the tractor
14-10-2008, 09:07 AM
Okay so away we go.
I kept a diary for most of the trip with a view to writing the trip report but do you think i can find it :confused:
d1 we departed at about lunchtime from hervey bay for yepoon, staying at a van park there with views of the ocean and brampton.
d2 cape hillsborough, very scenic spot might go back there again
d3 Airlie beach, mjust a short hop to a powered sight nice park but the town was a letdown for me, the camp kitchen was awesome.
d4 mission beach well certainly booked the wrong van park over the phone here, full of ferals and long term ppl was not a nice stay.
d5 Lakeland downs, here is the point where you can go right to cooktown or left up the peninsula dev rd. We had chosen to come back via cooktown and daintree so stayed in an onsite van for a change 50 bucks for a van
great feed at the pub too
d6 Kalpower crossing. in the middle of lake field national park is a spot where we planed to stay for 3-4days and explore lakefiled but soon discovered it was nothing like the reports we had been given. cold showers were ok but the place was as dry and dusty as. so we opted to move on the next morning, went through breeeza and got a few nie pics. in retrospect the road from laura to kalpower worst the worst road for the entire cape trip witha buldust hole which nearly swallowed us whole!
d7 planned to get further but arriving at archer river roadhouse at about 2 the campground were too inviting green grass shady trees a good fire place and a PUB! so booked in for the night
d8 elliot and twin falls camp area. what a magic spot, quick walkl to three different spots for a swim got heaps of pics here too the designated spot are big but i suggest if your are towing to get in early as there are few van/ trailer spots. there are taps all over well done QPWS. and drop dunnies. but here is where rom and viv moons book takes a dive no showers nor has there ever been would have stayed there for a cpl of days but the Waeco died i left my little engel at home and borrowed dads bigger waeco but more to come on that! took the OTL from bramwell junction and highly recomend doing that one way either up or down, its the easier part with some great little spots to camp by a river along the way. fuel was still under $2 before this and weipa even cheaper (we found out later)
d9 now come the interesting parts of the OTL, heaps of creek crossings the water was just magic too. and GUNSHOT.. did one of the alternate approaches not the stupid vertical ones which would have covered my face in airbags. A guy did it the same days as me and found out that new cars have crumple zones and dont like that stuff....
Thought about crossing nolans brook but decided against it without a BRA and detoured to the JArdine ferry paying the $88 for and easy ride across point to note they have eftpos now and credit cards are also accepted. made a quick dash into injinoo, bamaga, sesia and had a look at van parks deciding on punsand bay as it had a pool
d10 punsand had a group of about 20 bike riders from gelong and they were quiet and really considerate. Punsand is on a generator and as such you loose power at night. also everything here is per person ie an aircon donga is $100 per night perperson... same as powered sights food there is good and loved the bar. but i'd go to fraser if i want to camp in sand. there was another group of ppl there who were yahooing till about 11 and pissed us right off. the managment didnt notice either
d11 met up with a mate who is now on this forum and his group was at punsand aswell. he convinced us to move to loyalty which we did the next day. did i mention the bar here is good...
d12 Loyalty beach used as a spring board to go to TI and Horn island. my advic is dont use the big tour mob from TI named Peddels. USe the small ppl the tour was a bus ride around the island with a stop at pedeels shop the cemetary and the fort on the hill. we drove straght past the things i wanted to see like the TI cultural centre. they also do a pensioner discount on the ferry which nearly halves the price but its not well known
d13 the sesia supermarket has atossed salad that puts woolies to shame. the mrs fell in love with it. lettuce tomato carrot capsicum and either chuncks or shredded cheese for 5 bucks! most of the meat here is frozen or cryo and the vegies are fine and come in once a week from cairns via barge. prices were reasonable and better than some van park shops too! the bamaga servo was $2.30 and the sesia one was$2.20 for dieso. I did see & buy it for 2.40 once.
