Day 6

Day 6

The earliest start we have had on the trip so far. The trike engine started at 6.10am. First light was 6.24am. We were worried about the noise, but the road crew starting their truck at 6oclock meant no-one could hear us. We taxied to the far end of the strip and warmed up. Take-off was 6.25am just to make sure we were legal. We tracked slightly further east than planned, as the cloud base was a little low further north. We hit the coast near Lillyvale Station and turned left. The GPS recorded our speed around 60knts. Not as fast as we expected, but good progress. The coastline from the air is spectacular. It is difficult to tell where the land stops and the ocean starts, it just seems to blend together. We seen a couple of wheel tracks north of Port Stewart and that was the only sign of civilization we spotted all the way to old Lockhart River. We had beaches under us a lot of the time, so plenty of landing options, but the 912 kept purring away happily.

Cloud base got progressively lower the further north we went. At one stage we dropped to just 800ft to get under a bank of cloud blocking our path. We could see that beyond the cloud, it was clear with excellent visibility all the way up the coast; otherwise we would have turned around. The wind was also getting stronger as we approached our waypoint turn for Lockhart River. The original flight plan had us going behind the hills to pick up a track that leads to Lockhart River. We couldn’t see the tops of the hills, so plan ‘B’ came into effect! Plan ‘B’ involved staying out on the coast, avoiding the showers inland and then cutting the corner of Lloyd Bay and over the Jetty at Lockhart, then on to Chilli Beach. We rounded the last hill of the Heming Range and got a straight downwind run over the beautiful sweeping river arms and majestic mangrove forests of the Lockhart River delta. Got a bit bashed up by the rotor coming off the range and it would have been nice to have more height,  but when flying you take what you are given and do the best you can. Over Cape Griffith we could see a shower of rain envelope Chilli beach, and another bank of showers developing out to sea, on a direct line to Chilli Beach. We discussed the plan and decided that we would track as close as we could to the camping area, but if the rain got too close; we would land further down the beach and taxi back. Chilli beach is an excellent place to land a microlight. Its kilometres long. We timed our entry perfectly. A low pass along the beach to check for obstacles, a quick turn into the wind and down on the beach, splashing through a couple of shallow creeks. The wind was around 15knts, due to the gust front pushing out ahead of the rain.

We taxied back to where we thought the camp ground was and Teddy and Tania were there to greet us. They were just as glad to see us as we were to be there. The wind was very strong this morning and they all thought that we wouldn’t get through.

Lucky our ground crew was there as we had only a few minutes before the rainstorm hit us. We stayed sitting in the trike and the others helped us to keep it stable until the worst of the gusts had passed and we could secure the trike. We pushed it up under the trees and tied it down. Once we’d looked at the tide chart, we went back and took the wing off and bought it closer to the campsite, as tomorrow morning’s high tide would have been very close to the wing. Tracey and the others decided to head into Lockhart to scrounge a shower and wash some clothes. I stayed at camp and watched the trike and set up the tent and bits and pieces.

The washing clothes thing didn’t work out, but they did some exploring and found a café at Portland Roads, only 5ks away. Salt and Pepper Calamari beats stale honey sandwiches hands-down! The balcony even featured a live Crocodile show, just off shore and right near where the other lunch guests were about to get back in their dinghy! We had the cameras ready, but the croc was a no-show…Our host explained how the area does not have many crocodiles, as it is relatively poor habitat for them. Of course, relatively few does not mean none at all. The Portland Roads café is a real find and you should call in if you are up this way. Lockhart River apparently isn’t a real find and might be best avoided, if possible. The rain came and went most of the day. Just long enough to get everything organized, hatches battened down in camp and then it would stop. Our shiny new tent is not as waterproof as advertised (is anyone surprised by that?) and so we have some drying out to do. The wing and trike are safe and the camp is just behind the beautiful beach, if only the wind would back off to a dull roar, everything would be perfect. Not sure what is happening tomorrow, we need to consult the weather and make a group decision in the morning.

Bob & Tracey.

Chilli Beach

Lockhart River Jetty

Portland Roads

Day 5

Day 5

Teddy stayed to watch the State of Origin last night, all the locals complaining that the Cooktown police are booking everyone because the local copper has gone on holidays. Apparently a few have been reminded that you need to register your vehicle every year...

