Monday, 31 August 2015

Cape York - part 1

Cape York - The Journey begins! 

With our Cape York part of our travels being such a big part of our journey, and with what i know will be alot to write about, I have decided to break it up into sections...
So here is the first part of our exciting adventure to the far North tip of what is Cape York. 

The beginning....
And so it begins! Two families... Four kids, One Landcruiser and One Patrol and 1 raw egg. All headed out on what we hope will be our biggest adventure yet... Getting 1 raw eggs to the very top of Cape York.... Without it breaking... Oh and ummmm hitting 697,546 potholes and traveling 1000's of km up extremely corrugated roads and conquering some extreme 4x4 tracks and making some unforgettable memories in the meantime!  ;) 

Our egg friend amongst his friends

But back to the real story... 

On August 20th, after saying our goodbyes to Gary's Family, we packed up our egg and left Cairns to start our HUGE adventure to far tip of the northern most point of QLD, Cape York. 

Traveling with another family we had become close friends with when traveling WA. Paul, Tina and their two girls, Zeaja and Alari.

We all soon headed off towards Mount Carbine for the night. From here we spent the afternoon, and next morning, packing up the cars with hopefully everything we would need for the journey ahead!! 

The Cape York Team 

After putting the caravan in storage, we were all extremely excited to be setting off on this adventure together.
With plenty of time to tackle the Cape, and with plans to see as much of it as possible, we firstly decided to tackle the Bloomfield Track that takes us through Cape Tribulation and up to Cooktown. 

Alari and Ella collecting their morning tea 

This made me laugh!!! 

We thought this birds head woven from Pandanus leaves was pretty impressive 

Although a pretty track, this wasn't much of a 4x4 challenge and half way along we decided to take a "shortcut" to "Roaring Meg Fall," where we planned to spend the night. 
This shortcut ended up being a extremely intense 4x4 track. With a ridiculously steep hill to climb at the start that just went up and up! There were times I thought the car was going to roll over backwards and I was gripping the steering wheel!!!
From here we spent the next 3.5hrs rockhopping, carefully negotiating steep drops, crossing rivers, dodging Buffalos and Boars and pretty much putting our 4x4 skills well and truely to the test!
The fact it took us 3.5hrs to travel 35kms... And I didn't manage to get any photos... Well that says a lot about this track!! I LOVED this track!!! And officially renamed it "Paul's shortcut."
Finally, we arrived at our camp were we set up for the night. Roaring Meg Falls.
We had a time relaxing around the camp fire and in the morning we headed out for a walk to the Falls.
The falls were beautiful, and the walk to and from them took us along the river and through pretty rainforest. 
The track driving out was slightly slippery due to some slight rain, and I did hold my breath slightly as we descended down a steep hill and slid abit on the wet clay!!

Coolest tree ever! 

A friendly green tree frog on some juicy paw paws! 



That night we headed to The Lions Den where we caught up with my Mum and Dad for the night.
An iconic little pub not too far out of Cooktown, we enjoyed checking out all the memrobillia that adorned the walls of this place. 
Ella and I at the Lions Den 

Ella,Alari and Zeaja 

 Ella showing is her best Lion impersonation 

Front Bar 

Paul and Tina, Gary and Me enjoying happy hour :) 

We enjoyed a dinner of seriously yummy pizzas that night at the pub, and also signed our names on the pubs walls amongst the thousands of others that have also added their mark here.

Lions Den 

Ella adding her name to the wall of fame 

Adding our names to the wall of fame 

Tori at the Lions Den

 Cooktown
Arriving in Cooktown we spent a little time checking out the local attractions. The kids thoroughly enjoyed playing on the Musical Ship and Gary and I found a welder to do a quick repair to a hole in our exhaust that had magically appeared over the past few days. 
The Musical Ship 

That night we all spent the night at a great free camp not far out of Cooktown.

Relaxing at a road side camp! 

Early the next morning we said our goodbyes to my parents once more and along with Tina, Paul and all the kids we yet again set off up the coast.

Deciding to head to Elim Beach we were excited to arrive at a nice little campsite right along the beach. 

Our Camp at Elim 

We then spent the afternoon and next day exploring the old shacks that were dotted along the beachfront and searching the secluded beaches for washed up treasures.

Ella was thrilled to find this shack!

Elim Beach

Sand dune fun!! 

Tori and Zaeja looking out over Elim beach 

Checking out famous multicoloured sands along Elim beach 

We visited this secluded beach which had literally thousands of washed up thongs and other bits of beach junk along it. What can I say...?? Litter is appalling... But one mans junk, is another mans treasure...??? 

Elim Beach Sunset 

From Elim Beach we decided to follow the Coastal track up. Wow.... Over the next 2 days we followed what can only be described as a goat track... It twisted and turned and again we spent countless hours negotiating the harsh terrain. 200 and something km later, an overnight stay at a great little creek crossing, we finally arrived at our next destination, Bathurst Point. 

Gary, the girls and a huge blue tongue lizard we found along the track

Our Little creek crossing camp 

Gary cooking dinner 

Setting up on the beach with a ready made tree swing for the kids alongside, we soon relaxed whilst throwing a line in the water and sat back to watch as the sunset over the ocean. 

Camp at Bathurst 

Alari and Ella enjoying the swing
 
Sunset at our camp 

The next day we headed out for a walk around the point where we had heard we could collect some large oysters off the rocks.
After a short walk at low tide we were in luck! There were an abundance of oysters to be had and after eating atleast a dozen of these huge oyster each, we then collected another couple of dozen to enjoy that night for dinner whilst yet again watching the sunset over the ocean.

Mmmmmm..... 

The boys cooking up some oysters! 

Ella with just some of the shells left over from our oyster fest! 
"Breeza Homestead" 
In need of repairs... But loving the name! 

Next stop.... Archer River

Oh and for those of you who are wondering... We still have our little egg intact ;) 
 

 Xx 

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