Thread: brissie to wiepa in the defender. Need help.

welcome to the forum! Schoolies aka early December is probably close to the end of the season for travel from Cairns to Weipa due to the rainy season and by that time of the year the road is generally badly torn up...you could be lucky!

read the posts here on travels to Cape york for more solid info.

great choice in lieu of "schoolies"

haha alright cheers, anything to get in the landy

what other people may call bad roads is just another highway for a deefer, But I agree you may be leaving the run too late because of the weather, if you get in you might not get out.

Am I right in thinking that schoolies is mid Novemeber this year?
If so you will have a few weeks up your sleeve.
Past three years the shire has been closing the Cape roads about the first week of December as they bring the crews in from about the place.

Of course in Novemebr it will be warm, dusty, corrugated but the fishing will be starting to heat up and there wont be too many tourists...
I reckon this year though with the Solar Eclipse on the 14th there will be alot of people trundling about the place right up until the roads close?

Steve

Originally Posted by roverrescue

Am I right in thinking that schoolies is mid Novemeber this year?
If so you will have a few weeks up your sleeve.
Past three years the shire has been closing the Cape roads about the first week of December as they bring the crews in from about the place.

Of course in Novemebr it will be warm, dusty, corrugated but the fishing will be starting to heat up and there wont be too many tourists...
I reckon this year though with the Solar Eclipse on the 14th there will be alot of people trundling about the place right up until the roads close?

Steve

It will be one of the few accessible parts of the world where the eclipse is total on 14 November 2012 http://eclipsegeeks.com/australiatot...lipse2012.aspx

I guess there is usually a good chance of early morning offshore cloud obscuring it for the coastal viewers?.... and one of the better places to see it in FNQ could be further west or south of Lakeland (if you had a good view east with no mountains in the way)

If you get this far... The road from cairns to the territory border isn't too bad (if you travel sensibly) but having said that if there's any rain there's a very real chance that the roads will be closed. At that time of year it's almost a day by day prospect whether the roads are open.

Message me closer to the date and I can give you a run down on how things are looking if you like. And feel free to drop in. I'm living out in the middle of nowhere in the town of Doomadgee.

87 County,
I agree inland will be a better bet than the coast.
I checked the suns inclination in mid novemebr last year at the time of the eclipse for this year. None of the ranges will obscure the eclipse. Still the possibility of cloud cover but youll have a better chance out west than on the coast at port douglas et al.

I hope to be staying for the spectacle at a mates property just west of Lakeland Downs.
Plan is to make one last dash up the track the two weeks following including a weeks fishing out Melville way.

S

Originally Posted by hammer01

So me and 2 mates are looking to take my defender up to wiepa instead of going to schoolies, but i wanna take the senic route and go through charlieville. i got it sorted all the way untill cairns. Whats he best way to get from cairns to wiepa, ive heard a couple of bad reports about rough conditons??? plus is there anything i would need to do to the landy?

It's not like you have multiple choices. As stated, depends on when the wet starts, there may not be a way at that time of year. Consider Brisbane-Charleville- Normanton/Karumba-Cairns-Brisbane, but be aware Winton-Cloncurry-Normanton-Georgetown are floodprone that time, if we get an early wet.