d14-20 weipa
wepia has a really good tour of the mines and the van park is okay but gets very crowded. i was given a slice of barra by my neighbour here coz" ive got too much) it fed four ppl! took four days to get the fridge fixed so we had a good look at town etc. next time i'll do weipa on the way north to restock on fuel it was under $2 here aswell
d21-22 merluna station
cameron and michelle are bloody top people and if you ever consider a station stay i would say do merluna. google them. we paid about 200 for the 2 days fully catered with a huge room with a spilt aircon and its own fridge. the food was good old country stuff took and lashings of it.
d23 back to lakeland
d24 cooktown lovly spot stayed in ahotel to break things up and the managers were from bundy!
headed south on the boomfield deciding to save the CREB for next time. well worth it some awesome coastal views.
d25 port douglass. did mossman gorge and daintree river cruise well worth the effort.
d26 -30 Cairns. the cairns cocunt van park is great if you have kids you could spend weeks ther eone of the beast parks i've every stayed at went out and did the kurabanda railway and skyrail return on one day and did lake barrine and the tabellands another, got to the MA:MU canopy walk too late due to indulging in the devonshire teas at the lake. drove past paronella park and picked up a glossy brochure for rookie. might do it next timemaybe
day31- 32 dropped the mrs at the airport at 530, then loaded the car onto the sunlander at 745 sat moring and booked checked into to my sleeper at 9. had great day relaxing and watching DVD's on the laptop. and slept like a babie in the bed in the cabin. was by myself for the trip. took until 430 to get to townsville so next time i'll load up there and save a day and a few dollars. got a ribfillet for dinne r for 14 bucks and the food is quite good. was a bit painfull watchin marybourough west at 100 and knowing i wont get to brissy til 4. but the time passed quick and by 420 is was heading north on the bruce. quick detour to pick up the dog from dads and home by 8 suday night. I think the rerst and sleep was well worth it.
i'll add more to this but need to wait till she gets home eith the photo CD and i get the next three rolls processed so i can add the pics.
next trip i plan on visiting vrilya and chilli beach.
the car went like a dream and the a/t tyres never missed a beat, cant be happier with the common rail for economy either.
i heard about the guy drowing the patrol in the jardine just after i got to bamaga, it was allmost exactly the same as mine form what i heard... well i guess i spent 88 bucks well ;)
I kept a diary for most of the trip with a view to writing the trip report but do you think i can find it :confused:
d1 we departed at about lunchtime from hervey bay for yepoon, staying at a van park there with views of the ocean and brampton.
d2 cape hillsborough, very scenic spot might go back there again
d3 Airlie beach, mjust a short hop to a powered sight nice park but the town was a letdown for me, the camp kitchen was awesome.
d4 mission beach well certainly booked the wrong van park over the phone here, full of ferals and long term ppl was not a nice stay.
d5 Lakeland downs, here is the point where you can go right to cooktown or left up the peninsula dev rd. We had chosen to come back via cooktown and daintree so stayed in an onsite van for a change 50 bucks for a van
great feed at the pub too
d6 Kalpower crossing. in the middle of lake field national park is a spot where we planed to stay for 3-4days and explore lakefiled but soon discovered it was nothing like the reports we had been given. cold showers were ok but the place was as dry and dusty as. so we opted to move on the next morning, went through breeeza and got a few nie pics. in retrospect the road from laura to kalpower worst the worst road for the entire cape trip witha buldust hole which nearly swallowed us whole!
d7 planned to get further but arriving at archer river roadhouse at about 2 the campground were too inviting green grass shady trees a good fire place and a PUB! so booked in for the night
d8 elliot and twin falls camp area. what a magic spot, quick walkl to three different spots for a swim got heaps of pics here too the designated spot are big but i suggest if your are towing to get in early as there are few van/ trailer spots. there are taps all over well done QPWS. and drop dunnies. but here is where rom and viv moons book takes a dive no showers nor has there ever been would have stayed there for a cpl of days but the Waeco died i left my little engel at home and borrowed dads bigger waeco but more to come on that! took the OTL from bramwell junction and highly recomend doing that one way either up or down, its the easier part with some great little spots to camp by a river along the way. fuel was still under $2 before this and weipa even cheaper (we found out later)
d9 now come the interesting parts of the OTL, heaps of creek crossings the water was just magic too. and GUNSHOT.. did one of the alternate approaches not the stupid vertical ones which would have covered my face in airbags. A guy did it the same days as me and found out that new cars have crumple zones and dont like that stuff....
