Heading South - Weipa

We left our little patch of paradise and headed south. It was a little sad going back across the Jardine Ferry, though it did drive home the fact that we had done it - gotten to the tip, and beaten the wet season too.  We were heading to Fruitbat falls and hoping to get into Elliot/Twin falls as well as we had heard such wonderful things. We wanted to camp at Sam creek, but we were getting conflicting reports about whether Baby Bertha would make it through the 2 river crossings. Not having a snorkel fitted meant Dunc wasn't willing to attempt anything deeper than the wheels. We got down the Old Tele Track just in time to watch someone fly through the crossing and almost drown his Hilux. Yeah. We weren't going across there! There were a bunch of other people hanging around the crossing. "Going swimming?" asked one man. "Yeah ahhhh no! We won't try that!" replied Dunc. This man had just spent three hours drying out his engine after flooding it coming back in this direction. Too much for Baby Bertha!

We satisfied ourselves with another lunch and dip at Fruitbat Falls and headed on towards Weipa. We decided to camp at the entry point to the Old Tele Track in the hope that we would get some entertainment. We'd already stayed at Bramwell Station, the reviews on the roadhouse were average and we'd heard good things about this campsite. Sadly it was just too late in the season and no one passed us either that afternoon nor the next morning. What a shame! We had a lovely quiet night and a slow morning though and Dunc got to pretend that he'd driven more of the OTT than the 4km he really had.

Weipa was yet another town that was bigger and far more developed than we expected, with a shopping centre and all. There was one caravan park in town and it had a pool - woo hoo! Sadly, yet again, the pool was closed due to a fault and we had VERY grumpy children. We pitched the tent on yet another beachfront site and the boys went fishing once more. Angus had some luck this time and caught an undersized Queenfish that had to be thrown back. Apparently Dunc caught a fish too, but since there are no photos, I'm not sure I believe him!

Weipa is a big mining town, thanks to the massive bauxite deposits surrounding it. We hand a mine tour and I have to say it is the least invasive of all the mines we have been to. It used to be Comalco, but now it's a Rio Tinto mine, and this one is not an underground, nor an open-cut mine. Instead, the top 7m of soil is scraped off, the bauxite layer removed to turn into aluminium, and the top layers replaced. As we drove around the town, our guide pointed out places that had been mined previously and you really couldn't tell any difference from the areas leading into town. I wouldn't want to be trying to live in Weipa though. House and rental prices are insane! It's more expensive than in suburban Melbourne - a 3 bedroom house will sell for $850K. There's not much to the town, and as soon as the wet season hits, they are blocked off by road and have to fly in and out. They get two barges a week of deliveries to the stores, and once that stock is sold out, everyone has to wait until the next delivery. Apparently when the detention centre was nearby, they bought out all the chicken and there was not much left for the townspeople. How unfair is that?!