Melb to Cape York & Back to Melb 2012

[knakkers]

G-day members,
recently traveled from Melb to the Cape & back to Melb in my GU Patrol as single vehicle & single driver over 5 weeks, with just myself & my 4yr old son. What a trip it was!.

About 10weeks ago i was made redundant from my job after 12.5yrs with the company. My first thorts were alright, shit-hot, time to travel. Decent payout, plenty of time on my hands, Patrol ready to go, just needed to get it serviced & away we were.

Left Melb 4am on 23/07/12, made it to Gilgandra NSW on the 1st day, stayed in a cabin that night.

Next morning, left Gilgandra at 4am & made it to Nambour on the Sunshine Coast & stayed at a mates house for a few nights.

A few days later we left Nambour at 4am & headed to Byfield National Park near Yeppoon on the coast. Camped at Nine Mile Beach in my in my OZ Trail 9 Tourer tent, it's a good drive along the bush sand dune tracks then a beach run to get to Nine Mile Beach camp, very nice spot, stayed there 2 nights.

We then headed to Airlie Beach, camped at one of the caravan parks for 3nights. what a beautiful place Airlie Beach is. The caravan park was magnificent, great camp kitchen, facilities etc. We did a day trip out to Daydream Island, went fishing a few times at Shute Harbour, caught nice size trevally & whiting.

We then headed to Cairns, only stayed there one night in a motel.
Then we had a short drive to Port Douglas, what a awesome scenic drive it was along the coast, camped at a caravan park there for 2nights. Went to Mossman Gorge for half a day, (thats a place u must see), also went to Hartley's Croc Farm, which is a little sth back towards Cairns (my son loved it there).

We then headed into the Daintree National Park (i was a little disapointed there, not quite like i was expecting, but still a beautiful place) Crossing the Daintree River by barge, about $11 one way. We camped at a place called PK'S for 2nights, its a very tropical looking camping area to stay at. Only $10per night unpowered site, but the pub & beer garden & the meals were fantasic & great people there. Alot of backpackers & overseas travelers were staying there.

We then headed further nth up the Bloomfield track, doing a few small river crossings & flood causeways, no troubles at all. We headed for a small aboriginal town called Wujal Wujal, wanted to see the waterfalls there, but was warned earlier about the locals there be a bit careful of them. We then continued to Cooktown & camped at the Cooktown Caravan Park, stayed there for 2 nights. Did some great fishing there, off the man made rockwall, heaps of bream. Also recieved some local knowledge from the local tackle shop, they put me onto a spot down near the golf course, 4wd track onto the mouth of the local river, (cant remember the name of river), but was warned to keep the eyes open for the crocs. When we got there i drew a line in the sand about 20m from the water & said to my son, "do not cross this line". Plenty of nice size bream & flathead, but no barra, must of been further up river for the time of year.

Now that we were at Cooktown, we had spent a couple of weeks on the road & many hrs in the car traveling, i asked my son Nathan, "are u ready to start slowly heading back home now?" to my surprise, he said "no way dad, lets keep heading nth". At this stage he never complained not once about spending so much time in the car.

So the decision made, lets go all the way!

We left Cooktown at about 8.30am, big day driving mainly along the heavily corrigated, dusty Developmental road starting at Laura township, stuck behind roadtrains with red bulldust so thick you cant see more then 1m in front of you, til we reached Archer River Roadhouse about 4pm. I was starting to have second thorts by now, but we were so close to making it to the tip, there was no way i was going to turn around after traveling so far, the Developmental road was pretty unpleasant to drive on. It felt like every nut, bolt & screw was going to fall out of the Patrol due to the corrigations, but there was sections it was smooth as silk, with roadworks happening everywhere & freshly grated roads. Archer River Roadhouse was pretty packed out that night, but still plenty of nice flat green grass with shade to camp on. With alot of vehicles & bikes heading both nth & sth. It was a good place to meet & speak to other people that were heading back down sth that had been to the tip & get a bit of track condition knowledge on both the Developmental road & the Old Telegraph Track.

