rd).

Confrontation day. Considering it's the 13th day of the trip, the superstitious amongst us may see this as an omen - I didn't even realise until I started writing up this report exactly which day this was. This morning our friends came and visited our campsite once they had packed up - we were just lazily packing up ourselves. Some basic pleasantries were observed but you could almost taste the tension in the air. Roy got a little frazzled I think and he tried to slide the kitchen away without disconnecting the gas pipe, then he just disconnected it without checking if the gas was off first - which it wasn't. I was, understandably, slightly distracted by this and was dealing with the gas when we received our ultimatum - were we going to continue with them. Not "are we going to continue as a group", or "what's happened over the last few days? Can we fix it?" No, a simple ultimatum. Continue "with them" or not. Considering how unhappy I had been at being treated like an unwanted tag-along anyway I gave the only answer that made sense - no. We would continue by ourselves. So our friends turned tail and left us to our own devices.

This was definitely not how I had planned things as I think it's somewhat irresponsible to go on long trips by yourself but after this trip I doubt I will be going on another long trip with another vehicle unless it's a tag-along tour. I will just have to make sure that we are suitable self-sufficient when we head out across the deserts, with enough survival and emergency gear to get help to us if needed.

After we packed up camp we headed back down to have a look at Elliott Falls as we only looked at the campsite last night, not the falls themselves. Elliott Falls was lovely but as I said earlier I think Fruitbat Falls was better, however my wife and father-in-law prefer Elliott Falls. Oh well each to their own

After Elliott Falls we followed the OTL again and found ourselves back at the Canal Creek campsite. We couldn't believe it as we thought that it was only a campsite at Canal Creek as there was no obvious crossing - not without a fair bit of pain to get over anyway. As it turns out we had to cop that pain on the chin as that's the way the OTL went. So we weaved our way across the creek beside campsites and deepish boggy holes but managed to get across without incident. Our Polish friends were still at their campsite at Canal Creek when we returned and were not happy to hear that the OTL went across it, he was getting quite tired of creek crossings and I can understand why!

From here on in it was nothing but 4wd fun up the OTL. At times the track would split and you'd make your choice, I tended to stay to the "correct side" of the road which sometimes led us down the more rutted and difficult track. On occasions I even *had* to use the rear diff-lock which - to me - was nothing but fun. It's why I came here in the first place, to have a good time doing some serious 4wd'ing.

We only went up a few more creek crossings before taking the exit at Mistake Creek to the bypass because we wanted to get to the Cape today and the next exit to the bypass was way up past Nolan's Brook which is suppose to be quite deep. I'd much rather come and do the rest of the OTL from the north as if I get to Nolan's Brook only to find I can't cross it then we would have to return a good 50 km's of hard 4wd'ing to get to the next bypass exit.

At the Jardine River ferry crossing we saw a sign for a car ferry that leaves from Bamaga going to Cairns every Sunday. We thought we'd ask what the prices were, as it may have been nice to kick back and have a nice relaxing cruise back to Cairns instead of tackling all those corrugations again. When we heard the prices though we almost choked - $650 per vehicle + $450 for the camper trailer + additional $$$ for more than 2 people as the accommodation was only a twin share. Ouchie!! Apparently there are 2 ferries that do the run but their prices are almost identical.

We stopped and had lunch at Bamaga and saw a ripper sign on the outside of the pub but not before a quick detour just out of town to see an old DC3 wreck and 1 of 2 WWII plane wrecks (we would have seen them both but we couldn't find the second one). Whilst having lunch we met up with some other travellers and had a little chin-wag, at which point we decided we'd camp at Loyalty Beach as we had heard from our friends earlier that the beach at Punsand Bay was supposedly covered with litter (this turned out to be a fallacy and in fact we would have been ecstatic to stay at Punsand Bay).

Loyalty Beach turned out to be a beautiful campground though they were still developing as it's rather hard to get workers up at the Cape. So far it's taken 9 months to get a second set of power for powered sites put in. Also the power on the powered sites at Loyalty Beach is a standard 10amp plug - it's not your normal 15amp caravaners plug so that caught us out, but the owners lent us a suitable extension lead and away we went

We have a lovely spot only about 30meters from the beach and on the top of a little incline so we could see for miles - not that there was anyone to block our view anyway

Of course having a group of 7 teenage girls with 1 adult male guardian just in front of us helped make this a good spot also

Whilst setting up camp some of the other travellers who we had met and helped at various creek crossings along the way came over and gave us a hand trying to get the jockey wheel of the Tvan down. I eventually succeeded after they left but not until I had managed to give myself a splitting headache.

