Queensland Road Tip 2022 – Cape York Tour

Day 24. Tour 1. Saturday 28 May 2022. Alarm at 5:40am. Pick up from Coral Tree Inn by limo bus service at 6:40am. Driven to our departure point in a light industrial area near where we left the van yesterday. Tour departed about 8am. Drive up along coast towards Port Douglas. Turned inland and up range to Julatten for first stop and morning tea at about 9:30am. Onwards to turnoff at top of range and turned towards Cooktown. Next stop Palmer River Roadhouse for lunch – quite a largish display on the Palmer River Gold Rush which saw about 30,000 men walk in from Cooktown – a very tough gold field – many died – many eaten – 120,000 oz of gold officially extracted – poor records kept especially of what Chinese gold-miners extracted. Buy your own lunch (a fish burger). Onwards at 2pm. A long drive. Open Savannah country – no canopy trees. No tree sized trees at all. All under 6m so shrubs size only. Various species make the “canopy” – Eucalypt, Acacia, Grevillea, Hakea, Callistemon. Stopped mid afternoon to see aboriginal Rock Art at Spit Rock Art Site. A beautiful site – no longer maintained because “no lineage alive to maintain it.“ Bit of a walk up and back. Onwards. A couple of patches of dirt road about 10 km each. Not too bad. Quite a long day’s drive of about 460km as we made a big push up the Cape roads. Camp for night at Artemis Station where we should see golden-shouldered parrots – none seen in the afternoon. Laughing and blue winged Kookas. We saw quite a few golden-shouldered parrots in the morning when they came into a feeding station. A lot of photos.

Day 25. Tour Day 2. Sunday 29 May 2022. Artemis Station to Moreton Telegraph Station. Up at 6am. Dismantled and packed the tent. Quick breakfast then over to the bird hide and feeding station for golden-shouldered parrots. Two were in the feeder it when I arrived. Two Frenchmen were also in the hide, one with a huge telephoto lens. I got several photos of the juvenile and eventually photos of the male and female. They flew up to a dead tree nearby and then returned to the feeder. Good photos. Back to camp and into trucks for long drive north. Stopped at Musgrave River Roadhouse for morning tea. Then on to Coen for lunch. Outdoor museum with  very big gold stamping gear. A lot of gold came out of the Palmer. Then, onto Archer River Roadhouse for another break. A walk across the Archer River which was falling rapidly and now just lapping the under side of the bridge. A car washed over the edge – full of sand and without tyres. Apparently washed in by another vehicle’s bow-wave when paused. Just past Archer, the road to Weipa goes off to the left and we go to the right. That was the last of the good road. From now on the road has had little work, just constant grading. Many creek crossings and wet patches make the road difficult. At one point our lead vehicle slipped sideways in a boggy crossing and could not get out.. Needed to be pulled out by another of our vehicles. A bit of farting around to get it out. Onwards to Moreton Telegraph Station where we are in fixed tents. A good shower. Power here so we can charge stuff. Charging phones and hearing aids will be an issue all the way around.

Day 26. Tour Day 3. Monday 30 May 2022. Moreton Telegraph Station to Seisia (pronounced Say-see-ya). A bit of a wander down to the lagoon and to Wenlock River. A few bower birds calling at the Homestead. A flock of Redwing parrots at the gate out (at the end of the airstrip). Green ants in my pants that I picked up walking across the grass – ouch. A long drive north to Fruit Bat Falls for morning tea at 11:30am and a swim. Death Adder hiding in sand at rest area tables gave us a bit of a scare.  Terry guided it off to the bush with the help of a stick. I dropped my hearing aid through the changing room floor – took a bit of extraction (took a plank off the skirt of the change room with my trusty Leatherman). Good swim just upstream of the falls. Pitcher plants at the Falls. 1:45pm departure. Late lunch at the south bank of the Jardine River after a lengthy drive through heath growing on a huge sand dune at the top of the range? From that heath a change to a very bad road on a hard laterite/bauxite until well past the Jardine River. Crossed the river on the ferry. Bad road continues after the river as long as we were on the laterite. Onwards to Seisia. Good campground. Palm cockatoos came in to say hello. Barking owl overnight.

Day 27. Tour Day 4. Tuesday, 31 May 2022. At Seisia. Early morning birding around camp. Boat charter to Roko Island at 9 am via a few islands including Possession Island with its Cook memorial plaque –  caused a lot of problems for a lot of people that ‘act of possession’. [Popular media has it that Cook did not have instructions to ‘take possession’. This is not correct. Cook had specific written instructions from Admiralty and orally from George III to take possession of newly discovered territory.] At Roko Island an excellent long floating jetty that bounced about as we walked on it. Helicopter flight 30 minutes. (Really not much to see despite the excellent visibility conditions.) Sat in the cool shade of pisonia trees – a few Varied Honeyeaters. Good lunch. Hot and sweaty as soon as we stepped away from shade. Boat back at about 3 pm. My right hearing aid has stopped working – since about the helicopter ride. Spend a bit of time trying to resurrect it with no success.