Next morning we left Archer River Roadhouse & continued nth towards Weipa along the Developmental road. Wow, what a strange place Weipa is, but a place thats a must see. I have never seen a car park at a shopping center, where 9 out of 10 cars are 4wds & the 2wds that are there, are new cars. The sunset is a sight to be seen, ive never seen a sunset like that before. We camped at the caravan park for 2nights. I tell u what, its amazing the people u meet along the way, i was camped next to people that only lived about 3kms from my house.

We had an earliy start leaving Weipa heading back towards the Developmental road along the Batavia Downs road/track. After about an hour of driving i noticed the Patrol was starting to make a strange noise coming from the engine bay, it was like a bearing noise, at low revs, after stopping several times to try & work it out, no idea what it was at this stage. The noise would only occur around 1300rpm-2000rpm in 3rd, 4th & 5th gear (3.0TD man). Stopped at Bramwell Roadhouse hoping there might be a mechanic to find the noise, but no such luck. So decided to continue on,the Patrol was still very driveable, the noise wasnt that bad, but i was getting a little concerned. I thort to myself, well i'll stick to the Developmental road just in case to be on the safe side, knowing there was a mechanic at Bamaga & Seisia serviced by RACV/RACQ. Being a stinking hot day, we hit the track which went to Fruit Bat Falls & Elliot Twin Falls. Myself & son were dying to see these falls & have a swim. So we headed towards Fruit Bat Falls, had a swim & few pics etc. Then decided to continue to Elliot Twin Falls, we got to a river crossing not long down the track, there was 3 other vehicles towing camper in front, they all went threw it, it was pretty deep, so i followed & picked the same line as them, the water level went up over the bullbar & got the bonnet pretty wet (i have snorkel, no worries) but as i got out the side of the crossing i noticed the bearing noise had gotten even louder, what the **** i thort. Reached Elliot Twin Falls stopped & had another good look, again the noise would only occur at 1300rpm-2000rpm, very hard to pin point. We went & looked at Elliot Twin Falls. I decided well the Patrol is still driving perfectly fine, i'll gotta keep going, continued along, the noise wasnt so loud anymore but was still there. We eventually hit the Developmental road again after another river crossing & made it to the Jardine River Roadhouse & barge crossing. We missed the last barge crossing by 10mins for the day. So we had to spend the night in the camping area. That was the scariest night ive ever had. Camped so close to the Jardine River in a tent on stretchers & everybody else in the camp in either a camper or roof top tent.

Anyway, next morning paid the $88 return for the barge & headed for short drive to Bamaga/Seisia. Found a mechanic there, waited over 1hr just to speak to him, he was that bzy, & all he said was, leave the Patrol with me for a few days before he could even look at it. I thort no chance of that i'll take the chance & keep driving it.

We camped at the caravan park in Seisia for 3nights. Met some really nice people there, beach front camping with excellent view & camp facilities, surprisingly it was a pretty cheap place to stay at, the kiosk had awesome food, big serving size, fresh & cheap (was getting sick & tired of cooking every meal). We obviously traveled to the tip (Pajinka), recommended to stop at the Big Croc Tent along the way. It was a very low tide when we got to the car park at the tip, so we walk along the beach (10-15 mins maybe), the way back, we climbed over the rocks, still its a pretty easy walk (15-20mins maybe).
I tell u what tho, its a pretty good bloody feeling & achievement when u reach that sign post that states "YOU ARE STANDING AT THE NORTHERNMOST POINT OF THE AUSTRALIAN CONTENENT" after driving from Melb to the tip with a 4yr old & just me. I was the only driver, decision maker, cook, cleaner, set up camp, pack up camp, play mate & be dad, etc all at the same time. My son Nathan had still not complained at all, not once, by this stage by the amount of driving & time spent in the car. But the trip was only half way at this stage.
We also looked at the World WarII crash sites in the area, went to Somerset (ruins).

The return trip back from Seisia was just one long day driving to Archer River Roadhouse, one night camp then we hit Cairns the next night. Which is where i got the noise coming from the engine looked at on the Patrol. Having top cover with RACV, i decided to call them, they sent out a RACQ road side assist mechanic, he diagnosed the problem as the fan belt self tensioner & pulley assembley & advised not to drive back to Melb. So RACV paid for 3nights accommodation at the Big 4 Caravan Park in a delux cabin valued at $190per night with a hire car (2012 mod Pajero) in Cairns for free while the Patrol got fixed..........how good is that!