It was also here we discovered that A) the Tvan water tank was fine, it was just empty and

the back door to the Defender doesn't open fully again with the Tvan in tow so it was nothing more than the position we were parked in previously.

Day 14. (August 25th).

Today was a brilliant day.

This morning we went to the very tip of Australia - it was absolutely beautiful. I don't know if we were the first ones there this morning but it certainly felt like it. There are some huge Paperbark trees up there too - must be at least 2 meters in diameter - man those trees are old. When you get to the Cape you can only drive so far and the rest you have to walk. If the tide is out there are 2 ways to get to the tip, the first is up over the rocky headland (which is the only way if the tide is in) and the second is across the beach.

As I was a bit concerned about my father-in-law going across the rocky headland I suggested that my wife and he take the beach path and I would do the headland. As it turned out they found yet another path through the rocks on the lower part of the headland which was almost if not just as difficult as going over the headland. They didn't take the beach as I suggested as they thought the sand looked too soft? Oh well, on the way back we took the opposing paths and then they saw what I meant as they struggled across the headland and I just meandered happily along the beach

Afterwards we went to Somerset but unfortunately there is very little left of this once-fortress. Only 3 small canons remain, not even the foundations appear to be there anymore. We then followed the beach track but after the 4th beach crossing we grew a bit unsure if we were heading the right way so we turned back. We later found out at the Croc Tent (definitely a place to stop and talk, these people know lots about the area) that we were within Cooee of the track back to the main-road.

It was on the way back that we stopped at Lockerbie and the Croc Tent. Really these are places that you should stop at on the way up as the wealth of knowledge here is incredible. At the Croc Tent they also give out maps showing the routes in the area and the best ones to take to see everything. We bought some souvenirs at the Croc Tent and had a quick chat at Lockerbie and then headed back to camp for some lunch and an afternoon nap whilst we waited for it to cool down a bit.

After the nap we went back to Lockerbie for a tour. For those who don't know, Lockerbie was Frank Jardine's home. There's nothing left of the home now but there are still the signs that he was there - his old rubber tree plantation (though the trees are wild now but can still be milked), the stone garden he made for his wife, the wheel he left leaning against a tree circa 1900 => 1910 is still there. Unfortunately for the tour guide bloke the V8 tour bus wouldn't start however for us that turned out to be a bonus as we walked the tour which gave us more time to hear some of the amazing stories he knew. It was quite funny actually as he suggested doing the Somerset beach run from this direction as coming from Somerset was - in his opinion - a more difficult run. Half way through saying that he realised we'd already done it from "the hard direction" and said "oh well never mind you'll have no problems hitting it from this way"

From Lockerbie we found our way to the cut-in track to finish off the beach access road to Somerset that we didn't finish yesterday. The guy at the Croc Tent was dead right - when we came onto the beach from this direction, it was only 1 more beach crossing and then we were on the beach we turned back on. Buggar! Ah well we did it anyway and it was a great time, the only real disappointment was that the beaches on this side of the Cape were covered in litter. Apparently this is not from cities or civilization but all from shipping which passes by. I was very disgusted by the amount of junk on the beaches that we had to drive through

This is where Roy decided to confuse, blind, and dazzle me all in 1 fell swoop. It was dark as we were leaving the beach tracks and we were coming through a nice tunnel made of an archway of trees. Roy decided he'd try and take a photo to capture us driving through the tunnel and as it was dark he would use his flash. There I was concentrating on driving when suddenly in my side mirror I see a red light like a brake light. Talk about confused! What in hell's name is a brake light doing in my rear vision mirror??! There shouldn't be anything behind me and certainly nothing moving in reverse as fast as I am going forwards. So, distracted but still driving, I glance with a bit more concentration at the red light only to have a blinding flash reflect back from the side-mirror right in my eyes. Yes that red-light was Roys auto focus light on his camera - he was leaning out the window trying to take a photo of the archway tunnel and as it was dark all I could see was the auto focus light. Well that was all I could see until the flash, after that I couldn't see a bloody thing! I stopped and once I got my eyesight back we continued on...