I actually slept better than I thought I would, but it was still a long night. Every time I have slept on a thermarest, I have woken feeling 20 years older than when I went to sleep. Bones that I didn’t know I had suddenly ache madly, and it takes an age to actually get into a standing position, with blood flowing to all necessary parts fully.

I made Teddy and I a dreadful cup of tea that tasted like I’d used water from a frog pond. Ted was a great help in getting the trike ready to take-off. It was a close run thing, as a bank of cloud approached from the SE, with rain falling not too many K’s away from us. I willed the 912 into warming up quickly, and we took off at 6.43am. Straight into the forecast 20knt SE, we climbed to 2,500ft and settled in to a lovely smooth, fast flight to Musgrave. The GPS read 80 knts at one stage, and even cross wind we still managed 70knts.It is sobering to realize just how many trees there still are on Cape York, but also re-assuring that we were within glide of the road (PDR) all the way. As easy as navigating gets, just follow the road!

 Tracey, Steve and Tania gave me a weather report from the strip when I gave my 10 mile inbound call. It had just finished raining there as well, and Ted and I could see the shower passing to our left as we approached Musgrave.

We attracted quiet a crowd as we circled over the strip, looking for animals and obstacles and anything that was going to spoil our day. Neither of us could spot anything, so I descended to 1,000ft over the camp ground and set up a downwind, base and final on 36. A nice landing about half way down the strip.

Musgrave is a nice stop-over. It has facilities for camping, as well as cabin style accommodation. The shop also sells stuff you might have forgotten or has fallen off your truck on the way.  Steve filmed us tying the trike down for his video, our tie-down times are tumbling. At Laura it took nearly an hour, here around 20 minutes.

Ted was keen to get going, so a quick pack-up and re-arrange the gear (again) and they were underway around 10ish. They are trying for Chili beach tonight, but it depends on how tired they get, they may try  to camp early as that makes a long day for them (over 400ks).

Trace and I watched the mail plane come in, rang Dee(our designated responsible adult)  to let her know what was happening (after being given instructions by the local road gang as to how the Telstra cards work…who uses public phones anymore?)

The day has been spent eating and people watching. An amusing time was had when we went for a walk down to Saltwater Creek, taking photos along the way. The local fish population sees the causeway that the road crosses on as no barrier to getting further upstream. They leap manically out of the creek and swim like mad in the 2mm of water that is flowing over the causeway. Some don’t make it, and get washed back into the pond, but others get over in only a few seconds. Amazing to watch fish up to 10cm long, thrashing across the cement. I actually caught the first fish of the trip, using my bare hands! Who would have thought that a road train could be a threat to the fish population up here?

A nice meal under the house and a spot of TV viewing (Imparja) rounded out the evening. A few tours in tonight as well as road crews. Football was discussed and examined in great detail and then the weather (the bit we wanted to see) took about 15 seconds. Oh well, we’ll find out in the morning. The mail plane pilot shrugged his shoulders when asked about the weather. I suppose he isn’t as worried about it as we are!

Bob & Tracey

Day 4

DAY 4

Another beautiful outback sunrise greeted us this morning, apparently it is raining on the coast, but here the weather is sensational, apart from being too windy. The wind is actually not too bad in the mornings, and tends to kick in around 9.30ish, at ground level. I reckon that we will be right to go tomorrow, if we are up early.

Packed up the camp after pancakes and got going around 9o’clock. An un-eventful run saw us in Laura around 11.30am. Tracey has decided that she will sit out the next leg to Musgrave Station. We re-packed the cars so that Teddy and I can fly the next leg to Musgrave tomorrow morning, leaving Tracey and Steve and Tania to drive the cars up. Ted and I will sleep (?) at the little shelter shed at Laura and be up for a first-light take-off. The trike has been repacked as well, seeing as we don’t need the camping gear and food we thought we would, to keep weight at a minimum.

Steve and Tracey and Tania left for Musgrave around 1pm, after lunch under the mango trees.

So Ted and I have made a nuisance of ourselves at the Laura pub, hanging around.  We watched the traffic come down the street, then watched it go back again. Most exciting thing that happened was the power blacked out for an hour or so and no-one could get any change from the pub till.

The State of Origin is on tonight, so they are expecting a big crowd to come in and watch big blokes crash into each other. I am planning to go to the shed straight after tea to get a couple of hours sleep at least.