Day 28. Tour Day 5. Wednesday, 1 June 2022. Up before dawn. Photos of dawn on beach. Set up a chair with a view of ‘bird trees’ – high spots that birds settle on in the early morning. Quite a few birds came in. At 8:45 am we went to the airport to pick up 4 new passengers. Look at crashed Beaufort and crashed DC3 from World War II. Many old fuel dumps – 44 gallon drums rusting away. Photo of fairy gerygone maybe?. After lunch, off to “The Tip“ – Australian mainland’s most northern bit. First stop “Croc Shop“ for souvenirs – lots of tourist trap items that we bought up. Then to the site of the old Jardine Homestead and graveyard. (Jardine was the first property owner and magistrate up here. By modern eyes he was not a good man. Yet, he understood and worked with selected groups of local aboriginal peoples. Jury is still out.) Edward Kennedy Memorial. (Kennedy was a very capable explorer of this area. A poorly planned expedition had his supply ship leave because he did not reach them by a due date hacking his way through very thick jungle. He was later speared to death by aborigines within site of his final pickup ship. Almost all members of this expedition were killed by aborigines.) Then to “The Tip” on a difficult road. 15 km in to Pajinka. Parked and walked along the beach because of the helpful low tide – thereby avoiding walking in over three granite lumps. We just had to walk over the last one to “The Tip”. Photo shoot. A few good photos into the sun. Back along the beach. Glimpses of a Pardalote in the mangroves. Glimpse of a Pitta on the road on the way out. Good buffet dinner at local restaurant. Bed.

Day 29 Tour Day 6. Thursday 2 June 2022. Day on Thursday Island and Horn Island. Early morning 8:30 ferry to Thursday Island for a tour around TI with Liberty Seekee. Green Hill fort with defences built in 1890 would have been indefensible in World War II. Another ferry to Horn Island for a tour with Vanessa Seekee. Lunch. Horn Island was the major forward defence point in North Queensland in WW2. 6,500 men were stationed here at the airbase. Several attacks. Personnel at Horn played a major part in defence of Australia. Vanessa is doing a sterling effort to make sure they are not forgotten. She built the museum and has uncovered old plane wrecks and defence points. Very impressive.

Back on the same two ferries – 1st to TI, then to Seisia. A long way. Back at 4 pm. Just in time to get clothes off the line before a light shower of rain.

Day 30 Tour Day 7. Friday 3 June 2022. Seisia – to Bramwell station. Shower of rain at 4:30 am and us out retrieving washing and doing up zipper panels. Up at 6 am, had all equipment (tents, stretchers, air mattresses, sleeping bags, luggage) in their piles for 7.30. Breakfast, then a very heavy shower had us scurrying to get gear out of rain and loaded. Left at 8:30 am.
Drove south through Bamaga where the town was ready for Mabo Day 3 June – 30 year celebration. Ferry across the Jardine River and onwards to Fruit Bat Falls for another swim. (Helen and I did not swim. We tried for photos of birds/vegetation – honeyeaters elusive.) Morning tea. Onto Bramwell Junction for lunch and a short drive along old Telegraph track. One of our vehicles was stuck in a crossing. Turned back at the first horror crossing (Palm Creek). And then on to Bramwell station for the night.

Day 31. Tour Day 8. Saturday 4 June 2020. Bramwell station to Weipa. Up early. Many helping to pack today. Away 30 minutes early at 8 am. Drove to Weipa. Took “shortcut“ across Batavia Station National Park. Arrived at Weipa at 11 am set up quickly with many helping again. Lunch – Wraps. First Weipa mine tour at 1 pm. I made a couple of trips to woollies and bakery and newsagent (for chargers). We were on the second tour at 3:30 pm. Quite good. Handled difficult technology in an easy to understand way. Lesser Frigatebirds with a night time roost in an unwanted spot beside the mine flew over in flocks of up to 50 birds. The tour concentrated on revegetation and new solar plant with emphasis on all the good things that Rio is doing. Quite a few waders down on the mud flat with the incoming tide. Difficult light into setting sun. Very poor photos of distant waders. Camera battery exhausted.

Day 32. Tour Day 9. Sunday 5 June 2020. Weipa to Iron Range. Almost everyone got tents down and packed without help. Away at 8:10 am. uneventful drive until morning tea. Stopped morning tea just after 10 am near lagoon just passed “Y”. Soon after then we turned onto the road to iron range. Very chopped about by many washouts. Very difficult driving. Stopped for lunch at Pascoe River. Flood debris 10 m up above our heads. A previous trip had been stuck at Wenlock River for 17 days. Rain began just as we left Pascoe River. Heavy at times. Quite a lot of water running on the road. Difficult driving. Very bad washouts. Arrived at Greenhoose accommodation about 3 pm. Heavy rain. Lugged the luggage off trucks. Very good accommodation. Just as well we are not in those tents.

