Atherton Tablelands

Another glorious morning a little cooler here but the bloody crows are back waking us up just after 6.00am. The lady camping next to us has to much hot water so coffee was easy with no water to boil. Today is big day and we plan to drive over 400km today back to Mareeba. We have not driven south of Musgrave on the Peninsula Development Road (PDR) so we are in unknown territory. It is as expected with good and bad sections and the odd bitumen section for overtaking. We make good progress and arrive in Laura around lunch time. We push on and it is getting hot driving over the mountains so we pull in at Mount Carbine a former Tungsten mining town for a beer. Off again and with the aid of the Air con we push on to Mareeba and have some lunch. Next stop the Caravan Park where we get a cheap rate to camp overnight over with all the backpackers who work on the local farms. It is a bit of a shanty tent city but OK for us.
After a walk down to town and a beer we head back and have some more of that Trevally for tea still just as yummy.
We move down the road a bit to Atherton which is quite a contrast to Mareeba, it’s a lot more tourist looking with out as many locals wandering the streets. We check into the CP and splurge getting a cabin for 2 days. You deserve a little luxury after living in a car for 2 weeks covered in Red Bulldust, which by the way the car still is and will need a full hose out to get rid of some of this crap. We walk the main street but although there are lots of shops not really much for us to look at. It’s a lazy arvo spend sprawling out because we can and it doesn’t take long for our stuff to fill the cabin.
In the evening we watch the AFL final between Lions & the Bullies with the Bulldogs winning easy.

Heading South

It got cool last night well probably down to 25° I suppose but nice. It’s a beautiful sunrise over the ocean and there is a croc swimming up and down about 50m off shore. But it is so calm that it soon becomes hot very hot. After a chat to the local ranger, a beach clean up and Tina’s final touches to our monument ( a very thick boat mooring rope and a tag with our name, date and fish size) we head off. It is a bit of a common thing to leave something attached to a tree or this case the shelter with your name and date so everyone else can see who made it. There was one at gunshot creek crossing that was made mostly of car parts and one guy who reckons he shit his pants here while crossing so he wrote on them and left them, we just signed a damaged rim when we crossed. These monuments don’t actually look tacky.
Onwards we go down that 27km track of hell and back on the bypass road which is better from here on. There isn’t really much to see on the way back just 100’s of Km’s of Dirt road with corrugations. We push hard today stopping at Coen for fuel & beer and then carrying on to Musgrave roadhouse. We travelled over 430km today and that is a big day, only arriving after 6.00pm.
We met Andrew & Chris and their friends. Andrew had caught a 58cm Barra today at Hann Crossing. He to was aided by some knowledge passed on to him by some other fisherman which helped him to catch it. It was beaut fish and enjoyed by them all for tea. We st around and shared a beer and some yarns they to have decided to travel Aus for 2 years and it is great to meet people of our age doing this.

Captain Billy’s Landing and the great Trevally

We turn off for Captain Billy’s Landing which is a 30km track of big humps and corrugations, it was an effort to get down here.
The camp spot is on the beach and lucky because it is hot today. After setting up camp I head down for a fish, I have spotted a school of Whiting being followed by a school of Trevally and behind them are 2 Sting rays. I head down to where the whiting were but they have gone and there are some small mullet hanging around. I catch 2 Shovel nose sharks on the big rod and a couple of other fish that I don’t know what they are both around 24cm so I chuck them back in. I move to the smaller rod in search of some live bait for fishing. I catch about another 15 of these strange fish but mostly smaller.

As I often do these days when I can’t seem to catch anything I just ask Tina to hold the rod and something normally happens. This time is no exception because within a couple of minutes she gets a hit and whatever it is it is off. Not just like some fish we normally catch this thing is heading out to sea and even after tightening the drag he is still pulling out line. We try tightening the drag again and this only excites him more as he goes for another run, and then again 3 runs so far. Tina has been working him for a few minutes now and he is closer to shore, this is a big fish.

