Cape York Adventure Highlights video

Bob arrived back from Heathlands on Saturday afternoon after 3 days of driving.  On Sunday we removed all the packaging from the trike. Bob had wrapped it in layers of heavy duty cling wrap, followed by the heavy duty covers followed by the camp covers and then a tarp. It faired well considering the roads and dust. We vacuumed, wiped it it over with a damp cloth and then degreased the engine.  The wing traveled well and has no folds or creases. She is all brand new again and ready for the next adventure!

So, here is a short video of highlights from the trip.........

Day 17 (last day)

Dawn was a beautiful calm sunny affair. Only later did the clouds roll in and the wind start to pick up once again. Things didn't get packed very neatly today. All of us could smell the grass in the home paddock, and were pretty keen to sleep in our own beds again, without water dripping on us in the middle of the night. So everything basically got jammed in, where it would fit and not fall out too often.
The road between Musgrave and Hann River is probably the worst on the Cape at the moment. Very large corrugations, and lots of them, plague the road along the flats. The country here looks like it gets wet and stays wet when the rains come. Skinny, sickly looking stunted trees that offer no shade and shrubs that have large not-friendly thorns struggle to stay alive on the thin dusty ground. As soon as it dries out, the soil instantly turns from mud into corrugations, and stays that way until the next rains.The road isn't actually terrible, it's just that the roads have been so unusually good the rest of the trip that a few corrugations upset us. Called in quickly to Harold at Laura Store to say thanks and then sped along the oh-so-smooth bitumen once it started near Lakeland. The cars got a wash down at Lakeland, through the automatic weed seed washer-offer. Stopped for lunch at the cafe at Mt Molloy. A huge burger each nearly sent everyone to sleep on the drive back to Mareeba.
We got home around 3pm. All our stuff was thrown in a heap on the driveway and sad farewells exchanged. Got started straight away on the de-dusting, sorting, washing and drying out of gear chores.
It has been a great trip, despite the weather dramas and distinct lack of flying (especially for Steve and Tanya) but I'm glad we went.
Thanks to everyone who helped out with gear and services. Thanks also to our responsible adult, Dee. All of those who told us we couldn't (or shouldn't) do it, and turned out to be right, thanks for that advice as well. We went anyway.

Rather be a has-been than a never-was!
All that remains now is to get back in a car the day after tomorrow and drive the dusty 700km back to the top and bring our aeroplane back!

Last brekky, Musgrave.

Bob & Tracey

Day 16

Had a peek out of the window when I woke up this morning, a beautiful sunny day! Of course it was! The wind is still fairly strong, but the clouds that have haunted us for the last two weeks have finally gone. Tracey spoke to Heathlands and they reported better, but still not great, weather up there.
It was very pleasent not having to pack up a wet camp again today. Steve & Tanya decided they wanted to see Weipa, so we thought we'd tag along, giving Ted a day off from everyone as well. A plan was hatched to meet up again at Musgrave Station.
The road into Weipa is brilliant and it takes about 1 1/2 hours from Merluna into town. A set of traffic lights and railway crossing gates greets the visitor as they enter the town itself. The traffic lights are to allow the mining trucks through on their road. The port had two ships loading dirt. The town is actually nice and green, plenty of parks and facilities, with a shopping centre and pretty much most things you would need. We stocked up on crap snacks and junk food for the outward journey, as well as checked e-mails and made a few phone calls (pretty sad, really) We took a drive out towards Mapoon, over the bridges, eventually sighting a mining truck to take a photo of. Happy with the days hunting, we headed back to town to fuel up and have a quick lunch.
The afternoons entertainment was provided by Tanya's Ipod. This has many obscure (and many more woeful) 80's hits and misses. It almost became a wish-wish Ipod (that's the noise it makes as it sails through the air, wish-wish-wish) Tracey's Ipod also has some pretty embarrassing stuff on it as well, so we played all of them too.
Coen was the last stop of the day, we went out to meet Charlie, the Mad Maltese Miner. He's actually not mad at all, he is a very friendly and personable bloke with an out of control hair-do and mighty strong arms from years of digging holes. He hasn't thrown anything out, ever. Instead he uses his bush skills and inventivness to come up with machines to work for him, and to make sculptures to display in the garden. He has a windmill made of two 44gallon drums welded together, driving a car alternator to generate electricity. He also has a device that uses three car gearboxes to drive an old fashioned gold stamper, he demonstrates this to those who visit his house. Some of the walls of his house are made from bottles. All different coloured bottles. He has articles displayed on the wall of the many times he has featured in newspapers, magazines, also movies and TV documentaries made about the Cape. Would have been nice to spend more time there, but Musgrave beckoned, so off we went in a cloud of dust.