Day 33. Tour Day 10. Monday 6 June 2022. Day at Lockhart River Greenhoose. Getting quite tired. Up at 6 am for beginning of dawn chorus. I knew almost no calls. A few photos as light improved. Breakfast at 7:30 am. Depart at 8:30 am.

Stop 1. Look at range Lockhart River airfield built World War II by American engineers. Operation blowdown.
Stop 2. Lockhart River beach and jetty
Stop 3. Lockart River art gallery. Quite big paintings of local artist, prices $1650, $2000, $3000 $4000. We bought none.
Stop 4. A long drive to Portland Road where there was a huge jetty in World War II. Blown up in 1970s because not want to maintain it.
Stop 5. Lunch at Portland Road cafe. Pre-ordered and opened just for us.
Stop 6. Chilli Beach. Tide right out and very few animals on the beach.
Back at Greenhoose at 3:15 pm. Good Diner. Local dance group – four young blokes with two adults. Very good to see the adults training the young blokes.

Later that night, one of our party found a group of people preparing to capture spiders they were led by someone De Vries.

Day 34. Tour Day 11. Tuesday 7 June 2022 Lockhart Greenhoose to Hann River Roadhouse.

A day of long driving 320 km. Breakfast at seven left at 8 am. Stop for piss between Pascoe and Wenlock Rivers morning tea at Archer River Roadhouse. (Plumed whistling ducks at Archer River Roadhouse – a lagoon just over the road.) Lunch at Cohen. Very crowded with tourist vehicles heading north. We had to eat at the river just north of town. Bowerbird Bower and a large nest in a tree. Afternoon tea at Musgrave crowded and on to Hann River Roadhouse

All tents up quickly no one needed help. Straight to shower (very basics) then over to tea at 5:40 many rainbow lorikeets in trees. Long day. Much of it over bumpy road. I slept a fair bit. Hann River Roadhouse was by far the most basic of our accommodation for the trip. Those showers and toilets were last maintained back in 1980s. Tiny spiders with glittery eyes all over the ground at night. Small tree frogs in the toilets and showers. One small frog on our tent in the morning. One of the spiders turned up in the bathroom at Cooktown.

Day 35. Tour Day 12. Wednesday 8 June 2022. Hann River Roadhouse to Cooktown

Up at 6 am, breakfast at 7 am, away at 8 am. No one needed help. Found that the big camera (Nikon Coolpix P1000) is dead. Water leaked into battery from Aircon condensate in vehicle yesterday (or maybe on that boat trip to Thursday Island). Battery corroded and dead. Bugger. Shit happens. Shift to Lumix TZ90. Drove south almost to Laura. Turned off to Cooktown. Drove through southern part of Lakefield Park. Road interspersed bitumen and dirt. Some crazy drivers on dirt roads, no headlights in dust and drive in middle. Many close shaves. Roads becoming crowded.

Lunch beside a nice river crossing with waterfall. Big leafed Acacia and a small flower Pea.

Cooktown original accommodation had been cancelled because property has been sold. We are in a beautiful three bedroom villa with magnificent views over Endeavour River. A bit upmarket from the dust and grot and tents we have been in for the last few days. Many different palm varieties planted around the property. Hann River Roadhouse was especially primitive.
Very tired today in the last few days in. We will sit and do nothing for awhile. Cleaned battery compartment and still buggered. Ordered new batteries.
Dinner at Jackey Jackey’s Thai restaurant where our group of 22 filled half the small restaurant. The Thai owner ran from place to place to serve people. We all had a prearranged menu of entree +5 plates. Very crowded. Many groups in town tonight. Some of our group ended up at the RSL to watch State of Origin one.

Day 36. Tour Day 13.  Thursday 9 June 2022. At Cooktown. Breakfast at Sovereign Restaurant at 8:35 am. Helen and I then explored first the local history society Museum over the road from the restaurant. We then walked up the hill to the Cooktown Museum. Both are excellent with a lot of material and written descriptions. I bought more books.
Lunch at noon at botanic Gardens. After lunch we walked down to the supermarket and bought tomorrow’s breakfast. Then walked back to the hotel – bit of up-and-down over the hills. Cooktown has extended up steep hills next to the beach. Our accommodation is part way up to Cooktown Lighthouse and lookout. Very pleasant sitting on the verandah with the south-easterly trade wind blowing quite strongly around us overlooking the Endeavour River.

For tea, we walked down to town (and back) for Jackey Jackey Thai again. “You finish before seven?“ A peaceful day off trying to recover from the strenuousness of the long driving days. Very windy here. I really appreciated the day off we had here at Cooktown.