When we got back to camp the girls were gone however they had been replaced by a bloke with his 1928 Chev!

Day 15. (August 26th).

Today was just a long slow day of relaxation. Our friends who tried to help us fix the Tvan jockey wheel left yesterday, and I had a good old chat to the bloke with the 1928 Chev. He's only owned it for a couple of years but has rebuilt the mechanics because they had started failing from lack of use. The previous owner had it for 16 years but only ever drove 10'000 miles in it and never took it out of the shed if it was raining etc. However to his credit the previous owner looked after the body work extremely well. Last year this bloke went with the Vintage Car Club and took her from Victoria to Adelaide, then up to Alice and then they were suppose to go across to Canarvon in W.A. However as the road wasn't any good they ended up going up to Darwin and then down along the coast to Canarvon. Awesome to see vehicles like this used

As I mentioned earlier we really didn't do much. In the morning we went to Seisha and booked ourselves in for dinner at the Seisha campsite restaurant for dinner. In the arvo we went to Punsand Bay and were in awe of the facilities there. They had a lovely covered bar area, a pool, and the beach was beautiful. By far it looked like Punsand Bay had the best facilities available so we settled down at the bar and had a few relaxing drinks. When we were walking along the beach a helicopter landed and picked up some passengers to go for a tour and we also saw a little girl sitting on a quad - it looked so cute

Day 16. (August 27th).

Well today we sadly left the Cape and began our long journey home. After speaking with various people we decided to head back across the Jardine via the Bypass and then turn in to the Old Telegraph Line.
This would at least give us the chance to see Nolan's Brook on Bridge Creek and decide for ourselves whether we could make it over (supposedly one of the deepest crossings on the OTL). It was a bit tricky getting back onto the OTL as the Bypass and the OTL didn't intersect, instead there was an exit point from the OTL after Nolan's Brook but before the Jardine Crossing so people could get from the OTL back out to the Bypass. As this was more of an exit from the OTL than an entry it was not only a little difficult to find but a bit tricky to turn into with the Camper Trailer on the back. First we almost missed it though we were watching vigilantly as we knew how many km's from the last turn the intersection was, then when we found it we had to reverse back about 100mtrs and spent the next few minutes doing a 12-point turn into it

Luckily there was nobody coming the other way at that time of day which was just as well as there was buggar all room for passing until we reached the OTL.

When we finally got to Nolan's Brook we got out and walked it. I didn't think it was as bad as I had heard as the water only came up to my groin - having said that I am 6"4' so that's still quite deep.

Also the deep spot was directly in front of the exit (entry if coming from the south) and there was a nice bank on the right hand side that gave good traction and a solid bank to keep most of the vehicle out of the water. All psyched and ready to go I opened up the Tvan and unplugged the fridge/freezer as I had heard other horror stories of people doing the crossing and thinking they were ok, only to find when they set up camp that water had got into their Camper Trailer and got their electrics and clothing all wet and now apart from soaking clothes they had a non-working fridge

As it turns out all my fears were unfounded as the Defender and Tvan casually walked across the crossing without any trouble at all. Unfortunately though the only photo's we got were taken by my wife about 2 seconds too late - just after the deepest part of the crossing. So when you look at the photo's it doesn't look very deep at all, however 2 seconds before the passenger side of the bonnet was completely under water almost to the spare. It was only afterwards I remembered I had forgotten to put the wading plug in the gearbox but the Defender didn't miss a beat and I haven't noticed any difference.

The Tvan didn't get a drop of water in her. Gods I love that beast

After reconnecting the fridge we moved on towards the Log Bridge at the next crossing. To be honest I must say that this is the hardest 4wd'ing I have experienced on the entire trip to date. Getting to the bridge required diff-lock numerous times and on several occasions on tight downward corners the Tvan was slipping sidewards - sometimes starting to take the Defender with her, but never in a dangerous or uncontrollable manner. I guess it's more because of the direction we're travelling, heading south down the OTL instead of north. I imagine it would be a deal easier coming from the south up the OTL as it looks to me more like that's what this section of the track is used for.