Ted had managed to snaffle the last cabin at Musgrave, so we set up camp down near the creek at Musgrave. A meal and TV watching (it's mesmerising!) rounded out the days adventures. The sun has shone all day and it is nice to be dry. We have the fly on the tent tonight, as there will be a dew and it would be a shame to wet everything again, so close to home.

Weipa traffic

moving house...near Archer River.

Charlie's artworks, using recycled materials.

Bob & Tracey

Day 15

Well, today was D day. The weather only needed to clear for two hours, giving us enough time to get to Merluna and clear of the coast with it's low cloud and harsh winds.
It was not to be....
The wind and rain kept up all night. The clouds actually seemed to be lower than they were yesterday, which I did not think was possible. The decision was really made for us. We have no choice but to leave the trike here and head for home in the vehicles.

I took a few deep breaths, but it didn't stop the sense of disillusionment at the weather. All we needed was a few hours of relatively good weather, not even great weather, just reasonable weather and we could have been in with a chance of flying back.

I am gutted that we have not flown any of the areas we wished to fly, seen any of the things we wanted to see from the air, nor taken any of the others flying at all. This has been a terrible let-down for me, as I had planned and would have dearly loved to take the others on scenic flights, and give them a chance to see the amazing view from the air. I know we have flown very close, and it has been an incredible effort, but I still feel a lingering sense of what might have been, given a fair fight with the weather.
No amount of jumping up and down, shaking your fists and yelling bad words at the clouds changes anything, in fact it just hurts your throat...so I am told.....so instead I sullenly packed up the wet, soggy camp and we again turned away from Heathlands, this time heading south. The rain stayed with us all the way to Bramwell Junction, and eased as we went further south. By the time we got to Merluna Station, it was only fully overcast, with only 20 knot gusts along the airstrip that we should have been landing at.
Merluna is actually a great spot. Cameron and Michelle are lovely people and made us feel very welcome. Cameron gave us a rundown on the property (over 140 species of birds) and the local area, as well as fishing spots and local sights. They mentioned that they have not seen it this windy at this time of year in the 6 years they have lived there..... Typical.
We settled into our converted workers cottage and dried out wet camping gear, charged batteries (both human and lithium) and explored the house area. Steve spotted a windmill that just cried out to be photographed, so that's where he spent the rest of the afternoon. Dinner was cooked by Michelle and devoured by all. We hung around the dinner table, just enjoying the atmosphere and chatting away. No star trails tonight, still cloudy. At least the rain has stopped and we are nice and dry.

Steve and the windmill....

Bob & Tracey

Day 14

A time of sad farewells to Punsand Bay and it's unforgettable (for all the wrong reasons) weather. We packed up double-time, as showers rolled through camp soaking all the things that were just about to be loaded into the cars. Sun would come out, so more stuff would be stacked ready to load....shower wets every thing in the new stack! Thus, we managed to get everything soaked before it was loaded.
We bounced down the driveway just after 8 oclock. At Bamaga, we turned left and went via the short cut to the PDR. This was pretty corrugated, but much shorter. Still not sure if it was worth it. The Jardine River Ferry is the next chance to stretch the legs, and a quick photo before scuttling across the river. Stopped for fuel ($2.40cpl for diesel). The road south is a chance to stretch the legs of the cars. The weather hasn't improved, and chased us south towards Eliot Falls and Heathlands.

