Bramwell Station again

We made it safely out of Vrilya Point and heade south to Bramwell Station for an overnighter. They have the best showers on the Cape. Feral Freddie, a young bull who won't stay behind a fence came to say hi.

We decided to eat at the bar and all enjoyed great home style meals cooked by Lorella. Pat Callinan ex 4wd monthly and now editor of his own magazine, and his crew were also staying, while doing a dvd feature on the Cape, and a bit of a party developed!

Needless to say to those that know us, it did get pretty messy, and there were a few complaints from other campers. The fun police perhaps.
Early start next day to drive west to weipa. Jo had lumpy yawns most of the way, hehe. Bless her.

Heading South

Leaving Seisa and Bamaga we met up with a couple, Pete and Kim driving a 100 series and towing yet another Kimberley Kamper. It seems that if it has a motor, it is a Toyota, and if it's being towed, it's a Kimberley in these parts! Pete sold his plumbing business, rented their house and is touring indefinately!
A lovely couple with a roof top tinny, so they were extra popular at Vrilya Point!

The Jardine river is crossed on a ferry in chains nowadays as the old car crossing is now impassable.

Vrilya Point is a beautiful beach on the west of the cape. It's about 30 k off the main track, and to get there you need to drive over a very ricketty old log bridge with a tight turn and steep climb directly after the logs. fairly easy on the way in, but on the wat out, towing a trailer it presents more of a challenge.

 

We drove 8k along the beach, past a shipwreck to camp in a superb shaded area on the beach. It doesn't get much better.

Time to move on, but getting out across the bridge was never going to be easy.

Heading North from the tip!

There is still some of Australia past Cape York, so we thought we best go and check it out. Thursday Island. What a great place. The people are super friendly and happy and wear colourful patterned clothes, like Fijians. The communities are clean, tidy and well cared for. The islanders are proud of where they live. It is a huge contrast to the aboriginal communities on the mainland.

We had a great lunch at the Top Pub, Australias most northern hotel, and as we weren't driving, well you can guess the rest!! We have now had a beer in Australias most northern mainland pub in Bamaga, and the most northern in Australia! The Bamaga pub is a sorry place in comparison.

The crossing takes about an hour on a catamaran. We had 30 knot south easterlies so had to sit inside to stay dry. The ferry crossing included a bus tour of T.I that was very good.

The Tip of Australia

We made an early start and drove the back way to the tip. We got hold of a 'mud map' from the Croc Tent that shows a 4wd trip to the top via 5 beaches. it was a great drive and we checked out the ruins of the Somerset Homestead, and the graves of the Jardines. A really interesting part of Australias histoty. The story goes that the natives exhumed the body of Jardine, and re-buried it upside down to prevent his spirit leaving, because of his evil nature.

The Tip of Australia. We made it!! We met a couple there who asked us of the road conditions on the way up. Strange question seeing as the only way is by road. Wrong. They just sailed in by boat. From the  Carribean, taking 3 years to do it. Thought we were having an adventure! T he tip is fairly clean with very little litter and a bit of thoughtless graffiti announcing some families arrival there. the weather wasn't great that day, but we were lucky enough to have the place pretty much to ourselves.

Just Another Shitty Spot

This is Punsand Bay, a campround on the beach with a licensed bar. Pinch me, somebody, I must be dreaming! This is our final stop before driving to the tip of Australia. We camped here with Nev and Leanne and met some of their friends, Harry and Faye, and Jani and Danielle, from Tasmania. Great people that offered us a warm welcome when we make it to Tasi.

Roughing it with a bottle of Penfolds Bin 128. A lovely gift from Michelle at the Toolangi Tavern. We miss our Tuesday nights, Michelle.

My new boat!

How's this for a beach hut.

Fruit Bat Falls

From Bramwell we headed to Fruit Bat Falls where we met up with Nev and Leanne again. Fruit Bat is certainly a highlight of the Tele Track.

A short drive from Fruit Bat we came to Twin/Eliot Falls. This is another perfect spot and we camped close by on the banks of Canal Creek.

Nice creek crossing on the way to our camp at Canal Creek.

Some clown showing how not to do a creek crossing.

Another clown.
Our next camp was at the pristine Jardine River. A superb camp that we had to ourselves. This really is a dream come true.

One of the great things about this area is it's relative inaccessability. All the people you meet have something in common, which is, 'we made it'!

What is it about a campfire? It's 34c during the day and 20c min at night, and yet I still light a fire!

Bramwell Station

We had an overnight stop at Silver Plains Station, on aboriginal land, run and owned by locals. It sounded ideal and was in a great location, so we took the 55k track to the gate.....and then the 20k driveway to the  homestead.......then the 10k very rough track to the campsites by the river. Only to find it overgrown and full of litter. For $30.00 a night with no facilities, we expected the litter to be picked up. Move on.
We left at first light and drove through some fantastic scenery, and plenty of corrugations, through Coen, where we got supplies and fuel, and even though it was only 10.30 we had to try out the pub!
Our next stop was Bramwell Station at the southern end of the Old Telegraph Track.
This is a great spot.