Eventually we swap as she can no longer reel him in. I tighten the drag again but now I’m getting scared about how much more this line can take, no 50lb line and shark hook just my 20lb with a small hook. I keep reeling him in and finally we can see him again, Tina heads into the water to grab him but he must of seen her and goes for one last run, then she strikes and grabs him by the tail and we haul up the shore. He is a huge Trevally the biggest fish Tina & I have ever caught and we didn’t even need a boat. Its lucky we got him in when we did because the hook was only just hanging on. It is one hell of a fish and we are not having steak for tea tonight. He is 68cm long and must weigh at least 4kg, we get enough fillets off him for 4 nights tea.

We just can’t stop grinning and talking about him and today will be long remembered as the day we caught the big Trevally at Captain Billy's Landing. We have two huge fillet pieces for tea and he tasted just as good as we had hoped. I must add a special thanks to Pete who taught me how to spot the schools of fish this really helped me pick where to fish today.

WWII planes and we head south

The suns up and so are we its breezy as usual as soon as I turn the gas on to cook. Its Kirsten’s birthday today she turns 9.

There are some WWII plane wrecks here so check them out. Its amazing to see them and hard to believe they could still be anything left after all this time.

The bush is still scattered with hundreds of empty fuel drums rusting away. After picking up some diesel at Bamaga $1.90/lt we are off back over the Jardine ferry and heading south.

We stop in at Fruit Bat falls for another swim.

The south Bamaga bypass which replaced the Northern section of the OTT is the worst road we have been on so far and it is where the most road works are going on. They are building entire new sections of it rather than fixing the bit we are on. This carries on for over 50km.

Cape York

It was a little warm last night not much breeze on the west side of the cape. We have a shower do a load of washing and then we trek off the final 35k to the cape. Another couple of creek crossings that are very murky so we don’t walk them and drive through. After a 5k section of tropical forest we drive as far as we can and walk the last 15minutes to the tip.

We are here we made and considering its just a sign on a rock at the edge of the ocean you can’t help but feel like you have achieved something. The roads may be good but I can tell you it is still no easy trek if you use the Old Telegraph track and this is made harder by the fact it is no longer maintained.

We are proud and we suck in the moment and ponder what is next. That’s right we still have to drive 800km back to get our van.

Next we try to find and old track to Evans Bay but after a couple of drives down old disused tracks resulting in more car scratches we abandon our search and head for Somerset. A nice bay sheltered by Albany Is. The tides have not been suitable for fishing so we drive around and spend the arvo sitting on the beach.

Jardine River & Loyalty Beach

Now the track gets really nasty and most people turn off and head for the Jardine river ferry. We carry on the track and make it down to the crossing.

It doesn’t look that deep but it sure is a long way and you can’t walk the Jardine it is Croc infested. So we turn back and drive the 40k to the ferry. It is only a small crossing and now we are on our way again and next stop Bamaga.

Not much of a town but I wouldn’t expect anything different then off to Seisa and Loyalty Beach where we are staying tonight.

It’s a camp on the beach with a Kiosk and Lodge where we can have a cold beer and a cooked meal. Mackerel & Chips was tonight’s meal and we are glad not to have to cook.

Old Telegraph Track(North)

But we must push on we have the northern section of the OTT to go.
Off again in search of new creeks and tuff tracks. All the way you see the old telegraph poles mostly bent over but no as many now we are up further. It is one hell of an adventure and we are having a great time and the Tojo is holding up well. We carry along the track where we come across the Tourists again and walk a rather deep water crossing.

Just after we left camp we come across Canal creek crossing which looks easy but all the exits are tricky. I just miss the exit route slightly and end up with the car wedged on its belly, there are no trees for the winch to work but I was able to reverse and then take a different line which worked.

The Trailer boys have lost a wheel and are doing repairs. I’m keen and jump in to cross. It is easy but there is something unnerving about water coming over the bonnet.

The Tourists go next and make it OK. Further down the track another deep crossing with some people stopped to let some air out of their tyres because it is sandy.

I’m not sure that would help but we drove straight through once again with water going over the bonnet.