Jardine River Ferry

We decided to head out to Captain Billy Landing, as it looked like we'd get to Heathlands too early. We had been warned about the road out there, so we cautiously drove down the track, expecting at any time to have to turn around. As it was, the road is fabulous and driveable in a normal sedan. Cpt Billy landing is a beautiful point on the coast. It is very exposed, and cops the full brunt of the weather. The vegetation has been sculpted into amazing shapes by the wind. Not only that, the rocks of the actual point are layered, so they lend themselves very well to being photographed. There are caves that run into the cliffs, and hidden in them are bat colonies. We caught a glimpse of the bats as we peered in, but didn't want to disturb them, so left them be.

Captain Billy Landing

We got into Heathlands about 4pm. The trike was as we had left it, much to our relief. Nothing has moved or been blown apart in the wind, and everything looks un-marked. We left it as it was, with the weather the way it was, we decided to leave the covers on until morning. Cloud base was even lower here, less than 200ft, and showers constantly moving quickly over the landscape. Here we can see the showers moving in from the coast, and have gotten pretty good at judging if they our coming for us or will miss us. Camp was a discreet distance from the trike. We set up a tarp in a vain attempt to keep dry. All this did was re-direct the water gathered in the tarp and strategically dump it on the person who bumped the tarp as they walked under it. This, as you can imagine, did much to improve everyone's sense of humour.....
We will see what the new day brings....

Bob & Tracey

Day 13

Time for something different. Instead of going to the tip of the country at sunset, this time we went at Sunrise!

Into the teeth of the howling gale, we walked over the rocks to the tip once again. Once again, the wind tried to blow us into the water. As the waves crashed into the rocks, the salt spray washed our cameras and lenses in grimy, misty fog.  Steve got big bertha out, his ultrawide angle panorama camera and lugged it to the tip, in the hope of a decent sunrise. I don’t know if the camera is called big bertha or not, I just made that up. It is a huge contraption that demands to be delicately carried along with about ½ a ton of accessories and tripods and who-knows-what-else. This is Tanya’s role. Then there is the taking of the photo itself. Luckily, the cape is only moving northwards at about 3cm per year, otherwise the photo would be blurry, it takes so long to get the shot. As for our sunrise, we got a sort of half-hearted sunrise, the sun shyly hiding behind big banks of showers and cloud scudding off the coast until almost too late. Once again, we had the place to ourselves. Hard to believe that it is still possible to be in such an iconic place and not have anyone else around. Not just once, but three times!

Sunrise (kind of) at the tip.

 We witnessed a remarkable phenomenon on the walk back. The tide was low when we reached the tip, and had started to come in as we headed back. The tidal water rushing through the small gap between the mainland, Eborac and York Islands created a massive upwelling of water just the other side of the channel, right near the beach. The area under the surface must be a real obstacle course, judging by the force with which the water was surging to the surface. The surging created a huge flat area of bubbling, heaving water, while at the sides was a series of whirlpools, waves and wash-back currents that looked incredible and probably just hinted at the forces that were actually at play under the water! Not a place to be in a dinghy or tinnie. Really glad to be watching that from dry land!

 A visit to Somerset on the way back wasn’t quite as inspiring. The light was ‘all wrong’ so we didn’t linger.