Then it was just long 10-12hr days driving from there until we decided to head to Rainbow Beach & Inskip Point, where the barge leaves for Fraser island, & we camped at Inskip Point for 3 nights. Again, great fishing on light gear, none stop whiting & bream at the point

From Inskip point we headed back to my mates house in Nambour for a bit of R & R for 2 nights. From Nambour, we made it back to Gilgandra in one day, (we even stayed in the exact same cabin we were in, on the way up in Gilgandra). That night was a weird kind of feeling, knowing the trip was coming to a end. We were only one big solid day of driving to get back home. By that stage, i was over it all, & wanted to get back home.

After being back home for a few days, reality hit me. S**t i should of stayed up there longer.

The Patrol averaged about 11.5ltr per 100km fully loaded with roof rack & r/rack bag on the highways. Most expensive diesel i paid for was $2.15ltr at Jardine River onwards. I can hold 90ltrs main tank & 35ltrs sub tank diesel, i wasnt even close to using half a main tank between fuel stops.

All in all, what an absolute awesome trip myself & my son had. I wanna do it again tomorrow.

So there you go, thats my trip report up to the Cape in a nut shell. Yes i would of loved to of gone more off-road to explore, but under the circumstances of having a unknown mechanical issue, & about one week of planning the trip, i still got there & back as a single vehicle & single driver with my 4yr old son safely & got to see a part of the country ive been wanting to see for so many yrs.
Being Divorced & only normally spending only 2-3 nights/days a week with my son, this was a fantastic trip for quality time spent with each other. Its a trip we will never forget.

A few pics from my trip to Cape York. Sorry members no action pics, just scenery pics, its hard to drive & take pics at the same time. Over 300pics taken, hard to know which ones to show



The mouth of Daintree River


Nathans 1st of many whiting caught near PK's in the Daintree (yes we threw it back), but what a very happy little boy he was to catch that on his rod


Burnt out semi trailor, complete with ute on the rear & gas bottles at the front just after Coan


Hall of fame at Archer River Roadhouse


Sunset at Weipa


Bramwell Roadhouse


Bramwell Roadhouse


Fruit Bat Falls


Elliot Twin Falls


Jardine River Crossing barge




Almost there


We made it!!!!!!


One of many views from the top facing east


Inskip Point, near Fraser Island







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[Cuppa]

Thanks for the trip report. Made me want to get 'out there' again. Haven't been further north up that way than Hope Vale.

Cuppa

[BigRAWesty]

Nice write up. And nice pictures. Would love to do it one day.
Roughly what did it cost you? I realize it was a quick trip so a planned trip would be more.

Ps, sorry to hear about your job. Best of luck job hunting.


Sent from a device which doesn't always agree with my thumbs...

[DX grunt]

Well done.

Nice write up and the smile on Nathan's face is priceless. I'm so glad you were able to spend quality time with him.

All the best for your future. Your relationship with Nathan will always be special.

Take care out there.

Rossco

[Maxhead]

Mate what a great write up. Bit of deja vu reading your report as we just did the cape.
I am sure your young bloke would have loved it and should remember it for a very long time.

Good on ya mate!





........... On the move

[Bob]

Thank you for sharing. Great Story & Pics

[threedogs]

Awesome buddy and to do it with your best mate too. who knows he may stay off the pooter and adopt an outdoor life style.
I went in "83 with 2 mates what a trip as you know. the river at Cook town is ANNA or ANNAN something like that.
trip still very fresh in my mind. Best trip ever, to all others do it before its all sealed.

Great pic of the tackers fish too, priceless eh

Did you do the creb track???

[Maxhead]

Did you do the creb track???

The creb track was closed a few weeks back when we were there...... Not sure if it's reopened





........... On the move

[AB]

Great write up mate and pictures to boot!!!

Starting to get very jealous with all these stories and pics lately...lmao

[Sir Roofy]

Great write up mate thanks for sharing the photos are great
your lad will treasure that special momment of you at the tip