The Log Bridge itself was pretty scary and both my passengers decided to take it by foot across to the other side and wait for me there. By the time I reached the log bridge I was committed as coming from the north there was no turn-around area and we had just come down a sharp steepish S-bend turn and then there was the bridge, so nowhere for us to go but over. After walking it and satisfying myself that it was at least partially sound I took the Defender over in low-first very gingerly. Oh you cannot imagine the sounds that the bridge was making, suffice to say my wife and father-in-law were both wincing quite a lot and both quite hyper when I got over.

After this it was pretty much back to standard goat-track 4wd'ing with the occasional diff-lock area due to large ruts in the track but nothing special. Around 2pm we got back to Elliot Falls and stopped for lunch. This was where the OTL and the Bypass meet so from here on we took the Bypass as we took the OTL on this section on the way up. At Bramwell Junction we stopped for a quick pit-stop and leg-stretch then a last spurt on to Moreton Telegraph Station for the night.

The TomTom reckons we can walk the 2424km's home in 465 hours; however I think we'd rather drive the 2447km's home in 31.24 hours. I'm spitting I forgot to get the TomTom out at the Tip and mark a favourite. Oh well, next time.

Day 17. (August 28th).

Another fun filled day of driving. Last night at Moreton Telegraph Station a tour group showed up and went animal spotting and they found a Cuscus in one of the Mango trees. Was quite nice but a long way up so hard to get a decent photo of it.

This morning we left Moreton Telegraph Station and headed for Weipa down a 4wd only track just past Batavia Downs. We almost missed it as it looked more like a property driveway or something and I wasn't willing to go down it, however there was a council worker on a caterpillar on the other side of the road so we asked him if that was it. 'Yup', so we headed off. Nice little short-cut to Weipa when coming from the north. When we got to the other end of the detour there was a big sign warning people that all the land around the track was private (corporation owned) property and you weren't allowed to stop or leave the track. Funny they didn't have that sign at the end we came in from...

We got to Weipa around 11:30am and had a lovely lunch on the deck at the Weipa pub. We would have loved to have stayed for dinner if only because of what was on their menu; however that wasn't in our plans. We'd missed breakfast too, apparently a fishing expedition came in with buckets of Coral Trout so they BBQ'd it all up at the Pub and anyone who showed up had a free feed

On the way in to Weipa we had to stop at an intersection with what looks like a large highway circling the outer edges of the township. We even saw what the highway was for - the large mining vehicles… and when I say large, I mean huuuge. This thing was gigantic and moving at quite a speed too. There's a bloke with a boom gate and a C.B. sitting at the intersection who stops everyone going past. I suppose it's also a good place to sit and perve at all the sheilas’ coming into town also

Be hot work though, the supplied shade-cloth structure didn't look very cool and the sun really had some bite in it.

Whilst at Weipa we had a look at the local Cultural Centre and I also went on a hunt for a petrol station as my fuel gauge was starting to move. Believe it or not I couldn't find a fuel station! Being a guy, I wasn't going to ask for direction either! I still had a good 600km's of fuel though and I knew we could easily make it to the next petrol station so we moved on. By now it was about 2pm and we passed our friends (ex-friends?) entering town as we were leaving. We gave a friendly wave however unbeknownst to them we had heard their radio chatter well before we spotted them visually so we got to listen to some of their chit-chat before and after we passed - never a good thing listening in to someone else's idle banter.

Just outside of Weipa we got stopped again, this time by a herd a cattle being mustered up the road. We didn't have anything we could do except sit in the car and wait for them and the cowboys to go past.

At the end of the day I was hoping to make it further however due to the fuel situation (about half a tank showing on the gauge now) we decided to stop at Archer River Roadhouse. We had a nice burger and chips for dinner and a good old chat with Barry and Jan who were there from Perth. During the night some big road trains pulled up to stay the night and one of them had the remains of a Prado that had attempted to make it to the Cape and failed. Apparently the corrugations had pushed it a little too far sideways and it had hit the soft sand on the side of the track and flipped. Everyone was ok but the car was a wreck. According to the owners of the Roadhouse that was the 3rd Prado they'd seen being taken south on the back of a truck, all for pretty much the same reason.

