20 - 25 July

Saturday 20July we left our caravan in storage at the caravan park and continued north.

Its nice travelling without the van, we feel so speedy and are enjoying not getting the double bounce that we get from the caravan when we go over one bounce.

Soon after Laura we said good bye to the bitumen, onto the red gravel, it's a firm solid base, just need to watch out for the dips or washouts. We travel on gravel then all of a sudden the bitumen re appears, mainly in the lower lying sections, then it disappears and re appears again, this is the way all the way to the tip.

We pass a number of people travelling south, and a few 3 carriage road trains that are not a problem, realistically, they don't kick up much more dust than some of the car/camper/caravans that are travelling at great speeds.

We spend our first night at Artemis Station, a cattle property that opens up their property for campers, there's also some pigs, chickens and very friendly goats. It's a really great bush camp setting. They've supplied a few little shelters with a table and a steel fire / bbq. The hot water is generated by a Donkey Shower, a converted 45kg gas bottle that a fire is lit under. It doesn't take long to heat up and have a very enjoyable shower. Golden shoulders parrots inhabit the trees close to the station, the owner Sue helps us spot them.

We enjoy our first night in our swags under the stars, we are all very comfortable.

On our second night on the cape we stop at Merluna Station, also another cattle property. Another great camp, some grass and shady trees and a pool to cool off in. We meet a young couple who have had their engine blow up a week earlier, to save money their father has bought up from Brisbane a new engine that they are going to fit out on the station.

Onto Weipa a mining town. We secure a beach front site in the caravan park. We never could believe back home that we would be sleeping in swags in Crocodile country! We are not alone, safety in numbers??? There's a wide sandy beach in front of us. We enjoy a lovely sunset at the beach.

We learn in Weipa, that all the phones and internet has gone down some time the day before, it could be 24 plus hours before it gets back on. No problem with us, were prepared and are used to no internet and phones, but some are stuck, no money to fuel their cars or buy any groceries or pay for the $100 ferry ride we all have to take up north. Many businesses have shut up.

We survived the night, no croc attacks. Yea! Phones are back on in the morning, we are able to book accommodation up north, which we've been advised to do so.

The travel north continues to be reasonably smooth, there's isolated patches of corrugation, but definitely not the worst we've travelled on.

It's nice to take a break in the few stations along the way to step away from the red dirt, as many have some green grass and established trees.

Brad and the boys are desperately keen to try some of the Telegraph Track - the really tough 4wd track. We travel into the first big crossing, the track in is narrow. At the crossing, it's incredibly steep and muddy. No one else is there and thankfully Brad decides to not risk our vehicle. We learn later that most of those travelling are in convoys, you really need back up in such situations, and there's no phones out here.

Mid afternoon we complete a bit of the Telegraph Track into Fruit Bat Falls and have a lovely swim in the flowing water way. This is one of the few croc free swimming places up north.

We camp the night at Elliot Falls in the National Park.

Over night it rained, a heavy drizzle. Unfortunately Lach and Cam went to bed with only their fly nets on, by the time I worked out it was raining, they were already quite wet. Brad and I were dry in our Oz Tent Bunkers (we are rapt in these).

It's still drizzling as we pack up. We get the boys to stay in their swags whilst Brad and I pack away what is dry. We dress in our bathers as we can't get any further wet, its mid 20's.

We all have one last swim before continuing on.

Early morning we arrive at the Jardine River, were there is no option but to take the $100 ferry across. Continuing north we are soon at Bamaga, there's very little here. We explore out to Seisia where there's a good Warf were people are fishing from, the boys will come back here to fish.

Onto our Camp at Punsand, we check in and set up an enormous clothes line to dry our things on. Up until today, there's been little wind, but were are thankful for the strong breeze and warm temps, our things are dry within an hour.

We enjoy or afternoon around camp and the pool.

25 July, we are up and off at first light to drive the final kilometres to the tip. There's a very small car park, with only a few other cars, then it's a couple of hundred meters up and along the rocks to the tip. As we arrive, there's 2 girls together and 1 guy who's here to photograph the jet skiers as they travel past the tip. These jet skiers have been to PNG and back, they are on their final leg to Port Douglas. There's 14 jet skiers, a support boat and support crews and cars of 30 odd people. They've sunk one jetski in their travels.

We take some photos for the girls, they do some for us, and then we are left to enjoy the tip to ourselves for 20 minutes before other travellers arrive.

We can now tick this off our bucket list. We've travelled to the furthest musts parts of all of Australia now, Albany in south WA, the northern tip of East WA, near Margaret River Area (can't remember the name of this of the top of my head) the Western most tip of WA - Shark Bay, Southern most - Cockle Bay in Tasmania, and the most Eastern point - Byron Bay. Wet weather prevented us from heading to the centre of Australia - Lamberts Centre, one day we'll be back there.

We spend the afternoon exploring around the tip. We find the wreckages of the WWII planes and fuel dump sites. It's surprising there are no bunkers here.

As I write this the boys are currently fishing on the Seisia Warf, you'll have to wait to the next instalment to see how they go.

We're going to spend 2 more nights here before we start heading south.