The campground at Bramwell is run by Lorella and Dick, a young(ish) couple who were travelling the Cape 4 years ago, and ended up there. They have a great bush bar and Lorella cooks a mean steak.
We stopped there again heading south and got real messy. More on that later.
The station itself is almost 1000sqkm and runs just over 1000 head of cattle......none of which ever get sold. A 1000sqkm hobby farm!! Everthing on it is a pet, inclding a pig and a brolga. The owner, Vince has the roads contract and owns and leases the Bramwell Junction roadhouse. We decided to check out the Telegraph Track without the trailer and the first crossing, Palm Creek is by far the worst. We met Nev and Leanne here and have been travelling with them since then. Nev drives a very well equipped 80 series that he bought new 16 years ago, and tows a Kimberley Kamper.

 This is the Palm Creek crossing which Nev drove, with his trailer without incident. We bypassed this crossing, on orders from 'The Handbrake' but continued on to do the rest of the southern end of the Tele Track.

These pics are of the infamous Gunshot Creek crossing. Now relatively tame. We then returnrd to Bramwell for the night and headed off next morning to Fruit Bat Falls.

Lakefield National park

We said goodbye to Rod and Ineke and left Eddies for Lakefield. We met another great couple there, John and Di from Launceston who were hiring a Troopy camper for a quick tour around the north. Eddie left us with some great sayings, like 'You can't trust them blackfellas with fire'. Eddie is as black as the ace of spades!! And a great fella too.
We had an easy half day drive to the spectacular and very remote Lakeield National Park, collecting firewood as we travelled. It really is too warm for a fire, but how can you camp without one? 'Just build a small one' she says. Yeah, right. If I'm getting the chainsaw out, it's gonna be worth it!

We camped the night at a very private and secluded camp on the Normamby River about 15k from the main track. All camping in qld national parks now has to be pre-booked, which is a bit of a pain. We came accross our first badly corrugated roads here and stopped to help some people towing a Jayco caravan that had broken a spring. Someone passed in the other direction that had a spare!!

There are a couple of historic station homesteads to expolore, and they really do give an insight to how tough it must have been back then. It all looks beautiful but the climate and distance from markets and ports, as well as being unable to get out during the wet, spelled the end for these guys.

Living the Dream

We are now staying at Eddies place. A campground right on the beach at Elim Beach in the south east of the Cape. The high tide is around 10 metres from the camper van, we have miles of white sand beach to walk or drive on, we can fish from the shore and have a campfire, Weathers ok. 30c during the day, 18c overnight, gentle breeze.

Eddie is a full blood aborigine elder, a top bloke that is real keen to pass on knowledge of the bush and his traditional ways. It is hard to beleive we will find any where nicer, but we must leave tomorrow, beer supplies are dwindling!

Palmer River Goldfields

We stayed at the Lions Den for an extra day so we could visit the Palmer River Goldfields, south of Laura, the site of one of Australias biggest and meanest gold rushes. There are two ways to get in, an easy 2 hour graded dirt road, or a rough and steep track, The Old Coach Rd. We took the former and it was worth the drive. Volunteers, 20 years ago, resurrected a few old mines and placed plaques denoting public houses, banks, brothels etc. There is even an old miners hut complete with old tools, clothing etc.

It was a great day and having just read a book, Rivers of Gold, documenting the history of the area, including the cannabalism of the Merkel tribe that were native to the area, made it better again.
Instead of back tracking we opted to travel the Old Coach Road north to Laura, despite the Hema map saying 'this section is extremely rough. High clearance and low range will be needed. Allow 4-5 hours to complete the 40km to Jobawinna Station'. Oops

Well we left at 3.30 and the Landcruiser had to use all its ammo to get us through. We had creek crossings, 2 foot rock ledges, descents that had Jo jumping out the door.....then it got dark! Then we came accross an unattended burn off with 10-12 foot flames, meters from the very rough, low range 2nd gear track. Did I mention it was dark? The fire really spooked us, me mostly, I must admit. It brought back some scary memories. Finally we dropped down a steep ledge into a creek crossing and there the track appeared to end. Did I mention it was dark? We tried going left along the creek bank, that ended in bush. We tried driving along the creek, that became river. Then just as we were contemplating sleeping in the car and assesing the situation at first light, my trusty navigator spotted tyre tracks heading out the creek up a short near vertical sand bank. After a cursory depth check we fired the cruiser at the bank and it walked it's way to the top. This led us to a more sedate 4wd track into the back of Jowalbinna Station. From here it was only 32k of easy track to Laura, and then 140k of mostly sealed road back to camp. Easy, except dodging wildlife, kangeroos, wallabies, cattle and wild pigs. We passed a sow and 3 piglets that had just been struck.
The cruiser impressed me beyond belief, easily conquering tracks that would have made me think twice in our heavily modified and twin diff locker equiped 80 series. the only damage being to the rear bumper bar and Jo's nerves!! We arrived back at camp around 10pm and enjoyed a shot or two of American Honey and a sandwich before passing out. What an adventure!! Looking back, we did everything I know you shouldn't do. We were alone, no recovery equipment, nobody knew where we were going or when to expect us back. But we did have beer in the car fridge!

This was part of the 'track'