Day 18. (August 29th).

Wow what a day, a long day. We drove all the way from Archer River Roadhouse to Lakeland which is about 82km's from Cooktown. We came down the Peninsular Development Road to Musgrave and ended up having a nice chat with another couple who pulled up beside us. They have a 2004 model Tvan and wanted a chinwag with a fellow Tvan owner

When we reached Coen I tried to get a thickshake but unfortunately they were out of the thickshake mix so we went to carry on and then I noticed that the rear drivers’ side shocky was F.U.B.A.R.! The eyelet was still attached up the top but the shocky wasn't attached to the eyelet, it had just snapped off. Buggar. That would explain why we were bottoming out so often. I reckon the bottoming out started somewhere between Archer River Roadhouse and Bramwell Junction - on the way up! As soon as I started bottoming out I drove slower and with more care to minimize it, but until now I had just reckoned it was the rough road with the weight of the Tvan causing me to bottom out. Oh well I guess not.

From Musgrave we headed through Lakefield National Park and found that we really should have come through Lakefield National Park whilst heading north as all the sign posts etc. were all setup for people coming from that direction of travel. Really annoying as that was one of the ways we were "suppose" to have come but I wasn't paying that much attention at the time and our friends took us up through Laura instead.

Was hoping to make it as far as Cooktown but ran out of puff as it was getting late and we were tired. Besides we were still running on ~20psi tyre pressures and there was a nice little garage at Lakeland across the road from the Caravan Park where I could pump the tyres up as for the last couple of hours we were travelling on bitumen and I had been keeping the speed down to 80kph max.

Day 19. (August 30th).

Another lovely cruisy day. Today we drove from Lakeland to Cooktown where we had a good old look at the original "Croc Shop" and The Old Bank. At Cooktown we had breaky and checked our phone messages as we (finally) had reception again - guess we must be getting close to civilization. I had 3 messages - 1 from the Whale Watching company that I had booked to take my little girl to see in August but was postponed because of foul weather and 2 from the freight company who were shipping some Land Rover goods from the U.K. for me. I called back the freight company and organised for them to call me at 3pm when we should be in Mareeba.

After checking out Cooktown a bit more we headed off down the bitumen to Mareeba. It's bitumen all the way to Cooktown now if you go via Mareeba but even so it was nice to be back on sealed roads and not being shaken around like popcorn in a cook pot. We arrived at Mareeba around 3:20pm so I called the freight company (as we didn't have any signal until we actually reached town) to find they didn't have half the paperwork that they needed and was suppose to come over with the goods from the U.K. I can't believe I paid an extra 400 quid for door-to-door shipping when it's causing me so much hassle.

From Mareeba we moved on to Atherton for the night and decided we'd stay here for 2 nights instead. We asked at the local Caravan Park & got the name of a good local mechanic just down the road so we went and saw him to see if he could A) fix the jockey wheel on the Tvan and

get some new rear shockies for the Defender. He said to come back tomorrow and he'd try and have a bash at the Jockey wheel if he had time. He didn't have a problem squeezing us in as we were passing through - he even ordered the shockies up from Cairns so they'd be here tomorrow so he could fit them. He also noticed a leaking rear pinion seal and said he'd have a look if he got the chance.

Unfortunately I'm feeling very fluey today. Awoke with a stuffy nose this morning and just generally feeling drained.

Day 20. (August 31st).

This morning we dropped the Defender and Tvan into the workshop so they could change the rear shockies on the Defender and have a go at the jockey wheel on the Tvan.

After dropping the vehicles at the workshop we walked back into town and visited "The Crystal Caves". Took us about 1 1/2 => 2 hrs to walk through it, it was absolutely fabulous. You really should see it and make sure to take your time and appreciate each little bit and all the work that's gone into it. From the outside The Crystal Caves looks just like a normal shop in an arcade however they have dug out the back and made a big pretend cave there with 100+ different types of rocks set in rock-looking-foam. To make the experience that much more real they have the lighting set appropriately and give you a hard hat with a light in it so you can negotiate the caves. Truly fantastic.