From my reading, which almost contradicts what I was told at school, Cook did not charge into the Reef because he did not know it was there. He suspected the piece of water he was sailing through to be dangerous even though reefs did not show even at low tide. Cook had a crewman measuring water depth as they went. He had just called 17 fathoms when a second later the Endeavour hit. Later, after he left Endeavour River after repairs, the following incident happened after they had struggled past Lizard Island to escape the reef and then decided to go back so that Cook could more properly follow his instructions to map the coast line and check for a connection between New Guinea and New Holland (Australia). It happened early in the morning. There was no wind at all – so the ship was not steerable. There were very large swells powering in from the east forcing the ship in the west. Cook had recognised the danger. Rightly suspecting his ship was being pushed onto reefs. The crew had been on full watch all night. They saw waves smashing into the reef and had to watch and wait as a ship was carried to that reef. The Endeavour came within a few meters of being smashed on the reef. It was only a fortunate puff of wind that gave a chance to get away.  The problem Cook had with the wind was that by the time the ship was ready enough to continue, wind was blowing strongly from Southeast. That gave him fewer opportunities in directions he could steer the ship to manoeuvre around, away from or through reefs.

Finally got those fans in the house off this morning.

Day 37. Tour Day 14. Friday 10 June 2020. Drive from Cooktown to Daintree. Picked up at 9 am. Drive south from Cooktown along good bitumen road – past Black Mountain and Lions Den Pub – until we reached the Bloomfield track.

The Bloomfield track is narrow, with very steep gradients in parts (low-low gears in 4 x 4 for 1.7km climbs and descents), dirt, many river crossings, rough and difficult. It was put in to make a direct route between Port Douglas and Cooktown. In the late 1920s or early 30s Helen’s mum and grandmother were in a group that drove a T-model Ford along this track. Extremely difficult.

Walk into Bloomfield Falls had some very good vegetation along the side. Stopped at Windy Loo for morning tea. Drive up over Daintree Bloomfield track. Some very steep patches up and down. Low range. Stop for lunch near the ocean. Stingray Bay Demonstration of aboriginal artefacts by Mugsi (pronounced ‘u’ as in ‘put’). Difficult four-wheel driving continued until we eventually came out at Cape Tribulation Beach. Very different rainforests along this part. Very different from the rainforest at Iron Range. Here we have epiphytes and lianas.The difficult four-wheel driving along this track has been a highlight of the trip. Quite a shock when we arrived at Cape Tribulation Beach to find 20 to 50 cars parked and hordes of people. A short walk on the beach. A drive through to Daintree. We saw a cassowary beside the road with two young. Panics to take a photo. Drove on to our accommodation at Daintree Peaks ECO cabins. Tree Martins swooping. Meal at “On the Turps” restaurant which is part of Daintree Heritage Lodge. (It is on the Turpentine River.) Very cool last night – needed a blanket.

Day 38. Tour Day 15. Saturday 11 June 2022. Up at 6am and back to “On The Turps” for breakfast. Orange-footed Scrub Chooks called very loudly during the night. Wompoo Pigeons dropping fruit along timbered walk way. Drive north for a walk on boardwalk through rainforest and mangroves. Many epiphytes, huge basket ferns and palms. Orange footed scrub fowl. Wompoo Pigeons calling. Did not see a single bird. Called in for an ice cream in Daintree. Stopped for excellent views from Alexandra look out. Then across the Daintree River on the ferry. The crocodile cruise with Solar Whisper on the other side was excellent. We saw six adult crocodiles – two males and four females. The oldest was about 70 years old. (Named Scarface only 2 teeth left.) Also two youngsters-one 16 months old and the other just 4 months old. We also saw Nankeen Herons, two Brahminy kites. Lunch at Mossman – Temptations Café. To Cairns via Palm Cove to drop off two of our number – very busy, preparation for Ironman in fully swing. Arrived at North West’s warehouse for a champagne greeting and a sad farewell. On to the shuttle to take us to our accommodations. And so it ends.

I think it was much longer, tougher and arduous than I expected. Especially the constant onwards timetable. Our three drivers/guides did a remarkable job at keeping us going, in good spirits and together. Terry especially had the difficult job of dealing with changes and cancellations and meal orders. Ian has enormous information on local history. Andy has good knowledge on plants and birds. We drove 3,200 km – which is about the distance from Sydney to Mackay return. A bloody long way in 15 days over difficult dirt roads.

I took almost the same number of photos in each three day period. Different numbers in galleries above reflects duplicate birds. (Eg, at Greenhoose, I took numerous photos of active birds high in the canopy. All turned out to be Dusky Honeyeaters.)

1 July 2022. I made corrections based on reading Capt James Cook by Rob Mundle. Corrections marked in blue.