Bob (without Tracey) 

Day 3

Day 3

A bright and early start to the day. Steve and Tania shot off across the river to take photos, while Teddy and Tracey and I had bacon and eggs for brekky. Ted motivated the troops into getting us over the river to have a look at the Pandanus Park Veterans retreat. We drove across the river and through Kalpower Station onto Pandanus Park, stopping all the time for photos of the different landscapes. Some beautiful scenery, if you are open to seeing it.

Pandanus Park has been a veterans retreat for many years, providing a sanctuary for all war veterans and a place to relax and charge their batteries again.

While we were chatting to Ivan a call came over the radio that a croc was swimming up river, past some of the camps. So we jumped in the vehicles and headed up to Matt and Val’s camp, just up river. Matt acted as our safari leader and guided us to where we could see the 4m long saltie cruising up the river. Through the trees and riverside tangles, we spotted the croc. He (or she?) was on the surface, cruising along the far river bank, very slowly. It seemed quite unconcerned as we quietly crashed through the river side scrub, shooshing each other to keep our voices down, stomping on branches and crunching leaves underfoot, chasing it up the river. Our chase took us along the bank, through another camp (don’t mind us, just doing a bit of croc chasing!) until finally we tip-toed noisily down to a cleared area on the bank and, taking care to stay well away from the water, got some decent shots. The croc apparently swims up river during the day and hunts back down the river at night.  Amazing to see such a large croc with so little effort on our part.  Makes you look at the water differently, after seeing such a large predator simply melt into the water and disappear. Scary.

 Back at the retreat, Teddy organized some visitors for the next Vietnam Vets day with the president. We headed back to Kalpower crossing camping area for lunch and an afternoon snooze. The wind has been howling all day. Late afternoon we walked around the loop walk that runs behind the camping area. It is a beautiful walk, through the riverside forest. We expected the walk to take us along the river, that’s what the map leads you to believe. It isn’t the case! Be warned! It is still worth walking and we spotted a couple of piglets running along the track. The walk heads past a couple of billabongs that look like they could have resident crocs. Back to camp just on dusk. Tania has cooked a lovely meal for everyone and now time for serious relaxation. The video camera seems to have developed an issue with its screen, so everyone may be spared our video torture! Hopefully it will come good and we can bore everyone to tears again!

Bob & Tracey

Day 2 (cont'd)

Day 2 (contd)

Our decision not to fly has been a good one, the day proved to be blustery with strong winds. We re-packed the vehicles, leaving behind about 1.5 tonnes of ‘essential’ gear at the Laura General Store. Thanks Harold!

The road to Lakefield starts out very smooth and gets rougher the closer to Lakefield you get. It isn’t a rough road by any means, but it does need caution, as there are many sand holes and tight turns into creeks that can catch you out if you are travelling too quickly .There is also a surprising amount of traffic using the road.  We paused at the photogenic Old Laura Homestead and burned some more pixels, getting the shots just as a 4WD tour pulled in. Hard to imagine how tough things must have been for the pioneers out here, so far from any type of help.

 Got into Lakefield around 1pm. Set up camp beside the Normanby River, at the Kalpower crossing. A fairly lazy afternoon of doing not much at all, basically wandering around the camp checking things out. A couple of trips down to the river to have a look and cups of tea all round. The river here is very beautiful. The nasty critters living under the water means you don’t get too close, as tempting as it looks. We spotted Herons, Kites ,honeyeaters,  2 different species of frogs, fish leaping from the water (what from??), countless spiders as well as bats zooming through camp helping us do battle with the local mozzie population which are very enthusiastic about their duties. No crocodiles as yet.

More pixels got burned as the afternoon light kicked into full spectacle. The trees and the river made it almost impossible to take bad photos. Steve even got the panorama camera out. The evening was spent ‘light painting’ with coloured gels and head torches. We used different colours to light up various trees around the camp. Kept the cameras running red hot! The stars out here really capture the imagination; they are just so much more visible when there are no lights to spoil the view. A fantastic spectacle every night, free of charge.  Still windy.

Bob & Tracey

Day 2 Grounded.

Day 2.

After checking the weather forecast last night, via the miracle of dongle technology and 3G, we decided that the best course of action would be to get up early and see what the wind was doing. We went for a walk to the airfield, much to the annoyance of the local wallaby population and checked the wind and trike. The trike was fine, hasn’t moved at all. The Milky Way was putting on a most spectacular display for us; the clarity of the night sky is breathtaking. Satellites and meteors zooming from horizon to horizon.