Lunch was courtesy of the local pub and then we wandered back towards the workshop passing a sign at the Hou Wang (Who Rang?) temple advertising a "Birds of Prey" show out the back. We paid our fee and went to have a look as we still had time to spare and it has got to be the best bird show I have ever seen. It was made all that more special because we were the only 3 there and they bloke did it anyway - talk about enjoying your work! Talk about a fantastic show!

It was a 'free flight' show so the birds could fly around untethered and it was absolutely awesome. The birds he brought out and some facts about them were:

- a Magpie, which apparently is a type of Butcher bird and it's only called a Magpie due to it's similarity in colouring to a European bird of the same name. Did you know that wild Magpies do not attack people during nesting season? Apparently it is learnt behaviour; they don't start attacking unless someone interferes with them during the nesting season. This can be anything from putting a young back into a nest, climbing the tree they're nesting in, chasing them, etc. However once they learn to attack they never stop. Also they are very intelligent (which I figure most of us know already) but also easily trained. This Magpie had been trained to pick up garbage

- A Barn Owl

- A Peregrine Falcon which he couldn't let fly because last time he did a couple of local nesting Peregrines saw him as invading their territory and proceeded to beat the &@#$ out of him

- A Brown Falcon which is an Aussie speciality. Most falcons are very active and loath getting dirty; however the Aussie Brown Falcon is lethargic and generally prefers having dust baths rather than water baths. If you take a Brown Falcon to a rabbit hunt you will be laughed out of the grounds. She was definitely the comic of the bunch however and kept us laughing watching her antics whilst trying to have a dust bath on the ground at our feet.

- A Wedge Tail Eagle. This was Stella and she was absolutely magnificent. She was only 5 years old so she wasn't fully black yet. Farmers use to think that there were 2 types of Wedge Tail Eagle, the browns and the blacks. They hated the browns because they always seemed to attack their lambs whereas the blacks stayed in the tree. However after careful observation and a few astute questions it came to light that nobody had ever actually seen a Wedge Tail (black or brown) take a live lamb. Further investigation revealed they were scavengers and generally attacked the dead or dying. Even further investigation revealed that the brown Wedge Tail Eagles weren't a separate breed but were in fact the younger Eagles. When the Wedge Tail Eagle reaches a certain age their feathers get darker and their wing-shape changes slightly, enabling them to glide easier but slowing them down also. They have a grip which is equal to 200 pounds per foot and in times of food shortages have been seen to group together and take down fully grown kangaroos.

- Lastly a Lesser Sooty Owl. Sadly this guy had been in a car accident when he was young and as a result he was brain damaged. The brain damage caused him to lose most of his vision so he can never be released to the wild again as he would quickly die. It has been tested that he can see, but he can't see far (about a foot) which is definitely not enough to survive on.

Stella was the highlight; I never expected to see such a magnificent bird so close. At one stage she flew between us and my father in law felt her wing-tips brush against his cheek and I felt the wind from her wings on my ear. Having said all that, she was a total clown when she walked. They look like Gorilla's when they walk with their wings up in the air like big hairy arms, geez it's funny to watch – kind of spoils the whole magnificent beast view

When we got back to the workshop they had replaced the rear shockies and fixed the Jockey Wheel. The work done to the Jockey Wheel was free of charge and it was almost perfect to the point where you had to look hard to notice any difference from new. Magnificent! I would strongly recommend them to anyone passing through if they need any assistance - they are G.A. Autos in Atherton. It's a Peddars on the outskirts of town on the same road as the Hou Wang Temple and past the caravan park.

Day 21. (September 1st).

Another good day! After packing up the Tvan (gee that peddars mob did a brilliant job of straightening out the jockey wheel, makes life so much easier now) we headed for Cairns. It was a nice leisurely journey through the countryside and hills via Gordonvale. We even stopped off at "The Curtain Fig" - which is an impressive looking strangler fig that's leaned to one side, giving the impression of curtains.

We arrived at Cairns around midday and after some vigorous searching found a car wash as the Defender and Tvan were in dire need of some TLC. A hour later and both the Defender and Tvan were looking clean and beautiful - on the outside anyway. Having a clean Tvan was a godsend as every night when I was connecting the gas I would end up leaning my head against the Tvan and getting a hairful of red dust. After the clean (I think we cleaned off about 50kg's of dust!) we headed to the caravan park and checked in, setup, cleaned ourselves up, and then headed out to the Esplanade looking for dinner.