Thought about crossing nolans brook but decided against it without a BRA and detoured to the JArdine ferry paying the $88 for and easy ride across point to note they have eftpos now and credit cards are also accepted. made a quick dash into injinoo, bamaga, sesia and had a look at van parks deciding on punsand bay as it had a pool
d10 punsand had a group of about 20 bike riders from gelong and they were quiet and really considerate. Punsand is on a generator and as such you loose power at night. also everything here is per person ie an aircon donga is $100 per night perperson... same as powered sights food there is good and loved the bar. but i'd go to fraser if i want to camp in sand. there was another group of ppl there who were yahooing till about 11 and pissed us right off. the managment didnt notice either
d11 met up with a mate who is now on this forum and his group was at punsand aswell. he convinced us to move to loyalty which we did the next day. did i mention the bar here is good...
d12 Loyalty beach used as a spring board to go to TI and Horn island. my advic is dont use the big tour mob from TI named Peddels. USe the small ppl the tour was a bus ride around the island with a stop at pedeels shop the cemetary and the fort on the hill. we drove straght past the things i wanted to see like the TI cultural centre. they also do a pensioner discount on the ferry which nearly halves the price but its not well known
d13 the sesia supermarket has atossed salad that puts woolies to shame. the mrs fell in love with it. lettuce tomato carrot capsicum and either chuncks or shredded cheese for 5 bucks! most of the meat here is frozen or cryo and the vegies are fine and come in once a week from cairns via barge. prices were reasonable and better than some van park shops too! the bamaga servo was $2.30 and the sesia one was$2.20 for dieso. I did see & buy it for 2.40 once.
d14-20 weipa
wepia has a really good tour of the mines and the van park is okay but gets very crowded. i was given a slice of barra by my neighbour here coz" ive got too much) it fed four ppl! took four days to get the fridge fixed so we had a good look at town etc. next time i'll do weipa on the way north to restock on fuel it was under $2 here aswell
d21-22 merluna station
cameron and michelle are bloody top people and if you ever consider a station stay i would say do merluna. google them. we paid about 200 for the 2 days fully catered with a huge room with a spilt aircon and its own fridge. the food was good old country stuff took and lashings of it.
d23 back to lakeland
d24 cooktown lovly spot stayed in ahotel to break things up and the managers were from bundy!
headed south on the boomfield deciding to save the CREB for next time. well worth it some awesome coastal views.
d25 port douglass. did mossman gorge and daintree river cruise well worth the effort.
d26 -30 Cairns. the cairns cocunt van park is great if you have kids you could spend weeks ther eone of the beast parks i've every stayed at went out and did the kurabanda railway and skyrail return on one day and did lake barrine and the tabellands another, got to the MA:MU canopy walk too late due to indulging in the devonshire teas at the lake. drove past paronella park and picked up a glossy brochure for rookie. might do it next timemaybe
day31- 32 dropped the mrs at the airport at 530, then loaded the car onto the sunlander at 745 sat moring and booked checked into to my sleeper at 9. had great day relaxing and watching DVD's on the laptop. and slept like a babie in the bed in the cabin. was by myself for the trip. took until 430 to get to townsville so next time i'll load up there and save a day and a few dollars. got a ribfillet for dinne r for 14 bucks and the food is quite good. was a bit painfull watchin marybourough west at 100 and knowing i wont get to brissy til 4. but the time passed quick and by 420 is was heading north on the bruce. quick detour to pick up the dog from dads and home by 8 suday night. I think the rerst and sleep was well worth it.
i'll add more to this but need to wait till she gets home eith the photo CD and i get the next three rolls processed so i can add the pics.
next trip i plan on visiting vrilya and chilli beach.
the car went like a dream and the a/t tyres never missed a beat, cant be happier with the common rail for economy either.
i heard about the guy drowing the patrol in the jardine just after i got to bamaga, it was allmost exactly the same as mine form what i heard... well i guess i spent 88 bucks well ;)