Teddy caught the fishing bug this afternoon, and roped Tanya in. I had a go as well. Ted, our esteemed and newly appointed fishing guide, decreed that manky meat left overs was the bait of discerning fish everywhere, but it soon became apparent that even Punsand Bay fish don’t like past-it’s-used-by-date meat, so some squid was purchased from the shop. The results however, remained pretty much the same. Not so much as a nibble. Our fishing efforts caused some amusement to the kids on the beach, but spectacularly failed to motivate the local fish population into chomping ferociously onto our delicately baited hooks. So rather than a mountain of fresh local fish for tea, caught by our own hands, we had pasta

Tried to book a helicopter scenic flight for tomorrow morning, but the pilot doesn’t do mornings apparently. He refused a booking for three people for a half hour flight (over $900 worth) because it was ‘too early’. So we won’t get our aerial shot of the tip after all we have been through. Not to worry, a good excuse to come back some time. We did watch the helicopter take-off and land on the beach a few times this afternoon, taking 10 minute ‘scenic’s’ but we all thought conditions were pretty marginal for flying and we wouldn’t get good photos if we went this afternoon. So we stayed on the ground. Couldn’t see the point of paying to take photos from inside the cloud! Showers scudding through camp again this evening.

 Logged on to the weather, rather pointlessly, again tonight. I was going to say the forecast was the same, but it wasn’t. Tonight it had 20-30 knots, as has been usual the last two weeks, but with the added bonus of ‘showers extending inland’!

The plan at this stage is to head back to Heathlands and stay the night, to see if we can get a window of a couple of hours to fly to Merluna station. Plan ‘B’ is to drive back and then come back with the trailer at some stage. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.

Thus ends our last full day at Punsand Bay.

nothing to see here....our fishing guide hard at work.

Helicopter flying anyone? The view from Punsand Bay beach.

Nice flying conditions.....

Bob & Tracey

Day 12

Steve and Tanya booked a ferry ride to TI today, so they left nice and early to get to Sesia by 8oclock. The ferry to TI wasn’t big enough for Tracey, especially as the weather forecast was 25knts, so we stayed on dry land. The weather hasn’t changed, still windy and showery and cloud base of only 300ft. We did get a text from them later saying the weather on TI was fine and sunny, but we didn’t believe them. Our day was spent bouncing over the corrugations back into Bamaga with Teddy, then out to Somerset for a look around. Hard to believe that anyone thought Somerset was ever going to be the Singapore of the North, as the Albany channel is really narrow and the current swirls and rushes through when the tide turns.

It’s an atmospheric place; the ghosts of broken dreams and lost opportunities can be seen and heard all around. To think of the work and sweat and blood and sheer bloody effort that the Jardine brothers went to just to even get to Somerset, walking hundreds of cattle across the rivers and gullies and swamps from Rockhampton all this way, only to have their dreams crumble in a few years is a salient reminder for those of us lucky enough to live in this day and age, to never start anything too hard or try anything that might fail! It certainly brings into perspective our efforts to get to the Cape. Here we were complaining about how hard it has been, yet we haven’t spent weeks on a horse, or swam any rivers, or been attacked by anyone (apart from the weather).

We did try to walk around the point to see some cave paintings that are there, but the tide was edging closer to our path, and might have cut us off coming back. So we chickened out.  Any swimming done around here, by necessity has to be world record speed or better. Even then, it won’t be quick enough.  Instead, we wandered about the bay, taking photos, looking at the various graves that dot the area behind the beach, and generally just pottered about.

Teddy got us bogged on the tracks to the lakes. Luckily, a bloke was behind us with all the gear and we were out pretty quickly. We turned back to Somerset and then back to Punsand Bay.

Steve and Tanya had a great time on TI, they really enjoyed the day.   Despite their glowing reports, Tracey was still glad she didn’t get on that boat!

Dinner tonight was at the resort. Tracey put on a surprise birthday cake for me, and everyone in the restaurant joined in, despite not knowing me from a bar of soap. There was an embarrassing pause from everyone who wasn’t at our table when it came to ‘happy birthday dear……’ but other than that it was all good. The birthday cake was cooked by the chef at the resort, and caused Tracey much angst during the day, especially when we were bogged and she thought we’d be there all day! The BBQ was nicely done, plenty of good food and good company, all you could want on a birthday really! Late to bed tonight, well after 9pm!

Bob & Tracey      

At the intersection between Punsand Bay and the Tip