We paid for Roy's meal as his Fathers Day present. It was a lovely meal too at a place called "Barnacle Bills" overlooking the bay, very much recommended though there are at least a good half dozen different restaurants along that strip where a nice meal could be had.

On the way back to the caravan park I picked up a medium sized tub of Baskin and Robbins ice-cream (680gm!) which I ended up demolishing completely when we got back to camp. Boy did I feel full, but boy was it all good stuff

Alas Corinne flies back to Brisbane tomorrow, leaving Roy and myself to find our own way home...

Day 22. (September 2nd).

Another lovely day today, marred only by Corinne flying back to Brisbane as she couldn't get enough time off work. This morning we took the Kuranda Scenic Railway up to Kuranda Village and had a good look around - I even managed to pick up a really loud shirt

We visited the butterfly park and the venomous animals of Australia show - both were great. I would really have preferred to spend more time at the village but we had to get back so we could take Corinne to the airport.

As something different we took the Skyrail back down to Cairns from Kuranda - buggar me that was high. Strange I was scared because I'd been in higher cable cars in Switzerland, but sitting backwards so high above the canopy unnerved me somewhat. I felt a lot better when Corinne and I changed positions and I was sitting forward - maybe that was all it was?

We didn't have to worry about transport either as we'd organised everything from the caravan park so in the morning we got picked up from there and delivered to Kuranda Railway Station, and in the afternoon the bus came and picked us up from the Skyrail depot and delivered us back to the caravan park.

Corinne quickly got her bag ready and I took her to the airport via the photo shop were we got some film developed last night as she had accidentally left her EFTPOS card there. Whoopsie

Nothing to worry about though the guy had put it aside and was very good, he asked for Photo I.D. and some relevant questions before handing it over.

I ended up dropping Corinne off at the airport around 4pm for her 5:30pm flight, then headed back to the campsite with a quick detour to fill up so we're ready to go in the morning.

Back at the campsite I worked out our itinerary for the coming week and settled in for the night.

Day 23. (September 3rd).

Last night it rained all night - really glad we spent the extra time to put up the awning when we got to Cairns. It stopped raining this morning only long enough for us to leisurely pack up and get ready to leave, only to start pouring down again as we were driving out of the caravan park.

Today's drive took us to the Undara Lava Tubes. Our course took us through Millaa Millaa and Ravenshoe to get to Undara, stopping briefly at "Crawford's Lookout" for a photo opportunity I couldn't resist - once again it stopped raining briefly whilst we took the photo's

- and then again at Mt Garnett for lunch.

It's a bit of a rough track to Undara travelling along the Kennedy highway, with most of it having a single car-width of bitumen in the middle to drive on and silty gravel on the sides for passing oncoming traffic. It gets pretty hairy at times when the oncoming traffic is road trains which are 50mtrs or longer.

At Undara there is no mobile signal, so don't get your hopes up about calling home to tell everyone how great it is. Unfortunately I was hoping that I would be able to call Corinne to make sure she got home alright and to do some quick internet banking. Oh well it can wait.

This afternoon after arrival and setup I promptly crashed for the remainder of the sunlight hours. Whoops. Oh well, tomorrow morning we'll do the 2 hour lava tube tour (there are several depending on your inclination and physical fitness - up to and including all day walking tours). We chose an early tour (8am) so it wasn't too hot and gave us time to do some exploring before departing for Charters Towers.

Each night at Undara they have a campfire show - be it a sing-along or a reading or a thousand other possibilities. Tonight’s show was a sing-along, I was a bit reticent about going but went anyway - hey I didn't have anything else to do

I have to admit I had an absolute blast! The host wasn't a bad singer / guitarist and he was also quite funny but the highlight was when an audience member joined in the music. At the start he was off in the shadows and he was banging along on some of the dining spoons but then after several invites from the host and audience he went back to his campsite and got his own gear - a full set of spoons, a set of harmonicas, and a jews harp. Together they were awesome and it changed it from a good show to a great show. The bloke - an older bloke - wasn't in a band or anything they were just a hobby of his and it's something he'd be doing for years. A fantastic way to end the day...

Day 24. (September 4th).