The wind was already pretty strong and blustery. So we walked back to camp, annoying the wallabies even more, and went back to bed.  The forecast was 30KNTS and has been pretty correct. It’s still early and yet the wind is pushing the trees around in camp here.  The strip at Lakefield is exactly opposite to the wind direction, another factor helping us decide to stay on the ground.

Steve and Tania are down the creek, taking photos. When they get back, we’ll have a pow-wow and decided what to do next. We have a couple of options with re-packing cars and making space for more bodies.

Bob & Tracey

Laura Campsite. Direct access to the pub kitchen.

Day 1 done and dusted. Atherton to Laura....

 

Here we are at Laura International Airport! Passed through security about an hour ago, now waiting for our transfer to the Laura Hilton!

How did Day 1 pan out I hear you ask? A 4am wake-up. Breakfast. Pack the car. Get out the door. Drive to Atherton airstrip and the hanger.

Apologies to Jack and Jen for the early start to your day. Into the hanger at 5.45am, a quick cuppa, pack the stuff into the trike and wheel her out the door for a thorough pre-flight inspection. Tracey put on half the clothes needed to keep a small army in winter dress for 12 months, then had trouble getting into the trike.

Lift off at 6.48, a circuit over the strip, then set our track for 335 degrees. The air was smooth and there was no sign of the forecast 20KT tail wind. This made our waypoints a bit further away time wise.

 Well, that didn’t  last for long! We flew straight into the resident rotor at Mt Molloy…..mmmmmm….a very uncomfortable, bumpy and just a bit nerve wracking few minutes!  We climbed quite a bit higher and cruised the rest of the way in smooth air to Laura.

Just before we turned at Lakeland to head to Laura, Teddy called us on the radio with a weather report for Lakeland Downs….15KT cross wind.

We flew towards Laura with anticipation of meeting the forecast 20KTS lurking below us. Where we were flying at around 6400FT we had zero wind. As we descended we kept waiting for it and waiting for it……and BAM there is was! At 2000FT and the last 10 minutes flight time!

So, the landing at Laura International, once cleared by Air Traffic Control at Laura (the teacher’s 2 year watching from the ground!) was tempestuous…to say the least! As my friend  Liesel famously quotes we were tossed around like “ G-string in a washing machine!”. As we were about 50 feet off the ground clearing the boundary fence, the wind sock spun 90 degrees. It was clearly not safe to land in the cross wind and Bob did a go around using  every one of the 80 horse power at his disposal! We climbed back to 1000 feet to have another go.

If anything, the second downwind was even worse than the first! The trike stalled at least twice, losing all airspeed, then just as suddenly regaining it, diving and bucking, twisting and turning, both of us hanging out the side trying to bring it back where it needed to be, turn onto final again and the windsock seemed to have settled down a little. Over the fence again, the windsock did the same trick, causing us to again weave and swerve  all over the sky. We managed to just scrap in, missing the gables and put it on the ground before the worst of the cross wind hit us. As we rolled out, relieved to have pulled that landing out of our hat, we discovered a gigantic ditch across the verge. A quick swerve to the left and all good. Phew!

After clearing security (the same young bloke that did the traffic control, bought over by his Mum for a look) we tied the trike down using all the ropes we had at our disposal. The trike is now secure as it can be, and we are relaxing in the salubrious surrounds of the frequent flyers club at Laura. Harold the shop keeper came over to say g’day (leaving the shop to run itself in his absence).  (Can’t imagine that happening in the big smoke!)

It is lovely to have strangers come over and say g’day, just to say g’day. It is refreshing to land somewhere you have never been before and have a welcoming committee come over to see you’re OK and if there is anything they can do to help. We were offered a lift into town, but needed to stay and tie the trike down. It is only a short walk anyway, and will do us good.  

We are going to take up the invitation to visit the cultural centre later today, looking forward to visiting there and maybe seeing some rock art, if we can arrange it. Laura is renowned for some of the finest rock art in the country, and who better to see it with than the locals?

Today’s statistics:

Fuel used: 30 litres

Flying time: 2.7 hours

Distance covered: 136 NM

Current temperature: 27C,  and sunny. Love winter up here!

Trace and Bob