We are soooooo impressed with our little RAV. When Dunc bought it 5 years ago as his company car, we never imagined we would be doing this sort of stuff with it!
Baby Bertha has happily driven all the way, and we started by taking "the back track" to Laura. We bought a HEMA map of Cape York, which would be the first purchase of any navigation aid in this entire trip! The maps I pick up from the the Visitor Info centres have all been perfectly adequate so far. But we wanted to be sure with this trip, and felt the detail in the HEMA maps was worth the $9 price tag. I very quickly realised that there are 4 types of roads in Cape York. Major roads, minor roads, 4WD tracks and Extreme 4WD tracks (like the Old Telegraph Track). We figured we could do everything except the "Extreme 4WD tracks", and started with a 4WD track to get to the main "Development Road".
We made it as far as Musgrave Roadhouse the first night, where we set up the tent. It took us about 45 mins to get it all up and sorted - tent, blow up mattresses, chairs, tables, bedding and all. The next day we made it to Bramwell Station, having stopped at every roadhouse on the way to stretch our legs. Set up took a little shorter the second time, and Angus was off to enjoy the cows and the resident Brolga, while Dunc was off to the bar to watch the end of Bathurst!
The next day we realised that our timing was a little off, and we would get to the Jardine River ferry right at the lunch break of the bargeman. We would have to kill some time by having our own lunch break at Fruitbat Falls. What a tough break... Swimming in the perfectly temperate crystal clear water and playing under the waterfalls.
Then (again) something entirely unexpected happened on the road. We turned a corner to find a couple we had seen at almost every roadhouse AND at the falls, broken down on the side of the road. Stephanie was standing in the middle of the road waving us down, and Paul was trying to figure out what to do with their camper trailer. Another car had already stopped to help but being so remote, and looking so damaged, we stopped too. Paul and Stephanie had a really good quality off road Cub Camper, but had hit a bulldust hole without letting the tyres down a bit. The entire right hand side suspension tore out from underneath it and one wheel was completely folded under.
The boys were trying to tie the camper so they could unload stuff safely and try to disconnect the car, and I introduced myself to the other woman (Anna) who had stopped. I went to check on the kids, and mentioned kids in the car and she said she had some too. I jokingly asked if she had an 11yo girl in there and she did! AND two 8 yo boys! Can you believe it?! We got the kids out to meet each other and entertain each other while the blokes did their thing. Stephanie was a little jittery from the accident and tried to give all their stuff away. We managed to convince them to keep most of their belongings and Paul, Duncan and Dwayne got the camper ratcheted up enough to be able to disconnect the car.
Eventually Paul was ready to leave the trailer and we all headed towards the ferry. We'd mentioned where we were staying to Dwayne and Anna, and they were heading to the same campground - bonus!
We crossed the Jardine River on the most expensive shortest ferry ride in history. $129 to travel 25m across the river! At least the price included our permit to camp anywhere up there. Which was an incredible relief, after discovering the insanity that is Queensland Parks and Wildlife Services. They have removed all 'self registration' facilities from National Parks. In other states, if we wanted to camp in a NP, we would go there, see if we fit, find a site we like, then fill in an envelope, put the cash in a secure post box and the slip from the envelope on our dashboard. In Queensland, you must register and pay online. Which is fine, if we have phone service. But you don't up there. I tried to register before we left in the hope that we could book a 2 week window to camp in. Um. No. Which campground on which individual evening do you want to pay for?! Really? We don't work that way, how on Earth were we to know which campsite we would be in on which night? How ridiculous. What if you were doing the Old Tele Track and got stuck one night? You've done your cash then, haven't you? Stupid Govt Departments! It would be completely fine if you could book the night before, but with NO phone service, you can't! There are a couple of kiosks, to use in towns, but that was all too ridiculous and we decided to stick to roadhouses and indigenous permit zones instead.
So we were very happy to be in our paid permit zone. We decided to stick to our "fang it to the top as quick as we can" policy, and headed to Punsand Bay, as close to The Tip as we could camp.
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