Well today I finally saw and learned about the lava tubes; I must say they were fantastic. I am so glad we took the time to see them, I'm only sad that Corinne couldn't see them also. Oh well gives us an excuse to come back doesn't it?

The lava tubes go for 160+km's - the world's longest (well, the longest found anyway). They only really started being "officially" investigated in 1989 too! The land owners ("Collins's") had the land compulsorily bought from them shortly (about 10 years) after they begun showing them as a tourist attraction. The whole area is now 1 big national park, with the Collins family running the caravan and lodge park as well as being the only group licensed to do tours. This was all part of the original compulsory purchase agreement, though they only have those rights for a few more years before it becomes open slather for other tour companies.

If you're in the area they're definitely well worth going to see and learn about.

We got back from the tour around 10am and packed up camp before heading for a quick walk up to "The Bluff" to sight-see. It was amazing as you could see the sparse open eucalypt forest canopy for miles with barely a lump indicating a hill, yet twisting its way underneath are miles of lava tubes - some with collapsed ceilings, some that haven't seen sunlight in thousands of years. Incredible.

We left Undara around 11:15am and headed for Charters Towers, arriving here at around 4:30pm and then spending the next 30 minutes hunting for the local Big4 caravan park. I finally had mobile reception so I gave them a call only to find I had to travel another 300mtrs down the road and I would've found it!

When we settled in I checked my messages to find that Steve Irwin had been killed by a Stingray, Corinne had tried to reach me last night, the Child Support Agency is after me for some unknown reason, and my freight from the UK (Land Rover goodies

) has arrived but the freight company is waiting on the paperwork *sigh*

Day 25. (September 5th).

Made it to Emerald today though when we arrived I was too stuffed to look around as it was a long day driving - almost 500km's. We stopped for an early lunch at Belyarde Crossing and ended up having a close feeding (almost hand feeding) with a banana bird / blue-faced honeyeater - I'd never been so close to one before and my only regret was I had no way to take any photo's (photo courtesy of google search and wikipedia).

Apart from that the day really wasn't good. I found out what the Child Support Agency wanted to tell me and that is that my beloved ex. has resubmitted a superseded agreement (one that the Child Support Agency themselves had not accepted, which is why we had to come up with another agreement!) without my consent. Apparently that's ok with the Child Support Agency but I can't see how that would hold up in any court in the world. However unfortunately the Child Support Agency is a law unto themself and do as they please. After that news I went for a small walk and wandered back into the campsite 2 and a bit hours later having walked most of the way across Emerald. Fun.

Day 26. (September 6th).

Today turned into a mad dash to get to Bundaberg as I really want to get home now. We stopped for lunch at Biloela and had a great chat with the bloke at the visitor information centre, one day I may go back there and go for a tour of one of the power stations however today I just wanted to get Roy home so I could get home myself.

By now I am well and truly sick of non-sealed and partially-sealed roads however Roy managed to find me yet another one up past Mt. Perry behind Bundaberg

Was quite amusing really as Roy had come this way several times before but always from the opposite direction, and after about 30km's we found where he would normally turn off and follow the bitumen instead of going down the gravel road we were on. If we'd travelled up the previous road a little further instead of following the Mt. Perry sign we would have found another turnoff to Mt. Perry that would have kept us on bitumen the entire way. Oh well we made it and it was a new route for Roy too

We're at my parent's-in-law tonight at Moore Park and I'm just glad to be almost home.

Day 27th. (September 7th).

Moore Park to Brisbane today, home at last - yippee!

Average fuel comsumption: 12 => 13 ltrs / 100km's. Didn't seem to matter if we were onroad, offroad, with the camper or without.
Distance travelled: 7700km's.
Most expensive Diesel: $1.77 @ Bamaga
Most useful chemical: Bushman's Repellant
Many thanks to:
- The Croc Tent, Lockerbie for
- great advice
- rapid, friendly service
- Meng Tyres, Sarina for
- complete new set of tyres
- great advice
- rapid, friendly service
- G.A. Autos, Atherton for
- new rear shockies
- fixing jocky wheel pin
- rapid, friendly service
- M.R. Automotive, Redcliffe for
- spares kit
- great advice
- friendly service
- just generally looking after me and my vehicle