John here. The excitement had been building and now the moment had come to leave Cairns and head north on an adventure that had been years in the making. The van was disconnected and the car was repacked with the essentials that Jack and I would need for the next 2 weeks of living out of the Hilux, on the way up to the Tip.
Cairns Coconut Holiday Resort was where the rest of the family would stay and I was happy to stay there also but this was to be our meeting point for the rest of the group that were also venturing to The Tip. We finalised plans over a couple beers but nothing was really sorted so we agreed to pack up the car and point it towards Cape York.
My brother Richie was the new member of the Cunliffe Cape adventure with Jack and I, replacing the wife, Charlie and Elkie. Richie flew direct from Hobart to Cairns, what took us weeks took him hours but obviously without all the fun. He arrived a couple of days before departure so we could get the supplies sorted. We opted to visit a butcher and organised all of our meat for the 2-week trip, we cryovaced our food into meal sized portions for the 3 of us. This included snags, steak, chicken, bacon and a rolled roast. It’s definitely the way to go, it kept well and tidy in the fridge and we just cooked each portion as we needed!
The Tip group was a mixed bag of people and vehicles. Some people were already further north and we would pick them up along the way while others and their vehicles had unexpected incidents that meant that they didn’t quite make it. The group was however dominated by a number of 80 Series Land Cruisers.
Day 1 saw us packed and on the road, we cruised the coast past Port Douglas and met at Mossman. We did the Bloomfield Track in the afternoon as a warm up expedition. It’s a gravel road which at times winds through dense rain forest that had a few shallow river crossings thrown in for good measure. We pulled up stumps late but still eager at the Lions Den Hotel. We camped out the back for only a few bucks and enjoyed a quality pub meal while we were there. The Lions Den is a bush pub that is unique and is full of character. I recon those walls would have a yarn or two tell. If you are visiting, make sure you bring a texta to sign a wall.
The next day ensued an early start and we travelled to Cooktown to refuel. We all had a fish off the jetty but to no avail and then headed towards Lakefield National Park. We managed to book a site at Haan Crossing on the river. The sites are huge and really spread apart, it was big enough to house all of us. That night we cautiously looked around the river bank and sure enough we spotted 2 baby crocs. They were lucky to be 40cm each but we knew that mum was lurking in the depth so were quick to leave them alone.
Our plan was to try and keep as east as possible on the start of the trip and to avoid the Development Road and the dreaded corrugations, so the next few days saw us exploring areas such as Running Creek and Annie River. We camped at Port Stewart, a cracking camping area just back from the mangroves only a 30 second walk to the boat ramp and river. The rods were given a quick flick in the evening however only one fish was caught and a mate’s finger. A hook went through one of the lad’s finger! It was too deep to remove so he had to pack up camp and head for medical help at Coen. We were to meet back up with him the following morning. You take things like a close medical centre or a GP for granted when you are camping in remote areas.
We stopped at Coen the following morning for fuel and a few groceries. For $2 you can have a shower behind the Exchange Hotel and we headed north to Archer River. This place has the best burgers in the Cape. I can honestly say that the Archer Burger is well worth devouring – I didn’t need to eat for the rest of the day. We set up the roof top tent that night at Gordons Creek out near Lockhart, basically camping in the middle of a rain forest. The sounds of frogs and insects is unreal as you lay down, we needed the insect repellent that night!
The next morning, we started on one of the 4×4 tracks we had been anticipating for a while – The Frenchman’s Track. It’s not an overly difficult track however the Pascoe River Crossing towards the start is a pearler with a steep entry, a deep rocky crossing with fast flowing water and a steep, slippery rocky exit. This is the stuff that we had travelled from Tassie for and both Jack and I had huge smiles from ear to ear. We all crossed it successfully and the swim in the river followed with a cold beer was certainly a highlight.
It was an awesome day and we ended up staying at the Bramwell Station Camping Park. This place is huge with an awesome grassy area to camp, which gave Jack the opportunity to have a kick of the footy. There was live music, a few entertaining games, karaoke and even a pinch of bush poetry. Congrats to one of our group members, Rob who entertained the crowd with his version of The Gambler. It was a memorable day and capped off with a great night.
The next day sees the start of the Old Telegraph Track. Check out some of our river crossings!
Here’s what the rest of the family got up to while we were on our 4WD adventure.
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